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Officially Indian : symbols that define the United States / Cécile R. Ganteaume ; foreword by Colin G. Calloway ; afterword by Paul Chaat Smith.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Washington, DC : National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution 2017Copyright date: ©2017Edition: First editionDescription: 184 pages : illustrations ; 27 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781517903305
  • 1517903300
Subject(s):
Contents:
Foreword / Colin G. Calloway -- Introduction: The world's oldest enduring republic -- Essays -- Tupinambas of coastal Brazil, 1505 -- Title page of America, 1592 -- Allegory of America, 1662 -- Amerique septentrionale divisee en ses principales parties, 1696 -- Novi Belgii Novaque Anglia nec non partis Virginia tabula in locis emendata, 1685 -- Rolls's best Virginia tobacco paper, 1700s -- A new map of the whole world with the trade winds according to ye latest and most exact observations, 1732 -- A view of the obelisk erected under liberty-tree in Boston on the rejoicings for the repeal of the Stamp Act, 1766 -- Liberty triumphant, or, The downfall of oppression, 1774 -- Vignette for Royal American magazine, 1774 -- Design proposal for the Great Seal of the United States, 1780 -- A new map of North America with the West India islands : divided according to the preliminary articles of peace, signed at Versailles, 20, Jan. 1783 -- Daniel Morgan U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, 1790 -- U.S. Diplomatic Medal for Peace and Commerce, 1792 -- George Washington Peace Medal, 1792 -- William Penn's Treaty with the Indians, 1682, 1827 -- Baptism of Pocahontas, 1839 -- Cover of historical and statistical information respecting the history, condition, and prospects of the Indian tribes of the United States, 1851-57 -- Three-dollar gold coin, 1854-89 -- Fourth Virginia Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, Company E, Powhatan Troop flag, 1860-61 -- Hiawatha Boat centerpiece, 1871 -- Improved order of Red Men membership certificate, ca. 1889 -- Monument to 42nd New York Volunteer Infantry, "Tammany" Regiment, 1891 -- Four-cent Indian Hunting buffalo stamp, 1898 -- The continents : America, 1903-07 -- Indian chiefs headed by Geronimo, passing in review before President Roosevelt, Inauguration Day, 1905 -- Half-eagle gold coin, 1909 -- Dumbarton bridge indian head sculpture, 1915 -- World War I French Air Service Lafayette Escadrille Indian head fuselage insignia, 1917 -- World War I U.S. Marine Corps Indian head and star shoulder insignia, 1917-19 -- 14-cent Hollow Horn bear stamp, 1923 -- President Calvin Coolidge wearing an eagle-feather headdress, 1927 -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt inducted into the Boy Scouts' Order of the Arrow, 1933 -- Indian head nickel, 1935 -- Pioneers in Kansas, 1935 -- Breaking camp during wartime, 1938 -- Golden Gate International Exposition poster, 1939 -- United States Marine Corps War memorial, 1954 -- MK 16 Zuni folding-fin aircraft rocket, 1957 -- Vice President Richard M. Nixon and former Tribal Chairman Carl Whitman Jr., 1960 -- Unity, 1966 -- AH-64 Apache helicopter, 1984 -- 32-cent Jim Thorpe stamp, 1998 -- Sacagawea golden dollar, 2000 -- Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008 Congressional Gold Medals, 2013 -- Sequoyah, 2013 -- Afterword / Paul Chaat Smith.
Scope and content: "Officially Indian : Symbols That Define the United States explores the United States' habit throughout its history of using images of American Indians to distinguish itself from other countries and to define itself for its citizens. Its explorations provide a unique and revealing perspective into the United States as a nation engaged in a 'democratic experiment'"--Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 970.0049 G211 Available 33111008837359
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From maps, monuments, and architectural features to stamps and currency, images of Native Americans have been used again and again on visual expressions of American national identity since before the country's founding. In the first in-depth study of this extraordinary archive, Cécile R. Ganteaume argues that these representations are not empty symbols but reflect how official and semi-official government institutions--from the U.S. Army and the Department of the Treasury to the patriotic fraternal society Sons of Liberty--have attempted to define what the country stands for. Seen collectively and studied in detail, American Indian imagery on a wide range of emblems--almost invariably distorted and bearing little relation to the reality of Native American-U.S. government relations--sheds light on the United States' evolving sense of itself as a democratic nation.

Generation after generation, Americans have needed to define anew their relationship with American Indians, whose lands they usurped and whom they long regarded as fundamentally different from themselves. Such images as a Plains Indian buffalo hunter on the 1898 four-cent stamp and Sequoyah's likeness etched into glass doors at the Library of Congress in 2013 reveal how deeply rooted American Indians are in U.S. national identity. While the meanings embedded in these artifacts can be paradoxical, counterintuitive, and contradictory to their eras' prevailing attitudes toward actual American Indians, Ganteaume shows how the imagery has been crucial to the ongoing national debate over what it means to be an American.

Officially Indian is published in concert with the Americans exhibition, which opens October 26, 2017, at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. American Indians represent less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, yet names and images of Indians are everywhere: military weapons, songs, town names, advertising, and that holiday in November. Americans invites visitors to take a closer look, and to ask why. Featuring nearly 350 objects and images, from a Tomahawk missile to baking powder cans, Americans examines the staying power of four stories (Thanksgiving, Pocahontas, the Trail of Tears, and the Battle of Little Bighorn) that are woven into the fabric of both American history and contemporary life. By highlighting what has been remembered, contested, cherished, and denied about these stories, and why they continue to resonate, this exhibition shows that Americans have always been fascinated, conflicted, and profoundly shaped by their relationship to American Indians.

"Published in conjunction with the exhibition Americans, opening at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, in October 2017"--Title page verso.

"Officially Indian : Symbols That Define the United States explores the United States' habit throughout its history of using images of American Indians to distinguish itself from other countries and to define itself for its citizens. Its explorations provide a unique and revealing perspective into the United States as a nation engaged in a 'democratic experiment'"--Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / Colin G. Calloway -- Introduction: The world's oldest enduring republic -- Essays -- Tupinambas of coastal Brazil, 1505 -- Title page of America, 1592 -- Allegory of America, 1662 -- Amerique septentrionale divisee en ses principales parties, 1696 -- Novi Belgii Novaque Anglia nec non partis Virginia tabula in locis emendata, 1685 -- Rolls's best Virginia tobacco paper, 1700s -- A new map of the whole world with the trade winds according to ye latest and most exact observations, 1732 -- A view of the obelisk erected under liberty-tree in Boston on the rejoicings for the repeal of the Stamp Act, 1766 -- Liberty triumphant, or, The downfall of oppression, 1774 -- Vignette for Royal American magazine, 1774 -- Design proposal for the Great Seal of the United States, 1780 -- A new map of North America with the West India islands : divided according to the preliminary articles of peace, signed at Versailles, 20, Jan. 1783 -- Daniel Morgan U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, 1790 -- U.S. Diplomatic Medal for Peace and Commerce, 1792 -- George Washington Peace Medal, 1792 -- William Penn's Treaty with the Indians, 1682, 1827 -- Baptism of Pocahontas, 1839 -- Cover of historical and statistical information respecting the history, condition, and prospects of the Indian tribes of the United States, 1851-57 -- Three-dollar gold coin, 1854-89 -- Fourth Virginia Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, Company E, Powhatan Troop flag, 1860-61 -- Hiawatha Boat centerpiece, 1871 -- Improved order of Red Men membership certificate, ca. 1889 -- Monument to 42nd New York Volunteer Infantry, "Tammany" Regiment, 1891 -- Four-cent Indian Hunting buffalo stamp, 1898 -- The continents : America, 1903-07 -- Indian chiefs headed by Geronimo, passing in review before President Roosevelt, Inauguration Day, 1905 -- Half-eagle gold coin, 1909 -- Dumbarton bridge indian head sculpture, 1915 -- World War I French Air Service Lafayette Escadrille Indian head fuselage insignia, 1917 -- World War I U.S. Marine Corps Indian head and star shoulder insignia, 1917-19 -- 14-cent Hollow Horn bear stamp, 1923 -- President Calvin Coolidge wearing an eagle-feather headdress, 1927 -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt inducted into the Boy Scouts' Order of the Arrow, 1933 -- Indian head nickel, 1935 -- Pioneers in Kansas, 1935 -- Breaking camp during wartime, 1938 -- Golden Gate International Exposition poster, 1939 -- United States Marine Corps War memorial, 1954 -- MK 16 Zuni folding-fin aircraft rocket, 1957 -- Vice President Richard M. Nixon and former Tribal Chairman Carl Whitman Jr., 1960 -- Unity, 1966 -- AH-64 Apache helicopter, 1984 -- 32-cent Jim Thorpe stamp, 1998 -- Sacagawea golden dollar, 2000 -- Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008 Congressional Gold Medals, 2013 -- Sequoyah, 2013 -- Afterword / Paul Chaat Smith.

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