During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, North American
Indian leaders commonly signed treaties with the European powers
and the American and Canadian governments with an "X," signifying
their presence and assent to the terms. These x-marks indicated
coercion (because the treaties were made under unfair conditions),
resistance (because they were often met with protest), and
acquiescence (to both a European modernity and the end of a
particular moment of Indian history and identity). In "X-Marks,"
Scott Richard Lyons explores the complexity of contemporary Indian
identity and current debates among Indians about traditionalism,
nationalism, and tribalism. Employing the x-mark as a metaphor for
what he calls the "Indian assent to the new," Lyons offers a
valuable alternative to both imperialist concepts of assimilation
and nativist notions of resistance, calling into question the
binary oppositions produced during the age of imperialism and
maintaining that indigeneity is something that people do, not what
they are. Drawing on his personal experiences and family history on
the Leech Lake Ojibwe Reservation in northern Minnesota, discourses
embedded in "Ojibwemowin" (the Ojibwe language), and disagreements
about Indian identity within Native American studies, Lyons
contends that Indians should be able to choose nontraditional ways
of living, thinking, and being without fear of being condemned as
inauthentic. Arguing for a greater recognition of the diversity of
Native America, "X-Marks" analyzes ongoing controversies about
Indian identity, addresses the issue of culture and its use and
misuse by essentialists, and considers the implications of the idea
of an Indian nation. At once intellectually rigorous and deeply
personal, "X-Marks" holds that indigenous peoples can operate in
modern times while simultaneously honoring and defending their
communities, practices, and values.
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