That Dream Shall Have a Name

Native Americans Rewriting America

David L. Moore

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781496209740
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Native American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

The founding idea of "America" has been based largely on the expected sweeping away of Native Americans to make room for EuroAmericans and their cultures. In this authoritative study, David L. Moore examines the works of five well-known Native American writers and their efforts, beginning in the colonial period, to redefine an "America" and "American identity" that includes Native Americans.

That Dream Shall Have a Name focuses on the writing of Pequot Methodist minister William Apess in the 1830s; on Northern Paiute activist Sarah Winnemucca in the 1880s; on Salish/Métis novelist, historian, and activist D'Arcy McNickle in the 1930s; and on Laguna poet and novelist Leslie Marmon Silkoand on Spokane poet, novelist, humorist, and filmmaker Sherman Alexie, bothin the latter twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Moore studies these five writers' stories about the conflicted topics of sovereignty, community, identity, and authenticity—always tinged with irony and often with humor. He shows how Native Americans have tried from the beginning to shape an American narrative closer to its own ideals, one that does not include the death and destruction of their peoples. This compelling work offers keen insights into the relationships between Native and American identity and politics in a way that is both accessible to newcomers and compelling to those already familiar with these fields of study.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Fool Soldiers
• 1. Knowing It Was to Come: Sovereignty as Sacrifice
• 2. A Plethora of Animistic Factors Immersed in Ethereal Realities: Community as Animism
• 3. The Soul of the Indian Is Immortal: Identity as Change
• 4. The Creative Ability of Indian People: Authenticity as Translation
• 5. The Last Laugh: Humor and Humanity in Native American Pluralism
• Conclusion: America’s Struggle with Authenticity
• Biographical Appendix
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index