Crossbloods by Gerald R. Vizenor
"Crossbloods" by Gerald R. Vizenor is a collection that explores the complex identity of individuals who identify as Native Americans but are not of pure blood, referred to as "crossbloods." This collection spans two decades of Vizenor's work and is divided into two main sections: "Crossblood Survivance," which addresses the challenges faced by crossbloods, and a series of investigative articles reflecting his journalistic career. The first section highlights the compromises made by Native Americans to navigate contemporary life, such as the introduction of gambling on reservations and the impacts of government policies, including the forced attendance of tribal children in federal boarding schools. Vizenor argues that these actions lead to a loss of cultural identity and tribal pride, framing them as a form of self-betrayal in pursuit of short-term benefits. The second section features investigative pieces, including significant reports on crime and social issues affecting Native communities, notably the controversial treatment of Native burial sites in academia. Overall, "Crossbloods" provides a poignant examination of identity, survival, and the socio-political challenges faced by Native American populations, making it a valuable read for those interested in contemporary Native issues and cultural resilience.
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Subject Terms
Crossbloods by Gerald R. Vizenor
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1990
Type of work: Essays
The Work
This volume shows the range of Vizenor’s work over a twenty-year span. The pieces included present him as the investigative reporter he was in the early 1970’s and as the creative and academic writer he became. The collection is somewhat rag-tag, but it is significant for showing the author’s development.
The book is divided into two major sections. The first, “Crossblood Survivance,” deals with the problems of those who, like Vizenor, are not pure-blooded. These “crossbloods” constitute the largest group among those who claim to be Native Americans. To survive in their Native American environments, Vizenor says, these people sell out much that their forbears held sacred. They redefine treaties, reaching compromises that promise short-term gains. They are instrumental in bringing gambling to reservations, and they abrogate the hard-won fishing and hunting rights for which their ancestors fought.
With the money these compromises generate come the problems that accompany gambling and other easy-money schemes. Vizenor implies that American Indians are losing their selfhood or, more accurately, are selling out to the highest bidder. Tribal pride, once the hallmark of the reservation, is being subordinated to immediate gain.
“Crossbloods and the Chippewa,” one of the more recent contributions to the volume, focuses compellingly on some of the major problems facing Indians. Some of these problems are caused by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which exerts pressure to have tribal children attend federal boarding schools, effectively removing them from their families and their cultures. What is done in the name of education, Vizenor argues, is essentially a form of tribal genocide imposed by a paternalistic government that thinks it best to homogenize Native Americans, to draw them into the dominant culture at any cost.
The second half of this book consists largely of investigative articles written by Vizenor during his days as a journalist. “Capital Punishment,” a detailed report of Thomas White Hawk’s murder of a South Dakota jeweler, shows Vizenor at his journalistic high point. Vizenor might have updated this contribution to reflect the commutation of White Hawk’s prison sentence and his reintroduction into the outside community.
Perhaps the most poignant of the essays in this book is “Bone Courts: The Natural Rights of Tribal Bones,” in which Vizenor writes about a matter that he discusses in many of his books: the robbing of Indian grave sites in the name of archeology or anthropology. Vizenor cites Thomas Echo-Hawk, an attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, who contends that a Native American who desecrates a white person’s grave is imprisoned but that a white person who desecrates a Native American burial mound wins a doctorate.
Bibliography
Blaeser, Kimberly M. Gerald Vizenor: Writing in the Oral Tradition. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
Hochbruck, Wolfgang. “Breaking Away: The Novels of Gerald Vizenor.” World Literature Today 66 (Spring, 1992): 274-278.
Isernhagen, Hartwig. Momaday, Vizenor, Armstrong: Conversations on American-Indian Writing. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
Lee, A. Robert, ed. Loosening the Seams: Interpretations of Gerald Vizenor. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Press, 2000.
Owens, Louis, ed. Studies in American Indian Literatures 9 (Spring, 1997). Special issue devoted to Vizenor.
Vizenor, Gerald. Interior Landscapes: Autobiographical Myths and Metaphors. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990.