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Columns::February 17, 2003
Weekly Reader
Book examines racial construction
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$24.95
University of Georgia Press |
On the southern frontier in the 18th and early 19th centuries, European men--including traders, soldiers and government agents--sometimes married Native women. Children of these unions were known by whites as “half breeds.” The Indian societies into which they were born, however, had no corresponding concepts of race or “blood.”
Moreover, counter to European customs and laws, Native lineage was traced through the mother only. No familial status or rights stemmed from the father.“Mixed Blood” Indians looks at an array of such birth- and kin-related issues as they were alternately misunderstood and astutely exploited by both Native and European cultures. Author Theda Perdue, who received her master’s (1975) and doctoral (1976) degrees in history from UGA, discusses the assimilation of non-Indians into Native societies, their descendants’ participation in tribal life and the white cultural assumptions conveyed in the designation “mixed blood.”
“Mixed Blood” Indians rereads a number of early writings to show the Native outlook on these misperceptions and to make clear that race is too simple a measure of their--or any peoples’--motives.
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