Beyond Two Worlds: Critical Conversations on Language and Power in Native North America. Edited by James Joseph Buss and C. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa.

Abstract

Beyond Two Worlds: Critical Conversations on Language and Power in Native North America . Tribal Worlds: Critical Studies in American Indian Nation Building Series. Edited by James Joseph Buss and C. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa. (Albany: SUNY Press, 2014. xvi + 331 pp. Illustrations, charts, notes, index. $95.00.) For well over a decade, scholars in Native American studies have steadily dismantled the false divide between indigeneity and authenticity, which goes something like this: Native people can be modern or they can be Native—but never both. If they embrace modernity, they cease to be “real Indians.” If they reject modernity, then they fade into the past, unable to navigate the changing tides of contemporary societies. Beyond Two Worlds aptly brings critiques of this idea, which have thus far come from a variety … kwhalen{at}morris.umn.edu