Modernity, World War I, and Appropriations of the Colonial Gaze in John Joseph Mathews’ Sundown

Abstract

Approximately 12,000 American Indians served in the armed forces of the United States during World War I, yet very few of them turned their experiences into memoirs, fictions, or poetry. A notable exception is John Joseph Mathews, whose acclaimed 1934 novel, Sundown, provides rare glimpses into the multifaceted and conflicted Great War experiences of Native Americans in general and a young Osage aviator in particular. Written during the early 1930s, as the Bonus March briefly revived America’s cultural memory of the First World War, Sundown defies long-held stereotypes about Native Americans and explodes the myth of the ‘Vanishing Indian.’ Before the backdrop of the encroachment of white settlers and ruthless speculators on the oil-rich Osage reservation, Sundown depicts its protagonist’s attempts to navigate a modern world that is marked by radical technological developments and social shifts.