Representations of Native Americans in Adamic’s Writing on (New) Immigrants

Abstract

This article presents an overview of the attention Louis Adamic dedicated to Native Americans in various written works and public engagements and compares it with his writing on new immigrants in the light of his understanding of the importance of the preservation of immigrants’ identity and issues of integration and nation-building as they relate to American identity. The article also explores the views on interculturaland interethnic relationships in the United States that Adamic drew on in his treatment of Native Americans. Three works in particular will be analyzed: My America (1938), From Many Lands (1940), and A Nation of Nations (1945). The main finding is that Adamic does not deal as extensively with issues related to indigenous Americans as he does with those related to European immigrants. Nevertheless, Adamic does notcompletely neglect “the Indian story”. In some of his works, most extensively in A Nation of Nations, he specifically compares this story to the (problematic) position of African Americans in an American space that was colonized either “by sword or by book”.