The following article explores the similarities between Polish Indian novels (written mostly in the second half of the 20th century) and modern fantasy fiction in an effort to argue that the former should not be examined–and then criticized–only in terms of their idealized representations of Native American tribes and life in the wilderness. To demonstrate the parallel between these Indian novels and fantasy fiction, this article will first analyze how the works of Polish writers and fantasy narratives are motivated by similar desires. It will then examine the Indian novels in the context of John H. Timmerman’s study on the six generic traits of fantasy. This perspective will allow us to circumvent the question of authenticity in representation, and instead acknowledge the significance of the Indian novels for the readers and writers of the People’s Republic of Poland.
This article discusses the motif of memory which can be noticed in Vyazemsky’s late poetry: poems written in the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s. Peter Vyazemsky was a poet, literary critic, and letter writer appreciated for his talent not only in Russia but also in Poland. In his late poetry Vyazemsky recalls his close friends, his beloved mother as well as places he visited during journeys abroad. The poet presents his thoughts about his own life, ancestors, and human life in general. The poems are strongly influenced by the ideas of Romanticism.
The purpose of this paper is to verify the thesis that the right to vote is one of the most significant fields of Indigenous Peoples Rights’ violations. History of the U.S. relations with Native tribes is a history of broken treaties and promises, including these pertain- ing to voting. It is vital to keep track of issues related to voting rights, not only because of the constantly increasing number of court cases related to this issue, but also several legal initiatives proposed in Congress with the aim to make the right to vote more ap- plicable. The first part of the paper enumerates the main reasons for the denial of In- dian Voting Rights. It is followed by the explanation how these limitations were imple- mented. The third part of the work describes how the Indigenous Americans struggled to receive the right to vote. However significant the moment of gaining the right was, it did not put an end to their struggle for equal treatment. On the contrary, a list of court cases based on Voting Rights Act violations is still extending, which is described in the fourth part of the paper. The fifth part examines contemporary issues regarding the Na- tive Americans’ right to vote.
PL
Celem artykułu jest zweryfikowanie tezy, według której czynne prawa wyborcze są jedny- mi z najczęściej łamanych praw przysługujących ludności rdzennej. Historia stosunków USA z plemionami Indian Ameryki Północnej charakteryzuje się szeregiem zerwanych traktatów i niedotrzymanych obietnic, w tym dotyczących praw wyboru przedstawicieli na poszczególnych szczeblach władzy. O ważkości opisywanych zagadnień świadczy nie tylko systematycznie rosnąca liczba spraw sądowych dotyczących praw wyborczych, ale także szereg inicjatyw prawnych zaproponowanych w amerykańskim Kongresie w celu lepszego ich egzekwowania. W pierwszej części artykułu wymieniono główne przyczyny pozbawiania Indian czynnych praw wyborczych. Następnie wyjaśniono, w jaki sposób ograniczenia te zostały wdrożone. W trzeciej części autorzy wskazali na najważniejsze etapy, jakie musieli pokonać rdzenni Amerykanie w procesie ubiegania się o zagwaran- towanie prawa do głosowania. Ostateczne uzyskanie czynnych praw wyborczych nie za- kończyło walki rdzennych Amerykanów o równe traktowanie. Wręcz przeciwnie, lista spraw sądowych opartych na naruszeniach Ustawy o prawie do głosowania wciąż się roz- szerza, co opisano w czwartej części artykułu. Część piąta analizuje współczesne kwestie dotyczące czynnego prawa wyborczego Indian Ameryki Północnej.
Partly as a result of compartmentalized academic specializations and history teaching, in accounts of the global upheavals of 1968, Native Americans are either not mentioned, or at best are tagged on as an afterthought. “Was there a Native American 1968?” is the central question this article aims to answer. Native American activism in the 1960s was no less flashy, dramatic or confrontational than the protests by the era’s other struggles – it is simply overshadowed by later actions of the movement. Using approaches from Transnational American Studies and the history of social movements, this article argues that American Indians had a “long 1968” that originated in Native America’s responses to the US government’s Termination policy in the 1950s, and stretched from their ‘training’ period in the 1960s, through their dramatic protests from the late 1960s through the 1970s, all the way to their participation at the United Nations from 1977 through the rest of the Cold War. While their radicalism and protest strategies made Native American activism a part of the US domestic social movements of the long 1960s, the nature of American Indian sovereignty rights and transnationalism place the Native American long 1968 on the rights spectrum further away from civil rights, and closer to a national liberation struggle-which links American Indian activism to the decolonization movements of the Cold War.
The present text serves as an introduction to RIAS Vol. 12, Spring–Summer № 1 /2019, dedicated to Indigenous social movements in the Americas. It outlines the major areas of interest of the Contributors, explaining ways in which the issue explores selected cases of Indigenous resistance to oppressive forms of environmental, socio-economic, linguistic, and cultural colonialism. Looking at both multi-tribal and single-tribal contexts, the authors look at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, the novels of Lakota/Anishinaabe writer Frances Washburn, the Two-Spirit movement in the U.S., and the Indigenous food sovereignty movement in the U.S. and Peru as sites of creative forms of decolonizing resistance, and analyze the material, discursive, and cultural strategies employed by the Indigenous activists, writers, and farmers involved.
The 2012 phenomenon is discussed, especially its development in The Two Rennes and Bugarach Area in South-West France. First the ideas and beliefs of the “alternative seekers” and the growth of an expectation of spiritual renewal on 21st December 2012 are presented; together with the transformation of this expectation into the prediction of a total disaster and especially the treatment of this prediction as an “entertaining” subject in the mainstream. Later the cluster of myths and beliefs that has grown since the 1950s around Rennes-le-Château and inspired the Da Vinci Code (2003) is discussed, together with the growth of personal development workshops linked to the sacralized Pic of Bugarach nearby, that have brought an exceptional concentration of alternative seekers in this area. Finally, the article presents the situation’s evolution in the last days of 2012 in Bugarach, marked by the mobilization of the authorities, a massive presence of the media and the almost total absence of the expected “visionaries”. Prospective remarks will be presented to conclude.
The article investigates the important element of alternative spiritual beliefs, often designated as New Age, connected with cultural appropriation of spirituality of the “imagined community” of idealized Native Americans. First, origins and historical background of this social imaginary is being provided, rooted in popular literature, impact of influential Buffallo Bill’s Wild West shows of the 1800s, and youth movements, Indian hobbyist and (Euro)indianist movement of the 1900s. Second, important cultural texts such as Chief Seattle (alleged) Speech, Rainbow Family legends (and its connection to Greenpeace) and Black Elk message are thoroughly investigated. Third, the current “source of wisdom” with renewed social dynamics is being analysed, along with search for a new paradigm for studies of this syncretic phenomenon.
Grafiki, na których Andrzej Łabuz przedstawia i przekształca wizerunki Indian oraz ślady ich egzystencji, takie jak np. koce, pobudzają do przemyślenia na nowo kilku antropologicznych kwestii. Doszukiwanie się w nich jedynie formy estetycznej lub prostych kulturowych klisz łatwo może zagłuszyć toczący się tu międzykulturowy dialog. Tradycja Indian północnoamerykańskich zapisana w wizerunkach twarzy i śladach przedmiotów jest osnową umożliwiającą artyście prowadzenie wątku wypowiedzi graficznej.
EN
Graphics, on which Andrzej Łabuz depicts and morphs images of Native Americans as well as traces of their existence, such as plaids, inspire to rethink some of anthropological issues. Seeking only for esthetic forms or simplistic cultural cliches can easily stifle the ongoing intercultural dialog. Native American tradition recorded in depictions of faces and traces of objects is a warp enabling the artist conduction of the thread of imagery expression.
W 1907 r. amerykański fotograf Edward S. Curtis opublikował pierwszy tom dzieła The North American Indian – 20-tomowej serii ukończonej w 1930 r., opisującej i ilustrującej życie 80 plemion żyjących w zachodniej części Stanów Zjednoczonych. Przez trzydzieści lat Curtis wykonał prawdopodobnie około 40 tysięcy fotografii Indian amerykańskich i zgromadził ogromny materiał etnograficzny dotyczący codziennego życia plemion, ich legend, mitów, historii. Wykonane zdjęcia to zarówno portrety, jak i przedstawienia różnego typu zajęć przedstawicieli „znikającej rasy”, jak postrzegano na początku wieku rdzennych mieszkańców kontynentu. Projekt został ukończony ogromnym kosztem i nie przyniósł Curtisowi doczesnej sławy. Jego prace zostały odkryte na nowo w 1972 r. i od tego czasu są zarówno krytykowane za zafałszowywanie rzeczywistości oraz niewielką wartość dokumentalną, jak i doceniane za walory estetyczne i sam fakt zaistnienia, umożliwiający potomkom zobaczenie swoich odległych przodków. Artykuł omawia założenia projektu, jego efekty, źródła kontrowersji, a także współczesne znaczenie kulturowe tego ogromnego i jedynego w swoim rodzaju przedsięwzięcia.
EN
In 1907 Edward S. Curtis published the first volume of The North American Indian – the 20-volume series which was his life achievement, completed in 1930. During thirty years he took probably about 40,000 photographs of Native Americans belonging to various tribes. These included both portraits and depictions of everyday life of the peoples his generation believed were vanishing. During the field work he also collected textual material documenting the tribes’ histories, legends, rituals as well as biographies of individual people. The project, in its immensity, exhausted the resources and did bring Curtis the recognition he hoped for. His works were rediscovered in 1972 and since then photographs have been either criticised for being staged and not depicting the Native tribes’ life as it really was, or appreciated both for their aesthetic quality and documentary value. The article provides an overview of the project, discusses the controversies surrounding it and its significance from today’s perspective. It also refers to the legacy of Curtis’s work and the way contemporary artists remain in a dialogue with it.
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