I’m Indian Too!: Claiming Native American Identity, Crafting Authority in Mascot Debates

The author examines the ways in which people who are not “ethnically Indian” have, nevertheless, strategically claimed Indianness to argue in favor of Native American mascots. The selective (mis)use and inflation of American Indian identity is hardly a new practice, but in this context, it occurs to very specific political ends. This debate has important consequences for all Native Americans. Indeed, it is argued here that a number of White people are now rhetorically fabricating Indianness in debates, not to realign themselves psychically or sympathetically withNative Americans but rather to obscure, if not dissolve, Native voices.