White between the Lines: Ethnic Positioning in Lakhota Discourse

By examining constructed dialogues with whiteness in everyday conversations, this article demonstrates how one group of Native Americans, the Lakhota, mark whiteness as rampant individualism. As such, whiteness is not an essential characteristic of white people, but shifts to different participants as it is negotiated in Lakhota discourse. In this context, the Lakhota values of community responsibility and service are juxtaposed to individualism associated with whiteness.