From the margins of the National Centre: two plays by Native American playwright Hanay Geiogamah
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From the margins of the National Centre: two plays by Native American playwright Hanay Geiogamah Danica Čerče1 Accepted: 3 November 2020 © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2020
Abstract Framed by an interest in literature as “a form of public good,” this article investigates how Hanay Geiogamah, one of the most important Native American playwrights, uses his media to interpellate the means by which white Americans disseminated and maintained the patterns that established them as superior and all others as necessarily inferior. In particular, this discussion will examine some of the textual devices Geiogamah employs to define and affirm his people’s authentic cultural substance in order to subvert the identity imposed on them in the process of subjugation. Keywords New Native American playwriting · Hanay Geiogamah · Body Indian · Foghorn · Defamiliarizing whiteness · Ratialised identities
Introduction Charles Mills argues that, in the United States, “race is not anomalous to the American democracy but fundamental to it” (2000, 450) and draws attention to the country’s systemic priviliging of whites at the expense of people of color (2015, 44). This discriminatory concept is perhaps best evident in the case of Native Americans.1 Decimated by centuries of “devious codes of extermination” (Vizenor 2009, 105), they were assigned to the lowly status of colonial subaltern, which—in Walter Mignolo’s words—“foregrounds racialized oppression and socio-economic subordination” (2005, 381). In the last few decades, as a result of successful campaigns for land rights and sovereignty connected with a worldwide struggle for indigenous peoples’ rights, Native Americans have witnessed a considerable improvement in 1 With reference to the descendants of indigenous peoples in the United States, the specific name for each people or nation is desired. An alternative is Native Americans, which is preferred to American Indians or Indians or Natives.
* Danica Čerče [email protected]‑lj.si 1
University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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their political and economic situation. However, and despite the impressive strides of 573 federally recognized Tribal Nations in asserting the inherent sovereignty of indigenous tribes and assuming responsibilities for their peoples’ healthcare and education, the statistical data show that the status of Native Americans is still far from satisfactory. This is particularly noticeable in high rates of alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, suicides2 and school dropouts. Their employment rate is the lowest of any racial or ethnic group in the United States and more than one in four Native Americans still live in poverty. The life expectancy of a Native American born today is about five years below the U.S. average. To object to their substandard and often third-world living conditions, indigenous communities continue to manifest their protest. In addition to various forms of political activism, literature has undertaken an important role in expressing their
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