Performing Colonialism: You are still Conquering America

By Mary Kathryn Nagle, member of the 2013 Emerging Writers Group

I saw it again recently. 

But really in this country, if you truly open your eyes—you’ll see it all the time. You can see it on a stage in New York City, in front of a camera in Los Angeles, in a kindergarten classroom in rural Georgia—or even at a bar in Omaha, Nebraska on Halloween. All around us, Americans love to put on a headdress and “play” Indian. 

My most recent encounter was watching a show in New York. Although I appreciated the show’s brilliant and witty critique of American capitalism and Manifest Destiny—the show’s invocation of the racial American Indian stereotype was particularly damaging. In a creative musical where the antagonists were clearly Wall Street institutions, the main narrator—a tiny white girl—danced around in a fake headdress. As she danced around provocatively in her fake headdress, she referred to the story of the Native inhabitants of New York, the Lenape.

I left the show with a knot in my stomach. What I had just watched on stage was the repetition of the racial stereotype the Federal Government used in the 18th and 19th centuries to support its genocide of Native Americans. 

Furthermore, what was this girl doing dancing around on stage, talking about the Lenape—but wearing a headdress?! The Lenape that were originally here on Manhattan didn’t wear headdresses. Several Nations of Plains Indians wear headdresses—but for them, a headdress is sacred. The Eagle feathers in a headdress are presented to individuals as symbols of honor and respect. Thus, the headdress plays an important role in various Nations’ sacred religious dances and ceremonies. 

The headdress is a religious symbol to many Native American Nations—just as the cross is a religious symbol to many groups of Christians. 

But what was my problem? Why didn’t I think this use of the headdress was cute? Wasn’t I supposed to find it sort of hipster ironic? Why didn’t I understand that the show was “on our side”? And why didn’t I appreciate the fact that the show’s sarcastic humor was deconstructing the powerful colonial force that destroyed “my people”? 

Because the play wasn’t deconstructing the colonization of American Indians—it was perpetuating it. We live in a country where the colonization of the American Indian—and the taking of our land—was predicated on legal reasoning that because Indians did not worship the same Christian God as whites, they were racially inferior to whites and lost title to their land as soon as a white “discovered” it. This Doctrine of Discovery is what the Supreme Court relied on to justify the Federal Government’s Indian Removal Policy—and the displacement of Indians from their ancestral lands onto reservations. Later, at the turn of the 20th Century, the Supreme Court used these very same principles to find a “plenary”, omnipotent power in the Federal Government over the life, liberty, and property of Indians on all reservations.

To be sure, the idea that Native American religion is a heathen, “fake” religion is alive and well today. The illegitimacy of Native American religion is still used today to justify the Federal Government’s decisions to lease sacred Indian religious sites to mining companies; to permit ski resorts to dump recycled sewage water on sacred religious sites to create fake snow for skiers; and to allow the Forest Service to build roads through sacred cemeteries where Indians are buried. No doubt that if the Federal Government wanted to permit a mining company to turn a Christian Church, or Christian cemetery, into a lead mining site—this Nation would not tolerate it.

But when the Federal Government authorizes the destruction of a sacred, religious Indian site, no one bats an eye. Although we have had a Brown v. Board of Education for blacks, we have no similar reconciliation of the colonial legal regime for Indians. And consequently—the Supreme Court still cites the cases today that stated in the 19th Century that Indians are racially inferior because they are non-Christian heathens. 

As Indians in 21st Century America—we still struggle today to gain acceptance and tolerance for the practices of our ancient religions that existed hundreds—thousands—of years before the first white settler set foot on this soil. Consequently, the racial stereotypes you perform on stage matter. 

As a performer and a playwright, I think there is power in the Theater. I truly believe that through the sharing of true stories, we can bring about healing and a better understanding. In the Theater, I think we can even change legal regimes. 

But with power comes responsibility. As creators of art in a post-colonial country, if we merely replicate the racial stereotypes the Colonizer created to colonize—our art will only serve to perpetuate the colonial regime. We will never be able to change the racist legal regime of the past if we merely copy and re-produce the racial stereotypes that were used to create the regime in the first place.

So as a fellow performer and artist—who has a very deep respect for her fellow artists in the American artistic community—I am asking you to help me. Help us. Please help change the harmfully destructive racial stereotypes of our people. Should you choose to use any Native imagery, characters, or stories in a performance or play—please refrain from using shallow stereotypes. Visit with individual Natives from the Nation you wish to portray. Inquire about their heritage, their culture, their identity, and who they are as a people. 

Ask them how they want to be portrayed in your performance. Instead of using Native imagery and identity to add flare, wit, humor, or spirituality to your production, consider seeking out authentic Native voices and stories to include in your performance that will challenge, deconstruct, and question the colonial legal regime that continues to exist today. 

There are more than 500 different federally recognized Indian Nations today. We speak different languages. We practice different sacred religions. We all tell stories of survival, but they are different. Through performing real, authentic Native identities on American stages, you can help us create a post-colonial, democratic America. 

Mary Kathryn Nagle is a playwright and attorney here in New York City--and she is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Her play, WAAXE'S LAW, is a documentary piece that tells the true story of the Ponca Indian Chief's journey for justice that resulted in the first federal court decision to declare Indians to be "persons" under the law in 1879. 

This post is part of a weekly series from the Emerging Writers Group community of playwrights. The EWG is two-year playwriting fellowship at The Public Theater seeking to target playwrights at the earliest stages of their careers. In so doing, The Public hopes to create an artistic home for a diverse and exceptionally talented group of up-and-coming playwrights.

The photo above was taken by Steve Bross of the Great Plains Theatre Conference at the 2010 Annual Ponca Tribe of Nebraska Pow Wow.