Tribal Fantasies: Native Americans in the European Imaginary, 1900–2010 Edited by James Mackay and David Stirrup (review)

This varied collection of essays aims to elucidate why stereotypical images of “indians” (exemplified by the Plains Indian warrior) remain ingrained in the European imagination and what this may tell us about Europe and European cultures. The “tribal fantasies” at the core of the enquiry are explored in a variety of historical, political, sexual, and juvenile realms, as mainstream assumptions about Indianness are shown to have an impact on highly diverse European practices, ranging from British nationalism to European pornography.

As the editors acknowledge, the volume revisits familiar ground while attempting to highlight what is specifically European about the case studies presented, and how these reflect lived experience. It is this latter aspect, however, that remains rather underexplored—the voices of Europeans engaging with “indian” imagery reach us through texts (quite some space is devoted to close reading of literary sources) rather than through encounters with actual “Indianthusiasts.” More engagement with existing ethnographies of contemporary European fascination with Native Americans (or “indians”) would have been appropriate. In order to gain any real insight into how the “indian” has shaped, and still shapes, European cultures, we need a sustained scholarly curiosity about the epistemic potential of the European longing, myth making, and hybridity to which the chapters allude.

As it is, most authors seem to tread very carefully, perhaps for fear of displeasing a Native readership. In this context, Graham St. John’s call for a fine-grained approach to the (in)appropriateness of appropriation, following his investigation into psytrance, comes as a breath of fresh air. The intellectually most exciting piece in the collection is perhaps Peter Thompson’s discussion of lyrical Marxist Ernst Bloch’s love of Karl May’s adventure stories. Eloquently and rigorously, Thompson grapples with the desire for authenticity that underlies Bloch’s thinking, bringing out its semiotic potential. This interest in the generative force of image-making resonates with my own ethnographic fieldwork among contemporary Indian hobbyists in Europe, who seek to overcome ambivalence about “Indian play” by grounding authenticity in their own practices of replication.

In a move to steer away from a Euro-centered authorship, two contributions by Native American writers frame the collection. The first piece, by Gerald Vizenor, is an intriguing, highly ironic and erotic tale that plays with assumptions of morality and authenticity, themes that are pursued more earnestly in the remainder of the volume. The afterword by Renae Watchman ends on an optimistic note as the author highlights opportunities for mutual understanding grounded in her experience with European powwowing. Until that moment, the main lesson to be taken away from the book was that Europeans still misrepresent Native Americans—it would have been heartening if the irony embraced in Vizenor’s opening piece had resonated slightly more daringly throughout the collection.

All in all, Tribal Fantasies would have benefited from more thorough editing and a keener eye for non-English terminology—the misspellings bandes déssinnées (42), dessinnées(43), and reductio ad absurdam (77) distract unnecessarily from otherwise concise, focused, and well-researched discussions.