The Native American Identity in Sports: Creating and Preserving a Culture - Tapa dura

This work provides a unique look at the impact Native Americans have had on American sports and explores the reasons why many of these achievements have gone unheralded in the sports history books. The work also explores sports that are special to the Native American culture, such as Native American tennis and the Seminole's custom of alligator wrestling, as well as the debate over using Native Americans images as sports mascots. Edited by a professor emeritus of sociology and anthropology at Iona College, New York, the volume takes an all encompassing look at how Native Americans are represented in the world of sports. * American Reference Books Annual * The theme of identity and the tensions between American Indian and American identities runs throughout these 12 essays. While sport was presented as a means of assimilation, as it was for many other cultures, in many instances it served to articulate a more powerful Native American character. As a whole, the collection covers a wide range of sports and experiences, from the early-20th-century boarding schools to current disputes over the persistence of Native American mascots. The contributions represent a wide range of disciplines and approaches, including history, sociology, and cultural anthropology, to provide greater insight into the ways in which sport has been used by Native Americans. Perhaps most notable is the variety of sports considered in the collection. While boxing and even lacrosse were seen as ways of demonstrating manliness, basketball, tennis, track and field, and other endeavors were also important as American Indians struggled to find a balance between competing identities. Although each essay offers a brief exploration, the complete volume highlights Native peoples' important contribution to the world of sports. Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *

This collection of essays examines how sport has contributed to shaping and expressing Native American identity-from the attempt of the old Indian Schools to "Americanize" Native Americans through sport to the "Indian mascot" controversy and what it says about the broader public view of Native Americans. Additional essays explore the contemporary use of the traditional sport Toka to combat obesity in some Native American communities, the Seminoles' commercialization of alligator wrestling-a "Native" sport that was, in fact, only developed as a sport due to interest from tourists-and much more. The contributions to this volume not only tell the story of Native Americans' participation in the world of sports, but also how Native Americans have changed and enriched the sports world in the process.