| This dissertation discusses a pattern of hybridism in four Native American texts. Chapter one analyzes Mohegan minister Samson Occom's execution sermon on behalf of a fellow Indian Christian convert, Moses Paul within the context of his strained relationship with Dartmouth College founder, Eleazar Wheelock. Though it appears to adhere to a traditional execution sermon format, Occom's hybrid text uses republican rhetoric to appeal to the disenfranchised. In addition, an extant unpublished sermon is examined to further contextualize Occom's desire for democracy and equality. Chapter two focuses on the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake's creed which functions as a Seneca/Christian hybrid text. Though Handsome Lake adapts his code to include the Christian ideas of salvation and redemption, as well as the adoption of husbandry, he refuses to adopt a capitalist philosophy which emphasizes individual profit and private property. In this manner, he preserves the communal nature of Seneca Identity. Chapters three and four discuss the contemporary novels, Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko, and Tracks and Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. Using the mestizo characters, Ts'eh, Betonie and Night Swan, as well as Tayo's uncle Josiah's spotted cattle as examples of "hybridizing," Silko asserts that adaptation and evolution are necessary to keep a culture's traditions vital and meaningful. For Silko, storytelling strengthens and revitalizes Laguna traditions, and through their retelling, the stories are continually rewoven and metamorphosed into new hybrid tales. In chapter four, Erdrich posits three contrary modes of survival embodied in the characters of Pauline, Fleur and Nanapush. Pauline renounces her Indian heritage and converts to Catholicism adopting the new identity of Sister Leopolda. Fleur refuses to adapt; she maintains her native practices and traditions and retreats to the woods. Nanapush's hybrid identity enables him to straddle both cultures. He practices Chippewa healing rites, yet he is also fluent in English. His ability to read enables him to become a bureaucrat and to save Lulu. In Love Medicine, his descendent Lipsha, as his Michif name signifies, is similarly able to blend cultural stories and traditions. |
