The Imaginary Indian by Daniel Francis - Reading response #6

The imaginary Indian

by Daniel Francis

In this introduction, D. Francis narrates his personal experience while visiting Head-Samshed-In in southwest Alberta. He starts by describing and illustrating the current small sized museum and the vast prairie views from the clifftop across. The author continues describing how his attention shifted from the display in the museum to the people who were working in it. D. Francis observed how the staff did not represent his concept of Indian, or what he was taught an Indian should look like. After spending an entire afternoon learning about the buffalo, he left the museum knowing that he had changed his perception about what an Indian is.

He continues his introduction by citing Charles Mair’s historical events from 1899. Mair had travelled to the far Northwest in order to negotiate with Native people and was profoundly disappointed to find “a group of commonplace men smoking briar-roots.” D. Francis illustrates this example in order to compare and contrast Mairs’ experience with his own experience. He highlights the similarities between both events even though they were about a century apart. He then recognizes that Indians, as we think we know them, do not exist.

Francis resumes his book introduction by describing historical events when Europeans first arrived in America and established contact with indigenous cultures. He outlines how the concept of “Indian” is the invention of the European, and how the idea and the image of the Indian is a white conception.

In The imaginary Indian, the author wants to clarify that the book is meant to reflect on the images White Canadians created of Native people and not about what Native people are. The main argument in his book being that there is no such thing as a real Indian.

The book examines where the Imaginary Indian came from, how Indian imagery has affected public policy in Canada and how it has shaped, and continues to shape, the myths non-Natives tell themselves about being Canadians. D. Francis claims that Europeans have tended to imagine the Indian rather than to know Native people. He concludes his introduction by underlining how as part of the legacy of the Imaginary Indian we lack a terminology with which to clearly speak about certain topics involving Indians, Natives, and Euro-Canadians.

The Imaginary Indian can be used as a way to promote understanding about non-native perceptions in Canada. As educators, we can use this reading to better understand the historical processes through which constructions are assembled and become powerful. My question for this reading would be, how could we as educators begin accurately portraying and facilitating a different perspective of native people?

Reference:

Francis, D. (1992). Introduction. The imaginary Indian the image of the Indian in Canadian culture (pp. 1-9).  Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press