Duke University Press - Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds

Subjects
African American Studies and Black Diaspora, American Studies, Native and Indigenous Studies

Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds explores the critically neglected intersection of Native and African American cultures. This interdisciplinary collection combines historical studies of the complex relations between blacks and Indians in Native communities with considerations and examples of various forms of cultural expression that have emerged from their intertwined histories. The contributors include scholars of African American and Native American studies, English, history, anthropology, law, and performance studies, as well as fiction writers, poets, and a visual artist.

Essays range from a close reading of the 1838 memoirs of a black and Native freewoman to an analysis of how Afro-Native intermarriage has impacted the identities and federal government classifications of certain New England Indian tribes. One contributor explores the aftermath of black slavery in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, highlighting issues of culture and citizenship. Another scrutinizes the controversy that followed the 1998 selection of a Miss Navajo Nation who had an African American father. A historian examines the status of Afro-Indians in colonial Mexico, and an ethnographer reflects on oral histories gathered from Afro-Choctaws. Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds includes evocative readings of several of Toni Morrison’s novels, interpretations of plays by African American and First Nations playwrights, an original short story by Roberta J. Hill, and an interview with the Creek poet and musician Joy Harjo. The Native American scholar Robert Warrior develops a theoretical model for comparative work through an analysis of black and Native intellectual production. In his afterword, he reflects on the importance of the critical project advanced by this volume.

Contributors. Jennifer D. Brody, Tamara Buffalo, David A. Y. O. Chang, Robert Keith Collins, Roberta J. Hill, Sharon P. Holland, ku'ualoha ho’omnawanui, Deborah E. Kanter, Virginia Kennedy, Barbara Krauthamer, Tiffany M. McKinney, Melinda Micco, Tiya Miles, Celia E. Naylor, Eugene B. Redmond, Wendy S. Walters, Robert Warrior

“Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds marks a new crossroads in ethnic history and ethnic studies scholarship: a mode of scholarly interaction between Native and black worlds that refuses to sacrifice the feelings at the heart of their tangled histories.” — Joanna Brooks, Journal of American Ethnic History

“Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds is a valuable addition to the literature . . . . [It] is a welcome beginning because of its diversity of perspectives, its presentation of unfamiliar stories, and its clear-eyed willingness to explore a world in which Principal Chief Smith can use one removal to justify another.” — Joshua Piker, Ethnohistory

“Highly recommended.” — G. Ganon, Choice

“Miles and Holland should be lauded for bringing together a body of scholarship that illustrates quite dramatically how this convergence [of Native American and African American studies] has a wide and deep impact upon several disciplines and fields of study.” — Michael A. Elliot, American Literature

“This collection ambitiously pushes the boundaries of the types of sources to consider and the mediums through which to explore indigenous/African interactions in the western hemisphere.” — Fay A. Yarborugh, Western Historical Quarterly

"This book contains a stimulating blend of insider and outsider perspectives. . . . This volume makes an important contribution to the still under-researched area of African Americans' interactions with Native cultures and peoples. It should also suggest important avenues for further research and is highly recommended for students of both African American and Native American history and culture." — Stephen W. Angell, Journal of American History

“Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds addresses an extremely important nexus in ethnic studies and cultural studies and demonstrates the indispensable contributions of relational and comparative study.” — George Lipsitz, author of American Studies in a Moment of Danger

“This collection is an important extension of a vital topic—historical and contemporary cultural and political relationships between Indian and African peoples—fully into the realm of African diaspora studies.” — James F. Brooks, editor of Confounding the Color Line: The Indian-Black Experience in North America

“Tiya Miles and Sharon P. Holland have brought together precision history, evocative criticism, and wrenching memoir and fiction to offer a compelling picture of the meeting grounds where black and Indian lives intertwine. So much more than a decentering of whiteness, this collection truly opens up new and exciting terrain.” — Philip J. Deloria, author of Indians in Unexpected Places