Response Paper for Deloria's chapter,"Patriotic Indians and Essay

Response Paper for Deloria's chapter,"Patriotic Indians and Identities of Revolution" - Essay Example The chapter delves deeply into various incidences, events and practices that have centralized Indian culture at the heart of American people. Symbolism plays a critical role in every aspect of Indian culture that the author gives credence to for serving the purpose of uniting Americans. Indian culture plays a significant role in the formation of American culture as it is seen as the unifying factor. In this chapter, the author has continued to advance the thesis of the book, which essentially is â€Å"striving to the Indian-like.† Whites in the United States have been depicted as having embraced the Indian culture and made significant effort to look like Native Indians. Deloria takes his readers back to the historic times when the famous Boston Tea Party served as the turning point of America’s journey to independence. The author notes that Americans often disguised themselves as Indians whenever there was a need to express dissatisfaction. The author points out in this chapter that crowds would don in Indian style before demonstrating their dissatisfaction of the political and economic scenarios. For instance, the revolutionaries disguised themselves as Indians and dumped all the tea into the Boston harbor. The disguise was not intended to lay blame on the Indians or complicate the matter over to them (Deloria 34), but a demonstration of unity. The Indian dress s omehow served as uniting symbol for them. The author also suggests that the donning of Indian garb served to lay the first foundation of patriotism. He shows that though oblivious of the role it would serve, the donning of the Indian garb to protest against the British served to lay the foundation of independence. The white Americans from them onwards protested against laws that were demeaning. With such foundation laid, other similar foundations geared towards liberation later followed. The Tammany Society was formed in the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party. The society