Book Review: Going Native

Shatara Michelle Ford
Book Review #2
09/21/08
Going Native:
An easy and successful way to point fingers in another direction

Before entering into the analysis of Shari M. Huhndorf’s thesis, her concept of “Going Native” should be clearly defined. Huhndorf argues that “Going Native” is a popular tradition for (primarily male) European Americans, where they discover themselves through fleeing the fast paced, modern world to a simpler life as a Native American. While this process romanticizes Native American culture, “Going Native” also blames progress and modernity for the current unhappiness of European Americans and its negative influence over the lives of Native Americans past and present, thus leaving European Americans free of any responsibility.

In addition to what was previously stated, Huhndorf also claims that this process is used to define and redefine Whiteness and its place at the top of the racial hierarchy. She argues, “While those who go native frequently claim benevolence toward native peoples, they reaffirm white dominance by making some (usually distorted) vision of Native life subservient to the needs of the colonizing culture (5).” Huhndorf’s best example of this is can be found in her introduction, where she examines the role the European American protagonist in the film Dances With Wolves, within the parameters of her “Going Native” concept.
With Dances with Wolves as a backdrop, Huhndorf continues to support her claims by discussing the relationship “Going Native” has with particular moments in history. A compelling example she uses comes from Robert J. Flaherty, a nineteenth century arctic explorer who produced a popular memoir and follow up documentary romanticizing the lives of Eskimos. Contrary to common understandings about Flaherty, Huhndorf finds him to be remarkably similar to the notoriously cruel and imperialistic Robert Peary, an earlier explorer and writer. She elaborates, stating: “His presence in the Arctic and his accounts of the region and its peoples embodied colonial gestures even as they attempted to efface them (92).” Hunhndorf continues with this claim by analyzing Flaherty’s work and extracting two major themes that are consistent with the process of “Going Native;” namely; representations of the White man as superior to the somewhat less than human Native, and the separation of European Americans from colonialism. Although an insightful and detailed description of Flaherty’s work, it is easy to get lost in Huhndorf’s analysis- leading her audience to wonder if they are reading a history book, or a literary critique.

Nevertheless, something to be appreciated is Huhndorf’s conscious use of “European American” to describe the dominant culture in the United States. In using the term "European American," she decentralizes what we know to be American, while othering the dominant culture in the same way that Native Americans already are. This act forces us to re-evaluate what it really means to be American.

Like Robert G. Lee, Shari M. Huhndorf uses her work as a political device. By making her audience aware that the topics in her book are not discussed as much as they should be, and by placing Native American history alongside the need for European Americans to erase the brutal treatment of Native Americans out of the collective memory of U.S. citizens, she makes a bold statement to the dominant culture.