American Indians and the Rhetoric of Removal and Allotment

Jason Edward Black, Northport, Alabama, USA is an associate professor in rhetoric and public discourse and an affiliate professor in gender and race studies at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. He is the coeditor of An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk's Speeches and Writings and Arguments about Animal Ethics. His work has appeared in such journals as Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, American Indian Quarterly, and American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

In this treatment of allotment and removal, Jason Edward Black explores American rhetorics of paternalism and subjugation in a nuanced and subtle way. He locates these discourses in historical context, treats them with respect, and carefully parses their various manifestations and consequences. In so doing, Black demonstrates how native voices accommodated, resisted, and contributed to emerging American national identities. Importantly, Black's analysis invests indigenous people with agency, and thus adds to the growing body of work on decolonialization. This book is an important resource for scholars of American Indian and American national history, decolonialism, and political rhetoric."" - Mary Stuckey, professor of communication and political science, Georgia State University.""American Indians and the Rhetoric of Removal and Allotment represents the high-water mark of indigenous scholarship in rhetorical studies. Through fastidious archival research and careful attention to the complexities of Native rhetorical agency from contact to the Indian Citizenship Act, Black's analysis of Euro-Indian relations illustrates both the perniciousness of colonial benevolence but also the subtle and subversive ways American Indians decolonized Euro-American discourse, law, and policy. Black's careful contextual analysis confirms the centrality of Native voices to American public address and documents how the acumen of Native rhetorics at times successfully thwarted the American colonial endeavor. I believe that this ambitious project will be praised by readers as an impressive original contribution to indigenous, postcolonial, and rhetorical studies.""- Casey Ryan Kelly, associate professor of media, rhetoric, and culture, Butler University.""Jason Edward Black moves beyond the simple notion of a one-way form of oppressive and colonial communication from the US to American Indians to examine how American Indian rhetoric not only responded to colonizing efforts by the US government but also contributed to the rhetorical culture of the United States. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in historical and contemporary American Indian rhetoric."" - Danielle Endres, associate professor of communication, University of Utah