Dear Mr. Deloria,

I wrote an article in Critical Inquiry in 1992 on the topic of passing through an analysis of The Jazz Singer and how the movie focuses on Jewish families through blackface. The Jazz Singer is a very interesting movie for many reasons because it marked the birth of sound and dialogue in film and though the jazz age brought forth the issue of Anti-Semitism, it is not visible in the movie because the main character plays a black individual instead of a Jewish man. The idea of passing is really intriguing to me, especially in such a complicated situation illustrated by The Jazz Singer.

I have just read your book Playing Indian and I thought it was fascinating, because I never realized the popularity of playing Indian in our nation’s history. The Tammany Society was particularly interesting to me because it marked the different stages of how Indians came to play in American life and politics and it shows just how complicated the Indian image was to Americans trying to define what being an American is.

I never realized that America didn’t successfully deal with Indians, although once you brought it up in your book and explained it, I understood that it is very clear that we still have that problem. Indians and playing Indians seems to be at the core of American identity, in a sense more so than passing as white for African Americans because it seems that passing as Indian and the complexities behind it marked the beginning of social and racial divisions in America. It is also difficult because many Native Americans don’t want to live in a sedentary life that Americans and many individuals from other countries do. Many Native Americans live on reservations today, and it’s unsettling for me to realize that they are not really part of our society, our culture, or even our way of life. I believe, from reading your book, that it might have been easier for Americans to historically push down African Americans to the bottom of the social hierarchy because they are part of society. It is much more difficult to place and deal with Native Americans if they are outside society and don’t really have a place in the social ladder. Yet the concept of doubleness in relation to the Native Americans is also intriguing because although they are not really a part of society, they also somehow represent America.

Your book is very thought-provoking in how it relays the influence of Indians in constructing American identity and life, with the founding of ethnography, anthropology and the modern-day Boy and Girl Scouts. I will certainly keep the concepts you raise in your book in mind as I continue my research on passing.

Sincerely,
Michael Rogin

Question 1) Deloria’s claim that the “Indian problem” has never been adequately solved is really powerful. How do we solve this problem? Can it be considered a problem in relation to American Identity? How will society reconcile with people who do not want to assimilate themselves into popular culture, customs, etc? How does the change in defining Indianness relate to the “incorporation of America” that occurred?

Question 2) Rogin’s analysis of replacing a Jewish role with an African American role in a Jewish setting is interesting. How does religion and beliefs affect race and race relations? Is there a relation between religion and race as Rogin seems to suggest? What does that say about whiteness and where individuals of Jewish origins are placed?