“Modernist Premonitions: The Autoethnography of William Whipple Warren” considers The History of the Ojibways as a text produced at a turning point in the history of Minnesota’s Ojibwe communities. Completed in 1853, while Warren worked as an interpreter for the Minnesota territorial government, the History grapples with the aesthetics and politics of cultural division, as that division was being manufactured by the policies of Allotment. Following work on authoethnography by Mary Louise Pratt and James Buzard, I suggest that History manipulates the conventions of ethnography to interrupt colonial appropriations of Native histories, and histories of place. Ultimately, these interruptions not only challenge colonial claims to space and history, they also assert the relevance of Native literary traditions in the American political milieu.

Papers are pre-circulated to those who plan to attend. E-mail Jade Cabagnot at mcnickle@newberry.org, or call (312) 255-3564 to receive a copy of the paper. Papers are available for request two weeks prior to the seminar date.