Essay on Thomas King's the Truth About Stories

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“The Problem with Finding Identity in American Popular Culture” Who defines the identity of a group of people? Thomas King in The Truth About Stories describes how government policies have influenced popular culture’s perception of who is Native American as well as the role of “the literary Indian” in the Native American community (King, 34). These definitions have penetrated society’s view and behavior towards Native Americans as well as influenced how this group of people view one another. The problem with popular culture’s perception of Native Americans is that the images of the “Indian” are completely fixed, therefore preventing their identity from changing with the rest of society as time goes on. For centuries, governments have had the power to identify what is a Native American. The significance of their authority is overwhelming, since never have any definitions been retrieved from a group of Native Americans, proving to be detrimental when attempting to find an identity. King describes two different but similar policies from the second half of the twentieth century: the U.S. Indian Arts and Crafts Act and the Canadian Bill C-31. These two documents changed the question governments have been asking from “‘Who is an Indian?”’ to “‘Whom will we allow to be an Indian?’” (King, 139). The first form of legislation only allowed “federally or state recognized” tribes or individuals to sell artifacts and label them “‘Indian made’” (King, 40). Problem is that there are tribes and individuals that can trace their lineages but are still not recognized by either governments. Bill C-31 requires you to marry federally recognized Native Americans or risk your family losing that status down your linage and threatens to eliminate all federally recognized Native Americans “in fifty to seventy-five years” in Canada (King, 144). The horror behind the Bill C-31 is that the

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