SOURCE: "Autobiographical Works by Native Americans," in Ameriksastudien/American Studies (Amst), J. B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung Stuttgart, Vol. 26, No. 3/4, 1981, pp. 386-402.

In the excerpt that follows, Peyer provides a historical account of Native American autobiography, with primary consideration of its political implications.

To the white man many things done by the Indian are inexplicable, though he continues to write much of the visible and exterior life with explanations that are more often than not erroneous. The inner life of the Indian is, of course, a closed book to the white man.

Luther Standing Bear¹

The autobiography has long been a popular source of inside information for those interested in cultures other than their own. In the case of Native American cultures, the term has been used predominantly for those accounts recorded and written down by an intermediary, an editor, and, to a lesser extent, those works published in a...