{"id":3688,"date":"2019-09-16T17:11:40","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T22:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=3688"},"modified":"2019-12-15T14:02:34","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T20:02:34","slug":"the-expansion-of-the-vanishing-indian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/09\/16\/the-expansion-of-the-vanishing-indian\/","title":{"rendered":"The Expansion of the \u201cVanishing Indian\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his paper \u201cMacDowell\u2019s Vanishing Indians,\u201d Dr. Daniel Blim writes that the \u201cIndianist\u201d movement of using Native American inspiration for American music owes its success largely to the composer Edward MacDowell, and especially to his Indian Suite<\/em>, premiered in 1896. Blim connects this to the \u201cvanishing Indian\u201d trope: \u201cthe Indian as a cultural figure . . . began to \u2018vanish,\u2019 and no longer a threat, could be reappropriated in the national imagination as a nostalgic figure rather than a living oppositional force.\u201d He discusses MacDowell\u2019s Westernization of Native American music as one way in which it aligns with this trope. Regarding MacDowell\u2019s piece \u201cFrom an Indian Lodge,\u201d Blim writes, \u201cthe subject of this work is not Native America, but a reenactment, subtly Westernized.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n