X-Marks

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, North American Indian leaderscommonly signed treaties with the European powers and the American and Canadiangovernments with an X, signifying their presence and assent to the terms. Thesex-marks indicated coercion (because the treaties were made under unfair conditions), resistance (because they were often met with protest), and acquiescence (to both a European modernity and the end of a particular moment of Indian history and identity). In X-Marks, Scott Richard Lyons explores the complexity of contemporary Indian identity and current debates among Indians about traditionalism, nationalism, and tribalism.