Title page and Abstract, "Disputable Truths: The American Stranger, Television Documentary and Native American Cultural Politics in the 1950s." Dissertation, University of Wisconsin,

8/6/2019 Title page and Abstract, "Disputable Truths: The American Stranger, Television Documentary and Native American

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DISPUTABLE TRUTHS:

The American Stranger,

Television Documentary and Native American

Cultural Politics in the 1950's

by

Pamela S. Wilson

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

(Communication Arts)

at the

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON

1996

Under the supervision of Professor John Fiske


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ABSTRACT

This interdisciplinary historical analysis--from a post-structuralist, cultural studies

perspective--examines the medias involvement in the cultural politics of Native America

during the postwar termination period. Part I reviews the journalism medias

constructions of American Indian culture and politics, culminating in the 1958 television

production of NBC news departments The American Stranger, a documentary harshly

critical of the Eisenhower-era Congressional policies and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The broadcast focused upon the Blackfeet, Flathead (Salish-Kootenai) and Menominee

Tribes and reservations in Montana and Wisconsin, providing the first national television

voice to indigenous Americans who were critical of federal policy.

Part II analyzes the responses to and reception of the documentary, focusing

upon the contested intercultural truths underlying the political controversy, the

ideological basis for the altruistic, Christian audience response, and the regionalized

grassroots activism in Montana that appropriated the documentary and informally

circulated the television film text as a tool for social change.

Part III provides a larger critical and cultural interpretation of the case of The

American Stranger. Defining Indianness extricates discursive constructions of race,

ethnicity and nation, focusing on issues of civil and human rights, tribal sovereignty and

the legacy of whiteness. Television and Its Publics: Shifting Formations in the Public

Sphere theorizes televisions ability to constitute and mobilize a temporary alliance of

publics and counterpublics, including various localized interests, into a national political

forum to effect public policy changes and humanitarian action. The final chapter,

influenced by critical ethnography, questions the political effectivity of mainstream


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media representation and examines alternative strategies used by Native Americans for

self-representation.

Methodologically, this dissertation attempts to reconstruct the multiple and

competing discourses circulating about American Indians in the 1950s, focusing upon

archival voices from a wide range of sources, including tribal members, Christian

activists, legislators, bureaucrats, media producers and the general public. The project

also provides insight into the cultural and political implications of how we research and

write "history," supporting Foucaults notions about the existence of institutionalized

regimes of truth and the alternate sources of knowledge and truth represented by less

powerful social groups.

Documents

Title page and Abstract, "Disputable Truths: The American Stranger, Television Documentary and Native American Cultural Politics in the 1950s." Dissertation, University of Wisconsin,