Footprints in Ethnography

I really appreciated this article, as I feel the history of Native Americans is entirely underrepresented in American history. However, what I had the most questions about in this article is the way ethnography was presented. I hold conflicting ideas myself.

On the one hand, I feel that ethnography is absolutely critical to our understanding and appreciation of different cultures, and will help us create a more tolerant world. I think ethnography requires a type of humility that is all too often underrated. Because I want to learn more about Native American culture, I support ethnographical studies of it. I am more interested in learning about the Native American culture before it became altered by white influence, as I think it speaks more to the true nature of who these people are.

But, at the same time, some part of me identifies with the notions held by Pratt. “Richard Henry Pratt, head of the Carlisle boarding school and the most outspoken critic of ethnography among the Mohonk ‘Friends,’ regularly dismissed ethnographers as a sentimental lot who preferred ‘the Indian kept in his original paint and feathers’ for the sake of scientific curiosity. ‘I am not at all sure that . . . the scientific desire to preserve the Indian animal for study, is not a further impediment to his civilization,’ a speaker at the 1886 Lake Mohonk Conference remarked.” We cannot expect Native American culture to remain completely isolated and untouched by the rest of the world. If we attempt to study Native Americans in their “true” state, are we just looking for what we want to look for? Are we not giving them the justice of looking at their whole history and instead putting them the box we think they should fit in? 

I don’t know the answers to the questions, and I’m not entirely sure if anyone does, but I think this idea worth thinking about. We need to remain conscious of what the effects of our seemingly harmless research are, and, though it is impossible to leave absolutely no footprints with our research, we should try to discern where and how to leave them so as to be the least damaging.