Redface

Considers the character of the ?Stage Indian? in American theater and its racial and political impact

Redface unearths the history of the theatrical phenomenon of redface in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Like blackface, redface was used to racialize Indigenous peoples and nations, and even more crucially, exclude them from full citizenship in the United States. Arguing that redface is more than just the costumes or makeup an actor wears, Bethany Hughes contends that it is a collaborative, curatorial process through which artists and audiences make certain bodies legible as ?Indian.? By chronicling how performances and definitions of redface rely upon legibility and delineations of race that are culturally constructed and routinely shifting, this book offers an understanding of how redface works to naturalize a very particular version of history and, in doing so, mask its own performativity.

Tracing the ?Stage Indian? from its early nineteenth-century roots to its proliferation across theatrical entertainment forms and turn of the twenty-first century attempts to address its racist legacy, Redface uses case studies in law and civic life to understand its offstage impact. Hughes connects extensive scholarship on the ?Indian? in American culture to the theatrical history of racial impersonation and critiques of settler colonialism, demonstrating redface?s high stakes for Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike. Revealing the persistence of redface and the challenges of fixing it, Redface closes by offering readers an embodied rehearsal of what it would mean to read not for the ?Indian? but for Indigenous theater and performance as it has always existed in the US.

Defines, clarifies, and critiques the practice of redface as it has sculpted the idea of ?Indian? in the United States? cultural imaginary since the nation?s founding. Bethany Hughes deftly argues that theatrical redface ? the construction of the Stage Indian ? is predicated on the American fantasy of Indian disappearance and therefore denies Indigenous peoples present day agency, nationhood, and sovereignty. Redface illuminates an array of overlooked primary source materials by putting the disciplines of Native American studies, American Studies, and theatre studies into conversation with one another. Perhaps Hughes? greatest intervention is the opportunity she creates for her readers to confront how acceptance of the Stage Indian distorts and obscures the long history of Indigenous theatre and cultural sovereignty in the United States. Hughes? rigorous research and clarion analysis are made more potent through her performative writing, making Redface as enjoyable a read as it is important, as liberating as it is provocative.