Register
Register here for the annual meeting and to begin or renew an ASA membership
Register here to submit a proposal through the ASA's 2012 submission site.
Register here for JHU Press and ASA membership services, including online access to American Quarterly and the Encyclopedia of American Studies Online.Register here to join an ASA community. Only current ASA members may contribute to the community blogs. Registration is not required to submit display or text ads or news and events or to view many pages. We will refuse posts that are not of professional interest to ASA members.
Click here for membership FAQ's
Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
For submission guidelines, click here
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
By University | By Year
Smoak, Gregory. "Ghost Dances and Identity: Ethnogensis and Racial Identity Among Shoshones and Bannocks in the Nineteenth Century," Department of History, University of Utah, August 1999.
This dissertation explores the emergence of ethnic and racial identity within the context of the Ghost Dance movements of the late nineteenth century among the Shoshone and Bannock speaking peoples of the northern Great Basin. Most historical interpretations have presented the Ghost Dance as short-lived and desperate religious fantasies. To the contrary, there is ample evidence that these beliefs had a long (well over three decades) and varied history west of the Rockies. Especially intriguing is the role of the Bannock people as missionaries and interpreters of religion. Although they shared the Fort Hall Reservation and most aspects of their culture with Shoshones, the Bannocks were more consistently linked with the religion. This raises the question of what it meant to be a Shoshone or a Bannock. I argue that social and economic differences were at the heart of these ethnic identities, and that they in large part explain each person’s reaction to the Ghost Dances. In turn, these religions represented the emergence of an American Indian racial identity. Thus, the Ghost Dances were not simply the dreams of an oppressed and dying culture, but important elements in the development of ethnic and racial identity among some American Indian peoples.
Quick Links
American Quarterly [official journal site]
American Quarterly [editorial site]
Encyclopedia of American Studies
Encyclopedia of American Studies [editorial site]