Honoring Kin: Gender, Kinship, and the Economy of Plains Apache Identity

Abstract

This dissertation, "Honoring Kin: Gender, Kinship, and the Economy of Plains Apache Identity," addresses how Plains Apache identity is articulated, claimed, and lived by contemporary Apache people. Using American Studies scholar Philip Deloria\'s model of "expectation and anomaly," I argue that national narratives of Indian identity, or indigeneity, are often based upon external, Anglo-American expectations of visible, cultural difference. On the Southern Plains, indigeneity is most often associated with participation in social and ceremonial powwows, a publicly visible marker of indigeneity. Because powwow participation requires cultural and economic capital unavailable to some Apache people, these individuals and their experiences remain largely invisible to anthropologists and the general public and they, in turn, are seen as anomalous. By focusing my data collection on local Apache narratives from participants and non-participants, I argue that identity for Apache people goes beyond visible powwow participation to include behavioral requirements embedded in ideologies of gender and kinship. Although these behaviors mediate the requirements of powwow participation, they also include expectations that some Apache people may find difficult or undesirable. Through the narratives of Apache people, I not only expose the tensions and contradictions surrounding contemporary native identities, but also the creative and strategic ways that Apache people challenge and transform these cultural expectations.