In this dissertation, “Pocahontas’s Perplexing Legacy: Performing the Indian Princess,” I analyze how Native American women performed the Indian Princess identity—a Western archetype of idealized indigenous femininity that was perceived as being allied with colonialism—employing what I term “noble Native subjectivity” to appeal to a non-Native audience. The introduction to my dissertation establishes the concept of “noble Native subjectivity,” a corporeal expression of Native aristocracy modeled from the visits of the Indian Kings and Pocahontas to the British Royal Court in the early colonial period. “Noble Native subjectivity” communicated a disciplined interiority, manifested in observable bodily markers of nobility (including posture, bearing,

clothing, and speech), and I discuss how Native writers, musicians, and stage performers appropriated this trope to establish authority with non-Native audiences and advocate for Native enfranchisement. Other critics have discussed the rhetorical strategies used by Indian Princesses to appeal to a non-Native public; the distinctiveness of my study is its focus on the body as a site of conscious identity construction and resistance. Questions that have guided my research include: What are the opportunities for using gender performance in order to establish agency, and how do Native writers and artists utilize historically non-Native genres to interrogate or transform these norms? In its contribution to the field of Native American Literature, this project discusses works by authors such as E. Pauline Johnson, Sarah Winnemucca, Tsianina Redfeather, Zitkala-Ša, and Maria Tallchief, discussing oft-overlooked textual productions, including short stories, operatic librettos, and dance performances.