The criticism of Gerald Vizenor on native American identity

The purpose of this study was to examine the criticism of Gerald Vizenor on Native American identity during the colonial period of North American history. Vizenor, in his works, showed the Native American Indians identities, and he used many terms to discuss their Indian-ness. For instance, the term "survivance" was used to criticize that they stayed in a place without knowing anything from the changing of the world in the modern period because that term displayed their stances between "survival" and "resistance." Thus, he confirmed that they have assimilated into the current lives of the modernity. The author also, used a tricky method in his works as a mockery to make critics about them. However, Native Americans were well on their way to being mainstreamed by colonial historians. Whereas, the postmodern critical approach to the literal restructuring of Native American identity in the period of renewal that followed Native America has begun to redesign a new field of assessment. Nontraditional, non-anthropological, poststructuralist critiques continued to explore the relationship between traditional and contemporary experience. ―Survivance‖, a term coined by Native American writer and literary critic Gerald Vizenor, was used to express this situation. In addition, Vizenor's reflection on the survival and resistance of Native Americans as they face the challenges of the world while trying to promote their indigenous identity is reflected in their works. However, Vizenor's postindian identity negotiation is controversial and seems to be far from getting the approval of other critics. Keywords: Gerald Vizenor, Native Americans, Oral Literature, Tribalism, Oral Tradition, Colonialism