'Thank Heaven, I Am an Indian': Persona, Authenticity, and Hybridity in the Writing of Kah-Ge-Ga-Gah-Bowh Alias 'George Copway'

In this thesis I examine Ojibwe autobiographer George Copway as an 'urban Indian' navigating his place in the anglophone, white majority populace of the mid-nineteenth century United States. This approach considers metropolitan pressures as historical contexts for his self- representation, rather than examining them as proof of some sort of ethno-cultural duplicity. My intention is not to champion emigration from tribal lands, it is only to argue that moving away from tribal land does not, indeed cannot, constitute a betrayal of some authentic ideal that was denied to Native peoples by settler culture. This paper proposes that Copway's socio-ethnic hybridity as Christian Anglophone writer and Ojibwe tribesman are inextricable components of a nuanced Indian identity, allowing him to exist in and simultaneously navigate both spheres.