Indian policy and a couple of beers

Abstract

Metaphor is a carrier. It conveys our knowledge of known things to the unknown The most pervasive methaphor in Indian affairs is the idea that the relationship of an Indian to the federal government is that of a ward to a guardian. The metaphor has bedeviled past Indian policy, dominates present thinking about Indian affairs and, worst of all, it molds our thinking about alternative prospects for the future of Indians in this country. The following dialogue between two people, Mike and John, is set in the hotel of the Western Social Science Association's National Conference in Albuquerque in April, 1989. The strength of the ward-guardian metaphor is apparent throughout their conversation about Indian policy. Ironically, while John deplores the influence of the metaphor “Indian as research subject,” in social science research, he is unable to transcend it, or the ward-guardian metaphor, in his own thinking about Indian policy.