Deloria a 'cultural critic'
History professor prefers unique perspective on U.S. Indians

Photo by Clara Pettem

Philip Deloria

By Clara Pettem

Philip Deloria (MA '88) is not using his journalism education in the expected way. Deloria, who studied broadcasting at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is a CU history professor immersed in a world of cultural criticism.

"Journalism got me thinking about culture — how it is that we live in a culture and how we are trying to change it," said Deloria, who is of Dakota descent.

Before working toward his master's degree, Deloria said, he spent most of his life trying not to be what his father, Vine Deloria, was and is: an American Indian activist. For this reason, he first turned to music — receiving a bachelor's degree from CU in 1982 — and then to journalism and mass communication.

Deloria said he learned much at the School that changed his perspective and left him with useful skills. "I got brutalized in the news writing class until I learned how to write," Deloria said. "Although it was difficult at the time, I was grateful and have been ever since."

Mass communication opened Deloria's mind to mass culture, which led to him becoming a self-described "cultural critic" with a particular interest in the relations between Indian and non-Indian people. He received a doctorate in American Studies from Yale University in 1994.

Deloria's thesis for Yale became the book "Playing Indian" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998). It discusses how Americans perceive and mimic American Indian identities, how those mimicries have changed in history and how Indian people have reacted to the whole idea of “playing Indian.”

Deloria is writing a history of his grandparents. He wants to challenge his readers' perceptions and include, for example, the American Indian urban experience.

"Normally, when historians study Indians they use oral history and when they study whites they use written history," said colleague Susan Jones, an assistant professor in the History Department. "But he has turned this on its head."

Jones said Deloria's approach to cultural criticism influences historians to look at American Indians in new ways.

He suggests studying written records to uncover facts about American Indians — such as information about American Indians in cities. Conversely, historians might be prompted to examine "Deloria-style" oral traditions in their studies of mainstream culture.

Deloria's widespread knowledge has blossomed from his journalism education, according to Jones. He is interested in how "ideas get communicated through culture," she said.

This interest is not limited to American Indians.

"He has a lot to say about various groups in American culture who have been understood in different ways by the cultural majority," Jones said.

Even though Deloria did not intend to follow in his father's footsteps, he is in a unique position to comment on culture because of his family background, Jones said.

But being a history professor might not always be the medium through which Deloria will criticize culture.

"I wouldn't mind going back to the journalism world," he said.