On the nature of settlers: Spencer Kiefer Wertz, ‘A Dark Side of James: Native North Americans and a Way Out of the Darkness’, The Pluralist, 20, 3, 2025, pp. 77-93 | settler colonial studies blog

On the nature of settlers: Spencer Kiefer Wertz, ‘A Dark Side of James: Native North Americans and a Way Out of the Darkness’, The Pluralist, 20, 3, 2025, pp. 77-93

11Oct25

Excerpt: It is surprising to find in the writings of William James (1842–1910) a condescending and stereotypical view of the Native North Americans, which he shared with most of his fellow white Americans at the time. However, James and the Native North Americans did share a holistic view of nature. For example, they abhorred the systematic deforestation of forests. But his view and the white settlers’ view of nature excluded the Native North Americans’ ways of life and living. Most of James’s statements are about the Northern Great Plains Indians, so most of my discussion centers around the Sioux or the D/Lakota accounts of the land and their idea of self. These conflicting perceptions of the white settlers (and James) and those of the Lakota are reflected in the evolving recent cases of the US Supreme Court regarding Indian legal jurisdiction, which I examine later in this essay. Colonialism raises its ugly head in these discussions. I conclude with a promising note of possible synthesis of some of James’s cornerstone ideas and those involving the land and self in Lakota thought, especially those of Robin Wall Kimmerer.

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