Despite settler colonialism or because of it? Sydney Beckmann, ‘”Yours for a United Race”: the Society of American Indians and the Meaning of Unity’, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 2026 | settler colonial studies blog

Despite settler colonialism or because of it? Sydney Beckmann, ‘”Yours for a United Race”: the Society of American Indians and the Meaning of Unity’, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 2026

23Jun26

Abstract: As part of the promotional literature for the Society of American Indians (SAI), Secretary Arthur C. Parker ended a recruitment letter with the salutation, “Yours for a united race.” On a draft of this letter, he crossed out the last three words and hand-wrote “progress.” This change calls into question the meaning of unity and race and how they were utilized by Parker and the Society. The SAI has been described as a pan-Indian organization with an urban, assimilationist agenda that homogenized Indigenous identity. Utilizing Parker’s letter, this paper argues that pan-Indianism as a label invokes a specific colonial notion of unity that erases the complex decisions made by SAI members to negotiate relationships between their communities, religious traditions, and settler society. Drawing on the work of critical Indigenous scholarship, the paper proposes using the concept of relationality as the interpretive framework for discourse on the SAI and unity.

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