Summary Of Trickster By Eileen Kane

Eileen Kane’s insightful work, Trickster: An Anthropological Memoir, illuminates the cultural atmosphere and life of the Northern Paiute people of Yerington, Nevada, during the early 1960’s while reflecting on the many contrasts and parallels to her own upbringing in Youngstown, Ohio. Guided by her research topic, documenting the religious beliefs the Paiute people practiced after the death of Jack Wilson (Kane, p. 155), Eileen Kane depicts the acculturative effects on Paiute religion occurring at this time. For those living on the reservation, the traditional-native spirituality had already witnessed the indoctrination of Christian beliefs by missionaries and whites among many Native American groups, though conservatory attempts to maintain

His unique influence encompasses a conscious attempt to revive the native values, calling the Native American people back to the land and to their cultural identity. His most notable legacy is the Ghost Dance, which “spread to almost all Indian groups in the western half of the United States” (Kane, p. 34). This dance was part of the reformative religion, in which Wilson played an important role in adopting the Christian elements taught by the whites while revitalizing the Native American’s faithfulness to traditional beliefs. His message now receives mixed acceptance among the Paiute people, where “some people think [he] was a healer, and some say he was a kind of miracle worker, and some others, they think her was a crook…” (Kane, p. 33). Sadly, Eileen Kane discovers the man who once drew thousands was now becoming more of a historic versus religious leader, a myth as opposed to a prophet. While at one time the role of his reformative religion united the Native Americans and provided hope for those used to prejudice and being treated as inferior by the whites (Kane, p. 210), his practices had mostly died out. However, the memoir still highlights the importance of his religious movement in shaping the current religious and cultural path of the Paiute

This is particularly seen through the ceaseless, though sometimes fruitless, efforts of Reverend Parks. The practices he encourages have “little formal leadership; little pageantry or art; a lot of member participation…” (Kane, p. 218). Like Jack Wilson, the Reverend encourages Christian values while seeking to remind the Paiute people of their cultural heritage. Kane remarks this new movement appeals “mainly to the younger middle-aged people” (p. 154). Though his efforts have yet to take root, his work is important because it “helps mediate the world for a new group, those younger, more acculturated, mixed-blood people who are more empowered and struggling to keep their place in the white world” (Kane, 220). Therefore, the role of this religion as well as his efforts to unite traditional practices of the Paiute to Christian values are integral to determining what type of religious identity the Paiute people will have in the