Work · Indigenous Philosophies
Manifest Manners: Postindian Warriors of Survivance
Essays arguing that the “indian” is a simulation of colonial discourse, from Columbus’s error to films and museums, behind which real Native people disappear; “postindian” stories of survivance undo these simulations.
Introduction
The book appeared in 1994 at Wesleyan University Press; a later edition was titled “Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance” (1999). In a series of essays Vizenor examines how the “indian” has been invented: by Columbus’s error, by colonial and national narratives, by photography, film, museums and the social sciences, and by tourists and seekers of a borrowed spirituality. With reference to Jean Baudrillard, Vizenor calls these images simulations, “manifest manners” in which the doctrine of Manifest Destiny lives on. The “postindian warriors” of the subtitle are Native writers and storytellers who undo these simulations through irony, trickster stories and new narratives of presence. The book brought “survivance” to a wide academic readership; the concept has since become central in Native American and Indigenous studies.
Connections
Builds on
- Simulacra and Simulation1981 · Jean Baudrillard
Taken up in
- Fugitive Poses: Native American Indian Scenes of Absence and Presence1998 · Gerald Vizenor
More works by Gerald Vizenor
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made