In Conrad Richter's The Light in the Forest, John Butler, a white boy, who was taken from his white family in colonial Paxton Township at age 4 and raised by the Lenape tribe, is eventually returned to Paxton when he is 15. He doesn't adapt well to his new environment, as it is too conforming to him. He wants to be free in hunting and running all day with his family and tribe members rather than learning English and going to church. In our reading, Deloria explains how Bostonians dress as Indians as a means to express their freedom and resistance to the British. By mixing in these Native and colonial identities, both these cases show how a new identity is forged, one based on a sense of freedom.
Despite colonist-Indian relations, as developed in Richter's book, many colonists dressed as Indian. This appropriation distorted the identity of the colonists; they were neither truly Briton, because they lost their sense of civility, nor Indian, because they were white. But this made them into a new identity: American. When the Bostonians ravaged the ships in Indian dresses, they were calling to a sense of belonging to the land in which they lived in. One that made them entitled to freedom as much as the Indian man. For Butler, being Indian and not white made him free to roam the Earth, a sense that he was comfortable with. By creating this tie to the Native Americans, colonists were not only trying to become American, but also wanted to become more free.
Despite colonist-Indian relations, as developed in Richter's book, many colonists dressed as Indian. This appropriation distorted the identity of the colonists; they were neither truly Briton, because they lost their sense of civility, nor Indian, because they were white. But this made them into a new identity: American. When the Bostonians ravaged the ships in Indian dresses, they were calling to a sense of belonging to the land in which they lived in. One that made them entitled to freedom as much as the Indian man. For Butler, being Indian and not white made him free to roam the Earth, a sense that he was comfortable with. By creating this tie to the Native Americans, colonists were not only trying to become American, but also wanted to become more free.