(Re)constructed Eloquence: rhetorical and pragmatic strategies in the speeches of Native Americans as reported by Nineteenth-century commentators

This paper aims to discuss some rhetorical and pragmatic strategies that occur in the speeches of Native Americans as reported by nineteenth-century commentators. The materials under investigation range from reports in journals to speeches published in books. While such texts cannot of course be discussed as authentic materials strictu sensu, as speeches were transcribed, translated, and finally edited by Euro-American authors, they may nonetheless prove of great interest on account of their multiple significance: on the one hand commentators stress their validity and authenticity; on the other, they highlight the ‘quaintness’ of certain turns of phrases in the speeches they offer to their reading public, thus showing the (increasing) cultural distance of their subjects