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Encyclopedia entry: Native Americans in Drama
- Article from:
- The Oxford Companion to American Theatre
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Companion to American Theatre 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information)
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Native Americans in Drama.
The immediacy of whites‐versus‐Indians wars and the proximity of many settled Indians to American 18th‐century cities made Native Americans figures of interest to several early American dramatists. The first play to center on them, however, was written not in English but in French.
Le Père‐Indien
was the work of LeBlanc de Villeneuve, a French officer stationed in New Orleans, and was given an amateur mounting there in 1753. Although it had no influence on later plays, its story of an Indian father who sacrifices his life for the sake of his son foreshadowed numerous pictures of noble, tragic primitives that would long ...