In the decades since the passing of the Pamajewon ruling in Canada and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in the United States, gaming has come to play a crucial role in how Indigenous peoples are represented and read by both Indians and non-Indians alike.

Gambling on Authenticity: Gaming, the Noble Savage, and the Not-So-New Indian, edited by Becca Gercken and Julie Pelletier, presents a transnational examination of North American gaming and considers the role Indigenous artists and scholars play in producing depictions of Indigenous gambling. In an effort to offer a more complete and nuanced picture of Indigenous gaming in terms of sign and strategy than currently exists in academia or the general public, Gambling on Authenticity crosses both disciplinary and geographic boundaries.

The case studies presented offer a historically and politically nuanced analysis of gaming that collectively creates an interdisciplinary reading of gaming informed by both the social sciences and the humanities. Gambling on Authenticity works to illuminate the not-so-new Indian being formed in the public's consciousness by and through gaming.

After their talk, the editors will sign copies of the book, which will be available for purchase.

Download a PDF flyer for this event to post and distribute.

Becca Gercken, Associate Professor of English and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, Morris, works in the areas of identity and representation, masculinities, and pedagogy. Her most recent work appears in Leslie Marmon Silko: Ceremony, Almanac of the Dead, Gardens in the Dunes.

Julie A. Pelletier is Acting Director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry, and Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Winnipeg. She has published in the areas of identity and representation, and the indigenization of the academy. Her most recent work is "Insider/Outsider Ambiguities and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights," in Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies.

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Excuse our dust!!!

Beginning January 2018 the Newberry is undertaking renovation of much of the ground floor. Ruggles Hall will not be affected, but please check this link frequently for the latest conditions - which exterior doors are open or closed, where to find an accessible entrance, which restrooms are available, etc.