Mueller 1

Kelci Mueller
Professor Lo
Race and Social Justice
November 18, 2015
Fallacies Within a Reasoning
In any argument there will be some holes and spots where the argument isnt as solid,
where people can prod and poke to counter argue, Thomas Biolsis The Anthropological
Construction of Indians is no exception. Biolsis reasonings do not support his initial argument
of Can we divide human reality, as indeed human reality seems to be divided, into clearly
different cultures, histories, traditions, societies, even races, and survive the consequences
humanly? (Biolsi 133).
Biolsi started out strong by pointing out that Haviland Scudder Mekeel (an anthropologist
working to understand the Native Americans in the reservation of Pine Ridge) had good
intentions in the long run, was still very racist when first dealing with the Native Americans.
Mekeel even though wanting to help these Native Americans, still sought out to write in his field
notes that there were fine individuals but the rest were all bums (Mekeel 1930:9) which
Biolsi then said that there was apparent racism and ill will in the fields notes (Biolsi 134). This
is all true, but he is starting to stray away from the original argument of: can we survive the
consequences of being separate? to how racist Mekeel can be with his fields notes?
Biolsi starts out with the intention to answer his original argument, but then after the
analysis of his evidence, he digresses to the matter of Mekeels offensive notes. Native

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Americans and the colonizers were both integrated into the same system (Biolsi 143) he starts
with a comparison of the two which correlates to his original argument, but then he deviates back
towards the racism of the field notes, (talking about Mekeel) mixed cultures and bearers of
mixed cultures would be deemed inauthentic. (Biolsi 143), these comments by Biolsi starts off
by telling us that no we cannot survive separately but then strays off topic and talks about
Mekeels views on Native Americans touched by white society, that now its unauthentic. This
has the potential to answering the initial question, but then deviates back towards Mekeel.
Thomas Biolsi has many holes in his argument because he spends more time focusing on
the wrongs that Mekeel does rather than focusing on if humans could survive as separates. Even
though a lot of his content connects back to the original argument, the main focus he has is on
Mekeel and his field notes. He gives a lot of facts and information on Mekeels studies but cuts
short on the actual argument toward whether or not humans can survive as separates.

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Work Cited

Biolsi, Thomas. "Anthropological Construction of 'Indians'." Organizing the Lakota.

Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1998. 132-159., . . Print.