The range of Native American literature encompasses a history of twenty thousand years and a geographic area extending from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America. It rises from a rich and tragic context. While on the one hand, Native American writers celebrate their rich cultural and spiritual past, while on the other hand, they share the historical experience of colonization. Though the discovery of America has been described as `conquest' or `manifest destiny,' Native American writers have countered it by regarding it as an `invasion' that is still continuing. Most of the contemporary Native American writers, N Scott Momaday, James Welch, Louise Erdrich, Wendy Rose, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gerald Vizenor, Sherman Alexie and Joy Harjo, relate in their writings how the process of colonization has debilitated their cultures, religions, traditions and identities. There is an awareness in their work that they once had a sense of belonging to their land, their tribe, their tradition, their religion, much of which they have now lost. They now have an agonizing sense of unbelonging. Strategies of survival dominate contemporary American writing. The present paper will highlight the strategies of survival adopted by contemporary Native American writers, which include returning to their past as a repository of values, presenting alternative epistemological realities to counter the sweep of Euro-American culture, forging new historicity to challenge the metanarrative of Western history and breaking down the stereotypes associated with the Natives.

The sweep of Native American literature encompasses a history of twenty thousand years and a geographic area from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America. It has grown out of a context that is both rich and tragic. While on the one hand, Native American writers celebrate their rich cultural and spiritual past, on the other hand, they share the historical experience of colonization that began five hundred years ago with the discovery of the hemisphere by Columbus. Though the discovery of America has been given the rubric of `conquest' or `manifest destiny,' Native American writers have countered it by regarding it as an `invasion' that is still continuing. Most of the contemporary Native American writers, Scott Momaday, James Welch, Louise Erdrich, Wendy Rose, Leslie Marmon Silko, Sherman Alexie and Joy Harjo, relate in their writings how the process of colonization has debilitated their cultures, religions, traditions and identities. Human and cultural genocide, imperial domination, forced acculturation, stereotyping, indoctrination, displacement, relocation and the use of racist language against them are some of the horrible consequences of colonization that the contemporary Native American writers highlight in their works.

Their writings also reveal how the denial of basic amenities to the Native American population has lead to unemployment, alcoholism, violence, internalized depression and poverty. In the present America dominated by commercialism, consumerism and cosmopolitanism, these writers find themselves forced into a situation of unbelongingness. There is an awareness in their work that they once had a sense of belonging to their land, their tribe, their tradition and religion, much of which they have now lost. So, where do they belong? Survival is one issue that permeates contemporary Native American writing.

American literature, Euro-American culture, Western naturalization, Linear trajectory, Second World War, Euro-American novel, Gerald Vizenor, Stereotypes, Racialism, Anthropology, Educational systems.