"This child of nature” Representations of native American spirits in English séances

Spiritualist séances in Victorian England often brought forth spirit guides of a variety of races, ages and personalities. One such spirit was that of the Native American, which was commonplace in American séances, but rather unusual in England. This article, using the theory of colonial discourse and hybridization by Homi Bhabha, elaborates on how the mediums used Native American spirits to further stereotypes about them, producing a hybridity which used both characteristics of the colonizer and the colonized. Official Spiritualist doctrine held that all races were equal, yet the Spiritualists still produced Eurocentric discourse around people who were seen to be more spiritual than others. Native American spirits in English séances did not produce the same anxieties as their American counterparts, resulting in Native American spirits adopting traits that the English Spiritualists both admired and feared. The most common way to fuse a spirit and their medium’s identity was through vocal hybridization, which included a broken mix of languages and accents.