Indian Summer for Whitey

from John Higham's Strangers in the Land p. 139

...the declining vitality of native culture contributed to a defensive attitude. Brahmin intellectuals such as [Henry Cabot] Lodge, Henry Adams, and Barrett Wendell knew that the historic culture of New England had entered its "Indian Summer..."

This classic history of nativist ideology exposes many of the ironies of fearful race-based nationalism. On the other hand, early assimilationists don't impress much either, since they assumed that the "tempest-tost masses" had no agency of their own. Even the progressives have large blind spots.

Nativism relies on a vague sort of declinism. Hackneyed phrases like "Indian Summer," the last few hot days in September or October, effectively mask the wrongheadedness of racist ideology. They also suggest a dark-skinned assassin ending the reign of the white man.

Higham took the phrase from Census Monograph No. 7, "Immigrants and Their Children," 1920.