Rhetoric as Barrier

John Locke argued that rhetoric can be a barrier to understanding. In "An Essay on Human Understanding" he warned of the ambiguity of language, especially concerning complex thoughts - which are "the names of substances, being annexed to ideas that are neither the real essences, nor exact representations of the pattern they are reffered to, are liable to yet greater iimperfection and uncertainty, especially when we come to a philosophical use of them" (823). The idea of sovereignty is certainly such a word/idea that has evolved in its meaning and shifted in its usage as chronicled in the essay by Lyons. Locke argues that complex ideas are culture bound, communal or even individual in nature and that the inability to unviersally apply a shared meaning to such a term is what leads to controversies and miscommunication. The seemingly intentional obscuring of ther term sovereignty holds a two fold dimension of ambiguity for the Native American who had to learn to approach this term both from a acquired language perspective, but also from the perspective of a community which did not share the same perception or understanding of the term, and still do not. The evolutionary nature of the term soveriegnty is an example Locke's idea of the "Abuse of Words" which fail in communicating because the United States Government has continually and willfully distorted the term sovereignty, "when they appley them (words) very unsteadily, making them stand, now for one, and by and by for another idea" (825). The shift in perception of the Native American peoples, initially regarded as a sovereign people with whom treaty agreements were sought to the incresingly minimized status of a "domestic dependent nation" support Lyon's assertion that the Native Americans are barraged by "rhetorical imperialism: the ability of dominant pwoers to assert control of others by setting the terms of the debate" (1132). The only way to counter this is through the development of rhetorical sovereignty which Lyons suggests, because although assuming the language of the "white man" may seem counter intuitive, it is only through a combination of knowledge and will demonstrated by masteryof the language of the oppresor that people will begin to lose the prejudice and misconceptions of indians as barbarian and less than human.