savagery on show: the popular visual representation of native american peoples and their lifeways at...
TRANSCRIPT
This article was downloaded by: [University of Winchester]On: 13 July 2015, At: 01:47Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG
Early Popular Visual CulturePublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/repv20
Savagery on show: The popular visualrepresentation of Native Americanpeoples and their lifeways at theWorld’s Fairs (1851–1904) and inBuffalo Bill’s Wild West (1884–1904)Christina Welch aa Department of Theology and Religious Studies , University ofWinchester , Winchester, UKPublished online: 13 Dec 2011.
To cite this article: Christina Welch (2011) Savagery on show: The popular visual representationof Native American peoples and their lifeways at the World’s Fairs (1851–1904) and inBuffalo Bill’s Wild West (1884–1904), Early Popular Visual Culture, 9:4, 337-352, DOI:10.1080/17460654.2011.621314
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2011.621314
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &
Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
Savagery on show: The popular visual representation of NativeAmerican peoples and their lifeways at the World’s Fairs(1851–1904) and in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West (1884–1904)
Christina Welch*
Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Winchester, Winchester, UK
This interdisciplinary article examines and contextualizes the popular visual rep-resentations of Native American peoples and their lifeways at the World’s Fairsand Buffalo Bill’s Wild West from 1851 and 1884, respectively, to 1904. It willargue that these fairs and shows were arenas where colonially constructed iden-tities and Western ideologies were enforced and reinforced to the general public,and where Native Americans were knowingly represented, regardless of reality,as primitive savages in direct opposition to Western civilized Christian norms,or as exemplars of assimilation saved from savagery by the benefits of Westerncivilized Christian norms. It suggests that the maxim of the World’s ColumbianExposition (1893–4), ‘To see is to know’, should not be underestimated in com-municating identities; for during the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century,colonially constructed visual knowledge was used to blur the boundariesbetween entertainment and education, allowing the cultural ideologies of theWest to pass as reality.
Keywords: visual representation; identity construction; Native Americans;World’s Fairs; Buffalo Bill’s Wild West; colonialism
Introduction
This interdisciplinary article examines and contextualizes the popular visual repre-sentations of Native American peoples and their lifeways at the World’s Fairs, andin Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show during the mid-nineteenth to the early twen-tieth century. Starting with London’s Crystal Palace Exhibition (1851) and runningthrough to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904) for the Fairs, and focusing onCody’s show from its American inception in St Louis (1884) to its final UK tour(1904), it will argue that these spaces and places were arenas where colonially con-structed identities and Western ideologies were visually enforced and reinforced tothe general public in their millions. Here, regardless of reality, and in the context ofEmpire, Native Americans were represented as primitive savages in direct opposi-tion to Western civilized Christian norms, or exemplars of assimilation saved fromprimitive savagery by the benefits of Western civilized Christian norms.
Though much has been written about the phenomena of World’s Fairs and WildWests, the majority of writing has tended to marginalize their role in communicatingidentities to the general public. Yet the maxim of the World’s Columbian Exposition(1893–4) was ‘To see is to know’, and as such the effects of the visual
*Email: [email protected]
Early Popular Visual CultureVol. 9, No. 4, November 2011, 337–352
ISSN 1746-0654 print/ISSN 1746-0662 online� 2011 Taylor & Francishttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2011.621314http://www.tandfonline.com
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
representations presented at these fairs and shows should not be underestimated.Indeed, these arenas of visual knowledge blurred the boundaries between entertain-ment and education, allowing colonial cultural ideologies to pass as reality. However,it should be noted that these constructed identities were not accepted unquestionably,and Indigenous agency in particular must be seen as a complicating factor.
World’s Fairs and Expositions
Introduction
The first World’s Fair was held in London in 1851, popularly known as The CrystalPalace, The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations had huge pop-ular appeal and gave a government-authorized and royally approved emphasis uponeducative entertainment for the benefit of all. Although representations of NativeAmericans had been available prior to Crystal Palace in Britain, North Americanand wider Europe (Corbey 1995, Durbach 2008), the Exhibition ensured that therepresentations presented were not only significant in terms of their institutionalauthority, but also were seen by a larger and more diverse audience.
Over six million people visited the Crystal Palace event during its six-monthrun (1 May to 15 October 1851), being both educated and entertained by the worldon display there. Exhibits sought to strengthen national pride by showing visitorsthe British Empire’s place in the world, while by fostering international trade andtapping into burgeoning domestic markets it actively promoted the benefits of colo-nialism and consumerism (Corbey 1995, 63). However, the influence of the CrystalPalace show went beyond the Empire, for it initiated a genre with a lasting legacy:the World’s Fairs, as they came to be called, dominated the late nineteenth andearly twentieth centuries, and can be understood as crucial in the development ofboth identity formation and popular culture (Altick 1978, Rydell 1985). Advancingcontemporary ideologies through a variety of predominantly visual representations,fairs became places where identities were made and/or reinforced as the massesobserved (often for the first time) peoples, and representations of peoples, other thanthemselves. Colonial ideologies that served as a background to the fairs includedterra nullius (the theory that non-overtly utilized land was unowned), recapitulation(biogenetic differences between the races that understood non-Western adults to bementally infantile), Social Darwinism (the survival of the fittest race – typically theBritish/Anglo-American), and the civilization of the savage through (usually Protes-tant) Christianity. Much representation at the World’s Fairs focused upon the primi-tive savagery of the Other in contrast to the progressive civilization of theWesterner; and from its inception, Native Americans typified the Other.
London (1851): Representing Manifest Destiny
At The Crystal Palace, the constructed identity of Native American-ness primarilydemonstrated the superiority of the Western world, and particularly that of Euro-America. Differences in agricultural methods and housewifery skills authenticatedthe alleged natural disparity between the races, and denoted how the assimilation ofNative Americans into Western ways could assist in countering Manifest Destiny.1
Manifest Destiny can be briefly summarized as a divinely inspired belief inWestern, and especially American, expansionism; in relation to Native Americans itcan, in essence, be understood in terms of assimilation or extermination.
338 C. Welch
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
With nationalism a priority for each country representing itself at the world’s firstExhibition, the American organizers were keen not only to portray their latest tech-nology but also to celebrate their role in the conquest of the Native Americans. Thedemise of the Native American was visually represented at the Crystal Palace by alarge marble statue entitled ‘The Wounded Indian’ (1850). Sculpted by Peter Ste-phenson, it depicted a dying Eastern Woodland noble savage in Greco-Roman style(Bradbury 1851, xxi). Praised for its ‘anatomical and ethnographic accuracy’ (Anon.in Clark 1997, 186) this piece was considered a central exhibit not only for theAmerican section of the Fair, but for the Fair itself. Featured in both the official sou-venir handbook and in the prominent descriptive publication, Tallis’ History andCriticism of the Crystal Palace (1852), the ‘wounded and fallen [figure typified] therace’ (Tallis in Clark 1997, 187). The effect of this symbolic life-size marble statueon the sensibilities of the Victorian public was intensified by an exhibition of thepaintings, writings and collected artefacts of the artist George Catlin. Catlin, whohad already toured much of Europe with his exhibits, was well known for his roman-ticized representations of Native Americans; in particular their Boy’s Own-style hero-ics of derring-do, and barbaric rituals such as the Mandan ‘O-kee-pa self torturereligious ceremony’ (c. 1835).2 However, while glorifying their undomesticated free-dom and bravery, Catlin’s writings emphasized the imminent downfall of traditionalNative American lifeways as Christian civilization advanced westwards (Catlin1848). The situating of Stephenson’s statue in close proximity to Catlin’s artefactsensured that the overall perception of Native American-ness to the visiting publicwas that of a race in terminal decline, thus reinforcing notions of Manifest Destiny.
Philadelphia (1876): Visualizing cultural homogeneity
With Manifest Destiny a given, salvage ethnography and anthropology becameincreasingly important and the first World’s Fair to attempt an anthropological dis-play of Native Americans was the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition (1876).Although attempting to demonstrate the diversity of Native American peoples andtheir lifeways, this fair in effect homogenized them. West Coast totem poles (objectsnever before seen outside their cultural context) were placed beside the tipis of thePlains and Prairie peoples, while mannequins modelling a wide variety of tribal out-fits were positioned where floor space would permit rather than in relation toNation-specific artefacts (Rydell 1985, 25). For visitors unaware of the complexityof Native American lifeways and the variance between Nations, this anthropologicaldisplay by The Smithsonian reinforced perceptions of Native Americans as a primi-tive race, static and undifferentiated in their customs.
While doubtless this, and similar, anthropological representations did little toeducate the 10 million visitors that came through the Philadelphia turnstiles (Rydell1987, 10), the unintentional homogenizing was arguably made worse as the exhibi-tion opened barely a month after the defeat of General Custer by the Sioux and theCheyenne at the Battle of the Little Big Horn (1876). The public then were pre-sented with a single race of people at the time when many newspapers were rein-forcing perceptions of all Native Americans as brutal murderers (Zegas 1976, 170).
New Orleans (1885): Imaging ‘ Indian Civilization’
Efforts to move the public understanding away from the barbaric savage imagewere attempted at the New Orleans Exposition (1885), notably through 16
Early Popular Visual Culture 339
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
photographs of the Nebraska Omaha specifically commissioned from Smithsonianethnologist Alice C. Fletcher (Banta and Hinsley 1986, 103). Fletcher waspaternalistically sympathetic to the Native American cause and was a strong advo-cate of assimilation, firmly believing it to be the only counter to Manifest Destiny;3
she therefore contrived her series of images (entitled Indian Civilization) to portraythe Omaha in a manner favourable to contemporary Euro-American audiences. Soli-tary pitched tents indicated a nuclear family environment rather than a communallifeway, while a standing male and seated female suggested a monogamous andpatriarchal household. In reality, however, Omaha women – like the majority ofPlains and Prairie Nations – traditionally owned the tents and household equipment,and polygamy was the norm. With careful staging of visual scenes, Fletcher wasable to imply that the Omaha were noble savages ready for civilized domesticityand Christianity (Banta and Hinsley 1986, 103–4).
Chicago (1893–4): Midway stereotyping and the ‘Red Man’s Rebuke’
However, the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893–4) did little to fur-ther the sympathetic trend accentuated by Fletcher, as the fair-going public wereexposed to representations of Native Americans not only in official governmentdisplays (by The Smithsonian and the Bureau of Indian Affairs), but also on theMidway, one of the fair’s main attractions. Although an area with an instructionalelement, the Midway was predominantly for entertainment, food and relaxation(Everett 1904).
On the Midway at Chicago, portraits of peoples from many different Nationswere on display in an attempt to ‘foster... cross-cultural understanding’ in the visi-tors (Banta and Hinsley 1986, 62), for, as they were informed, ‘To see is to know’(Corbey 1995, 57). In reality the display did little but reinforce ethnic stereotypes;Alaskan Indians, for instance, were described in the text that accompanied theirimage as a ‘very treacherous [and] discontented people. . . who are bid fair tobecome extinct in a short time, as they learn all the vices without the virtues of thewhite man’ (Jenkins 1993, 160). Further, despite the alleged tolerance of the fair, itis noticeable that Native Americans were excluded from the World’s Parliament ofReligions which, taking place for the first time, aimed to promote American reli-gious pluralism (Seager 1995).
Regardless of the Othering of Native Americans at the Columbian Exposition, itwould be inaccurate to assume that there was no Indigenous agency. The Potawa-tami chief, Simon Pokagon (1830–99), took an active role in Indigenous resistanceagainst the colonialism of both the fair and wider society. Having complained thathis people had been excluded from the Exposition despite his father having sold theland some 60 years previously, he was invited to ring the Liberty Bell that openedthe event. He was also asked to give a speech to the assembled crowd. Entitled‘Red Man’s Greeting’, Pokagon’s speech declared assimilation and peace, ‘rejoicingthat they [the Potawatami] were American citizens’ (Castor 1999). However, Poka-gon had also written a somewhat contradictory speech on traditional birch bark enti-tled ‘Red Man’s Rebuke’, copies of which were on sale at the fair. This speechchallenged the legitimacy of colonial authority and emphasized the inaccuracy ofWestern-constructed identities. Further, it asserted that the Great Spirit wouldultimately cast out the White Man due to his abuse of Native American land(Pokagon in Walker 2000, 211).
340 C. Welch
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
Such acts of agency are often marginalized in relation to representations ofNative Americans at World’s Fairs, yet they were not uncommon. Although fairstypically utilized Indigenous peoples for two main aims – to demonstrate thealleged immorality and savagery of the indigene, thus reinforcing visitor perceptionsof Social Darwinism (Greenhalgh 1988, 100; Maxwell 1999, 4); and to provide theIndigenous peoples on display with an opportunity to ‘appreciate the power andinfluence of the White Man’ (Spotted Tail in Zegas 1976, 164) – many exhibitedpeople took advantage of the opportunities that the World’s Fairs could providethem. Not only were Native Americans able to foster cross-cultural understandingsby interacting with other displayed peoples, but they were able to legitimately per-form ceremonies made illegal in 1880 under the Civilization Regulations (Rydell1985, 114).4 In addition, there was some agency in self-representation as certainaspects of traditional lifeways and rituals were deliberately withheld by performersfrom public view (Maxwell 1999, 112). These acts indicate non-passivity on thepart of the performers, and a lack of all-encompassing power over Indigenous peo-ples at the fairs.
Omaha (1898): ‘The most interesting’ Indian Congress
However, despite Indigenous agency, the fairs aimed to ensure that the portrayals ofIndigenous peoples were regulated; this is particularly evident in the Trans-Missis-sippi and International Exposition (1898) in Omaha, which featured ‘The IndianCongress’. Bringing together 500 carefully selected representatives of 35 NativeAmerican Nations, this Congress sought to illustrate ‘the mode of life, native indus-tries, and ethnic traits of as many of the aboriginal American tribes as possible’(Jones in Omaha Public Library. 1998). Specifically chosen chiefs and leaders sym-pathetic to assimilation, together with their nuclear families, were brought to theCongress to display their daily habits. Described by the Secretary of the Govern-ment Exhibit Board as ‘the strangest, most original, most interesting special featureof the exposition’ (Cox 1898), the display sought to demonstrate the degree towhich Native Americans had moved away from their traditional lifeways towardcivilization.
The main reason given for the Congress was the recognition that Euro-Ameri-cans were curious about traditional Native Americans and lifeways, yet ambivalentabout Indians who had become assimilated to, and/or educated in, Western ways.By the late nineteenth century, the dominant political view held that changing thetraditional ways of the majority of Native American adults to a more civilized andChristian-based one was a virtual impossibility. Despite financial incentives toencourage Native Americans to wear Western clothing, cut their hair short, andfarm their land, so-called ‘Blanket Indians’ often chose to freeze and/or starve todeath rather than accept the imposition of non-traditional living (Fleming 1998,177). Thus children were targeted as a means of ensuring progression toward assim-ilation. So-called ‘mission schools’ were set up to take Native American childrenand train them in Western ways.
‘De-Indianization’ was the term given to the process of mission schooling, withchildren having their names changed to Western designations, their traditionalclothes exchanged for a school uniform, and their hair shorn; although hair wasshorn for hygiene reasons, since long hair was considered a traditional sign ofstrength by many Native Americans and signified a connection with the soul, the
Early Popular Visual Culture 341
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
significance of this particular act was highly symbolic in the de-Indianization pro-cess. With agriculture considered the rod that indicated progress towards civiliza-tion, the virtue of working the land, the principle of private ownership and thespirit of acquisition were all instilled into the young charges through a military-likeregime (Adams 1999, 72). In their efforts to ‘kill the savage, kill the Indian [and]save the child’ (Pratt in Russell 1998, 70), these children were forbidden to speaktheir native tongue, forced to practice Christianity, and instructed in skills deemedappropriate for their new life: agriculture, mechanics, printing and smithying for theboys, while girls were instructed in cooking on a gas range, sewing with machines,laundry work and house-keeping skills (Adams 1999, 71–73).
St Louis (1904): Civilized or Savage?
These mission schools (also known as Indian training schools) and the ideology ofprogress that they espoused was often displayed to large crowds at American fairs.5
At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904) in St Louis, a mission school frontedonto the parade ground, bearing witness to the course of human progress ‘fromignorance toward knowledge, and from helplessness toward competence’ (McGee1904). With Native American elders demonstrating their ‘primitive [artisan] indus-tries’, their educated sons and daughters exhibited ‘skills in civilized handicrafts’such as manual labour or domestic duties, visually bearing witness to the transfor-mation from savagery to civilized, productive citizens (McGee 1904). This percep-tion was further reinforced through the ‘Government Official Indian Band’, 35Native American men and women specially selected for their Western musical tal-ents.6 The Exposition brochure produced about the band is most telling. The mainimage shows a military-dressed male orchestra, and below it is detailed the players’names, tribal affiliations and Indian school attended. Behind the smart and formaluniformed band members is a display of vibrant traditional Indian blankets, and afew household artefacts, while to each side there is a small tipi in front of whichsits a blanketed Indian girl engaged in traditional skills; one is beading, and theother bowl-making. The representation could not have been clearer: Indian training(mission) schools provided evidence of a Protestant work ethic that underpinnedassimilation. In stark contrast to their traditional life, the young men of the bandsignified the benefits of Victorian-era notions regarding cleanliness and Godliness:modesty in attire and good personal grooming. In addition, the brochure featuredimages of a male and female choir that complemented the band, with text that fur-ther highlighted the differences between the traditional and the modern; orally/aurally transmitted Native American music played on ‘primitive’ instruments,accompanied by chants, had given way to learnt classical notation of scores for for-mal orchestra and choir.
To underscore the transformation of assimilation through education, the fair alsofeatured 100 Lakota Sioux singing hymns in their Native tongue at an Episcopalianservice conducted in their own language. The service was taken by Scott ChargesAlone, an ordained Lakota Sioux ethnographic interpreter from Rosebud Reservation,South Dakota (Everett 1904). The visual colonialism of these displays was designedto prove to show visitors that Native Americans could be civilized, Christianized, andenlightened despite only a few decades lying between them and savagery.
However, despite these displays of assimilation, it was the traditional arts andcrafts produced during these exhibitions that were popular purchases for show-goers
342 C. Welch
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
(Troutman and Parezo 1998, 25), with Native pottery, basketware, woodcraft anditems of clothing fuelling and supplying the Victorian-era passion for collectables.Although little has been written specifically concerning the role of the Nativeartisan at these fairs, Native Americans often took advantage of the popularity oftheir products and regularly sold wares to supplement their government income(Maxwell 1999, 127). The public popularity of traditional Native Americansartefacts, as well as traditional lifeways, indicates that, regardless of the rhetoricinherent in these colonial Expositions, the Indian for the public was forever thesavage of the popular imagination. The following comment from Marshall Everett’scommemorative Book of the Fair (1904) demonstrates that effectively, once anIndian, always an Indian. In a plate entitled Civilised or Savage, Which?, a photo-graph shows a Native American performer at the fair in a mix of traditional andWestern dress accompanied by the following quote:
no sooner. . . settled in his own quarters at the fair he forgot his civilised raiment,daubed on the war-paint and whooped with his fellows from the most remote reserva-tions. (Everett 1904, 334).
The sham battles that emphasized the more savage and traditional/non-assimilatedside of the Indian in the public imagination had been popular since the Trans-Mis-sissippi and International Exhibition (1898) (Rydell 1984, 115) – a fair that alsofeatured a tableau depicting Custer being brutally murdered by a knife-wieldingIndian in full feather headdress, with Custer standing by the bodies of the threeIndians he has just killed, while behind him a tipi completes the range of NativeAmerican signifiers. The tableau was clear: brave Custer, Indian killer, cut down inhis prime by a barbaric savage.7
By the time of St Louis, however, the West had been won; threatening savagesno longer inhabited the land (renegades such as Sitting Bull, Red Shirt and Geron-imo were killed, captured or had capitulated, respectively), and thus Native Ameri-cans were perceived more as curios than hostiles, and were often valued as excitingentertainment; and nowhere is this understanding more evident than in the popular-ity of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
Introduction
Space does not allow for a full history of Buffalo Bill Cody8 and his Wild West,but it is enough to note that he was immensely popular in the imagination of theNorth American and European public through the ‘blood and thunder’ dime novelsthat dramatized his frontier exploits. In 1883 he created Buffalo Bill’s Wild West –theatrical performances based on earlier frontier-based plays that brought live ani-mals, firing guns, authentic frontiers men and, importantly, real live Indians to themasses. Although popular in the United States, real success for Cody came in Eur-ope where, as his handbill stated, his Wild West provided ‘A Visit to Far WestAmerica’.9 First appearing in Britain in May 1887 for Queen Victoria’s GoldenJubilee celebrations, Cody’s show toured Europe accompanied by over 100 NativeAmericans (dressed in Sioux-style buckskin, fluffs and feathers), as well as cow-boys, horses, buffalo, and famous sharp-shooters like Annie Oakley. So successfulwas Cody’s initial overseas visit that he returned to Britain three times, touring the
Early Popular Visual Culture 343
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
length and breadth of the country over a period of 17 years. The effect of theseshows in regard to the popular visual representation of Native Americans is signifi-cant. Alan Gallop (2001) argues that the huge audience figures, and the massivescale of advertising material, ensured that few British residents would have beenunaware of what Indians were; Indians according to Cody, that is.
In the wake of European success, Cody brought his Wild West to the Colum-bian Exposition (1893–4). Here, he managed to get a performance spot directly out-side the show gates; was part of the official advertising; appeared on the show map;took out a full-page ad in the Rand McNally guidebook; and personally gained offi-cial status through being the only private citizen invited to watch the opening of thefair by President Cleveland (Kasson 2000, 93, 99). The Exposition may have aimedto ‘foster... cross-cultural understanding’, but many of the actual representationsthere, including Cody’s show, were far from this and in fact deliberately fosteredcross-cultural misunderstandings.
Cody’s educative entertainment
Cody’s misrepresentations were in his live shows, their accompanying brochures,and in his advertising material; which was posted in vast quantities for each perfor-mance and typically included images of savage attacks by be-feathered warriors onstagecoaches and settlers10 (Stedman 1982, 170). Although obviously far moreentertainment than education, the line between these was often blurred and, asnoted, with Cody having official recognition, it was not difficult for his brand ofentertainment to be understood as having a strong educative element. Indeed Codyplayed on this, for he advertised his shows as a historically accurate picture of fron-tier life that ‘proved to the Old World that. . . the New World was finally and effec-tively settled by the English-speaking race’ (Gallop 2001, 43); a clearly ideologicalassertion grounded in the fact that Cody had arranged with the United States gov-ernment for renegade Native Americans to tour with him in lieu of their prison sen-tences to assist in their assimilation. It was believed that if renowned and respected
Figure 1. Postcard produced by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West of ‘Chief Iron Tail and BuffaloBill’ � National Fairground Archive, University of Sheffield Library.
344 C. Welch
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
Native leaders – such as Chief Iron Tail, who had fought at the Battle of Little BigHorn (1876)11 – saw the benefits of the West, they would renounce their traditionalways and influence others to do the same (Gallop 2001, 162). Indeed, for theauthorities and Cody it was a win–win situation; for the Native Americans learntabout the benefits of Western ways, while the audiences learnt about how the Westhad tamed the Wild West.
Much of the educative entertainment was done through witnessing re-enactmentsof famous battles. ‘The Battle of the Little Big Horn’ was a firm favourite, as itwas typically performed by Native American warriors who had been involved inthe actual battle, including Red Shirt (Sitting Bull’s second-in-command), who wasreported in a British newspaper as ‘one of the most troublesome men in the US. . .probably [having] scalped more white men than any other Redskin now alive’(Gallop 2001, 68). Alongside (historically inaccurate) battle re-enactments, audi-ences also witnessed other subjective scenarios: the driver and passengers of theDeadwood Stagecoach ‘scalped’ for their possessions and horses, and Indianscircling the wagon of pioneer families. Billed as authentic representations of frontierlife, the line between truth and fiction, as well as education and entertainment, wasthin. This was particularly evident in the ‘Historical Adventure in the Life of“Buffalo Bill”’ segment of the show, where the fatal combat at Warbonnet Creek(1897) between Cody and the Cheyenne warrior Yellow Hair (or Yellow Hand,depending on translation) was dramatically re-staged. Although the actual duel wasfought with rifles (Wetmore and Grey 2003, 151) the show posters and the showbattle had Yellow Hand/Hair with only a tomahawk. However, ‘How to Scalp’ dem-onstrations added to the ‘savage Indian’ image, while the show finale demonstratedthe futility of such brutal Indian acts: here, an attack on a settler cabin, completewith burning touches and blood-curdling whoops from Native American warriorsintent on murdering the pioneer family trapped inside, ended with Cody and thecavalry arriving in the nick of time to save the day.12
Such dramatic entertainment with live Indians was immensely popular with audi-ences; but, as noted, the appearance of Native Americans at fairs and shows wasnot new. Primarily signifiers of Western superiority, in America captured or capitu-lated Native American chiefs were regularly displayed at Expositions, and appearedwith Cody as part of their prison sentence. The Lakota chief, Sitting Bull (TatankaYotanka), war-danced daily at the 1893–4 World’s Columbian Exposition; ChiefMountain of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation, was displayed for the crowds at the1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition; while Geronimo was a starattraction on the Midway of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NewYork. To emphasize his lack of status, Geronimo’s fellow entertainers included an‘educated horse’ and a 26-inch-high Cuban ‘midget’ named ‘Chiquita – the dolllady’ (Allwood 1977, 107). The Native Americans on display were a form of visualeducative entertainment, for these exhibits reinforced notions of Euro-Americansuperiority by allowing the public to witness the ideology of Social Darwinism;Native Americans had become quasi-commodities. This aspect was particularly evi-dent in that postcards of the show performers were purchasable, such as that of‘Chief Iron Tail, Indian Squaws and Papooses at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West’13 whichfeatures a number of anonymous women and children in traditional Plains garbposed with Chief Iron Tail. This photographic postcard allowed an audience memberto take home, recall and relive the image of Indian-ness constructed by BuffaloBill’s Wild West.
Early Popular Visual Culture 345
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
Indigenous agency by Indian performers
Even as quasi-commodities, however, Native American peoples appearing at fairsand shows were not completely disenfranchised. Many Indian performers came vol-untarily for the pay, which, although meagre, could be supplemented by (as previ-ously noted) selling their artefacts and craftwork, which were much in demand assouvenirs. Geronimo became a shrewd businessman: capitalizing on his reputation,he sold autographed bows and arrows to the show-going public, allegedly making asmall fortune in the process (Maxwell 1999, 127). Indeed, his wily attitude wascaptured by the Gerhardt sisters, photographers at the 1904 Louisiana PurchaseExposition. With his direct stare into their camera lens (and thus directly at theviewer), Geronimo’s oppositional style of representation is said to disrupt the ‘semi-otics of the one-way Imperial gaze’, a gaze that renders the non-Western subject apassive object (Maxwell 1999, 127). This oppositional style of photographic portrai-ture is typically perceived as uncommon in regard to Indigenous subjects, and isoften credited to the skill of the photographer rather than the agency of the subject.Yet as Geronimo demonstrates, Indigenous peoples were not always powerless vic-tims in their visual representation at fair and shows.
Another Native American to demonstrate his agency in representation was theOglala Sioux warrior Kicking Bear (Mato Wanartaka, 1846–1904), the cousin ofCrazy Horse (Tashunca-uitco, c. 1840–77) and one of the main instigators of theGhost Dance uprising in 1890. Kicking Bear, who was employed by Buffalo Bill asa show Indian, took advantage of his curtain-call in 1892, in Glasgow, Scotland, togive a speech to the assembled crowds recounting his valorous deeds, deeds whichconflicted with the version presented by Cody; sadly, because he spoke them in hisnative tongue, the audience were unaware of his protests (Kasson 2000, 191, 212).However, Native American agency is best exemplified in regard to Cody’s Wild
Figure 2. Postcard produced by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West of ‘Chief Iron Tail, IndianSquaws and Papooses at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West’ � National Fairground Archive,University of Sheffield Library.
346 C. Welch
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
West: Sitting Bull, for instance, chose to remain with Cody only to re-enact scenesfrom ‘The Battle of the Little Big Horn’, for just one performance season (Gallop2001, 197–8). Despite earning relatively high wages (US$50 per week) and receiv-ing a bonus of US$125 for each tour, Sitting Bull did not enjoy performing andleft. That he chose to perform, and to leave, evidences his agency in representingNative American-ness to the wider public.
Authenticating tales told as fact
Although there is evidence of Indigenous agency in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, asthere is in the Expositions, this agency should not be overstated when exploring theeffects of these colonial visual representations on the show-going public, and Buf-falo Bill’s Wild West stands as an exemplar of the colonialism inherent in the visualdisplays of Othering. These tale-told-as-fact shows toured widely to huge crowds,and appeared at several World’s Fairs. For the vast majority of people, this was thefirst time they were able to see real-life Native Americans; and although we cannever know exactly how the performances influenced the audience’s perceptions,we can be sure that they did. Travellers’ tales of earlier eras had told of NativeAmerican brutality, and Buffalo Bill allowed the public to witness this for them-selves in a way that Kirsten Whissel argues blurred the divide between observer
Figure 3. Programme cover from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West 1903/4 British tour � NationalFairground Archive, University of Sheffield Library.
Early Popular Visual Culture 347
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
and participant. Whissel suggests that with Cody providing individuals with thechance to ride the Deadwood Stagecoach, and promoting the show with certificatesof authenticity, the audience became agents in re-lived, rather than re-enacted,(pseudo)historical happenings (2002, 238, 240) – a perception she also applies toearly cinematography, which often featured Native Americans.14
However, while Buffalo Bill’s Wild Wests were created to cause maximumexcitement, it is doubtful that audiences believed all they saw. Yet regardless ofwhether the shows were perceived as realistic representations of Native Americans,they have left a lasting legacy on Western understandings of Native American-ness.Although mostly from Plains tribes, Native American performers from otherNations were (often willingly) turned into feather-bonneted warriors and buck-skinned ‘squaws’ for Cody’s shows, and thus Cody effectively cast the die for fluffsand feathers to signify all Native American peoples – a legacy that is evident todayin popular culture where, from children’s toys to Hollywood films, tipis and featherbonnets act as universal Indian signifiers (Doxtator 1992; Stedman 1982).
Figure 4. Handbill from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West first British tour (1887) � NationalFairground Archive, University of Sheffield Library.
348 C. Welch
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
Complicating Cody
Cody not only had a partiality for Plains peoples, but professed a respect andsympathy for his valiant foes, although the extent of this is debatable for histreatment of show Indians was embedded in the ideology of colonialism. Cody’sadvocacy of assimilation can be seen in his treatment of those who died while ontour, for Native spiritual tradition was always overlooked in favour of Western bur-ial customs. Two of his long-standing Lakota performers, Paul Eagle Star (d. 1891in Sheffield) and Long Wolf (d. 1892 in London) were given Christian burials inBrompton Cemetery, London; Eagle Star in an unmarked grave, and Long Wolf –though given a funeral befitting a chief – was buried there against his final wishes(Gallop 2001,116). Further evidence that Cody may not have been as respectful ofhis performers as he professed can be inferred from the fact that George Crager,the shows’ interpreter, sold – without consent – a variety of Native American arte-facts to a Glasgow Museum. This included a recently repatriated sacred GhostDance shirt that had been worn at Wounded Knee (1890), a massacre that led tothe death of Sitting Bull, one of Cody’s headlining performers (Gallop 2001, 174,188).
Yet despite the sale of traditional religious paraphernalia, and the Christianburials, Native American performers and their families were treated no differentlyfrom other performers while touring with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. The showIndians received fair wages, board and lodgings, and well-known chiefs such asSitting Bull, who toured with the show in America and Canada in 1885, were givenhandsome rewards for their services. Indeed, so desirous was Cody to have SittingBull appear in his show that Sitting Bull was able to negotiate a large salary forhimself and nine other people, including an interpreter, and retained rights over theuse of his photographs and autographs (Kasson 2000, 174).
However, that Cody knew Sitting Bull would assist in attracting large crowds tohis show could suggest that Cody was possibly motivated more by finances andpersonal glory than by any real concern for the eventual fate of Native Americans.Indeed, to add further weight to this, Cody’s positioning of Native American per-formers in the show’s parades between himself and the show cavalry can be seen asreinforcing his colonialist notions. Certainly, the majority of poster advertisementsrepresented Native Americans as subservient to Buffalo Bill and his cowboys, or assavage foils to cavalry rescues; and with much of the show revolving around thefutility of their attacks on the all-American way of life, the parade placing can beinterpreted as containment – the show-Indians were safely sandwiched betweenCody, the renowned Indian-killer, and the cowboys/cavalry.
Conclusion
The popular visual representation of Native Americans at the World’s Fairs (1851–1904) and in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West (1884–1904) emphasized to great effect thecolonialist ideology of the Indian Other. These were arenas where identities wereconstructed and Western ideologies visually enforced and reinforced to the generalpublic in their millions around the globe. Native Americans were knowinglyportrayed as primitive savages in direct opposition to Western civilized Christiannorms, or as exemplars of assimilation saved from savagery by the benefits ofWestern civilized Christian norms.
Early Popular Visual Culture 349
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
Cody utilized the trope of Otherness by highlighting, in his shows and advertisingmaterials, the traditional savage Indian. In graphic displays of fictionalized violence,the conquering colonialist mentality was visually played out (often twice daily). ForCody, while the assimilation of Native Americans was the ultimate goal, there was noroom for this image in his Wild Wests. The fairs, however, had room for both thesavage Indian Other and the Indian assimilate. Over time, Manifest Destiny, so evi-dent at the 1851 Crystal Palace, gradually gave way to the assimilation rhetoric of the1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition where Indian-school children literally playedwitness to benefits that a Western Christian education could bring. These fairs andshows, then, were arenas of visual knowledge where boundaries between entertain-ment and education were blurred, and where colonialist cultural ideologies were –regardless of the method of delivery (Wild West’s or World’s Fairs) – dispensed toaudiences; for ‘to see was to know’, and savagery was on show.
Note on contributor
Dr Christina Welch is a senior lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies. Her PhDexplored the role that visual representation plays in identity construction, and shehas continued to work in this area. Her main research interests are colonialist visualrepresentations of Indigenous Peoples and their lifeways, and the visual representa-tion of death in late-Medieval and early Reformation Europe.
Notes1. Illustrated London News 24 April 1851, 458, and September 1851, 254–5.2. See http://www.georgecatlin.org/The-O-Kee-Pa-self-torture-religious-ceremony-of-the-Mandan-
tribe,-from-a-painting-of-c.1835.html.3. Fletcher was key to the implementation of the General Allotment (Dawes) Act 1887,
which broke up commonly held reservation land into individual units allocated to themale head of the household for agricultural purposes; excess land was sold to White set-tlers (Berthrong 1986).
4. The performance of traditional rituals at the fairs was not uncontroversial, as manyIndian-reformers believed that assimilation would be delayed, or made unachievable, ifthese practices were allowed to continue, even for entertainment purposes (Moses 1996,131).
5. An Indian school house (described as ‘a little, mean-looking building in the midst of. . .grand and imposing structure[s]’) was constructed on the fairgrounds of the 1893–4World’s Columbian Exposition and featured Native American students producing tradi-tional crafts (Bank 2002, 593–4).
6. See http://sdrcdata.lib.uiowa.edu/libsdrc/details.jsp?id=/indian/1.7. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pawnee_bill_wild_west_show_c1905.jpg.8. Portrait of Bill Cody from the 1903/4 show programme, copyright of the National Fair-
ground Archive, University of Sheffield Library.9. A handbill from Earls Court (1887). copyright of the National Fairground Archive,
University of Sheffield Library.10. See http://home.comcast.net/~DiazStudents/WestBuffaloBill.jpg.11. A postcard of ‘Chief Iron Tail with “Buffalo Bill”’. Copyright, National Fairground
Archive, University of Sheffield Library.12. See http://west.stanford.edu/exploringthewest/images/buffalo-bill-grand-finale.jpg.13. Postcard copyright of National Fairground Archive, University of Sheffield Library.14. An early pioneer of cinema, Thomas Alva Edison. met Cody at the 1889 Exposition
Universelle in Paris, and went on to film a Cody show in 1894. Further, he utilized avariety of Cody’s Wild West narratives (including ghost dances and buffalo dances), inhis films until 1910 (Kasson 2001, 117).
350 C. Welch
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
ReferencesAdams, H. 1999. Tortured people: The politics of colonization. Penticton: BC Theytus
Books.Allwood, J. 1977. The Great Exhibitions. London: Studio Vista.Altick, R.D. 1978. The shows of London. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press.Bank, R.K. 2002. Representing history: Performing the Columbian Exposition. Theatre
Journal 54, no. 4: 589–606.Banta, M., and C.M. Hinsley. 1986. From site to sight: Anthropology, photography, and
power of imagery. Massachusetts: Peabody Museum Press.Berthrong, D.J. 1986. Legacies of the Dawes Act: Bureaucrats and land thieves at the Chey-
enne-Arapho agencies of Oklahoma. In The American Indian: Past and present, ed. R.L.Nicholls, 204–17. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Bradbury and Evans. 1851. The industry of all nations, 1851: Illustrated catalogue. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/english/Clayton/318visual_cp8.htm
Castor, L. 1999. Captive minds: New worlds and old metaphors. Nordlit 5: 229–42.Catlin, G. 1848. Catlin’s notes of eight years’ travel and residence in Europe, with his
Native American Indian collection. London: G. Catlin.Clark, H.N.B. 1997. A marble quarry: The James H. Ricau collection of sculpture at the
Crysler Museum of Art. New York: Hudson Hills Press.Corbey, R. 1995. Ethnographic showcases, 1870–1930. In The decolonization of the imagi-
nation: Culture, knowledge and power, ed. J.N. Pieterse and B. Parekh, 57–80. London:Zed Books.
Cox, W.V. 1898. The Indian congress, in A history of the Trans-Mississippi and Interna-tional Exposition, Omaha Public Library. http://www.omaha.lib.ne.us/transmiss/secretary/indcongress.html.
Doxtator, D. 1992. Fluffs and feathers: An exhibition on the symbols of Indianness: Aresource guide. Brantford, Ontario: Woodland Cultural Centre.
Durbach, N. 2008. London, capital of exotic exhibitions from 1830 to 1860. In Human zoos:Science and spectacle in the age of colonial empires, ed. P.N. Blanchard, et al., 81–8.Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Everett, M. 1904. The book of the fair. Philadelphia: Zeigler.Fleming, P.R. 1998. ‘A portion of the promises made to us have not been fulfilled’: Little
Crow and the Sioux Revolt. In Native nations: Journeys in American photography, ed.J. Alison, 168–85. London: Barbican Art Gallery (Booth-Clifford Editions).
Gallop, A. 2001. Buffalo Bill’s British Wild West. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.Greenhalgh, P. 1988. Ephemeral vistas: The Expositions Universelles, Great Exhibitions and
World’s Fairs, 1851–1939. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Jenkins, D. 1993. The visual domination of the American Indian: Photography, anthropology,
and popular culture in the late nineteenth century. Museum Anthropology 17, no. 1: 9–21.Kasson, J.S. 2000. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West: Celebrity, memory, and popular history. New
York: Hill and Wang.Maxwell, A. 1999. Colonial photography and exhibitions: Representations of the ‘Native’
and the making of European identities. London: Leicester University Press.McGee, W.J. 1904. Strange races of men. The World’s Work, August 8, 5186–8.Moses, L.G. 1996. Wild West shows and the images of American Indians, 1883–1933.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. http://www.omaha.lib.ne.us/transmiss/congress/about.html
Omaha Public Library. 1998. The Indian Congress of 1898. http://www.omaha.lib.ne.us/transmiss/congress/about.html
Russell, G. 1998. The mapmaker. Native Peoples May–June: 70–4.Rydell, R.W. 1985. All the world’s a fair: Visions of Empire at American international expo-
sitions, 1876–1916. London: University of Chicago Press.Seager, R.H. 1995. The world’s parliament of religions: The East/West encounter, Chicago,
1893. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Stedman, R.W. 1982. Shadows of the Indian: Stereotypes in American culture. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press.
Early Popular Visual Culture 351
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015
Troutman, J.W., and N.J. Parezo. 1998. ‘The overlord of the savage world’: Anthropology and thepress at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.Museum Anthropology 22, no. 2: 17–34.
Walker, C. 2000. Indian nation: Native American literature and nineteenth-century national-isms. Durham: Duke University Press.
Wetmore, H.C., and Z. Grey. 2003. Buffalo Bill: The last of the great scouts. Lincoln:University of Nebraska Press.
Whissel, K. 2002. Placing the spectator on the scene of history: The battle re-enactment atthe turn of the century, from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West to the early cinema. Historical .Journal of Film, Radio and Television 22, no 3: 225–43.
Zegas, J.B. 1976. Native American exhibit at the Centennial Exposition. Curator 19, no. 2:162–73.
352 C. Welch
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f W
inch
este
r] a
t 01:
47 1
3 Ju
ly 2
015