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The “Pencil in the Hand of the Indian”: Cross-Cultural Interactions in Natalie Curtis's The Indians' Book1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2011

Michelle Wick Patterson
Michelle Wick Patterson
Affiliation:
Mount St. Mary's University
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Abstract

Native American communities met the many challenges of the early twentieth century in ways that defy easy categories of “progressive” or “traditional.” Indian people used many different outlets, including cultural appeals to non-Indian audiences, to craft survival strategies. Natalie Curtis's The Indians' Book (1907), a collection of Native music, art, and folklore, became one of these outlets. Through an examination of the contributions made by two Native leaders, Lololomai (Hopi) and High Chief (Southern Cheyenne), this essay considers the ways in which local Native American leaders sought to shape popular representations of their tribes. Additionally, it explores how these leaders used Curtis's work to address local political and social issues in their communities. Their efforts to influence the themes of The Indians' Book represents an attempt to, as historian Frederick Hoxie terms it, “talk back to civilization.”

Type
Theme: Native Americans and Indian Policy in the Progressive Era
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , October 2010 , pp. 419 - 449
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2010

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References

2 Curtis, Natalie, The Indians' Book: An Offering by the American Indians of Indian Lore, Musical and Narrative, to Form a Record of the Songs and Legends of Their Race (1907; New York, 1968), ix–x.Google Scholar

3 Curtis, , The Indians' Book, xxi.Google Scholar

4 For reviews of the book, see: New York Times, Oct. 19, 1907; Review of Reviews, Nov. 1907, 637–38; Dial, Oct. 1907, 383; Outlook, Oct. 19, 1907, 358. Curtis placed copies with anthropologists James Mooney, Franz Boas, H. R. Voth, and James Murie. Theodore Roosevelt received a copy, as did figures at Hampton University. Philanthropists such as J. P. Morgan and Neltje de Graff Doubleday received volumes along with a number of prominent musicians, including Arthur Nevins and Frank Damrosch. In all, Curtis and her patron George Foster Peabody gave away over 100 copies of her book. Lists of recipients can be found in the George Foster Peabody Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

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9 Examples include Francis LaFlesche, who shaped how and what Alice Fletcher collected for her study of Omaha music; Zitkala-Ša, who contributed to the opera Sun Dance with William Hanson; and Tsianina Redfeather, who influenced the creation and production of Charles Cadman's opera Shanewis. See Deloria, , Indians in Unexpected Places, ch. 5Google Scholar: “The Hills are Alive… with the Sound of Indian Music.”

10 Lewis, David Rich, “Reservation Leadership and the Progressive-Traditional Dichotomy: William Wash and the Northern Utes, 1865–1928,” Ethnohistory 38 (Spring 1991): 124–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hosmer, Brian, “Reflections on Indian Cultural ‘Brokers’: Reginald Oshkosh, Mitchell Oshke-naniew, and the Politics of Menominee Lumbering,” Ethnohistory 44 (Summer 1997): 493–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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13 For more on the role of non-Native women who lived in and shaped the image of the Southwest, see Dilworth, Leah, Imagining Indians in the Southwest: Persistent Visions of a Primitive Past (Washington, 1996)Google Scholar; Mullin, Molly H., Culture in the Marketplace: Gender, Art, and Value in the American Southwest (Durham, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Babcock, Barbara and Parezo, Nancy J., Daughters of the Desert: Women Anthropologists and the Native American Southwest, 1880–1980 (Albuquerquey, 1988).Google Scholar

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16 “Lectures on the North American Indian,” Natalie Curtis Burlin Archives, home of Alfred and Virginia Bredenberg, Raleigh, NC, www.nataliecurtis.org (hereafter cited as NCB Archives). Curtis also used her influence with Theodore Roosevelt to argue on behalf of the Yavapai tribe to be reinstated on their traditional homelands. See Curtis, Natalie, “The Winning of an Indian Reservation,” Outlook, June 1919, 327.Google Scholar For more on this case, see Hagan, William, Theodore Roosevelt and Six Friends of the Indian (Norman, OK, 1997), 148–49Google Scholar; Sigrid Khera and Patricia S. Mariella, “Yavapai” in The Southwest, ed. Ortiz, Alfonso, vol. 10, Handbook of North American Indians, ed. Sturtevent, William C. (Washington, 1983), 38–54Google Scholar; Mariella, Patricia S., “The Political Economy of Federal Resettlement Policies Affecting Native American Communities: The Fort McDowell Yavapai Case,” (PhD diss., Arizona State University, 1983)Google Scholar; Leupp, Frances, “Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs—Camp McDowell Reservation, Arizona” in Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (Washington, 1905), 98–103Google Scholar (hereafter cited as ARCIA).

17 Curtis attempted to form her own Indian reform organization in 1911 with Franklin Hooper. The Society for the Preservation of the American Indian sought to preserve Native villages in the Southwest from modernization, but failed to attract a great deal of support. See correspondence between Curtis and Hampton principal Hollis Frissell for more on this organization: Correspondence, 1912, Dr. H. B. Frissell Collection, Hampton University Archives, Hampton, VA. Curtis debated Indian policy with government officials as well. See, for example, her correspondence with Franklin Lane about the wisdom of competency commissions used to speed up the waiting period for citizenship prescribed under the 1887 Dawes Act: Natalie Curtis to Franklin Lane, Mar. 14, 1915, Aleš Hrdlička (1869–1943) Papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

18 On antimodernism see Jackson Lears, T. J., No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880–1920 (New York, 1981).Google Scholar See also Smith, Sherry, Reimagining Indians: Native American through Anglo Eyes, 1880–1940 (Oxford, 2000).Google Scholar On primitivism, see Torgovnick, Marianna, Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives (Chicago, 1990).Google Scholar

19 For more on the vanishing-race theory and other perceptions of Indianness, see Dippie, Brian, The Vanishing American: White Attitudes and U.S. Indian Policy (Middletown, CT, 1982)Google Scholar; Berkhofer, Robert, The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present (New York, 1978)Google Scholar; Leah Dilworth, Imagining Indians in the Southwest; Vickers, Scott, Native American Identities: From Stereotype to Archetype in Art and Literature (Albuquerque, 1998)Google Scholar; Smith, Reimagining Indians.

20 Curtis, , The Indians' Book, xxi–xxxi.Google Scholar For more on the search for cultural authenticity, see Hinsley, Curtis M. Jr, “Authoring Authenticity,” Journal of the Southwest 32 (Winter 1990): 462–78Google Scholar; Orvell, Miles, The Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in American Culture, 1880–1940 (Chapel Hill, 1989).Google Scholar

21 Curtis, , The Indians' Book, xxi.Google Scholar

22 Curtis, , The Indians' Book, xxi–xxiiGoogle Scholar, 313–14, 350.

23 The National Anthropological Archives holds several of Curtis's photographs from St. Louis. Backgrounds were painted blue, obscuring what originally was in the picture. A few photographs do show buildings from the fairgrounds, and one contains an editing note to remove the offending background. Another photograph reveals modern clothes beneath the male subject's ceremonial costume. This photograph, of course, was not used in Curtis's book.

24 Evidence of Curtis's role in shaping the presentation of photographs can be seen at the NCB Archives. A collection of artwork there contains Curtis's notes on reproduction and display.

25 The Hopi reservation encompasses three mesas that jut out into the desert from east to west. Third Mesa is the farthest to the west.

26 This is the spelling used by Curtis and so it will be used in this paper. Other sources spell his name as “Tawaquaptiwa” and “Tawaquaptewa.”

27 See music sheet work list for recordings by Curtis deposited in the Frances Densmore Collection at the Library of Congress. A list of Curtis recordings is also held at the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University.

28 Whiteley, Peter M., Deliberate Acts: Changing Hopi Culture Through the Oraibi Split (Tucson, AZ, 1988), 91–94.Google Scholar

29 Burton, Charles, “Report of School at Keam's Canyon, Arizona” in ARCIA (1900), 474–75.Google Scholar

30 Charles Burton to Commissioners of Indian Affairs, Apr. 2, 1901, Letters Received, Records of the Office [Bureau] of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, National Archives (hereafter cited as OIA, LR).

31 Burton especially complained about anthropologist and music collector Jesse Walter Few-kes, stating, “I am opposed to any man coming upon this reservation for any such purposes, and I am opposed to the encouragement of these idiotic and in many cases grossly immoral dances, however profitable it may be to the traders or how interesting it may be to visitors from the outside world.” Burton to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Feb. 2, 1900, OIA, LR.

32 Burton to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Feb. 17, 1903, OIA, LR.

33 P. Staufer to Superintendent M. M. Murphy, Sept. 18, 1906, in “Oraibi Troubles,” Central Classified Files, 1907–1939, Records of the Office of Indian Affairs, RG 75 (hereafter cited as “Oraibi Troubles”).

34 Curtis, , The Indians' Book, 480.Google Scholar

35 Ibid., 475—77.

36 Ibid.

37 Theodore Lemmon to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, July 23, 1905; Lemmon to Gertrude Gates (enclosure in above), July 23, 1905, OIA, LR. Lemmon also boasted of his efforts to divide Hostile leadership by publicly supporting one of the main contenders for power and causing this man to lose control of his party to another.

38 See “Oraibi Troubles,” esp. folder 1, for firsthand accounts of events. Also Clements, William, Native American Verbal Art: Texts and Contexts (Tucson, AZ, 1988), 164–66Google Scholar, for his critique of Curtis's portrayal of Lololomai and Tawakwaptiwa. For more on this factionalism in Oraibi, , Titiev, Mischa, Old Oraibi: A Study of the Hopi Indians of Third Mesa (1944; repr. Albuquerque, 1992)Google Scholar; James, Harry C., Pages from Hopi History (Tucson, AZ, 1974)Google Scholar; Rushforth, Scott and Upham, Steadman, A Hopi Social History: Anthropological Perspectives on Sociocultural Persistence and Change (Austin, 1992)Google Scholar; Whitely, Deliberate Acts.

39 Statement of Tawakwaptiwa, Sept. 9, 1906, in “Oraibi Troubles.”

40 Miltona Keith to Francis Leupp, Sept. 18, 1906, in “Oraibi Troubles.” On Tawakwaptiwa's rhetoric of reliance on Washington, see Miltona Keith to Matthew Murphy, Sept. 16, 1906, and Murphy to Francis Leupp, Sept. 20, 1906, in “Oraibi Troubles.”

41 Reuben Perry to Francis Leupp, Oct. 25, 1906; Leupp to Superintendent of Sherman Institute, Dec. 6, 1906, “Oraibi Troubles.” For more on Leupp's intentions, see his “Program for Dealing with the Existing Hopi Troubles” in “Oraibi Troubles.”.

42 Superintendent of Sherman Institute to Francis Leupp, Jan. 30, 1907, “Oraibi Troubles.”

43 Reuben Perry to Francis Leupp, Jan. 30, 1907, “Oraibi Troubles”; Reuben Perry to Leupp, Mar. 3, 1907, OIA, LR.

44 Journal entry for Dec. 14, 1904, George deClyver Curtis Papers, collection 1247, Department of Special Collections, University Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles (hereafter cited as GDC Papers).

45 Journal entries for Dec. 1904, Jan. 1905, GDC Papers.

46 Berthrong, Donald, The Cheyenne and Arapaho Ordeal: Reservation and Agency Life in the Indian Territory, 1875–1907 (Norman, OK, 1992), 48.Google Scholar

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49 On the charges against Stouch, see correspondence from Aug. 1, Aug. 13, Aug. 15, 1902, Sept. 16, 1902. OIA, LR.

50 Fowler, , Tribal Sovereignty and the Historical Imagination, 71–72Google Scholar; Cloud Chief to E. A. Hitchcock, Dec. 21, 1902, and Cloud Chief to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Feb. 19, 1904, OIA, LR. Also Cloud Chief to Secretary of the Interior, May 26, 1901; Cloud Chief to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Dec. 5, 1903; John Seger to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Apr. 16, 1904, OIA, LR.

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53 George Stouch to John R. Brennan, May 23, 1902; Acting Secretary of the Interior Thomas Ryan to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, June 18, 1902; Stouch to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, June 21, 1902, and Dec. 10, 1902, OIA, LR. The confusion over the allotments resurfaced in 1905 regarding High Chief's children and their enrollment at Pine Ridge rather than at the Cheyenne and Arapaho agency. It appears as if the matter was addressed as High Chief requested. See Stouch to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Sept. 4, 1905; John Brennan to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Sept. 26, 1905, OIA, LR.

54 Curtis, , The Indians' Book, 149.Google Scholar

55 Ibid.

56 Journal entries for Dec. 15–29, 1904, GDC Papers.

57 Curtis, , The Indians' Book, 150–51.Google Scholar Agency policemen suffered deprivations throughout this period. Agent Stouch repeatedly wrote the Indian Office requesting additional funds for clothing and subsistence supplies for the police force. See Stouch to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Sept. 19, 1903, Jan. 9, 1904, July 3, 1905, OIA, LR.

58 Fowler, , Tribal Sovereignty and the Historical Imagination, 12Google Scholar; JoAllyn Archambault, “Sun Dance” in The Plains, ed. DeMaillie, Raymond J., vol. 13, Handbook of North American Indians, ed. Sturtevant, William C., (Washington, 2001), 983–95.Google Scholar

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60 Quoted in Berthrong, , The Cheyenne and Arapaho Ordeal, 293.Google Scholar

61 George Stouch to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, June 16, 1903; Stouch to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Dec. 15, 1903, OIA, LR.

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63 Stouch to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Dec. 15, 1903, OIA, LR.

64 Berthrong, , The Cheyenne and Arapaho Ordeal, 89, 145, 162–63Google Scholar; Stewart, Omar C., Peyote Religion: A History (Norman, OK, 1987), 104–05.Google Scholar

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69 Curtis, untitled introduction to The Indians' Book, Natalie Curtis Collection, Denver Art Museum Archives, Denver, CO.

70 Curtis, , The Indians' Book, 47Google Scholar, 222, 244.