In South Dakota, we haven't decided yet how the 19th century is going to turn out. That is what makes our state such a fascinating place to visit, and such a challenging place to live.
We struggle as a people in some way every day with our past 200 years. The nation's decisions joined us but seem destined to always divide us. Yet we make our lives together here because we love "here."
Like a couple who stays together for the sake of the children, we try to make the best of things, keeping our voices low so as not to provoke one another, but in not talking, we don't really get to know enough about each other.
We were built as a place to get across, so the established East could reach the promise of the West, first by railroad, later by the interstate highway system. Now we're mostly flown over.
So to really find us, you must look along the two-lane roads, with your radio tuned to the small-town stations that still have local DJs. As you drive, in what you see and hear, you will start to find why we are South Dakotans.
In those unfolding hours will come the sky and grass, earth and rock, water and gold, wind and light. Among it all you'll find our attitudes and ways of life, determined largely by nature, by what we can reap from the soil, by how much rain comes, by the geologic manifestations of the big-bang and the ice age.
In South Dakota we are two societies: modern American democracy with its private property, and Indian tribes living on reservations.
We are a place where Congress and the courts steadfastly define people's rights based on whether we are tribal members by blood heritage, and whether we are in Indian Country.
But before the Louisiana Purchase, this was all Indian Country.
Where the people are few
So turn the ignition key, turn on the radio and drive. Start in the east, where the rainfall and soil are good enough to grow corn and soybeans.
Head west and feel the world change as the precipitation becomes less, the ground tougher, the pastures shorter and rockier. That's wheat and sunflower country, where the people are fewer, the towns farther apart.
You find yourself up against the Missouri River, with few places to cross. Bridges come out of Mobridge, Gettysburg, Chamberlain and Platte; there are dam crossings at Pierre, Fort Thompson, Pickstown and Yankton.
Then you hit shortgrass country, where even most of the one-room schoolhouses have closed. Folks drive an hour or two to meet friends for coffee at the cafe.
South Dakota is the place of author Laura Ingalls Wilder and some of her Little House on the Prairie stories. This is the land where one of the most Oscar-laden movies of the past 15 years was filmed, Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves. (Because of the terrain and the people, parts of a lot of movies get made here, Viggo Mortensen's Hidalgo being the latest.)
Dances, its dewy Hollywood flaws aside, caught the nature of our original and everlasting conflict. So much open space represented so much opportunity to pioneer a new society and economy in the late 19th century. But to the American Indian societies already here, the arrival of white settlers was an invasion of immense consequence. That conflict has never been resolved.
Defining "South Dakotan"
You catch the same division of our worlds in our art. Look at two of our masters:
The thick, rough-knifed oils of Harvey Dunn are grounded in the pioneers' earthy struggle and the universality of the homesteading story. The bright, geometric semiabstracts of Oscar Howe reflect the whirl of forces upon American Indians and the spiritual energy to rise above it.
South Dakota is where L. Frank Baum lived when he wrote The Wizard of Oz and essays that can still fuel fierce intellectual discussion: Was he a racist who sought the extermination of Indians or a social satirist?
Our state's production of literature is short, in some ways because we are so few and because we are still new. (South Dakota celebrated the centennial of its statehood in 1989.)
Though no book covers it all, some will help you understand who we are.
Dakota, by Kathleen Norris, helps explain the hows and whys of our small towns. Aurelia, by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, is an emotionally powerful work about the modern ranch-country life of Indians displaced by the damming of the Missouri River. On the topic of the river project, Dammed Indians, by historian Michael Lawson, is an invaluable, concise record of the U.S. government's latest taking of tribal and private land for national purposes.
Dan O'Brien's In The Center of The Nation is a wonderful novel about the intersection of conflicting modern values in the Black Hills region of western South Dakota. Notes From Indian Country Vol. I, Tim Giago's collection of his essays for the Indian newspaper the Lakota Times, is a first draft of history.
John Miller's Looking for History on Highway 14 takes you down the main streets of a dozen communities along the two-lane that runs through the heart and mind of the state.
We are still a wild place in many ways. You might see a mountain goat wandering through the parking complex at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. In a few hours in Custer State Park, you will encounter wild, free-roaming buffalo, wild turkeys, mountain sheep, possibly elk and most likely mooching burros.
Its potholes and marshes make South Dakota the top producer of wild ducks in the lower 48 states. The upland bird hunting for pheasants and sharp-tailed grouse is the best in the nation.
And we prize our political independence. South Dakota is one of the birthplaces of the initiative and referendum processes, which allow citizens to make laws or block them through the ballot box. That was a reaction to the railroads' early dominance of the farmers and ranchers.
The people's voices
Back to that drive around the state: It's important to have your radio on to try to understand us. On your radio, you can hear Jerry Oster slinging the news and "five-state weather" for the farmers on "Your Big Friend," WNAX-AM in Yankton, the old territorial capital, as you glide through the fertile bottom country of the southeast.
Across the wide central plains you will catch Patrick Callahan hosting an afternoon call-in show with the governor for the ranch-country listeners on KGFX-AM in Pierre, a few blocks' walk from one of the nation's best-kept, and most beautiful, state capitols.
As you motor west, dropping down and then climbing back out of the Cheyenne River bottoms, you pick up the twin cultures of cowboy hats and reservation life.
There are professional rodeo updates, stock (as in cattle) sale ads and '60s-era Haggard and Cash on KBHB-AM in Sturgis, in the shadow of Bear Butte, a mountain sacred to Indians.
And there is the freewheeling mix of traditional Lakota Sioux songs, Jimi Hendrix, Freddy Fender, Willie Nelson, sobriety discussions and live reports from tribal council meetings on KILI-FM in Porcupine, up the road from Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
As you look west, the 7,000-foot uplift known as the Black Hills takes shape on the horizon. You start picking up ZZ Top ripping from KSQY-FM's tower high above the historic mining towns of Deadwood and Lead.
In the evening, there is swinging "Uncle Jimmo" settling you in, uniting listeners across the state after the sun goes down through the sounds of the Hammond B-3 organ, the genius of Miles Davis and the sensuousness of Diana Krall on the his Jazz Nightly program on South Dakota Public Radio.
We live together in our differences. For decades we officially called ourselves the "Land of Infinite Variety." But the motto on our state flag has always been, "Under God The People Rule."
Our cultural symbols are, on one hand, the buffalo and the eagle feather, and on the other, Mount Rushmore's hewn-granite visages of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt.
But what else might you expect? We were brought together by the Louisiana Purchase, the land grab nonpareil of U.S. history.
Monuments to history
The federal government's later treaties with the Indians were legal contracts agreed to by people who had no written language. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills produced the most vast and deep underground mine on the continent, and it led to government abrogation of an 1868 treaty in which it had recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation. In 1980 the Supreme Court upheld a multimillion-dollar award to the Sioux for the land, but they have refused to accept the government's payment because they want the land back.
At Wounded Knee, the mass grave for the more than 200 Sioux men, women and children the U.S. military massacred on Dec. 28, 1890, has not been designated as a federal monument by the National Park Service because tribal people disagree among themselves whether that should be done.
But we do have a Minuteman missile monument.
Across South Dakota, crumbling gray farmhouses, closed country schools and struggling small communities are evidence of the mistaken agricultural assumptions of the 19th century Homestead Act, which promised free land to settlers who could grind out a living on it long enough.
The flawed marvels that are the Missouri River dams and their sparkling reservoirs, built during the mid 20th century, today are the focus of a national legal fight over endangered species, barge traffic and fishing, boating and hunting.
The general absence of businesses, banks and privately owned homes on the tribal reservations reflect the inherent flip side of government-run socialism and tribally held property.
Come to South Dakota prepared to be fascinated.
- Bob Mercer, former press secretary to the state's longest-serving governor, Bill Janklow, is now a reporter covering state government and politics in South Dakota's capital.
On the Web
Readers can find all the articles in our series on the Louisiana Purchase by going on the Web to www.sptimes.com/lapurchase
Top annual festivals
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and Races, Sturgis. Each August this event attracts tens of thousands of bikers. Operated by the small town (pop. 6,682) of Sturgis, at the northern edge of the Black Hills, this is the big one for loud engines, two-week beards, leather halters (or no halters) and 24-hour action in the dead of summer. The 64th annual rally, which includes hill climbing competitions and races on short and long tracks, runs this year from Aug. 9 to 15.
For more information, go to www.sturgismotorcyclerally.com
Annual Buffalo Roundup, Custer State Park. The gathering of the bison is at the opposite extreme. It is a great three-day weekend in a jewel of a natural setting. The thundering herd coming over the last hill on a crisp Monday morning is a spectacle to be experienced nowhere else. The approximately 1,500 buffalo are moved to corrals. Some are auctioned to breeders; the rest are released back into the park. This year the roundup is Oct. 4.
For more information and a 30-second video of the roundup, go to travelsd.com/roundup.asp or to www.custerstatepark.info/round.htm
Best legend
The "Wizard of Oz' story. It was in Aberdeen that L. Frank Baum wrote the book that became the movie. Never mind that the movie is set in Kansas.
Three must-see places
Wounded Knee site, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. At this site, the U.S. Army 7th Cavalry killed more than 200 Lakota Sioux men, women and children on Dec. 29, 1890; 25 soldiers died. The event, still considered by many as an unprovoked massacre, was the last official battle in the Indian wars the federal government waged in the 19th century. Mount Rushmore National Memorial, in the northern Black Hills near Keystone. The four faces were blasted and carved over 14 years. They are most impressive in the pinkish light of dawn and sunset.
Cultural Heritage Center museum, in Pierre, the state's capital, and the historic murals in the state Capitol. The museum displays records of South Dakota's history and culture, written and artifacts.
For more information on these sites, go to www.travelsd.com
605...
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Three places to avoid
* Rapid City and the Black Hills region during the summer tourist season. You might find motel prices are higher than you expected, but those rates help the businesses make it through the nine lean months of the year.
* 41st Street in Sioux Falls, the state's largest city, population approximately 130,000, during evening rush hour and shopping hours on Saturday.
* Local folks' special fishing and hunting spots - unless they invite you.
Best places to eat
South Dakotans love to hunt and fish, and two of the best dishes produced in the state are fresh-fried walleye pike and roasted pheasant. These are typical entrees, especially for Sunday dinner.
But the thing South Dakotans probably love more is going out with friends for a big steak. The Chateau, in Fort Pierre, for decades has served a good filet mignon and onion rings, and if you want authenticity, this narrow, dark place fills up with cowboy hats on sale day at the nearby livestock auction barn. The Chateau, 110 N Deadwood St.; 605 223-2402. The big daddy might be Bob's Steakhouse, on Lake Oahe near Gettysburg, where the adjective "large" takes on new meaning and the doggy bag is big enough for a small roast. (605) 765-2535; www.bobsresort.com
If you're looking for something more upscale, Jakes at the Midnight Star, Kevin Costner's casino in the gambling town of Deadwood, has a Midwest-level of Hollywood class. 677 Main St.; toll-free 1-800-999-6482; www.themidnightstar.com
Famous sons
World War II fighter ace and then governor Joe Foss, NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, frontier legend Sitting Bull, Olympic champion Billy Mills, two-time Super Bowl-winning kicker Adam Vinatieri, presidential candidates Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern, U.S. Senate majority and minority leader Tom Daschle.
Major problem residents face
They are twins: the continued decline of non-Indian population in most rural counties and the growing American Indian population in counties largely filled by reservations. Both areas face the challenges of finding the people to provide necessary social, medical and public services, and finding the money to pay for schools, hospitals and roads.
Best joke we tell on ourselves
"We need more four-lane highways."
- Bob Mercer
Approximately 40,000 Indians live in the two Dakotas, the vast majority on or adjacent to 12 reservations.
The reservations are: Turtle Mountain (Chippewa), in northernmost North Dakota; Devil's Lake (Sioux), in central North Dakota; Fort Berthold (Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan), in western North Dakota; Standing Rock (Sioux), which straddles both States; Cheyenne River (Sioux), on the southern edge of Standing Rock; Sisseton (Sioux), in northeastern South Dakota; Lower Brule and Crow Creek (Sioux), in the center of the State; Flandreau (Sioux), in the eastern half of the State; and Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Yankton (all Sioux), on the southern edge of South Dakota.
Indian life in the Dakotas is generally far below the minimums of economic and social comfort we think of in our modern society. There are more Indians out of work than in jobs. Apathy and discouragement characterize many reservations and Indian communities in outlying areas.
Many Indians of the Dakotas have not fully learned the economic ways of modern life nor relinquished their old yearnings to live the life of their forebears. The end of the buffalo economy was a traumatic experience.
The reservations of the Dakotas total about 6 million acres--but this land is fragmented by various kinds of legal ownership. Nearly 3.5 million acres is individually-owned, little more than 2 million acres is tribally-owned, and approximately 127 thousand acres is Government-owned. There are many large parcels of land within reservation areas--particularly on the Sisseton Reservation--that are non-Indian owned. This "checkerboarding" is the result of injudicious land sales over a long period, before the present administration subjected land sales and leases to careful review to protect the best interests of the Indians.
This mixture of ownerships in reservation areas present a patchwork of units often too small to manage efficiently or economically. All are in rural areas of the region, where farming and ranching are the best possible sources of livelihood. With the fractionated ownership status of Indian lands, the paramount difficulty becomes one of instituting workable land units to create income.
Some of the tribes have initiated a program of land consolidation to provide consolidated tracts for lease or sale. The Bureau of Indian Affairs manages the lands, as trustee, and at present there are about 8,700 leases in effect, and 1,400 range units established.
Several reservations along the main stem of the Missouri River have lost many thousands of acres of valuable bottom land due to construction of huge dams and reservoirs. To some Indian families, this loss--including loss of firewood, natural shelter for livestock, excellent cropland and pasture, good water supplies, and game cover--has had an enduring impact.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs operates an office in Billings, Montana, devoted to investigating the impact upon Indian lands of Missouri River Basin development. Thus far, recreational enterprises, industrial and business expansion, and major irrigation improvements have yet to be seen to any great extent in the Dakotas Basin reservations. Better homes and improved community facilities and services have been realized to a growing extent.
As in other Indian-population States, the problems can be summed up as requiring concentration in two directions simultaneously: development of natural resources and development of the human resources.
In Indian country and elsewhere, modern farming means mechanization. These Sioux farmers have halted combine operations to make some minor repairs.
Natural Resource Development
Tribal leaders, together with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, are exploring every means of improving tribal economies through the development of resources. Probably the exploitation of sand and gravel deposits has had the longest history as a source of income, although the amount has been relatively nominal.
Oil production has been limited to the Fort Berthold Reservation, although exploration has provided small amounts of lease income to the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Lower Brule, Rosebud, and Pine Ridge Reservations in the western portion of the Dakotas. Lignite coal deposits offer more promise. North Dakota has an estimated 350 billion tons of lignite coal reserves and nearly 50 percent of these deposits are in the five-county area covered in part by the Fort Berthold Reservation. Deposits of lesser extent occur on the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Reservations (South Dakota). Two lignite-fired steam generation plants are now operating near Fort Berthold Reservation; and at some future date the lignite may become the basic raw material for a number of chemical industries in the area. Other reservation resources include iron, manganese, clays, shales, and limited forest holdings.
In 1953, the Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant was established at Rolla, North Dakota, near the Turtle Mountain Reservation under the management of the Bulova Watch Company. Members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa have proved so adept in the manufacture of miniature precision jewel bearings that they now comprise about 75 percent of the 150 employees.
For over 5 years members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe have demonstrated their proficiency in snelling fishhooks in three small plants on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. These Wright & McGill Company plants were established with the aid of the Bureau's Branch of Industrial Development. Employment at these plants has risen to its present level of 360, all Indians, including the manager.
Other industrial and business facilities recently established on Indian Reservations include:
Five Star Cheese Plant, Standing Rock Reservation;
Sioux Mufflers, Inc. (automobile mufflers), Crow Creek Reservation;
Chalomar, Inc. (semiconductors), Lower Brule Reservation;
Rosebud Manufacturing, Inc. (kitchen cabinets and vanities), Rosebud Reservation;
Broken Arrow Resort, Turtle Mountain Reservation;
Cheyenne River Livestock Sales Ring, Cheyenne River Telephone Company, Cheyenne River Reservation;
Adequate Shelter (transitional homes), Rosebud Reservation;
Electro-Tech Educational Corp. (electronic assembly and construction), Yankton Reservation;
Products Miniature of South Dakota, Inc. (molded plastic products ), Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Reservation;
Dakota Moccasin Company, Pine Ridge Reservation;
Sioux Lanes (bowling alley and cafe), Standing Rock Reservation; and
Stores on the Fort Berthold, Lower Brule, and Cheyenne River Reservations.
Cheddaring and cutting cheese at a Selfridge, North Dakota cheese plant. The company is housed in a building owned by the Standing Rock Reservation Indians and gives employment preference to tribal members.
Education
Vigorous and varied educational offerings for Dakota Indians are considered fundamental to the social and economic improvement of reservation communities. Numerous Federal day schools, as well as several boarding schools, are still in operation in the Dakotas, although the trend is toward public schooling for Indian residents wherever possible. A number of non-Indian children also attend the Federal schools; and the Bureau has entered into cooperative agreements with some public school districts for sharing the costs of schools jointly operated by the school districts and the Federal Government.
Adult education programs in rural communities are also on the increase, and many of the reservations are involved in educational phases of the "war on poverty"--not only in adult basic education, but in Head-Start programs for preschoolers, the Neighborhood Youth Corps earn-and-learn program for high schoolers, and work experience programs for unemployed, unskilled adults.
There is also a continuing rise in the number of youthful Indians who go on to higher education. During 1967 alone, about 270 grants totaling over $250,000 were made by the Bureau to Indian students pursuing 4-year college courses; and a number of tribes also granted scholarships to tribal members.
Indian third graders pay close attention to their reading lessons in a boarding school operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Wahpeton, North Dakota. Language skills are stressed in the Bureau education system.
Housing
By early 1968, over 800 conventional low-rent and mutual help housing units were occupied or under construction on nine reservations. Another 500 such housing units were proposed or planned and additional reservations were preparing to enter the program. The Housing Improvement Program had been or was providing new or improved housing for some 400 families; and a pilot project for adequate shelter housing, sponsored by the Office of Economic Opportunity, had completed 375 units on the Rosebud Reservation. The Division of Indian Health of the U.S. Public Health Service is continuing its efforts to establish water supplies and sanitation facilities for individual Indian households, including homes constructed under these housing programs.
New low-income housing units constructed by the Standing Rock Reservation Tribal Housing Authority at McLaughlin, South Dakota.
Tribal Government
Tribal governments are playing an ever-increasing role in the development and management of their reservation resources. Indian leaders are increasingly active in efforts to make tribal governing documents compatible with expanding opportunities for participation in a variety of government programs.
Monies made available through the Indian claims judgment awards, and as compensation for land taken for the construction of the Missouri River Reservoirs, have afforded several tribes opportunities to initiate various social and economic development programs. These programs include activities in community development, agricultural development, business and industrial development, educational grants and loans, credit programs, and family plans. In some instances tribal enterprises were established. The tribes have rapidly accelerated their involvement with other Federal programs such as those provided through the Office of Economic Opportunity, Farmers Home Administration, Housing Assistance Administration, and Economic Development Administration.
Ancient beading techniques are preserved in an arts and crafts project for Indian women at McLaughlin, South Dakota.
Social Services and Law Enforcement
A staff of social workers serves each of the tribes, providing social services, such as general assistance and child welfare services. General assistance entails financial assistance to Indian people on reservations who are in need but not eligible for State programs such as aid to dependent children, old age assistance, aid to the permanently and totally disabled, and aid to the blind. Child welfare services include foster care and appropriate institutional care for dependent, neglected, and handicapped children needing care outside their home. This service is given in close cooperation between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the county welfare offices in all phases of the welfare program. Counseling is provided to assist families to cope with serious social problems.
Law and order services for Indians on reservations within the Dakotas are provided by the tribes and BIA. This includes a range of enforcement and protective services by Bureau and tribal personnel, who utilize Federal and tribal law, and in some instances State law, in carrying out their various responsibilities. The great majority of offenses committed are misdemeanor in nature and are processed in the several Indian courts. The major or felonious offenses are prosecuted in the Federal courts.
Emphasis by the tribes and the Bureau is being made to strengthen and improve the level of services, and to update and revise tribal and order codes. Continuous efforts are being made in the field of training for Bureau and tribal law and order personnel, including in-service training as well as training for specialized needs in non-federal facilities including colleges, universities, and police academies.
Health Services
The U.S. Public Health Service Division of Indian Health provides comprehensive health care programs at all reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota. Hospitals are operated at Turtle Mountain, Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Sisseton, Rosebud, Yankton, and Pine Ridge Reservations; and contract medical and dental care is provided on the Fort Berthold Reservation. Health centers are operated on Fort Totten, Crow Creek, and Lower Brule Reservations, and School Health Centers at Indian schools in Pierre, Flandreau Community, and Wahpeton. A tuberculosis sanatorium and a health center are operated in Rapid City, S. Dak. In addition, field health teams provide assistance to Indians of the Dakotas in environmental health, health education, public health nursing, and preventive dental care.
Coyote
I see him through the grainy
dusk, ahead and to the left
of the trail, gray form still,
listening for something
beyond this world, light
rushing from yellow eyes
that roam the darkening,
the feral grace of his hunger
brushing against my life
before he turns away. If
I follow his tracks, it could
take me years to cross
that narrow clearing where
he paused; years to find
the entrance to the woods
where he vanishes now.
The conflict with indigenous people in North America produced an imperial ideology that required a significant degree of abstraction because of the nature of those relations.
In North America Europeans set out to claim land they didn’t know that was occupied by people they couldn’t control. To make alliances, establish boundaries, and acquire land they made legal agreements, including treaties that recognized indigenous ownership of land and therefore of political autonomy. After the formation of the United States that recognition, well established in North American legal and political practice, became a signifier of U.S. moral and political superiority. (Konkle, M. Indigenous Ownership and the Emergence of U.S. Liberal Imperialism, American Indian Quarterly page 297)
Much of what they want to commercialise is sacred to us. We see intellectual property as part of our culture. It cannot be separated into categories as Western Lawyers would want.North American Indian Congress, Ray Appoaka quoted at a seminar on intellectual property rights at the U. N Human Rights Convention in Vienna June 1993. Extract from Posey & Dutfield 1996.
These statements serve to illustrate the difficulty in placing a western definition of ownership upon ethnic artefacts. The western notion of individual rights to ownership is in contradiction to the communal view of property held by indigenous peoples.
The Eagle feather war-bonnet has been perhaps one of the most powerful and evanescent symbols of the North American Indian since as early as 1505. While multiple feather headdresses were worn in many geographic areas, the fullest development was on the plains during the 19th Century. (First Peoples, First Contacts J.C.H King, 1999 British Museums Press, page 30)
The U.S Department of the Interior passed a law in 1990 referred to here and in federal documentation as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. (Appendix 1)
Although the artefact in question is not covered by all elements or sub-clauses of the statute it is covered under section 2: Definitions: as holding a" cultural affiliation" which means that there is a relationship of shared group identity which can be reasonably traced historically or prehistorically between a present day Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization and an identifiable earlier group. (Public Law 101-601 101st Congress)
The validity of this artefacts cultural affiliation is necessarily crucial in any discussion that seeks to explore more than one cultural position and in this case it is of particular importance given the discovery of the artefact in a theatre collection that is removed both culturally and geographically from the artefacts presumed origins.
Reference to ceremonial and/or ancestral artefacts not necessarily connected with human remains is made later in the same document and these references seem entirely pertinent in the case of the headdress.
(C) "sacred objects" which shall mean specific ceremonial objects which are needed by traditional Native American religious leaders for the practice of traditional Native American religions by their present day adherents, and
(D) "cultural patrimony" which shall mean an object having ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to the Native American group or culture itself, rather than property owned by an individual Native (Ibid)
The headdress contains eagle feathers which are protected items in the US and in the United Kingdom. In the United States as a result of years of habitat loss from urbanization, exposure to chemicals used in agriculture and animal husbandry, and poaching, populations of bald eagles, the national symbol, and golden eagles have been reduced in numbers. In an effort to protect these birds, the United States Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act in 1940, and later amended the Act in 1962 to include protection for golden eagles. This Act prohibits take, transport, sale, barter, trade, import and export, and possession of eagles, making it illegal for anyone to collect eagles and eagle parts without a permit. Native American tribal elders may apply for permission to obtain eagle feathers and the code of Federal Regulations, part 22, has been amended to provide for the issuance of a permit to import/export eagle feathers for religious and cultural purposes only. (US Fish & Wildlife Service, Office of Law enforcement, federal regulations) Native American people cannot collect their own feathers and in fact in an ironic twist the enforcement of the act (s) has disadvantaged native people who honour and seek to celebrate the birds and their feathers. Even the possessors of eagle feathers that have been in families for generations have been subject to prosecution and / or censure. however because of the significance of eagles to Native Americans who for hundreds of years have used eagle feathers for religious and cultural purposes, including healing, marriage, and naming ceremonies the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established the National Eagle Repository in the early 1970's to provide Native Americans with the feathers of golden and bald eagles needed for religious purposes. (Denver Museum of Natural History Archives: Shannon Garcia)
In the United Kingdom it is illegal to buy or sell body parts and feathers of birds of prey. Although it is less likely that an individual in possession of feathers would be prosecuted, the law changed in 2001 to allow those found guilty of stealing the birds themselves to be prosecuted. (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) Although some of the laws under discussion do not have a legal bearing in the United Kingdom, their inclusion here serves to illuminate the debate that such an artefact would evoke in its nation of origin. An understanding of the historical and contemporary context is important in creating a picture of the significance attached to the artefact by its maker(s) and owners.
In the first instance it is necessary to establish origin as far as is possible and to this end images of the artefact were sent to a Cherokee tribal elder in the United States and his assessment was that the headdress was a genuine and was similar to other headdress made by the Lakota (Sioux) and related tribes. The full transcript of his assessment, together with an introduction appears here. (Appendix 2 & 3) The construction of the headdress is in the style of the plains tribes and specifically in old Lakota (Sioux) style. The beadwork uses patterning very similar if not identical to Lakota style. Similar beadwork is found on Chief Yellow Calf's bonnet, a well documented artefact. Yellow Calf was a Chief of the Arapaho, a plains tribe with direct affiliation to the Lakota. An image of the bonnet image appears here. (Appendix 4) Anthropological research undertaken by John J Honigmann in 1956 concerning the Sarcee tribe in Alberta, Canada drew comparisons between the northern plains tribes of Lakota root origin and the Sarcee and this information becomes crucial as the study of this headdress continues. Honigmann's work suggests that the Sarcee (Sarci) illustrate a rather thorough assimilation of plains culture that occurred over about one hundred and fifty years. (Honigmann, John J. Notes on Sarsi kin behaviour, Anthropologica, 2 (1956) p.17)
Headdress with such a large number of eagle feathers have a specific wearer in mind when they are created and this is perhaps another indication of its origins. Only two types of people wore this style of headdress; they either were leaders (Chiefs) or tribal elders.
Each feather in a bonnet represents a specific war honour, or "coup." Before a bonnet was constructed, there was a ceremony in which each feather was held, while the deed it stood for was recited. The feather was then handed to the bonnet-maker to be sewn into place.
(King, 268)
Based upon current research the assumption is made here that the artefact is genuine and is made in the Plains/Lakota style. It is a headdress usually worn by a Chief or tribal elder.The headdress came to be in the theatre collection by its inclusion in the effects of John Martin Harvey whose widow passed the headdress along with other memorabilia to Eric Jones Evans. (EJE/001481 Correspondence - from Lady Nina Martin Harvey to Eric Jones Evans, being a true account of the events surrounding the sale of Sir John's props and wardrobe after his death) (Appendix 5). (EJE/001592 Correspondence - from Lady Nina Martin Harvey to Eric Jones Evans, concerning several of Sir John Martin Harvey's props and promptbooks, and the giving of them to Eric Jones Evans, EJE/001601 Correspondence - from Lady Nina Martin Harvey to Eric Jones Evans, concerning the Sarcee Indian Chief's headress given to Sir John Martin Harvey, which she sent to Eric)Sir John and Lady Martin Harvey first visited Canada in 1914 and by their last trip in 1929 had visited six times in all. Each trip had formed part of a theatrical tour usually of the production of The Only Way, an adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities in which the pair achieved their greatest success; Sir John playing the part of Sidney Carton some 4000 times.
(Times 1929 Appendix 6)
During a tour of Canada in 1924John Martin Harvey was presented with the headdress making him an honorary Chief of the Sarcee tribe. (EJE/000027 Press Cutting 1924 - Calgary Herald account of John Martin Harvey, known as Ta-Decasze (Red Feather) being made a chieftan of the Sarcee Indians. Also included is text of presentation address as read by Chief Joe Big Plume)
An even more complex strand to the framework inside which the performativity of such an artefact has to be considered is that the image or "utterance" made by such an artefact serves to mark the absence of a basic reality of post-modern native life. A circumstance that has arguably been a factor in poor educational and social progression and opportunity offered to the native people of North America and Canada. The headdress then is a powerful object/artefact but it could be argued an agent of misinformation that prevents non-native people from engaging with natives of North America and Canada with the necessary mutual understanding of the current political climate faced by Native American peoples.
Perhaps the words of Sirkku Aaltonen in Time – Sharing on Stage: "Often when we believe we have caught a glimpse of the Other, we have only seen our reflection in the mirror"(2000:112) were never more pertinent than when considering a European understanding or "glimpse" of the native American. The headdress and perhaps other artefacts cannot fail to reflect back our own, European view based as it may be on a popular culture of the 20th century that is rife with images of be-feathered savages astride painted ponies. Not only was there a basic cultural misrepresentation behind the use and acceptance of such images but more problematic for the researcher/translator was the/is the political imperative that shaped the construct of “savagism and civilization” in U.S and I would argue, European culture. This is because the political context was the necessity of denying the principle of indigenous ownership. Maureen Konkle goes further, suggesting a political effect: the positing of an imperial ideology, the primary claim of which was that imperialism didn’t exist as a historical process but was rather the unfolding of God’s will. (Konkle, 297:2005) sometimes referred to as Manifest Destiny. Current populist thinking regarding Native American peoples has folded that ideology back in on itself. Although the headdress represents or simulates an absence, certainly in the contemporary experience of native people, it is persistent in its power to engage the imagination and sentiments. Images of native people, Indians, wearing eagle feather headdress from the 19th Century are commonly used by white Americans and Native Americans themselves as a currency of shared experience and cultural recognition. The difficulty in using this kind of artefact in contemporary performance are many and complex and even the best intentioned work is likely to be problematic. The location and management of a third space in which a shared cultural dialogue can develop is still no guarantee that an artefact like the headdress could be stripped of its power and consequently the message that is decoded from its presence even if that were the intention.
Konkle, M. Indigenous Ownership and the Emergence of U.S. Liberal Imperialism, American Indian quarterly/summer 2008/vol. 32, no. 3
Transcript of U. N Human Rights Convention in Vienna June 1993. Extract from Posey & Dutfield 1996.
Honigmann, John J., Notes on Sarsi kin behaviour, Anthropologica 2, Wilfred Laurier University Press 1956
(1956)http://www.nps.gov/history/nagpra/M
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