“Why,” said one, “the flowers are for our souls to enjoy; not for our bodies to wear. Leave them alone and they will live out their lives and reproduce themselves as the Great Gardener intended. He planted them; we must not pluck them.”
Indian bead-work in leaf and flower designs is generally modern. The old patterns are mainly geometrical figures, which are decorative and emblematic rather than imitative. Shafts of light and shadow, alternating or dove-tailed, represent life, its joys and sorrows. The world is conceived of as rectangular and flat, and is represented by a square. The sky is concave—a hollow sphere. A drawing of the horizon line colored pale yellow stands for dawn; colored red, for sunset. Day is blue, and night black spangled with stars. Lightning, rain, wind, water, mountains and many other natural features or elements are symbolized, rather than copied literally upon many sorts of Indian handiwork. Animal figures are drawn in such a manner as to give expression to the type or spirit of the animal rather than its body, emphasizing the head with the horns, or any distinguishing feature. These designs have a religious significance and furnish the individual with his personal and clan emblem, or coat of arms.
Symbolic decorations are used on blankets, baskets, pottery, and garments of ceremony to be worn at rituals and public functions. Sometimes a man’s teepee is decorated in accordance with the standing of the owner. Weapons of war, pipes and calumets are adorned with emblems; but not the everyday weapons used in hunting. The war steed is decorated equally with his rider, and sometimes wears the feathers that signify degrees of honor.
Woman and Her Craftsmanship
In his weaving, painting, and embroidery of beads and quills, the red man has shown a marked color sense, and his blending of brilliant hues is subtle and Oriental in effect. The women did most of this work, and displayed rare ingenuity in the selection of native materials and dyes. A variety of beautiful grasses, roots, and barks was used for basket weaving by the different tribes, and some used gorgeous feathers for ornamentation. Each article was perfectly adapted in style, size and form to its intended use.
Pottery was made by the women of the Southwest for household furniture and utensils, and their vessels, burned in crude furnaces, were often gracefully shaped and exquisitely decorated. The designs were both imprinted on the soft clay, and modeled in relief. The nomadic tribes of the plains could not well carry these fragile wares with them on their wanderings, and, accordingly, their dishes were mainly of bark and wood, the latter sometimes carved. Spoons were prettily made of translucent horn. They were fond of painting their rawhide cases in brilliant colors. The most famous blankets are made by the Navajos upon rude hand-looms, and are wonderfully fine in weave, colors, and design. This native skill, combined with love of the work and perfect sincerity—the qualities which still make the Indian women’s blanket, or basket, or bowl, or moccasins, of the old type, so highly prized—are among the precious things lost or sacrificed to the advance of an alien civilization. Cheap machine-made garments and utensils, without beauty or durability, have crowded out the old; and where the women still ply their ancient crafts, they do it now for money, not for love, and in most cases use modern materials and patterns, even imported yarns and poor dyes! Genuine curios or antiques are already becoming very rare, except in museums, and sometimes command fabulous prices.
As the older generation passes, there is danger of losing altogether the secret of Indian art and craftsmanship.
Modern Indian Art
Struck by this danger, and realizing the innate charm of the work and its adaptability to modern demands, a few enthusiasts have made of late years an effort to preserve and extend it, both in order that a distinctive and vitally American art form may not disappear, and also to preserve so excellent a means of self-support for the Indian women. Depots or stores have been established for the purpose of encouraging such manufactures and of finding a market for them, not so much from commercial as from artistic and philanthropic motives. The best known, perhaps, is the Mohonk Lodge, Colony, Oklahoma, founded under the auspices of the Mohonk Indian Conference, where all work is guaranteed of genuine Indian make, and, as far as possible, of native material and design. Such articles as bags, belts, and moccasins are, however, made in modern form so as to be appropriate for wear by the modern woman. Miss Josephine Foard assisted the women of the Laguna pueblo to glaze their wares, thereby rendering them more salable; and the Indian Industries League, with headquarters in Boston, works along similar lines.
The Indian Bureau reports that over six hundred thousand dollars’ worth of Navajo blankets were made during the last year, and that prizes will be awarded this fall for the best blanket made of native wool. At Pima, fifteen thousand dollars’ worth of baskets and five thousand dollars’ worth of pottery were made and sold, and a less amount was produced at several other agencies.
Another modern development, significant of the growing appreciation of what is real and valuable in primitive culture, is the instruction in the Government schools in the traditional arts and crafts of their people. As schooling is compulsory between the ages of six and sixteen years, and as from the more distant boarding-schools the pupils are not even allowed to go home for the summer vacation, most of them would without this instruction grow up in ignorance of their natural heritage, in legend, music, and art forms as well as practical handicrafts. The greatest difficulty in the way is finding competent and sympathetic teachers.
At Carlisle there are and have been for some years two striking exemplars of the native talent and modern culture of their race, in joint charge of the department of Indian art. Angel DeCora, a Winnebago girl, who was graduated from the Hampton school and from the art department of Smith College, was a pupil of Howard Pyle, and herself made a distinctive success, having illustrated several books and articles on Indian subjects. Some of her work appeared in Harper’s Magazine and other prominent periodicals. She had a studio in New York City for several years, until invited to teach art at the Carlisle school, where she has been ever since.
A few years ago, she married William Dietz, Lone Star, who is half Sioux. He is a fine manly fellow, who was for years a great football player, as well as an accomplished artist. The couple have not only the artistic and poetic temperament in full measure, but they have the pioneer spirit, and aspire to do much for their race. The effective cover designs and other art work of the Carlisle school magazine, the Red Man, are the work of Mr. and Mrs. Dietz, who are successfully developing native talent in the production of attractive and salable rugs, blankets and silver jewelry. Besides this, they are seeking to discover latent artistic gifts among the Indian students, in order that they may be fully trained and utilized in the direction of pure or applied art. It is admitted that the average Indian child far surpasses the average white child in this direction. The Indian did not paint Nature, not because he did not feel it, but because it was sacred to him. He so loved the reality that he could not venture upon the imitation. It is now time to unfold the resources of his genius, locked up for untold ages by the usages and philosophy of his people. They held it sacrilege to reproduce the exact likeness of the human form or face. This is the reason that early attempts to paint the natives were attended with difficulty.
Music, Dancing, Dramatic Art
A form of self-expression which has always been characteristic of my race is found in their music. In music is the very soul of the Indian; yet the civilized nations have but recently discovered that such a thing exists! His chants are simple, expressive and haunting in quality, and voice his inmost feeling, grave or gay, in every emotion and situation in life. They vary with tribes and even with individuals. A man often composes his own song, which belongs to him and is deeply imbued with his personality. These songs are frequently without words, the meaning being too profound for words; they are direct emanations of the human spirit. If words are used, they are few and symbolic in character. There is no definite harmony in the songs—only rhythm and melody; and there are striking variation
s of time and intonation which render them difficult to the “civilized” ear.
Nevertheless, within the last few years, there has been a serious effort to collect these folk-songs of the woods and plains, by means of notation and the phonograph, and in some cases there has also been an attempt to harmonize and popularize them. Miss Alice C. Fletcher, the distinguished ethnologist and student of early American culture, was a pioneer in this field, in which she was assisted by Prof. J. C. Filmore, who is no longer living. Frederick Burton died several years ago, immediately after the publication of his interesting work on the music of the Ojibway, which is fully illustrated with songs collected, and in some instances harmonized, by himself. Miss Natalie Curtis has devoted much intelligent, patient study to the songs of the tribes, especially of the Pueblos, and later comers in this field are Farwell, Troyer, Lieurance and Cadman, the last of whom uses the native airs as a motive for more elaborated songs. His “Land of the Sky Blue Water” is charming, and already very popular. Harold A. Loring, of North Dakota, has recently harmonized some of the songs of the Sioux.
Several singers of Indian blood are giving public recitals of this appealing and mysterious music of their race. There has even been an attempt to teach it to our schoolchildren, and Geoffrey O’Hara, a young composer of New York City, made a beginning in this direction under the auspices of the Indian Bureau. Native melodies have also been adapted and popularized for band and orchestra by native musicians, of whom the best known are Dennison Wheelock and his brother James Wheelock, Oneidas, and graduates of Carlisle. When we recall that, as recently as twenty years ago, all native art was severely discountenanced and discouraged, if not actually forbidden in Government schools and often by missionaries as well, the present awakening is matter for mutual congratulations.
Many Americans have derived their only personal knowledge of Indians from the circus tent and the sawdust arena. The Red Man is a born actor, a dancer and rider of surpassing agility, but he needs the great out-of-doors for his stage. In pageantry, and especially equestrian pageantry, he is most effective. His extraordinarily picturesque costume, and the realistic manner in which he illustrates and reproduces the life of the early frontier, have made of him a great romantic and popular attraction, not only here but in Europe. Several white men have taken advantage of this fact to make their fortunes, of whom the most enterprising and successful was Col. William Cody, better known as “Buffalo Bill.”
The Indians engaged to appear in his and other shows have been paid moderate salaries and usually well treated, though cases have arisen in which they have been stranded at long distances from home. As they cannot be taken from the reservation without the consent of the authorities, repeated efforts have been made by missionaries and others to have such permission refused on the ground of moral harm to the participants in these sham battles and dances. Undoubtedly, they see a good deal of the seamy side of civilization; but on the other hand, their travels have proved of educational value, and in some instances opened their eyes to good effect to the superior power of the White Man. Sitting Bull and other noted chiefs have, at one time or another, been connected with Indian shows.
A pageant-play, adapted by Frederick Burton from Longfellow’s poem of “Hiawatha” was given successfully for several years by native Ojibway actors; and individuals of Indian blood have appeared on the stage in minor parts, and more prominently in motion pictures, where they are often engaged to represent tribal customs and historical events.
Useful Arts and Inventions
Among native inventions which have been of conspicuous use and value to the dispossessors of the Indian, we recall at once the bark canoe, the snowshoe, the moccasin, (called the most perfect footwear ever invented), the game of lacrosse and probably other games, and the conical teepee which served as a model for the Sibley army tent. Pemmican, a condensed food made of pounded dried meat combined with melted fat and dried fruits, has been largely utilized by recent polar explorers.
The art of sugar making from the sap of the hard or sugar maple was first taught by the aborigines to the white settlers. In my day, the Sioux used also the box elder for sugar making, and from the birch and ash they made a dark-colored sugar that was used by them as a carrier in medicine. However, none of these yield as freely as the maple. The Ojibways of Minnesota still make and sell delicious maple sugar, put up in “mococks,” or birch bark packages. Their wild rice, a native grain of remarkable fine flavor and nutritious qualities, is also in a small way an article of commerce. It really ought to be grown on a large scale and popularized as a package cereal, and a large fortune doubtless awaits the lucky exploiter of this distinctive “breakfast” food.
In agriculture, the achievements of the Indian have probably been underestimated, although it is well known that the Indian corn was the mother of all the choice varieties which today form an important source of food supply to the civilized world. Indian women cultivated maize with primitive implements, and prepared it for food in many attractive forms, including hominy and succotash, of which the names, as well as the dishes themselves, are borrowed from the Red Man, who has not always been rewarded in kind for his goodly gifts. In eighteen hundred and thirty, the American Fur Company established a distillery at the mouth of the Yellowstone River, and made alcohol from the corn raised by Gros Ventre women, with which they demoralized the men of the Dakotas, Montana, and British Columbia. Besides maize and tobacco, some tribes, especially in the South, grew native cotton and a variety of fruits and vegetables. The buckskin clothing of my race was exceedingly practical as well as handsome, and has been adapted to the use of hunters, explorers, and frontiersmen down to the present day.10
Angel De Cora (Winnebago)
Angel De Cora (1871–1919) was born on the Winnebago reservation in Nebraska. She attended a reservation school for four years before entering Hampton in 1883. She stayed at Hampton for five years, returned to Nebraska for a brief period, and then went back to Hampton. She was editor of Talks and Thoughts from 1890 to 1891. After graduating from Hampton in 1891, she briefly attended a private school in Massachusetts and then went on to study art at Smith College, Drexel Institute, and the Cowles Art School. In 1899 she published two illustrated short stories in Harper’s Monthly, “The Sick Child” and “Gray Wolf’s Daughter.” From 1899 until 1906 she maintained studios in Boston and then New York City. During this time she illustrated several books, including Francis La Flesche’s The Middle Five (1900) and Zitkala-Ša’s Old Indian Legends (1901). Commissioner of Indian Affairs Francis E. Leupp appointed De Cora instructor of Indian arts at Carlisle in 1906. She held the position until 1915, during which time she worked to cultivate and preserve her students’ artistic talents and promoted the value of Indian art to American culture. She published autobiographical sketches and essays on the contributions of Indian art to American art in the Southern Workman and the Red Man. She also lectured on Indian Affairs and was an active member of the Society of American Indians.
De Cora died from pneumonia in 1919. After hearing of her untimely death, Gertrude Bonnin paid tribute to her friend and fellow activist in her Summer 1919 editorial in the American Indian Magazine. Bonnin explained that De Cora’s commitment to the work of the SAI was so strong that in her will she bequeathed $3,000 to the SAI. Bonnin writes, “The gift is a sacred trust! Such faith in her own race inspires us to our uttermost effort. Angel De Cora Dietz, living and dying, has left us a noble example of devotion to our people. (Gere, “Art of Survivance,” 649–84; Littlefield and Parins, Biobibliography: Supplement, 199; Peyer, American Indian Nonfiction, 325–27; Peyer, Singing Spirit, 43–44; Bonnin, Editorial, 62)
My People, 1897
A great many have heard of Winnebago Indians, but very few have taken the trouble to study the character of the tribe. Many have passed through the reservation and their remarks are anything but flattering. The Winnebagoes were moved to their present home in the northeastern part of Nebraska in 1863 during the Sioux trouble. Since t
hen very little has been done towards the civilization of the tribe,—that is, civilization in its truest meaning. Most of the Indians are farmers and live in frame houses. They use the English language to quite an extent, but their morals are bad. They have adopted all the vices of their white neighbors and these, added to their own, give the tribe a name not altogether enviable.
The sacredness of home life is but little appreciated now, although in the past it was one of their virtues. The old people tell of the strict ways in which they were brought up, and speak sorrowfully of the present. I do not think that the influence of the old people is so bad as some people say it is. The morality of the place is determined by the young people. They have thrown off all that reverence for age that used to be so noticeable a feature. They want to live in the “white man’s way” as they call it; and are willing to give the last penny they have in order to have a carriage, and other luxuries that do not help them very much. As a rule they are careful about their personal appearance, but here and there may be a family which does not take very much interest in anything beside the food it eats. I have said that most of them live in frame houses, but not more than two families in the whole community know how to beautify their homes and make them attractive. They may keep their homes perfectly clean, but they do not know anything of the use of flowers about the house and yard. As to the food and the cooking of it, the rapid decrease of the population tells that story better than I can. Surely a field matron is much needed.
Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press Page 23