Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Martin Slezák
Karl May’s Legacy: Czech and German “Indians” vs. Cultural Appropriation Master’s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D
2020
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
……………………………………………..
Author’s signature
I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D, for
her advice and undying patience, as well to many people close to my heart for
supporting me during the process of writing this thesis.
Table of Contents
Introduction ...... 1 1. Infatuation with the “Indian” ...... 5 2. Indianthusiasm in Czech and German Contexts ...... 13 3. Cultural Appropriation vs. Cultural Appreciation...... 20 4. Winnetou meets the “Indian” ...... 29 4.1. The Legacy of Winnetou ...... 29 4.2. A Quest for an Approval ...... 38 5. Between a Rock and a Hard Place ...... 48 Conclusion ...... 66 Works Cited ...... 70 Summary ...... 77 Resumé (Czech) ...... 78
Introduction
The phenomenon of “Indian”1 hobbyism is surrounded by controversy among both the academics and Native people2, themselves. It is an act, in which non-Native people get together and imitate Native cultures by wearing the traditional clothing, performing sacred rituals, and recreate traditional ways of life; simply put, they “play
Indians”. The general premise towards hobbyism is that it is a form of cultural appropriation. This thesis aims to look into the phenomenon of hobbyism and show in what ways it impacts the contemporary Native people and whether it is a case of cultural appropriation or rather a harmless form of cultural appreciation. It explores the complexity of the issues with hobbyism such as commercialization of Native cultures, commodification, various opinions on hobbyism from hobbyists themselves, scholars, and Native people. In addition, it also highlights the differences in the two styles of hobbyism where one focuses on authenticity with which the hobbyists display their devotion to Native cultures, whereas the other is more focused on the commercial approach. Contemporary Native people face a lot of struggles, which are the result of over 300 years of colonialism, cultural genocide, assimilation, and systematic racism.
With 6.79 million population which is about 2% of the entire US population according to the US Census Bureau of 2020, and 1.67 million of population of Canada accounting for a 4.9% of population, according to the Census of Population of 2016, the perception of Native peoples is infested with stereotypes. The stereotypes are very much imbedded in the mainstream society and are one of the reasons that diminish the chances of Native
1 The term “Indian” refers to the stereotypical image formed by various media that people, especially in Europe, have of a Native person.
2 In this thesis the term “Native” refers to both Native Americans in the US and First Nations and Métis of Canada. The term “Indigenous” is not used because it covers wider range of people whom the Indian hobbyism, which is the main topic of this thesis, does not involve. 1 peoples to gain a voice in today’s world as well as cultural sovereignty. The media, especially the film industry and popular dime novels have vastly contributed to the constructions and continuation of these stereotypes. The phenomenon of hobbyism has not only elaborated on some of the core images from these media, but it might also be one of the contributors of perpetuating these stereotypes further and even though some of the images are hundreds years old (such as Natives living in teepees, wielding bow and arrow, etc.), I dare say that majority of people in Europe still believe them to be the true representation of a contemporary Native person. There is almost no representation in history books when it comes to contemporary Native peoples (not to mention that the overall representation of Native cultures is lacking). Hobbyism (and the media mentioned earlier), promotes the traditional way of life and stereotyped images, which could potentially cause even more prejudice and hardships for Native people and to really become visible to the Europe’s public eye than it already has. Michael Roberts, a
Tlingit who leads the Colorado-based First Nations Development institute, states that
“‘there’s a real invisibility when it comes to Indian people,’ ‘We don’t show up in the media, we don’t show up in textbooks, we don’t show up in everyday conversation.
Folks don’t know Indians or anything about Indians’” (qtd. in Ahtone). Along with the invisibility, the stereotypical images that are still promoted by the media, as well as the
Native paraphernalia, such as costumes, headdresses, etc. enforcing the sense that
Natives belong to the past, because there is only the representation of the past, and not the present. In addition, some representations might be altered or completely fictional, which then takes away the authentic meaning behind them and takes away Native people’s control over their own culture. On the other hand, some Natives see hobbyism as a positive thing that might spark more interest in the culture among non-Native people, so that they could eventually start to educate themselves and learn more about
2 the contemporary issues. In this way, Natives could gain more support in their efforts to achieve equality and recover from years of oppression and systematic racism. It is important to research the key aspects of hobbyism, particularly those which criticized the most, so that the challenges they pose could be altered, or even completely removed.
Even though the hobbyists themselves do not want to cause any harm intentionally, they cannot ignore the potential damage they might be causing to contemporary Natives by relegating them to the past. The thesis is a cultural study and the sources and examples for analysis are taken from documentaries, literature, movies, academic work, media and even from a Native play The Berlin Blues by Drew Hayden Taylor. The topic of this thesis is built around the idea of comparing two styles of hobbyism portrayed in documentaries Searching for Winnetou (2018), directed by Drew Hayden Taylor, an
Anishinaabe playwright, author and journalist, and If Only I Were an Indian (1995), directed by John Paskievich, an Ukrainian-Canadian director. The documentaries portray two different approaches to hobbyism, creating a big enough parallel between them for the main argument of this thesis. Among other sources, this thesis draws on the academic work of Michael Brown, in Who Owns Native Culture?, Katrin Sieg, in Ethnic
Drag: Performing Race, Nation, Sexuality in West Germany (Social History, Popular
Culture, and Politics in Germany), and György Ferenc Tóth, in From Wounded Knee to
Checkpoint Charlie where the authors delve into the phenomenon of hobbyism, cultural appropriation, and commodification of Native cultures. By analyzing key issues such as cultural appropriation, commodification, commercialization, etc. in hobbyism in both documentaries is followed by a closer examination of these issues, offering different opinions and perspectives from both Native Americans and academics concerned with the topic of hobbyism.
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The first chapter provides some background information to hobbyism in
Germany and the Czech Republic, identifying the key characteristics of hobbyism and motivations for participating in hobbyism. The background information is followed by an explanation of the term hobbyism and by introduction and categorization of the main hobbyist groups in the second chapter of the thesis. The third chapter then analyzes and compares the concepts of cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. By providing practical examples, in which the question of whether it is a form of cultural appropriation is rather ambiguous, the chapter is trying to highlight the complexity of the discourse of cultural appropriation. It also provides a rough summary of how contemporary Native people have tried to reduce the extent of cultural appropriation in the past, by pushing for legal protection of their cultures. The fourth chapter examines in detail the two documentaries, Searching for Winnetou and If Only I Were an Indian.
It explores the content of both documentaries, with focus on the motivations of hobbyists and the evaluation of hobbyism by Native visitors. The documentaries reveal some of the key problems with hobbyism such as commodification, appropriation of
Native cultures, and provides opinions of Native people on the matter of hobbyism. The final chapter further explores the issues that were laid out by the examination of the two documentaries, by using secondary materials from various scholars and opinions of
Native peoples, providing a variety of opinions in order to form a conclusion on the questions whether the hobbyism is a form of cultural appropriation and what the problematic issues with the hobbyism are.
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1. Infatuation with the “Indian”
This chapter aims to show how the interest in hobbyism began and why it was so popular in both Germany and the Czech Republic, and what might be the key factors how and why are people interested in hobbyism. To understand how the phenomena of hobbyism became so popular with Czech and German groups, it is essential to examine the origins of the infatuation with the Native American culture and how it is tied to the history of both countries. The first notions about Native Americans came to Czechs soon after Columbus had “discovered” America in 1492. The former Czech kingdom, after the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) became part of Austrian Empire, which only privileged Catholic religion and the Non-Catholic churches were forced to leave. One of those churches were Moravian Brothers, who found shelter in Saxony, and as they were able to prosper there, they wanted to spread their faith and in 1735 they have sent missionaries to North America. They arrived in Pennsylvania and later established themselves as missionaries among the Natives in the New World. Natives themselves were intended to be “civilized” by forcing them to abandon their supposedly “pagan” beliefs and by converting them to Christianity to be freed from their pagan beliefs and deities to be taught how to enter the Gardens of Eden and the arms of a single true God.
In their homeland, the Native Americans, similarly to other Indigenous populations across the world, were mostly viewed by European settlers as barbaric heathens who occupied their land. Allegedly the Moravian Brothers had a different approach with the
Natives:
The Moravian focus on religion from the heart and their Love Feast were
compatible with Native American spiritual traditions. Unlike other Protestant
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missionaries, the Moravians lived and dressed like the Indians and it was not
uncommon for European visitors to mistake the Moravians for Indians. (Burch)
According to Thomas F. Mchugh, John R. Burch, Jr., PhD and other sources like The
Moravian Church in America IBOC website, the Moravians had a very functional relationship with the Native Americans, because instead of rejecting their culture, they were embracing it, sometimes even dressing up as Natives in order to “fit in”. From the mid-19th century, an increasing current wave of emigrants flowed to America, where, besides Czech communities in the East, new settlements were established, especially in
Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas and the Dakotas, where people were in direct contact with local Native tribes such as the Sioux, Pawnee, Osage, and Kiowa. Because of this contact, a glass trade between US and Czechs has been established in mid-19th century, in order to provide glass beads for the Native beadworks, which replaced their beads made from bones, shells, copper, etc.
The Germans too came to America after the Thirty Years War, but “for the most part Germans approached Indian country for much the same reasons as other Europeans did and behaved in much the same way as they did, and Indians responded to them accordingly.” (Calloway 48) According to Calloway, Germans were a major force in
“repeopling” (Calloway 48) North America and as such, they left their mark on the land and culture. They were sometimes friendly to the Natives, but also sometimes primed aggressors in frontier conflicts. In the 1730s, Protestants from Salzburg immigrated to
Georgia, where “Baron Philip George Friedrich von Reck, a young Hanoverian nobleman in charge of transporting the Salzburg immigrants, did sketches and paintings of Uchees, Creeks and Cherokees and penned a brief report on the Indians living in
Georgia.” (Calloway 49) He praised the Creeks very much for being “honest, open- minded, truthful, not interested in personal gain” (qtd. in Calloway 49), but allegedly he
6 did not hold high regards for the other tribes as much. Because Germans lived around areas which were neighboring Native American territories, and because some of them established very good relationships with the Natives, some of the Germans became
“white Indians” during the Seven Years War (1756-1763). The Germans too, have become missionaries for the Moravian church, and like Czechs, lived among the Native
Americans, sharing their way of life and culture. From these encounters and connections that were established from the first contacts with the Native Americans, an interest in the Native culture arose for both nations.
Interest in North American Indigenous cultures in Europe was surely influenced by a number of western novels. Among those novels were for example James Fenimore
Cooper’s The Leatherstocking Tales (1823 - 1841) which is a collection of five novels which depict life in the Wild West countryside approximately in the 1740s. One of the novels is The Last of the Mohicans (1826) which portrays the frontier life of the French
Indian War, and captures a sense of vanishing wilderness and the Natives, hence the title. But perhaps the most influential author, whose works, according to Kuester, were inspired by Cooper’s work, is the German writer Karel May. Starting in 1875, Karel
May wrote dozens of books set in a fictional Wild West setting. In 1878 he wrote a book called Winnetou which had 4 sequels, which were so popular that they were translated into 22 languages including Braille and were made into 11 movies in total.
Karel May has very much romanticized the atmosphere of the Wild West, making it very attractive for the public masses. His heroes are the epitomes of human virtues and they fight both crude fate and vile villains in various adventures that stray away from the ordinariness of life. Karl May’s novels were extremely popular not only among the general reading public but also, as Raymond Wood points out in his article “The Role of the Romantic West in Shaping the Third Reich”, among many leading historical figures
7 in Germany, such as Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, Franz Kafka, Fritz Lang and most notably one of the most notorious German leaders, Adolf Hitler. The popularity of
Winnetou in the Czech Republic was not as big as in Germany because the availability of the translated version of the books came later in the years of 1901 and 1908. After the year of 1945, Karel May’s works were banned due to political reasons and it was not until 1963 when it became unbanned and along with the release of Winnetou movies.
The love for Karl May’s work had already had its foundations in groups like the Czech
Tramping movement, which was the first steppingstone for the rise of the “Indian infatuated” movements, or as Campion-Vincent Véronique states:
The Czech Tramping movement is still active in 2017. It emerged in the 1920s
as an independent outgrowth of the more organized Scouts and Woodcraft
activities that already existed in 1913. It survived German occupation and the
harsh early years of the Communist Era and was better tolerated in the 1970s,
when specific Indian Hobbyist movements were also on the rise. The emphasis
on outdoor life, including a positive attitude toward nature and a modest
lifestyle, have taken root in Czech and Slovak societies. (Campion-Vincent 17)
Karl May’s work provided groundworks for some of the members of these organizations to switch/alternate to a more fitting setting that would transform the emphasis on the outdoor live into a level of a lifestyle.
The most influential story from Karl May, that started this rise in infatuation with the Native cultures is undoubtedly the Winnetou. It is important to point out that
Karl May did not write the story with authenticity in mind and a lot of the landscapes, people or culture are either fictional or altered in order to appeal more to the story. The story of Winnetou follows a young German engineer Karl, who befriends an Apache chief named Winnetou and together they serve as this hand of justice, fighting against
8 other bloodthirsty “savages” and evil greedy bandits. They do not become friends right away, because Old Shatterhand is considered to be an enemy to Winnetou, but through various occasions where their paths cross, they develop a mutual interest in one another.
György Ferenc Tóth points out, that “[a]t the core of Old Shatterhand’s alliance with the
Apache is attraction. Karl is immediately drawn the ‘noble’ appearance and behaviour of Winnetou, and he later finds that the feeling is mutual” (Tóth 23). The focus in Karel
May’s books is on Indianers. The term Indianer refers to the German image of Native
Americans, not the contemporary image of “Indians”.3 Winnetou would be the prime example of what an Indianer is. The Indianer concept is very much based on the concept of the “noble savage”. This term is commonly associated with the 18th century philosopher named Jean Jacques Rousseau. His concept presupposes that though men were born noble in the first place, they became corrupted by the modern-day progress.
Some academics claim that Rousseau was not the initial author of the term, but they can agree on that he conveyed in such a way that it was thereafter generally associated with his name. Nevertheless, for this study, the very concepts, and definitions of “noble savage” (especially the newer version of the term), are more important than the myth’s origin. In the 19th century when the colonization of Native American lands was at its peak, the concept got twisted the other way around and Native Americans were seen as the savage people who need civilization in order to survive. Those Natives who were accepting of the terms, technologies, religion, and new way of life were considered
“noble savages”. Those who refused were labeled “ignoble savages”. Their practices and lack of values of law, government, etc. were seen as “ignoble”, and the Native
Americans were seen as “barriers to civilization and progress” (The “Indian Problem”
3 The term “Indian” is used here to illustrate the difference between Indianer and Indian. The term “Indian” represents the perception that the mainstream public has of Native people. 9
00:05:42 - 00:05:44). This concept is thoroughly used within the Winnetou series, where the members of the other tribes are “ignoble savages”, whereas Winnetou would be the perfect example of a “noble savage”. The newest edition of the “noble savage”, according to D. Waldron and J. Newton, is perceived with a “sublime and romantic desires” (Waldron and Newton 69) that feeds directly into the images that hobbyism chooses to perpetuate: “Gillian Cowlishaw chooses the concept of ‘mythologizing culture’ to refer to discourses about Indigenous that highlight suffering and, as an antidote, justify protection and rejuvenation of traditional culture” (Waldron and
Newton 69). Helen Gardner, an associate professor of history at Deakin University, in her article “Explainer: The Myth of the Noble Savage”, where she aims to map the evolution of the term “noble savage”, adds that in the New Age Romanticism,
“Indigenous peoples are credited with special powers, such as healing or enhanced spirituality. New Age practitioners might seek to recreate or dance through Indigenous ceremonies, often with little idea of their original meaning” (“Explainer: The Myth of the Noble Savage”).
The German and Czech hobbyists are inclined to feel connected to this concept of “noble savage”, because they believe they share a similar fate both historically and culturally wise. The first link that might have caused this collective feeling of oppression dates back to the Roman empire era. In an article “Karl May and the Origins of a German Obsession” Michael Kimmelman attributes the origins of German feeling of this shared fate to early German tribes: “The Roman historian Tacitus described
German tribes as uncorrupted, primitive, fierce and at one with nature, a people on the edge of a corrupt and voracious empire.” (Kimmelman). The Seven Years War, which has been briefly mentioned earlier in the thesis, is another incentive for this shared fate phenomenon. Susan Zantop, who was a German American political scientist and
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Germanist, sees the end of 18th century as another, and more recent, event for the development of this collective feeling of oppression and shared fate:
Susan Zantop suggests that towards the end of the eighteenth century, “when the
German states were trying to redefine themselves against imperial(ist) France,” a
“collective sense of inferiority, resulting from military and political defeat” led
to the German people forming “a collective identification with ‘the Indian’ as
the underdog” (qtd. in Broughton 19)
Common event for both countries is the political situation and the state of the society after the World War II. Germans, after the World War II., were occupied by the
Americans, who set various regulations that were vastly hampering the sense of freedom in Germany. Similarly, Czechs were occupied by Germans during the World
War II., and by the Soviets after the World War II. Among the hobbyists from the
Czech Republic the occupation by the Soviets, and the era of Communism are the biggest links to the presupposition that they share similar oppression as Native people do. Lastly, the Czech hobbyists feel connected to the fact that Native Americans are fighting to restore their language, because Czechs too, in the 15th century, the Czech language was declared inferior by the Habsburg re-catholicization, and it was not until the 18th century when Czech language was restored and continued to develop. Jürgen
Michaelis, a German hobbyist interviewed by Michael Kimmelman, stated states “‘It was a little bit of adventure, an escape and romantic,’... ‘From the books I saw it was a hard life being an Indian, and I identified with that. Indians could handle any situation with no resources, just like here. All this put the flame in me.’” (qtd. in Kimmelman).
There is a certain level of cultural escapism involved, that helps the people cope with the aftermath of the events like World War II., for example, or sometimes even by the status of (post)modern society. Hartman Lutz claims that “‘there’s a certain
11 escapism...Being German is not very comfortable. Sometimes it’s easier to identify with the victims of history. You can almost forget you belong to the nation of the victimizer.’” (qtd. in Gerson) It might seem that this escapism negates this feeling of shared fate, mentioned above, but Erina Duganne, in her essay “Becoming ‘Der
Indianer’: Andrea Robbins and Max Becher’s German Indians” argues that this sense of shared fate and identification is enforced rather than negated by this escapism: “Besides assigning the motivation for this practice as a response to Europe’s history of colonization and genocide, particularly Germany’s fascist ideologies, including Nazism,
Churchill has likewise derided German hobbyism as a form of cultural ‘escapism’ that serves to link, not distance, its practitioners from this troubling past” (Duganne 157).
Winnetou and Old Shatterhand connect both the link and the form of cultural escapism together, because of the brotherly love that they have for one another, because each of them adopt pieces of each other’s culture, and together they fight against the oppression of bandits and other tribes. So not only the first impulses began as early as 15th century but also were strengthened by the pre and post war situations in both countries. The two main reasons behind the infatuation with Native cultures can be attributed to Karl May’s
Winnetou and later by the state of (post) modern society in both Czech Republic and
Germany. In addition, one of the reasons for the infatuation with Native cultures could be attributed to this feeling of shared fate, created by the “troubling past” in both countries.
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2. Indianthusiasm in Czech and German Contexts
This chapter explains what hobbyism is and aims to highlight the diversity among the hobbyists and to show the complexity and infrastructure of their groups/clubs. More specifically, the difference between the approach some hobbyist groups choose to perpetuate the Native cultures with. The difference in the approach toward the Native cultures will then be closely examined in chapter four, which is devoted to the two documentaries of Searching for Winnetou and If Only I Were an
Indian. In order to provide sufficient background information on the phenomenon of hobbyism, it is important to establish what the term of “Indian hobbyism” means and what the intentions of the groups that practice hobbyism are. From the research conducted, the term refers to people who actively imitate or perform Native American cultures. This applies to the Wild West fantasies based on Karl May’s fiction as well, because his concepts are only loosely based on the Native American cultures. There are some common features that these hobbyists share. The hobbyists, Colin F. Taylor claims, are predominantly male, but it is not uncommon for children and women to be involved; they are usually blue collar workers (Collin 562); most of these individuals have a romanticized view on the Wild West culture and Indigenous life, and the focus of their interest is more on the culture of the Plain Indians.4 Hartmut Lutz, who is teaching a course in German Indianthusiasm at the University of Calgary and interviewed in the documentary Searching For Winnetou documentary, has coined a term for this phenomenon as — Indianthusiasm, which is a more acceptable term among the hobbyist groups, as many of them dislike the term “hobbyist”. 5
4 Plain Indians are the tribes who used to live on the Great Plains of North America.
5 The term “hobbyist” or “hobbyism” is used thought the whole essay without any derogatory intentions or meanings. 13
One of the aims of this thesis is to show the difference between the groups presented in the documentaries. The two documentaries, If Only I Were an Indian and
Searching for Winnetou, show parallels between the business-oriented hobbyist group and the grassroot group that is more concerned with the authenticity. In his book
Playing Indian, Philip J. Deloria introduces various types of hobbyists, categorizing them by their traits, the difference in the approach towards the authenticity of their acts, but also by their involvement in commercialism and commodification of Native
American products. He names one of the groups “hobbyists”, “(super)hobbyists” or
“People hobbyists”, “who attempt to establish and keep a direct contact with some
Native band, community and/or individual and consider authentication by Natives desirable and even dance with Indians and participate in rituals” (Kádár 100). The second type Deloria identifies are the “powwow Indians” and “weekend warriors”, who
“do the opposite in the fear of non-authentication, non-validation” (Kádár 100), meaning they do not seek contacts with the Native people, nor they are concerned with authenticity of their acts. Other scholars in the field use Deloria’s model for labeling the hobbyists in their works as well and add own observations to the categorization. For example, Tóth F.György acknowledges Deloria’s categorization, but offers a more simplistic definition and labeling of the groups:
...Deloria distinguished between two groups of hobbyists. ‘Object hobbyists’
replicated Indian artifacts as their objects of desire without engaging living
Indians, who they considered part of the past and racially other. ‘People
hobbyists’ engaged in intercultural contact with live Indians on the powwow
circuit and negotiated the differences between Native agency and Euro-
American imagination. (Tóth 26)
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While other academics do not come up with names or terms to label the types of hobbyists, they too see the diversity among the members of hobbyist clubs. For example as Penny H. Glenn writes:
Members of hobby clubs have always ranged from part-time participants
interested mostly in socialization and play to dedicated enthusiasts focused on
the minutia of material culture, the intricacies of microhistory, and the political
plight of contemporary tribes. (Glenn 191)
Therefore, according to this categorization, the Czech group introduced in If Only I
Were an Indian fit the “people’s hobbyist” category, while the hobbyists shown in
Searching for Winnetou documentary fit the “powwow Indians and weekend warriors” category presented by Deloria. The business-oriented German group and the Czech grassroot group were both influenced by Karel May and his romanticized Wild West fantasy. The difference is that the Czech hobbyist group views Karel May’s romanticized image and fiction as a starting point, rather than the final product of their act and focus more on the authenticity, seeking further knowledge and perfection in their craft while there is no focus on the commercial and business values in their act.
German hobbyists embrace Karl May’s version of the Indianer, using his fictional perception of Native cultures, and occasionally mixing in bits and pieces of real Native cultures, but usually not in the right context. The popularity and fame of Karl May’s works reinforces the commercial aspect of hobbyism. With hundreds of imported goods, plain commercial replicas, or items created by the “tribes” in Germany, the focus is more on the business rather than authenticity. While trying to search the internet for some Czech shops that advertise Native paraphernalia, I was only able to trace a few of them, certainly not so many as with the German counterpart. The number of German
15 hobbyist groups is estimated to be over 40,000 of people interested (Lopinto) and, from what I could find, there are merely around 1,000 of Czech hobbyists (Spálený).
The groups have their own organizations such as Indian Corral Westerners
International (ICWI), which is one of the Czech organizations that was created after
1989. It is an official organization for all the Czech Indian enthusiast and “hobbyist” groups. There are also unofficial groups that promote their own views on the hobbyism, but all these groups fall under The Woodcraft League of Czech Republic. The following section explains why the ICWI members choose to imitate Native cultures. The ICWI website states that:
It is more about learning as much as the members can about the culture of
Native Americans and trying to apply it in the modern world. They are interested
in the history, culture of both material and spiritual sort but also contemporary
issues of Native American communities. For them discovering the essence of
Native American culture is by their own words “trial and error” and “an
interactive game”. They acknowledge that the Native American culture is not
extinct, that it is evolving, expanding and changing and that a lot of Czech
people are interested in that. Some of the members actively visit USA or Canada
and are in contact with various members of contemporary Native American
tribes. (About the Association)
Indian Corral Westerners International is a part of the worldwide association of
Westerners International, located in Oklahoma USA and they recreate the American
West settings. In Germany, there are also official and unofficial groups, as C. G.
Calloway has mapped in Germans and Indians: Fantasies, Encounters, Projections
(2002):
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Today, two umbrella organizations exist, one in each part of the formerly
divided Germany: the Western bund (Western Association) in the old Federal
Republic and the Indianistik-bund (Indianist Union) in the erstwhile German
Democratic Republic. In 1998 the Western Association had a membership of
156 clubs, while 53 clubs are affiliated with the Indianist Union. The main
difference between the Western Association and the Indianist Union is the
exclusive focus on Indian cultures in the latter, whereas the former comprises a
wide range of identifications with anything Western. (Calloway 223)
These organizations are still active today, and for example, the Western Association actively participates in the events of the Karl May Museum in Germany. As is stated on their website, they involve even groups from other countries: “The Western-Bund eV was founded in 1969. At that time, the goal was to ensure the organization of the meeting known as the Indian Council, which had been organized by individual associations since 1951. The Western Bund represents member associations from
Germany, Switzerland and France” (Western -Bund e.V.). There are, of course, German hobbyist groups very similar to The Woodcraft League of the Czech Republic, that deal only with the authentic, such as Blackfoot Tribes in Düren. One of their leaders says in an interview: “We deal intensively with the authentic history of the Indians,” explains
Frank Degen, the ‘finance minister’ of the tribe. For Frank Degen, the emphasis is on the word ‘authentic’: “The Indian stories by Karl May are only legends for us. We are dealing with the real story” (Zirke). What is interesting is that both these groups state on their websites that they are well aware of the contemporary issues and are trying to stay away from the stereotypes. Many of the other websites from different hobbyist groups sometimes do state that their utmost desire is to be as authentic as possible, however, many times it is not the case.
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The “weekend warriors” congregate in places like Pullman City in Bavaria or El
Dorado in Berlin which are essentially Western style theme parks which host events like the “Indian Week”, provide stores with “authentic Indian wares”, and stage shows in honor of Karl May, in which non-Native actors play “Indians” in the Winnetou style.
There are also Cowboy shows and reenactments of Wild West shows that do not include imitators of Native cultures, but the biggest events are those with the “authentic Indian” themes. Kádár J. Agnes addresses this need for show behavior with Native cultures by saying that “they consider Indians ethnographic objects to read about and take pictures of, so these so-called object hobbyists reinforce the vanishing Indian attitude with their very approach to Native American culture” (Kádár 100). In contrast to the “weekend warriors” category, the “powwow Indians” (Kádár 100) differ in the manner of seriousness they put into their activities. Unlike the “weekend warriors” who, to my understanding, attend only the types of events such as the “Indian Week” in the Pullman
City to participate in the game of playing Indians, the “powwow Indians” have a sense of community. The “powwow Indians” hobbyists are a mix of the “weekend warriors” and “people hobbyists” categories, as they profess their admiration to Native cultures, yet they do celebrate and promote mostly the stereotypical images of Karl May’s fiction and occasionally mix in some of the more realistic Native features, nevertheless, authenticity is not their concern. There are business-oriented groups that promote Native cultures in the Czech Republic as well. They promote Native cultures in the forms of
“Wild West Towns”, which are fairly popular, but they are not as big in term of visitors and facilities as their German counterparts. In his article “‘He Scarcely Resembles the
Real Man’: images of the Indian in Popular Culture”, Brendan Frederick R. Edwards does not necessarily observes different styles of hobbyists, but captures the mixing of
Karl May’s fiction with Native cultures:
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Indian Hobbyist clubs in Central and Eastern Europe are common. Participants
not only dress like [Karl] May’s conception of Plains Indians, but also profess to
live by ‘Indian Values.’ Events vaguely resemble traditional Aboriginal
powwows, featuring several teepees, wigwams, and sweat lodges. European
hobbyists gather most of their information and ideas from textbooks of May,
supplemented with details from anthropological and historical texts. More than
simple fun, hobbyists take such events very seriously, often objecting to scrutiny
or observation of outsiders. (Edwards)
Considering the findings so far, the thesis so far has identified two different approaches to hobbyism among the hobbyist groups. One focuses on the authenticity when perpetuating the Native cultures and learning something from the other cultures, and the other, which focuses less on the authenticity and more on the commercial values and entertainment. These approaches are present in both Germany and Czech Republic hobbyist groups, however, the business-oriented approach seems to be represented more in Germany, as the interest there seems to be much bigger in terms of numbers of participants and the staging of the Native cultures than in Czech Republic.
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3. Cultural Appropriation vs. Cultural Appreciation
As the topic of cultural appropriation is rather complex, this chapter aims to provide an overview of what the term stands for and provide examples of cultural appropriation to illustrate the complexity and thin line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. Cultural appropriation has become a common occurrence and it is a topic of heated discussions not only among the scholars, but also in the fashion world, movies, music videos, etc. It can be sometimes very unclear what a cultural appropriation is, as sometimes even eating food from a different culture is labeled as cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation refers to adopting elements of one culture by members of another culture, or as Michael F. Brown in Who Owns the Native
Culture? states, it is “when personal information (or for that matter, information associated with clearly defined groups) is appropriated by others for their benefit, the victims suffer both emotional distress and economic deprivation, at least relative to the economic gain enjoyed by the appropriators” (Brown 38). R. A. Rogers points out that after 15 years of research he could find only one source with a clear definition that could potentially be applicable to all instances of cultural appropriation. Rogers categorizes cultural appropriation into 4 categories, and argues that using someone else’s culture for personal gains is not the criteria for determining whether it is an instance of cultural appropriation or not:
1. Cultural exchange: the reciprocal exchange of symbols, artifacts, rituals,
genres, and/or technologies between cultures with roughly equal levels of power.
2. Cultural dominance: the use of elements of a dominant culture by members of
a subordinated culture in a context in which the dominant culture has been
imposed onto the subordinated culture, including appropriations that enact
resistance. 20
3. Cultural exploitation: the appropriation of elements of a subordinated culture
by a dominant culture without substantive reciprocity, permission, and/or
compensation.
4. Transculturation: cultural elements created from and/or by multiple cultures,
such that identification of a single originating culture is problematic, for
example, multiple cultural appropriations structured in the dynamics of
globalization and transnational capitalism creating hybrid forms. (Rogers 477)
To illustrate why it might be so difficult to apply the definitions of cultural appropriation, I have decided to include practical examples that debated whether it is a case of cultural appropriation or not. In the following examples there are different levels in how serious they are in terms of cultural appropriation to offer a more critical view on the phenomenon. A seemingly innocent example is the pop singer Justin Bieber wearing dreadlocks debated in a YouTube video named “Bieber’s dreadlocks:
Appropriation or appreciation? - BBC Newsnight”. Emma Dabiri, a teacher at School of
Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) and a visual sociology researcher, argues that it is a cultural appropriation as dreadlocks are a part of African cultural heritage, and it is not okay to be wearing them without understanding the history behind it. If one is to wear dreadlocks it is important to acknowledge their cultural background and not wear it because it is fashionable. However, after researching more into the topic to provide better constructive argument for this instance of cultural appropriation, I have stumbled upon a video from a user “Kris McDred”, who has a channel where he discusses African
American history. In one of his videos titled “Can White people have dreadlocks?”,
McDred explains that dreadlocks form naturally therefore cannot be claimed by a culture. He then adds that dreadlocks can be worn only if earned in certain African tribes. Another instance of an example of cultural appropriation was brought up by Ian
21
Dunt, who participated in the same debate with Emma Dabiri as her “opponent”. He stated that Elvis took the concept of blues and started rock-n-roll, that we all enjoy and love, and therefore cultural appropriation is actually a positive thing for people to share and mix their culture for everyone to enjoy. Emma Dabiri argues that it is not necessarily about that Elvis took the concept, it is that he is claimed to be the sole owner of it, aka king of rock n roll, erasing the fact that it arose from African American struggle and concepts of music. It might not seem that important, especially in the example with Elvis, but the fact that Elvis never claimed to have invented rock-n-roll and that he was inspired by other artists, most of which were of African American descent, creates this public notion that omits these connections and erases the part the
African American culture played in creating the rock-n-roll genre. All Elvis did was he exposed wide range of people to rock-n-roll, and in public’s eye (to those who do not necessarily want to learn about the origins of the genre) he is the first “king” of the genre. Another example of cultural appropriation would be Selena Gomez wearing bindi while performing in a public concert. In 2013 Selena Gomez performed with bindi on her forehead wearing a Hindu inspired dress. Bindi is a red dot that serves as religious symbol, and also symbolizes a third eye “serving as a constant reminder to keep God at the center of one’s thoughts” (Shuvi Jha) in India. It is a religious symbol of Hindu, and therefore not to be used out of context or by someone who is not a part of that cultural group. Nevertheless, as Shuvi Jha suggest, the bindi is now being used in all shapes and forms, acting as more of an accessory. She also suggests that people should not use this without at least learning all the background information behind the symbol. The justifications for participating in cultural appropriation follow the same pattern, there is always a counterargument or some sort of a condition, like learn about the meaning of it first, then you may use it, etc. However, I would dare to state that to apply the same
22 kind of approach to Native peoples that have been systematically robbed of their culture until the 19th century is wrong and cannot be justified with similar arguments like the ones stated previously.
One of the most common appropriations is Native symbolism such as names of sports teams or stereotypical Native logos in teams like Washington Redskins, Ottawa
Tomahawks, even in hockey teams in Europe, like HC Plzeň who have a Native person wearing a big feathered headdress in their logo. The most infamous case of Native peoples struggles to stop this stereotypical imagery is with the Washington Redskins.
The Redskins have been asked to change their name of the team because, as the protestors state, it involves a racist slur within the name. As in the previous examples, there is a variety to the opinions amongst the Natives regarding this topic, because some members of the community do not feel offended by this. As shown for example in “I’m happy to be a Redskin” from Washington Post, some Native people shown in the video are genuinely proud to be associated with the term “redskin”. The logo also involves eagle feathers, which to some tribes is a very sacred imagery, not to mention the Native person in the logo is painted red. Not only does it diminish the meaning behind sacred objects, but it also provides open space for racial slurs and stereotypical images to take hold, or rather to amplify the racist treatment that comes with such images. The struggle with the team sports is to get rid of the mascots that dance during pre-games at sports events, dressed from head to toe in traditional (sometimes fictional) Native outfits, cheering up crowds with various war cries, and stereotypical “dances” which are supposed to represent traditional dances and Native representation in the logos of the team that are often times very disrespectful or inaccurate. The former APA (American
Psychological Association) President Ronald F. Levant, EdD states that “[t]hese mascots are teaching stereotypical, misleading and too often, insulting images of
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American Indians“ (Levant). The use of symbols like the feathered headbands, even sacred rituals of sweat lodges or smoking of the ceremonial pipe are the most common examples/cases of cultural appropriations that are common even outside of the United
States or Canada. These images / symbols of people who do not belong into the Native cultures are keeping up the stereotypes of Natives and create a false image about
Natives in America, Canada, and Europe.
One of the reasons why cultural appropriation of Native objects and cultures is so widespread might be because of the stereotype of the vanishing race. It is a myth that
Native people are dying out, as they are unable to adapt to the modern society and progress. Those who have survived have been stripped of their original Native cultures and therefore are not seen as the “real Indians6”. In “The Myth of the Vanishing Race”
David R. M. Beck claims:
This imagery had long been a part of popular culture, but the massacre at
Wounded Knee in 1890 and the end of the Plains Indian wars, Frederick Jackson
Turner's 1893 announcement that the American Frontier had closed, and the
federal attempts to forcefully eradicate Indian culture and assimilate Indians into
American society all converged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to
firmly cement that imagery as a myth of a vanishing race, with the notion that
Indians are historical features of an American landscape, not functioning
members in a modern society . (Beck 4)
The stereotype was spread, among other things, through novels such as James Fenimore
Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, where Uncas, one of the last members of the
Mohican tribe, dies and Chingachgook, the other member of the Mohican tribe, is too
6 The term “real Indian” refers to the stereotypical image of how Indian looks in the perception of the public. 24 old to further his creed. Even one of the more recent movies, Hostiles (2017), perpetuates the stereotype through the ending in which a group of Natives fight the white oppressors over a land, until there is only a young Native boy left. He is then taken by train to a town, dressed in fashionable clothes, symbolizing his transformation into a person of the society. There is one event that needs to be added to the list of events mentioned by Beck, and that is finding and death of Ishi, the last of the Yahi tribe. Ishi’s tribe has undergone a genocide during the California Gold Rush (1848-
1855), and Ishi was the sole survivor. After he was found, he was put into a museum where he was studied, and became very popular among academics, but also among the general public. His death in the year of 1916 was the supposed marking of ending of the
“real Indian”. The most notorious propagator of the vanishing race myth, however, is
Edward S. Curtis and his collection of photographs in the namesake album The
Vanishing Race. Curtis paid Natives to pose and dance in several staged settings that would evoke the feeling that Natives are disappearing: “Curtis used ‘not only “phony” costumes, additions, and poses,’ observed James Faris in Navajo and Photography, ‘but indeed, in some cases actual phony Navajo…’ He removed parasols, suspenders, wagons, the actual traces of modernism and material culture in his pictures of natives”
(qtd. in Handley and Lewis). With the perception that Natives are disappearing, it labels the culture as free for the taking, since there is no one left to object against that, or to object against any adaptations, or fantasies, that could be derived from the originals.
In addition, the myth was enforced largely by the fact that there was no copyright for the Native imagery until the 19th century. With the continuous appropriation of Native cultures by non-Native people, Natives sought to protect their heritage through legal powers. It was usually through various acts like National Historic
Preservation Act of 1966, which allows for certain areas to be identified as part of
25
Native American heritage, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, which aims to protect and preserve the beliefs of Native Americans. Native Americans also formed official organizations like National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) created in 1944. which is “deeply concerned with the repatriation of Native American human remains and funerary objects, the vigorous enforcement of the Indian Arts &
Crafts Act, and the revitalization of Native languages” (Cultural Protection &
NAGPRA). For example, the NCAI employed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990 which assures that any Native American items or human remains found in the US are to be given back to tribes which they belong to. Lastly, the Indian Arts & Crafts Act (IACA), which was also enacted in
1990, aims to protect tribal cultural resources by preventing the sale of goods produced by non-Natives and advertised as authentic Native goods. Unfortunately, as NCAI websites informs, the IACA has been ineffective because of the lack of proper enforcement from the government and low penalties for the entrepreneurs who got caught in the act of selling the “authentic” goods. Therefore, Natives are trying to protect their culture any way they can. Since it is common to have Native styled accessories, selling these artifacts is a big business. This is where hobbyism comes in, because it promotes this business and is a big consumer at the same time. By using sacred artifacts like feathered headdresses or ceremonial pipes, it creates a lot of controversy. Fern Mathias, a leader of American Indian Movement in Southern
California, reacted to this phenomenon and urged officials to regulate the use of all
Indian symbols, especially religious ones.
Just because the Indians didn’t have copyright laws doesn’t mean others can take
and use their symbols,” she said. She continued: “We, as Indian people, never
had to regulate fairness, dignity and respect. It came naturally. But we live in
26
America, in the modern age, and we have to protect ourselves. We need to make
a list of Indian symbols, especially the religious ones, that should be excluded
from commercial use. We need to create an awareness of these symbols and
explain why it is offensive to use them. Every company and official organization
needs to be furnished with such a list so there will not be the excuse of pleading
ignorance. (qtd. in Brown 80)
There is a very fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. To define cultural appreciation is much more elusive, as it depends on what does one wants to use from another culture, why, and how the particular culture views it. It involves researching the background of the particular culture, the collective history of given culture, so that one could determine that the cultural element is okay to use. It should also involve the people of that culture, which is probably the most important step. Rosanna Deerchild, a Canadian Cree writer states that cultural appreciation is “truly honor[ing] our nation’s art and cultures. You take the time to learn and interact, to gain an understanding of a culture or cultures, different from your own”
(Cultural Appropriation vs. Appreciation 00:02:43-00:02:50). The right intentions do not necessarily mean it is a case of appreciation, as Rogers has stated. Cultural appreciation could perhaps be classified as a form of cultural exchange, to put it into the categorization list by R.A. Rogers, that is based on mutual respect and dignity. The problem is that if one is to judge someone, it is impossible to know what their intentions are, or if the person has done the research to pass the conditions that would tip the scales to the side of cultural appreciation unless they a proper study is conducted. That is why the Native visitors in the documentaries of Searching for Winnetou and If Only I Were an Indian go and see the communities of hobbyists for themselves, to see where they stand. The aim of this chapter was to illustrate the complexity of the term cultural
27 appropriation and its application on various examples, along with Native responses to cultural appropriation of some of their cultural elements. The fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation is possibly of biggest relevance, since it is one of the thesis questions for this research. Because of this ambiguity when it comes to the question of whether hobbyism is a harmful form of cultural appropriation, it is important to bring more attention to studying the hobbyist groups, and see how and why they choose to imitate the Native cultures.
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4. Winnetou meets the “Indian”
This chapter is devoted to the analysis of the two documentaries of Searching for Winnetou (2018) and If Only I Were an Indian (1995). Both documentaries portray encounters between Natives and hobbyists, and present lay out of various issues with hobbyism. The chapter first introduces the documentaries, pointing out some of the key issues that the documentaries portray. A closer examination of these issues, a comparison between the two documentaries, and elaboration of the more complicated issues like commodification, commercialization, appropriating the Native cultures, or the perpetuation of the stereotypes will follow in the next chapter of this thesis. 4.1. The Legacy of Winnetou
The documentary Searching for Winnetou directed by Drew Hayden Taylor and written by Paul Kemp. Released 28 January 2018, it explores the phenomenon of
German hobbyism. It features Drew Hayden Taylor, an Anishinaabe playwright, author and journalist. Hayden Taylor the explores controversy surrounding hobbyism, such as the ways in which Karl May romanticized the American West, as well as the Indianers who tend to appropriate the elements of actual Native heritage, which are, as Hayden
Taylor himself admits, not used in the right context. The documentary maps many interesting and essential parts of German hobbyism such as the origins of hobbyism, which are tied to popular Karl May’s Winnetou novels, the commercialization and commodification of Native cultures present in hobbyism, and the extent of cultural appropriation of Native cultures.
In his search for the reasons behind Germany’s obsession with Native cultures,
Hayden Taylor travels to Bavaria, to a fictional town called Pullman City. Pullman City, as mentioned earlier, mainly serves as a tourist attraction; described as a “living
29
Western Town” (“Wild West Adventure”) which hosts various Western shows and once a year there is an “Indian Week” in which people celebrate the romanticized Wild West life, as well as Karl May’s legacy. To form an opinion on hobbyism, Hayden Taylor interviews several German hobbyists who share their motivations as to why they chose to engage in imitative Native cultures. The first of the interviewees, Astrid Gessler, claims that “for some people it is only a hobby” (00:13:29 – 00:13:32). She refers to people who buy Native paraphernalia such as headdresses. She calls them “Hollywood
Indians” and dismisses them as not the real representatives of the cultures, whereas for
Astrid it is a serious matter, a “lifestyle” (00:13:35 – 00:13:50). Another of the interviewees, Hans Jurgen Kelter, states that “[he] play[s] Indian ... [he] love[s] this lifestyle and that’s it” (00:19:40 – 00:20:05). He confesses that he dresses up only once a year during the festivals in Pullman City. The implication is that for Hans, it is not exactly a “lifestyle”, but more of a fun thing to be participating in. There is an interesting dynamic between various participants in these festivals which prove
Deloria’s categorization of the hobbyists: Astrid would fall into the “powwow Indians” category, while Hans is rather a “weekend warrior”. On the other hand, later in the documentary Drew Hayden Taylor interviews hobbyists who reside, as one of the hobbyists describes it, in an “authentic area” of Pullman City. This authentic area is advertised on the Pullman City website as “inhabited and run by private people. These buildings and outdoor areas are built and designed as authentically as possible using their own funds” (“The Authentic & History Area”). These hobbyists seem to be taking hobbyism more seriously than the participants in the Wild West shows, like Astrid and
Hans, they focus on the more authentic representation of Native cultures, fitting the category of “(super) hobbyists”. One of these hobbyists is Christian Lommer, who says that “[f]or [him] it is not a carnival, [he is] interested in the real story” (00:21:41-
30
00:21:45). He states that he loved Winnetou as a kid, and continues with addressing the
Native history of oppression a little bit, namely the killings and taking of land: “white men came from Europe and killed them and took their land” (00:21:18- 00:21:25). He then proceeds to express that he feels connected the historical background of Natives too, because “a little bit like a farmer [he] can imagine what it means if anybody took
[his] land ” (00:21:31 – 00:21:34). He says this not only from a standpoint of a farmer, but he also speaks of the shared fate — one that Tacitus has been referring to. Christian is trying to identify with Natives, with the oppression and historical injustices, but even though there is evidence of similar historical events, such as the oppression of the
German tribes, World War II., etc., this identification is not justified as I believe that non-Native people can hardly imagine what it feels like to be a victim of systematic racism. In addition, Christian is also one of the hobbyists whose interest in the Native cultures made him travel to the USA and visit contemporary Native communities. Many hobbyists and participants have never been to America and have no idea how contemporary Natives live. Even though Christian has learned about some of the contemporary problems with alcohol, drugs and suicides during his stay in the USA, and has witnessed how contemporary Natives live, it did not change his mind about his hobby. The visit, however, shattered his image of the “real Indian”, taken up from Karl
May’s books, which he shows by saying: “Where are the proud Natives? Hope they will come back again” (00:22:18 – 00:22:23), probably referring to the image or an idea that he had about how contemporary Natives look like / live.
Another topic that keeps recurring in the documentary is the appropriation of
Native symbols and elements of cultures. Appropriation, in this context means that the objects were either placed out of context in which they are supposed to be, or completely misplaced not only from the context, but also from the culture of that
31 specific tribe. These appropriations are closely related to the process of commodification in hobbyism because the various artefacts are often sold at shops, worn by the hobbyists, or used as decorations. One such example in the documentary is when Drew Hayden Taylor encounters a wood-carved sculpture of what appears to be a
Mohawk warrior, situated near a pen where buffaloes are kept. He refers to this as an instance of pan-Indianism. Pan-Indianism was created essentially as a reaction to
Christianity by trying to preserve aspects of traditional Indigenous cultures. Pan-
Indianism may be loosely defined as “the process of synthesizing the collective spiritual reality and Traditional wisdom of more than one Native American Nation, but not necessarily all of them” (Robbins) or, as writer and educator at Faculty of Native
Studies at the University of Alberta, Chelsea Vowel, puts it: “You may hear about a woman’s moon-time, tobacco offerings, burning sage or sweetgrass or cedar when smudging. There is a common ‘lingo’ at play that is easily picked up as being common to all aboriginal peoples, regardless of which nation you are actually from” (“Pan-
Indianism, Pan-Métisism”). Buffalo was hunted by the tribes that lived on the Great
Plains and were nomadic, so that they could follow the herds easily. However, the
Mohawk tribe is part of Northeast Woodland and they were primarily farmers. Thus, the image mixes together cultural elements from various tribes into one image of Natives — that of the warrior hunting buffalo, completely disregarding the variety and complexity of the Native cultures. Then there are symbols which are there purely to attract tourists and perhaps some of the hobbyists as well. There are the “wooden tipis” in Pullman
City advertised as “An authentic teepee on the outside, cozy ambiance on the inside”
(“Wild West Adventure”). This again is an instance of commodification, but also of pan-Indianism because it also contributes to the stereotypical image that all Native people live in teepees, even though the wooden teepees have no representation in Native
32 culture, nevertheless they are presented as a piece of authentic Native culture, which they are, just not for all the tribes.
The documentary also shows a man called Hunting Wolf, who is a performer in the Wild West shows and has a shop with Native artefacts and paraphernalia in Pullman
City. He claims that he imports some of the Native products from America and sells them in Germany. In his shows, Hunting Wolf brings a herd of buffalo to the streets of
Pullman City and interacts with them by kneeling before the buffalo and putting his head onto the buffalo’s, showing off his “mystical” connection to the animal. He also owns an e-shop, where people can buy various items of Native theme. On the website of his e-shop and on the website of Pullman City, he is advertised as a “Cheyenne Half-
Blood”. Further research about Mr. Hunting Wolf has shown that there are articles that are promoting Hunting Wolf’s Cheyenne ancestry. Unfortunately, the articles have been pulled down from the websites of Pullman City. However, there is a thread on the
NAFPS (New Age Frauds & Plastic Shamans) site devoted solely to Hunting Wolf, where the articles are stored. In one of the articles, Hunting Wolf is advertised as follows: “Who could better speak of the Indians’ culture than Cheyenne Half-Breed
Hunting Wolf? He visits the reservations every year for an exchange with the Natives in
North America and to be able to pass on their knowledge to the people in Europe”
(Nello Messori aka “Hunting Wolf”). In the documentary of Searching for Winnetou he is described by Drew Hayden Taylor as someone who is infatuated with Indianer, implying that he is not of Native descend. So as a “representant of Cheyenne culture”,
Hunting Wolf is an example of commodification of Native cultures and a “plastic shaman”. This imagery is another instance of pan-Indianism; it is spreading the stereotype of Natives being very close to the nature and possess mythical healing
33 powers — relationship with bison and his “shaman” status, and also that one Native person can speak for the whole tribe and or community — Cheyenne ancestry.
In addition, Drew Hayden Taylor offers another reason behind the German infatuation with the Native lifestyle — the state of forests in Germany. Hayden Taylor observes they are very manicured, which does not create a sense of wilderness. In his experience, many Germans who to come Yukon for example, seek a sense of wilderness, of getting lost and being in a forest that is not so organized like them being controlled by government. On that note, one of the interviewees, Driftwood Holly claims that for him and many others the German country felt like a prison because of that control. He says that back in the 1960s, in East Germany, there were only political channels on TV and then sometimes movies like Winnetou, which was a must-see for everyone. Sussanne Spröer, the head of Culture Background editorial office at Deutsche
Welles, shares in her article about the infatuation of Germans with the Winnetou films, a similar experience with the wonders of the influence that the Winnetou films had.
Notably, an experience from one of the contributors to the article, Michael Petzel, the author of Karl May Lexicon and the director of Karl May archive in Göttingen:
“‘Christmas 1962 saw the premiere of Treasure of the Silver Lake, ... ‘That went over so well with young people in a way that's hard to imagine today. For three years, before
The Beatles and James Bond, the films defined the youth scene in Germany. They were very modern for the time. For us viewers, it was a departure into an unknown world.’”
(qtd. in Spröer) In other words, it is entirely possible that hobbyists cannot get the feeling of adventure and freedom when walking around the forest in Germany, because there is no sense of wilderness. There is a certain level of melancholy involved when everything seems to be controlled and that there is hardly any freedom for them, not even in the forest. This is by no means a feature that would apply to all hobbyists in
34
Germany, however there is a certain pattern that hobbyist in Germany have in common;
Karl May infatuation, no feeling of freedom and sense of shared fate with the Natives.
The most crucial for this thesis is the part where Drew Hayden Taylor interviews other Natives who live in Germany and asks them about German hobbyism. First, he interviews three Native American dancers who take part in the shows, Wesley Cleland,
Tracy Recolle and Lowery Begay, who have been participating and dancing in the
Pullman City festivals. All three agree that hobbyism is not a form a cultural appropriation but more like an instance of cultural exchange. They perceive hobbyism and the infatuation with Native American culture in Germany as a positive thing because in their view Germans are genuinely interested in Native cultures. The Germans ask a lot of questions, seeking to discover more about the culture. Even though the question “Do you still live in teepees?”, that Wesley Cleland provides as an example of German interest, is conveyed rather comically in the documentary, reveals the lack of education about Native cultures, even though it is the hobbyist’s field of interest. The Native
American performers see it as an opportunity to dispel these misconceptions about their cultures and educate the hobbyists about more contemporary issues and about the authentic Native cultures as well. Wesley Cleland’s only issue with hobbyists is that they wear some of the traditional sacred symbols, without knowing the purpose behind them. He states that they “might not know that you have to be given the right by a veteran to wear an eagle feather and that sort of thing [...] they skip that step” (00:36:15
- 00:36:25), and essentially demean the symbol to purely fashion level. For Wesley
Cleland, the Indian shows or hobbyists dressed up in Native paraphernalia in Pullman
City are something that “doesn’t upset [him] to an extent because [he] know[s] they are not coming from a place of hate or ignorance” (00:36:43 - 00:36:47). Tracy Recolle adds that she admires the products that the hobbyists make themselves, especially the
35 beadworks. She believes that the hobbyists “are very respectful, just, wanting to learn”
(00:37:16 – 00:37:22). For Lowery Begay, the most important aspect of hobbyism is that he feels more welcomed in Germany than in America. He says that “[he] [doesn’t] have that sense of racism here [...] they know they are not Indian, they want to play being
Indian, they want to live the old way [...] but at least learn [it] in a proper way and a respectful way” (00:38:00-00:38:18). Lowery Begay says he is willing to teach the hobbyists a proper way of cherishing Native cultures, as long as they are willing to learn and adjust their image of Natives.
In contrast, the documentary also portrays a more skeptical view on the hobbyist scene. Red Haircrow, a writer, an educator, a psychologist and a filmmaker of Native
(Chiricahua Apache/Cherokee) and African American heritage has been living in
Germany for a long time and he is fighting to change the image that people in Germany have of Native people and the Indianer image. He says that this glorification of Natives in their traditional outfits has dark undercurrents of racism, which he calls a “rock star treatment” (00:39:06). It is the treatment which the actors in the films or shows, as well as contemporary Natives receive in Germany, but only as long as they are dressed up in the traditional outfits. When they behave as contemporary Natives, the attention fades. It perpetuates the stereotypes and archetypes created by Karl May of the noble Indianer and that, according to Red Haircrow, needs to be changed. He claims that hobbyists “are taking away, [they] are using people without their permission, for [their] own self- gratification and this is just continuing colonialism practice” (00:39:23-00:39:33), that began with Columbus arriving to America.
After his brief survey, Drew Hayden Taylor then expresses his opinion on the hobbyism, which he feels rather conflicted about. On the one hand, he likes the fact that hobbyism is spreading the notion about Native cultures, even though it is not always as
36 authentic as it should be. On the other hand, Taylor does not agree with using elements of Native cultures in a different context, or the use itself in general, as they are not to be taken lightly and just because it is fun to use them for the flashy displays: “On one hand, it is a cultural fetishism, I am somewhat uncomfortable about people parading around the German countryside in eagle feathered headdress just because it is fun and a way for them to find their inner Indian. Powwow dances and teepees are not cute symbols they are a link to a proud history, and they should be respected as so” (00:41:29-00:41:55).
Nevertheless, Drew Hayden Taylor feels that the German hobbyists are not bad people and that they have genuinely warm feelings for Natives and their cultures. They certainly lack proper education about the contemporary Natives, or even the history, but they know they will never be Native. He states that “[he] want[s] to correct the behavior, but that does not have to come from a place of anger, it can only come from a place of love [and] understanding” (00:42:28 - 00:42:35). But at the same time, he would like to alter the ways in which the hobbyists portray Native cultures. He does not approve of the commercialized images of some of the elements of Native cultures such as the wooden tipi hotels of Pullman City, and he disagrees with the romanticized image of the Indianer. In one of his articles, Hayden Taylor states that German hobbyists have this image of the Indianer in their head and they expect a person of Native American descend to look like one:
I have met people who eagerly dress like they imagine Native people do …
albeit not in jeans, t-shirts, sneakers and a fitbit watch we all recognize today on
your typical First Nation member. Instead, they dress in outfits more
recognizable from the mid-1800’s. Or, more accurately, more recognizable from
a movie set taking place in the mid-1880’s. Frequently, as is in real life, the
37
fantasy clashes with the reality. And just as frequently, I am often the bearer of
bad news. (“Should We Be Offended”) 4.2. A Quest for an Approval
The documentary If Only I Were an Indian (1995), written by John Paskievich and David Scheffel, directed by John Paskievich, follows a group of Czech and Slovak hobbyists lead by Daniel Hoffman or, as he calls himself, “Big Eagle”. The hobbyists are part of the organization The Woodcraft League of the Czech Republic (Liga Lesní
Moudrosti), introduced in the earlier chapters. They are visited by a Cree couple Joseph and Irene Young and an Ojibwe woman Barbara Daniels, who were sent by their tribe elders to see what this phenomenon of hobbyism is about and to evaluate the work of these hobbyist and essentially make a judgement from their perspective. Daniel
Hoffman admits his group is seeking approval from the Native visitors, and is convinced that they are not doing anything disrespectful. If the Native visitors were to disagree with the ways the hobbyists use the Native cultures, Hoffman claims that it would decrease the interest in the Native cultures among the hobbyists in Czech
Republic, and diminishing the growth of their association, as well as amplify the disapproval from the society they live in. Paskievich comments on this, in an interview before the launch of If Only I Were an Indian at the Winnipeg Art Gallery:
What emerges from these and other, similar encounters is that hobbyists
recognize their precarious position as surrogates and seek confirmation that they
are “getting it right.” For this reason many are eager to include American
Indians in their activities, quickly ceding to them positions of authority and
prestige in their subculture. (Interview: John Paskievich)
Throughout the documentary, the Native American visitors observe the day-to- day activities in the camp. Joseph Young is very impressed with the discipline that the 38 hobbyists show in their activities, for example, when he sees the hobbyists shooting targets with bow and arrow before the first meal of the day. The hobbyists also perform sacred rituals such as the ritual of the sweat lodge, which they built themselves, ceremonial smoking of a pipe, which was carved out by one of the members, and pow wow dances. Joseph Young was very surprised, if not shocked, when the hobbyists presented him with the sacred smoking pipe, because that is “something which is very sacred to [the] North American Natives” (00:10:52 - 00:10:57). Nevertheless, he does not seem to be angry or disapproving of it even though he sees non-Native people perform a highly sacred ritual. Instead, Joseph Young made several remarks on how different the music and dancing styles during the pow wow dances were, and he was trying to correct the execution and teach them how to adjust the beat of the drum for it to be more authentic. During the pow wow dancing, Joseph Young put on his traditional outfit and joined the hobbyists, however, the execution of the music was not adequate for him: “I found it somewhat frustrating, their beat was different. It was either too slow or too fast, I couldn’t follow it. But it must be hard to learn traditional dances from a book. You usually have to have a teacher and attend pow wows” (01:01:42-01:02:08).
He also adds that he would like to try and raise money for the hobbyists to come to their reserve to learn these rituals better, because here they are not able to learn such a thing.
Not only are the Native visitors trying to improve the way in which the hobbyist perform the rituals, but Barbara Daniels also teaches the hobbyist new things about the their culture, like the sacred circle ritual, which she refers to as “women sacred ceremonies” (00:35:20 - 00:35:23). This is a ritual performed by Native women to talk about and face the issues that are troubling them, such as drugs, domestic violence, etc.
The reason that the Native visitors are so generous and open in sharing their cultural heritage is probably because there is no commodification or commercialization involved
39 within the group. The hobbyists are doing it because they are seeking something that they cannot find in today’s society. Whether it is freedom, spirituality, or sense that they are part of something bigger than they would normally be in everyday life.
Similarly, as in the documentary of Searching for Winnetou, the hobbyists express the reasons behind their infatuation with Native cultures. Aside from the interest in Native American cultures sparked by Karl May’s fiction, one of the main arguments of the hobbyists for practicing hobbyism in Czechoslovakia was to defy communism.
During WWII and shortly after when the Czech Republic was under the Communist regime, activities like hobbyism were prohibited.
The earnest Czech practitioners, now free after the fall of communism, explain
that they are refugees from their own society, originally brought together years
ago by their fervent anti-communism. Coming from a society so destroyed by
the institutionalized isolation, distrust and spiritual bankruptcy of their
government, they chose to emulate a culture that focused instead on
interdependence and mutual trust. (Hamaker)
Before 1969 it was almost impossible to practice hobbyism in Czech Republic, as it was forbidden by the government after the World War II., so the groups could not openly express their admiration for the Native cultures. David Hoffmann explains that due to this fact, there is no one present from the older generation, because they just could not participate in similar activities like they do now, and that they are the so-called new generation. Hoffman strongly opposes communism, not only because of the ideology, but from a personal spite. He shares a story how he was beaten up by the police because of his appearance, a discrimination against other people’s beliefs and or choices7. “In
7 Hoffman’s Czech version of the speech is being translated by Dr. Emil Kucera, who is featured in the ending credits of the documentary. 40 our tribe, in addition to the interest in Indians, we got together originally as anti- communists completely disillusioned with life in our country and trying in some way, while not quite to overturn the regime, at least to throw a sand into the machine that run it” (00:19:50 - 00:20:04). Ladislav Kročák, or “Sun Dance Bear”, shares the same beliefs, and follows up by describing the period of communism era in Czechoslovakia.
He says there were lots of spies, people were telling on one another, therefore there was a lot of fear among people and also no freedom of speech, as everything that was considered dangerous to the regime was censored and the authors of the statements were persecuted. In addition, Ladislav Kročák also states that “Christianity has devastated the daily life with the relationship with God” (00:36:46 - 00:36:50), and because of that there is less value in the religious acts of everyday life. He says that Natives on the other hand, have a spiritual relationship with the nature and live in accord with the spirits in everything they do. The hobbyists lack that sense of connection in their lives and it is one of the reasons behind their infatuation with Native cultures. This example of non-
Natives seeking their spirituality in other cultures, particularly Indigenous one, is also portrayed in the documentary White Shamans & Plastic Medicine Men (1996) where one of the members of an organization of non-Natives called “The Church of the Loving
Hands” states that “[she] spent years as child going to all the different churches, because
[she] was drawn to the ritual and ceremony, but none of them fit for [her]...the church that [she] love[s]...was the mother Earth” (00:08:48 - 00:08:54). Moreover, Jan Ullrich, or “Crazy Buffalo”, refers to the act of hobbyism as a “fabulous game” (00:17:55) that is about beauty, because Native cultures are something to admire, as it holds values that have been long forgotten in the post-industrial European society, things such as aesthetics, feelings, religion and industriousness. Ullrich says that the value in things that they as hobbyists make and have is much higher than the things that people would
41 normally buy, because of the hard work and heart they put into making the things that they use and wear. Lastly, Pavla Fikeišová, or “Crow Woman”, speaks about the morals in the city in comparison with the morals in the camp, where in the camp there is lesser need for drugs, sex and alcohol because people are more visible (00:28:55 - 00:29:30).
To summarize, for one, the hobbyists use hobbyism as an escape from the burdens of the modern day society, that has failed them greatly and therefore they have created a world of their own. Secondly, they are trying to fill the need for spirituality that they cannot find in the institutional religions, because they genuinely do not agree with the values they represent. It all runs on the ideals of the stereotype of “noble savage”, in other words, the hobbyists see the hobbyist activities as a means of becoming a better person, of shedding the burdens of (post)modern civilization, and getting connected with a form of religion as well as wilderness, like the ideal of the “noble savage” would.
The Natives do not live like this anymore, so this idea again promotes the stereotypes that are imbedded in the minds of public.
In the documentary, there is an interesting parallel to German hobbyism presented by one of the members Ferdinand Bachmann. He is a German hobbyist that came to the Czech Republic because he felt that the Czech hobbyism was more authentic and less flashy than German hobbyism. German hobbyism is much bigger and more commercialised and as Ferdinand Bachmann states, the “spirit of these Indians is closer to the Mother Earth than in Germany” (00:51:12 - 00:51:20). In Germany,
Bachmann says he felt like what the hobbyists were doing there was more for show, because of the bright and fancy outfits and the spectacles that went along with it. The focus on the authenticity is also highlighted by a hobbyist who is referred to as “Tatanka the younger”, who has been to the United States and met contemporary Native
Americans. He learned Lakota language from books and sought to perfect it by traveling
42 to America. There he met with members of Lakota, and to his surprise, he found out that many young Native Americans do not know the language. This disconnection has been caused by the effort in both United States and Canada to assimilate the Natives into the society. Much like the German hobbyist Christian, mentioned in the previous chapter about Searching for Winnetou documentary, the hobbyists tend to omit that part of the history when it comes to Native cultures, and in their “surprise” they often wonder why there are no “real Indians” left. For example, the documentary Indian Country Diaries -
A Seat at the Drum states that nearly five generations of Natives had to go through
Sherman Institute Boarding School, where they were forbidden to participate in any
Native rituals of any form or even speak the language of their tribe. Moreover, “Tatanka the younger” also attended a conference, which he stated was named “the Declaration of
War Against the Users and Abusers of Indian Spirituality” (01:05:26 - 01:05:28). Upon further research, the accurate name of the event was probably “Lakota Summit V” where the representatives of more than 40 tribes passed a “Declaration of War Against
Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality” in 1993, in order to protect and regain control of
Native American culture from those who “persist in exploiting, abusing and misrepresenting the sacred traditions and spiritual practices of the Lakota people”
(Valerie Taliman). “Tatanka the younger” then continues with sharing the story of how he tried to speak to one of the conference conductors, to seek approval for the practice of hobbyism. He retells the conversation in the following way:
“‘Don’t you suppose that among non-Indians at least some could be sincere in
their desire to accept Indian values?’ His answer really shocked me, he said that
being sincere or not doesn’t matter in the least, that once those people do
anything like that they are stealing the Indian culture and completing the
43
colonization of the Indians which began with the arrival of Columbus.”
(01:05:34-01:06:00)
This answer was obviously disappointing for “Tatanka the younger”. He continues to defend the effort of the group by claiming that the concept of the “native” is misunderstood by Natives. What the hobbyists are doing in the camp is not wrong because all people have been “native” in a sense, but many have forgotten the ways of their “native” European cultures (01:06:06 - 01:06:35). Therefore, they are trying to learn something from Native cultures, that cannot be learned from their cultures, and are trying to fill an emptiness in their culture with another culture, appropriating, where the hobbyists take only the good for them, without really taking in the bad, or helping the culture.
Towards the end of the documentary, Joseph and Irene Young along with
Barbara Daniels discuss their impressions of the visit to the hobbyist camp. Upon arriving to the campsite, they seemed very impressed by the realistic setting of the hobbyist camp and how “real” it looked. However, after sitting down with the hobbyists around the campfire, Barbara Daniels shares her concerns about how surreal the situation was: “Everything was backwards, just like stepping into a giant mirror, we are
Natives and we are just like Europeans and they are Europeans and they are just like
Natives. I felt like, what is wrong with this picture?” (00:11:13 - 00:11:25). It is the shift of the positions that shocks Daniels, the majority of Natives live in a modern society like everyone else, but the hobbyists are going the other way, denouncing these standards of modern day society, seeking enlightenment in the past values and
“simplicity” of those times. They have expressed doubts about the accuracy of some of the rituals that the hobbyists have learned from books, and the fact that the practitioners of such rituals have to have the rights to do the rituals, which are passed down by the
44 elders. Nevertheless, they liked the way the hobbyists were recreating traditional way of life of Natives and are not trying to profit out of it. They recognize the fact that for the hobbyists it is a form of guidance to become better people and to fill the need for spirituality in their lives. Throughout the encounter, Joseph Young admits that he was a bit skeptical at first, but he came to the conclusion that this is not an act of cultural appropriation:
“I had to deal with a thought that maybe these people are stealing something
and why are they doing it? But to those questions I have found my answer and
that is that they are very sincere and they are also looking for the authenticity
that is often overlooked by our own people and that they are very good in what
they do and the things that they make out of their environment the things that
they take out. It is so unique in a sense that that’s the way it was with our
people a long time ago. They don’t have as much as we do in Canada, but they
sort [of] compensate with the things that they have in their land, and it makes
me very, very happy to come to them and see them because I am also learning.
I am learning a lot of things from them that our people had forgotten about
their past.” (01:08:15 - 01:09:15)
So, unlike the participant of the conference attended by “Tatanka the younger”, Joseph
Young acknowledges the sincerity of hobbyists in Native cultures, while praising the fact that they are recreating the past way of life in quite an accurate way. It is interesting that Joseph Young speaks about learning his own culture from the hobbyists. The reference is tied to the systematic racism and the need to erase the Native American culture in order to assimilate them into the dominant settler society in the United States and Canada. As is shown in Indian Country Diaries - A Seat at the Drum, because of the assimilationist policies many Natives are disconnected from their cultural heritage
45 and struggle to find something to hold on to. The documentary interviews Jimi Castillo, the prison-contracted Native American Spiritual Leader, who tries to reconnect Native
American convicts with the culture of their ancestors to give them hope and something to hold on to and become a better person. Even Joseph Young “think[s] it would be very interesting for our young people who are reclaiming their traditional ways to meet these
Czechoslovakians and vice versa” (01:02:24 - 01:02:33). Young also addresses the idea that hobbyism might be a form of cultural appropriation:
“Some people in Canada might think that these people are stealing a part of the
Native way of life from North America. But the way I see it, it seems as if they
are keeping something for us. I see the pride in the things that they do and it sort
of makes me proud I guess in a sense that this is the way our people were before
all those things happened in Canada” (01:07:33 - 01:08:07)
Similarly, Barbara Daniels had also a rather skeptical view at first, but in the end she shows some high regards for hobbyism: “I have never been so proud to be a Native
Indian...they do not think of Natives as victims, but as people who have a lot to offer to the world. If the people in Canada and America would just have a tiny fraction of interest in Native American culture as these people do, things would be so different than they are” (01:16:13 - 01:16:53). Both Young and Daniels agree that hobbyism is not a negative phenomenon, but it is a rather shining example of how Native Americans, who are disconnected or had forgotten about their cultural heritage, should reconnect with their cultures. The systematic erasure of Indigenous cultures in North America had an immense impact on many Native Americans, separating them from their origins and trying to assimilating them forcefully into the dominant settler culture. Barbara Young highly praises the hobbyists’ usage of culture, stating that “a lot of [their] culture has been taken away from [them] and put into museums behind glass, [Natives] have never
46 liked that. These people are different, they use [Native] culture, these things have come alive again” (00:55:14 - 00:55:30). There amongst the hobbyists, they feel very sentimental about the display that the hobbyists created and feel welcomed in a place where Indigeneity is celebrated. At the end, Barbara Young utters probably the most memorable quote: “[i]f this is stealing of our culture, then I would be happy to see more of it” (01:11:35 - 01:11:37). This chapter highlighted the difference between groups portrayed in Searching for Winnetou and If Only I Were an Indian. It also explored some key observations about the issues with hobbyism like commodification, commercialization, appropriating of Native cultures which will be further elaborated in the following chapter.
47
5. Between a Rock and a Hard Place
This chapter offers a critical discussion of the observations made in the previous chapter, while further exploring issues that are linked to them. By providing various arguments from academics and Native people who have come into contact with hobbyism, this chapter aims to provide a critical overview on the issues of commodification and appropriation of Native cultures, as well as the question of whether hobbyism is a form of cultural appropriation. The commercialization and commodification of Native American culture is one of the major challenges of hobbyism, not only from the point that non-
Natives are selling aspects of Native cultures, but also that they are practicing them outside of its original meaning. By appropriating and transforming the various aspects of the cultures the hobbyists aim to attract wider audience, however, they are essentially changing the original meaning of the cultural elements, which they continue to spread around the world. In If Only I Were an Indian documentary, the display of Native cultures is very subtle in the sense that it is not really there to appeal to a wider audience, and it focuses on the cultural authenticity. The accuracy is important in setting the atmosphere of the campsite for the hobbyists to “fully” embrace another culture, or at least that is how the
Native visitors perceive it. In the interview for Canadian Review of Materials, the director
John Paskievich, confirms that the Native visitors appreciated of the lack of commercialism and consumerism, and highly praised the level of spirituality that they show in their acts:
At first they were sceptical. They had an open mind, but still a sceptical attitude.
But then they really liked these people, they liked what they saw and the hard work
the Indian activity involves -- everything over there is done by hand; here [in
America] often the native artifacts are made in a much more commercial 48
fashion….The elders were also impressed by the European's spirituality; that's
something they weren't expecting. So the elders liked them. (Interview: John
Paskievich)
Nevertheless, as the Native American visitors themselves argue, the hobbyist knowledge about the rituals and culture itself comes from books, and therefore it is not always in accordance with the lived experience. In Searching for Winnetou, much of the products shown in the documentary were there mainly to appeal to public's interest rather than as a representation of a culturally accurate setting. The commercialism and commodification of the Native cultural symbols has been one of the main problems that Drew Hayden Taylor had with the hobbyist scene in the Pullman City. One, they are a misinterpretation of the true meaning of the Native cultures which leads to issues like pan-Indianism, which results in changing the perceptions about Native cultures and perpetuating the stereotypical images such as that all Indians live in teepees. For example, there is a scene in a Native American comedy movie Smoke Signals (1998) written by Sherman Alexie and directed by Chris
Eyre, where the two main Native American protagonists, Thomas and Victor, have a conversation about how to be a “real Indian” is looks. Victor describes the “real Indian” as a brave stoic warrior who hunts buffalo and looks very mean in order to not be trampled by the whites. Thomas, who is genuinely being himself and who is very fond of storytelling, corrects him that their tribe is a tribe of fishermen and that they never hunted buffalo. Even though it is a humorous scene, it foreshadows the issues that these misconceptions might, or already have, created. Ward Churchill, who was a professor of ethnic studies at the
University of Colorado Boulder, and Laurie Anne Whitt, a person of Choctaw descent and associate professor of philosophy at Michigan Technological University, also address this
49 issue of changing the perception of Native cultures in their academic work: “In the case of the appropriation of Native American culture by the New Age commodity machine, for example, one concern is that non-Natives (some of whom claim to be real Indians) claim authority to define what Native Americans really are, distorting not only non-Native but also Native understanding of Native American cultures.” (qtd. in Rogers 486) The increasing interest in the Native styled goods produces a market that is so commercialized that the need for authenticity is often overlooked. It becomes more and more about the aesthetically pleasing looks that are created in a romanticized and exoticizing manner, construed to attract as many potential buyers as possible. The books about Native peoples by non-Natives are a prime example of this. To be more specific, the concern here is in determining whether the book is truthful in the information given or not. The most problematic are those authors who use the image of the “real Indian” (or Indianer) to be the template for the Natives that appear in their stories, much like Karel May and his Winnetou.
The non-Native authors spread misconceptions about Native cultures, which alter the public’s perception of them and as Naomi Caldwell-Wood, President of the American
Indian Library Association states: “There are plenty of ‘good’ books – i.e. well-written, exciting, from respected authors, much-loved by their readers, with well-developed characters – that are terrible when examined with the criteria of whether the Native
American(s) depicted in them are accurately or even humanly portrayed” (Caldwell-Wood,
Mitten) Within the documentaries, the sacred rituals, present in the form of pow wow dances, sweat lodges or smoking of the pipe rituals share a similar treatment. There are several problems at stake here. These are sacred rituals and are to be conducted by Natives, who are well taught by their predecessors and have the right to perform the rituals, where
50 the right is usually passed down from generation to generation, as mentioned in If Only I
Were an Indian documentary. Therefore, the non-Native performers of these rituals usually do not possess the knowledge to execute them properly and fully convey the meaning of these rituals. Most of those practitioners learn the rituals from books or the internet, and therefore the true essence and precise execution is not there. Not only does the misinterpretation of Native sacred rituals violate the purpose and meaning of the rituals and the rituals such as the sweat lodge can be also dangerous when handled by a non-expert. In
2009, a self-proclaimed expert and guru of the sweat lodge ceremony, James Arthur Ray, had reportedly a faulty structure of the lodge and as the lodge leader, who is supposed to take care of the participants by removing them if they show signs of unhealthy reactions, he did not tend to the needs of the participants, which lead to death of three people. Some non-
Native practitioners actually do go to the source, or so they claim, like Jonathan H. Ellerby, who is supposedly an expert on spirituality, healing and consciousness, has been “mentored by a Native American therapist, who was also a community spiritual leader” (“Trauma and the Spiritual Path”). As a non-Native person he too disagrees with misuse of Native
American rituals:
Too many Native traditions have been borrowed and stolen from Native Peoples
only to be misused, sold or poorly conducted. These are very powerful and
culturally sacred practices and it's a deep act of disrespect just to ‘copy’ the
practices of another tradition...To take without permission, training or blessing is
just an insult. (“Sweat Lodge Expert Answers”)
The argument, very roughly summarized, is that non-Native people should not practice the rituals without a permission, proper training and certainly not for personal gains but rather
51 with respect and understanding. Nevertheless, a counterpoint to this is that Native
Americans themselves offer their products and certain elements of culture for sale, like for example the Hopi dolls, Navajo rugs, Miccosukee patchwork dolls, etc.: “Native
Americans, for example, offer their culture for sale. These arguments raise the issue of voluntariness, holding that if Native Americans are themselves producing Kokopelli images to sell to tourists, then the Euro-Americans, Europeans, Japanese, and others who consume these products are on safe ethical ground” (Rogers 490). Krogmeier also addresses this point of “safe ethical ground” but with a different take on this popular trade of Native products by non-Natives:
Other times, non-Native producers of Native products claim that so long as they
treat the culture with respect, they have no responsibility for what their customers
do. Lanell Shephard of the Many Hands Art Gallery featured in White Shamans &
Plastic Medicine Men says, “I can treat my products with respect, I can know who
the artist is, but if someone buys it that doesn’t want to use it respectfully, that’s not
my responsibility.” (Krogmeier, 5)
With the assumption of that the entrepreneurs are familiar with the cultures they are selling; they take on a standpoint that whatever happens with the products after their distribution is not their responsibility. Nevertheless, despite their intentions, they contribute to further commercialization and misunderstanding of Native American culture. Krogmeier points out the fact that if they truly understood the concept of Native cultures and all of its connotations, they would most likely not do it at all. He is reacting to Lanell Shephard of the Many Hands Art Gallery featured in White Shamans & Plastic Medicine Men, where she states that it is not her responsibility if she sells Native cultures to people who do not
52 handle it in a proper way: “But can she excuse herself from the moral implications of participating in the commercialization of a culture whose values are so strongly anti- commercial?” (Krogmeier 6) Some of the entrepreneurs even falsely claim a Native heritage in order to make a business. In Searching for Winnetou documentary, such is the case of Hunting Wolf, where he draws upon his self-proclaimed Cheyenne ancestry and uses it to promote his business. He admits in the documentary that he has connections in the
US and that he imports some of the things that he sells, but there is no evidence that he buys the things from an authentic source. or that he really has Indigenous ancestry. These people are often labeled “plastic shamans” by the Native communities, and these “plastic shamans” are either people who bought the knowledge possessed by Native healer, or they simply invent fake Native heritage and sell their own understanding and execution of the rituals, while promoting it as authentic. In most of the sources researched for this thesis, the
Native authors/interviewees are strongly against commercialization and commodification, therefore it is highly unlikely for a Native person to be willingly selling their culture, unless there is no other way for them to earn money. In the documentary White Shamans & Plastic
Medicine Men, Dennis Jennings suggests that selling and buying Native cultures like that is a reflection of today’s role of spirituality in the society and the lack of opportunities for
Natives living on the reservations:
“What this replication of Indian ceremony points out to me are two things. Number
one, there is a spiritual vacuum in the society we live in. It creates people that are
looking for something that is real. Secondly, and sadly, sometimes they get Native
Americans involved in teaching them these things but that points out the poverty
53
and lack of opportunity on Indian land. People are so frustrated and desperate that
they will do anything for money.” (White Shamans 00:07:12 - 00:07:53)
It is true that Natives themselves sell some of the cultural products themselves, but these products are sold to provide more economic stability for the Natives and some are even provided by official organizations such as The Indian Arts & Crafts Board (IACB), which was “created by Congress to promote the economic development of federally recognized
American Indians and Alaska Natives (Indians) through the expansion of the Indian arts and crafts market” (“Our Mission”). This is where the non-Native entrepreneurs lose their supposed moral high ground because “[t]he consumption of commercialized Native products rarely sends money to Native communities, as a majority of those products are produced by non-Natives” (Krogmeier 5), which makes it difficult for the actual Native- made products to bring money to the reservations. The goods that the Natives are selling are fashioned to look similar to the original concept, but they are slightly altered in order not to exploit their cultural heritage. An example of that are the Hopi kachina dolls, which are sold by the Natives to tourists and bear minimal resemblance to the traditional katsina figures, which are symbols that have tied to their cultural heritage. Both documentaries show how various Native cultural elements are presented inaccurately, out of place, or just misused for business purposes. These inaccuracies, as mentioned above, are changing the way these cultural elements are perceived by the public, and can potentially cause that
Native Americans will no longer be “master[s] of their own traditions, their own identities”
(Brown 5). It takes away control from the Natives over their own cultural heritage as it becomes increasingly difficult for the Natives to define what the true (past and contemporary) Native cultures are. With the lack of education about Native histories in
54 schools all over the world (aside from academic ground) it is easy for the stereotypes portrayed by hobbyism and romanticized images of Natives to become the image of a “real
Indian” in public’s perception.
The image of the “real Indian” is also one of the major issues with hobbyism and similar promotions of Native cultures by non-Native people are probably the contemporary issue. These are products of media in which Natives are portrayed by non-Native people, often in fictional settings and regalia, burning the image of what a “real Indian” should look like to the perceptions of the public.
General public apathy and ignorance of how such inauthentic images misrepresent
and offend Aboriginal peoples has allowed such old fashioned ideas to persist and
be repeated, time and time again. Contemporary film, advertising, popular fiction
(such as Harlequin romance novels, for instance), and television thus continue to
falsely imagine Aboriginal peoples, and such images have altered remarkably little
over the last 500 years. In recent years, Aboriginal peoples have begun to reclaim
control of their own images. Aboriginal schools in the U.S. and Canada have thus
begun to use their own symbols and mascots with Indian names and images.
Aboriginal artists of all genres now employ stereotypical images ironically, in an
effort to empower and assert control over their own image. (Edwards)
This stereotypical image is causing more harm than most people realize. In one of his articles called “‘Native’ Hobbyism is Modern Day Colonialism’”, Red Haircrow mentions this phenomenon within the documentary Searching for Winnetou, as he elaborates on the meaning behind the phrase: “Visiting Indigenous invited to perform (only traditional regalia and songs!) are treated like royalty while resident Indigenous in jeans and t-shirts
55 with cropped hair, are either un-recognized as Indigenous or scorned by hobbyists who believe they alone can recognize authentic indigeneity” (“‘Native’ Hobbyism is Modern
Day Colonialism”). Numerous videos on YouTube and literary texts written by Indigenous authors explain that people treat Natives with a high degree of racism and use stereotypical images to create racial slurs and disregard them because of it. Hobbyism essentially extends this image and does not appear to be derogatory to the audience they perform for. The public, and sometimes even the hobbyists themselves, are not aware of the problems that wrong perception of Native cultures create for the contemporary Native people. Hobbyism recreates the supposedly traditional way of life of Native peoples, but it is always located in the past and it is often fictional; there is no focus on the contemporary way of life. Many of the hobbyist are not aware of the contemporary issues of Native peoples and some even refuse to accept the fact that their image of the “real Indian” does not reflect the present.
The Cherokee writer Shea Vassar claims that “‘[hobbyism] places us forever in a historical and mythical context. The biggest issue is the overall simplification of our cultures and the erasure inherent in playing Indian, as if we were something mystical like a wizard. It’s not like dressing up like an ancient Roman. We still exist’” (qtd. in Schumacher). The portrayal itself omits the oppression that was, and in many regards still is, a big factor surrounding the Native cultures. As contemporary Natives have been deprived of their culture by government institutions, the first settlers, etc. these cultural elements are no longer part of the contemporary Native cultures. On the other hand, some hobbyists like Christian from the Searching for Winnetou, are aware of the contemporary issues and have been to
America to witness it with their own eyes but, instead of adjusting the promotion of the
Native culture or abandoning it all together, they stick to this image of the Indianer (“real
56
Indian”), or “noble savage” and continue to promote these stereotypes, instead of spreading the word and focus on the contemporary Native cultures. It is as if the hobbyists have appropriated only a tiny fraction of the culture that seems to satisfy their needs for the spiritual connection in life and are very reluctant to let go of it. This is the with “Tatanka the younger” case in the documentary If Only I Were an Indian, defends his position as a hobbyist by claiming that the Czechs too, were once Indigenous. It feels as if he is justifying the act of hobbyism by trying to cling to this idea of a shared fate with the
Natives. As mentioned previously, some Natives do not know their mother language and are disconnected from their cultural heritage. Therefore, hobbyists, that do possess this knowledge, feel that they are entitled to the past Native cultures, because in their eyes, no one is using it anymore. The problem is that some hobbyists present themselves as
“experts” on the Native American culture and therefore, as Katrin Sieg states: “the hobbyists cast themselves as ethnographers, salvagers of a culture the Indians had thought they had lost and which the Germans now generously share with them” (Sieg 131). This aspect of hobbyism is humorously portrayed in a play The Berlin Blues (2007), written by
Drew Hayden Taylor. In the play, two German businesspeople come to Anishinaabe reservation to build a theme park, commodification and commercializing the culture of the people living on the reservation. These Germans are very knowledgeable of the culture, which they had studied from books, but some of the cultural elements that they know and remind the people on the reserve are not part of the contemporary anymore. As an example, within the play the Germans want to build a dreamcatcher that glorifies the number four, which according to the Germans is a sacred number for the Anishinaabe people, and
Donalda, one of the Native characters, responds like she has no idea what they are talking
57 about, but ultimately gives in, because it is bringing money to the reserve. Taylor uses this play as a mockery to the supposed expertise that the hobbyists think they have, but it does not necessarily translate to the contemporary state of Native cultures, since it has evolved like any other culture and some of its cultural elements are simply no longer viable.
Ultimately, without even knowing it, the hobbyist by their inaccurate representations shape and form the culture by their own representations and understandings, much like Karel May did it with Winnetou.
“What then happens to a culture whose symbols are chosen by outsiders, by those
who do not understand its deepest beliefs, structures and ways of life? What kind of
interpretation of a society can come from symbols designed not to elevate conscious
understanding to the highest of that society's ideas but to reduce that understanding
to categories which debase or ridicule?” She contends, “the opposite of empowering
occurs. Feelings of rage, impotence and powerlessness are evoked” when symbols
are reduced to “caricatures” rather than representing the dominant cultural values
cherished by the stereotyped society. (Gulriz 47)
Hence, as Churchill points out, the hobbyists “may believe they are opposing the very system they are supporting through their consumption and circulation of commodities, potentially degrading the very culture they intend to honor and protect” (qtd. in Rogers
489).
Nevertheless, the relationship to hobbyism among Natives is rather complicated.
Jen Osborne, a Canadian photograph, who went to Germany to capture the hobbyist’s scene, claims that the hobbyists are aware that their actions might be judged in a negative way:
58
But despite the intentions ‘Indianists’ have behind their re-enactments, the use of
First Nations representation raises controversy regarding the theft of culture.
While they deeply respect and admire Native American culture, they are also
aware that their actions are easily misinterpreted and may come across as offensive
to non-participants. (qtd. in Clifford)
What they probably mean, is that they are aware that the society and potentially some academics might perceive this as an instance of cultural appropriation or fight it offensive, however, they are not aware that it might be offensive to Natives. For example, in both
Searching for Winnetou and If Only I Were an Indian, Natives had positive feedbacks for hobbyism. Nevertheless, when “Tatanka the younger” spoke of his encounter with disapproval from a Native person regarding hobbyism, he was very much shocked and disappointed. In Searching for Winnetou, the interviewees and the main narrator, Drew
Hayden Taylor, did not approve the commodification, the extensive usage of sacred rituals and the lack of authenticity. In a book From Wounded Knee to Checkpoint Charlie, a famous Lakota spiritual healer figure, Archie Fire Lame Deer, praises works of fiction like
Winnetou by saying that ‘...[he] ha[s] to thank this man called Karl May, even though it was a world of fantasy that he had written about...he still raised the consciousness of the people of the Indian people’” (qtd. in Tóth 19). Another famous Native American figure,
John Blackbird, says that “[t]he hobbyists’ hearts are in the right place,” (qtd. in Lopinto) but it is strange to seeing non-Natives dressed up in powwow regalia. John Blackbird adds that the first thing he has learned when growing up in Canada, was that Native people are no good: “Indians were history’s losers: dethroned, displaced, rounded up and ghettoized on the reserves. Raised by a white family from the age of nine, Blackbird heard from
59 friends and classmates that natives were unreliable, lazy and unemployable” (qtd. in
Lopinto). What Karl May did on the other hand, is that he portrayed Natives in a very attractive way; as heroes, who are admirable allies and essential to the story, and that is one of the reasons why the readers of Winnetou have this perception of noble Savage. The
Czech hobbyists were admired for the authenticity of the scene and as Joseph Young pointed out, keepers of the culture. They fulfil the requirements for the respectful showcasing of Native cultures through their tenacity, research, and time they invest in their acts. Krogmeier points out that “it is important to study, research, and feel reverence for the rites and practices of any culture before taking part in it. When those steps are taken, an appropriate level of respect has been acquired” (Krogmeier 6). Through this respectful approach to the cultures, these hobbyists want to perfect their understanding of the cultures that would help them deviate from their otherwise ordinary lifestyles and escape from the
(post)modern society. Authors of Performing Indigeneity: Global Histories and
Contemporary Experiences, Penny H. Glenn, points out that “revering and studying groups of American Indians, learning from their culture and history, and harnessing that knowledge to reposition themselves in their own societies and cultures is not, they remind us, the same as wanting to be American Indian” (Glenn 197). Meaning that they do not necessarily want to become Indigeny, but rather they want to fill the emptiness that their own culture cannot. Due to the diversity of German hobbyists in Searching for Winnetou, the hobbyists that truly have this level of respect towards the Native cultures do not come across as trustworthy as the Czech counterparts because of all the commercialization and commodification of the so called “weekend warriors”, who lack this respectful approach that the Czech hobbyist have. The Native interviewees, in regard to the German hobbyist
60 have agreed that they truly contribute to raising the popularity of Native cultures.
Nevertheless, the Natives are willing to support them only as long as the hobbyists are willing to listen so that they could teach them the correct way to admire Native cultures. In another example, David Redbird Baker, a Native American dancer who came to live in
Germany, had a very negative feedback towards hobbyism. In the article “Der Indianer:
Some 40,000 Germans spend their weekends dressed as North American aboriginals.
Why?” by Noemi Lopinto, Baker claims that he used to attend German pow wows and enjoyed seeing Native cultures being celebrated. Therefore, he used to share his knowledge and sold Native goods, but after a while, he says that Germans started to take ownership of the sacred rituals and started to improvise and mixed the authentic with the Karl May’s fiction. Some sacred symbols are then used as mere props, to attract more people, showcasing incorrect perception of the Native cultures. Baker claims that “‘they take the social and religious ceremonies and change them beyond recognition,’ ... ‘I feel bad because I used to encourage sharing. It would have been better to have kept my mouth shut’” (qtd. in Lopinto). He also claims that hobbyists would believe anything that is written in books, written about Native people by non-Natives, but would not believe an actual Native person, trying to tell them what to do or not do. An example of hobbyist tweaking and adjusting the Native cultures to their own image is portrayed in the documentary German Indian (2010) by Sascha Pohle. The video follows a German hobbyist Gerhard Fischer who shares his motivations for hobbyism and provides background information on his personal experience within this field. He states that because of the lack of materials, for example, they experiment with recreating the Native “props”.
He states that “[they] gave [their] phantasies free rein. But in a certain way, this is an
61 advantage, because some things were produced more authentically and more lovingly”
(Pohle 00:19:32 -00:19:38). He speaks about authenticity, but the hobbyists shown in the documentary are lying on deckchairs in front of their tipis with their vans where they store
Native regalia in the background, while some are wearing wigs or every day clothes, while others are participating of what appears to be a pow wow dance. Some hobbyists even go as far as to compare wearing Native regalia to the appropriation of German cultural symbols during Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest is a very commercial event and is celebrated even in
Canada as shown in the Searching for Winnetou documentary. Drew Hayden Taylor comments that wearing lederhosen8, is not the same as wearing a headdress for example.
Taylor says that “it comes down to historical power dynamic. Bavarian Germans have not suffered systemic racism in the same way the First Nations have [and] parodying or mocking oppressed people is fundamentally different from parodying and mocking powerful people” (Should We Be Offended). Dulce Sloan, in a bit on Comedy Central, addresses this power dynamic and claims that “if minorities were equal they wouldn't worry about people taking their culture because it wouldn’t be all they have” (00:03:34-00:03:38
“Cultural Appropriation”) and even though it was a comedy bit, there is a serious undertone addressing the issue of cultural appropriation that stems from this power dynamic. On top of that, as Wesley Cleland stated, the hobbyists skip the step of earning the right to wear the
Native regalia, reducing it to a mere prop rather than acknowledging the cultural meaning behind it. This might be one of the reasons for negative reactions toward hobbyism and why people like Red Haircrow are fighting to change the way that hobbyist celebrate
Native cultures. Nonetheless, even though Red Haircrow states that hobbyism is a form of
8 Lederhosen are short or knee-length leather breeches; traditional clothing in some regions of Germany. 62 neocolonial practice and a form of systematic racism, he acknowledges the intentions of the hobbyists behind the infatuation with the Native cultures to become better people:
Not all interest in Indigenous cultures and peoples is exploitative. Even though I am
against cultural appropriation, especially in the form of hobbyism, I understand
there is a wide spectrum of white Germans who become hobbyists. Some do so out
of a desire to escape the capitalistic individualism of western societies and some to
make a deeper, healthier connection to the environment. (“‘Native’ Hobbyism”)
Red Haircrow also calls points out the capitalistic relationship the hobbyists have towards
Native cultures. This issue applies to both “weekend warriors” and “people hobbyists”.
Even though that “people hobbyists” might not be directly participating in commodification or commercialization of the culture, they are supporting a form of cultural appropriation that could potentially have a negative impact in the form of stereotypes, caused by the attempts to adopt the Native cultures and merging them with cultures of their own, resulting in new and incorrect forms of Native cultures. In another example, Jolene Rickard, a citizen of the Tuscarora nation, in Performing Indigeneity: Global Histories and Contemporary
Experiences asks, “why do we think it so unusual for Europeans to dress Indian?” (qtd. in
Glenn 197), which then the author, Glenn H. Penny elaborates on:
Why do we assume that it is humorous and problematic rather than understandable
and perhaps even instructive? And what do those assumptions prevent us from
seeing? To my mind, we miss understanding interconnections between Europeans
and non-Europeans that are too often overlooked by scholars, too quickly filed away
under the rubric of neocolonialism (Glenn 197)
63
Aside from the commodification and commercialization of Native culture, Jolene Rickard disregards the preemptive labeling of hobbyism as a form of cultural appropriation. She also adds that hobbyism might as well be an alternative way of knowledge production, “one that stands outside the academy and is based on often-stringent discursive readings of texts and interviews that are later circulated through oral traditions” (qtd. in Graham and Penny
198). The issue with Rickard’s statement, with in the information collected so far, is that the hobbyists acquire and produce the knowledge in an incorrect way, while many times they develop an unhealthy connections to Native cultures, resulting in a sense of ownership of another culture, which then is labeled as this form of neocolonialism. Tony Incashola, an elder of Salish people, had this to say: “I don’t think you have to adopt a culture to show your respect. If you are interested in a culture and you want to know more about it, you go to the source, go to the people. And the people will tell you as much as they are allowed to tell you. and you get to know the culture. Then you start to respect, you understand if you respect it” (Macy 00:10:53 - 00:11:17). He too is against the unhealthy relationships and supposed ownership claims of the hobbyists over Native cultures, but he does not discourage sharing of Native cultures with people that show respect to the cultures. An amount of respect and understanding necessary to be able to earn the right to obtain the knowledge about it. In of his interviews, Red Haircrow states that it is acceptable to show appreciation for Native cultures, but it has to be in the right context, with the right approach. He says that “‘[t]here are so many wonderful people in the world,’...‘but they've been taught so many wrong things and they don’t know how to be better. Those are the people that need to be reached, so they can learn it is possible and necessary to improve’”
(qtd. in Schumacher). Drew Hayden Taylor claims that it is usually the problem with
64 people in their 30s and over, that genuinely believe the stereotypes created by the media.
He also states, that he has more success in changing the perceptions of Native cultures on academic grounds on his visits to Germany: “It’s the younger generation I find myself speaking to in universities that have a genuine interest and understanding of the Indigenous identity. Their perceptions are more modern and flexible” (Should We Be Offended). With a closer look into the academic opinions and opinion of Natives as well, this chapter offers more in depth look into the problematic of commodification and appropriation of Native cultures. The Native opinions in particular are very mixed and it seems there is no unified opinion on whether or not hobbyism is necessarily harmful for the Native cultures. Two common arguments against hobbyism however, are the inaccuracy with which they perpetuate the Native cultures and commodification aspects that arise from their actions.
What the Natives do agree on, is that with the right amount of respect and understanding it is acceptable to show off their admiration.
65
Conclusion
With the focus on comparing and contrasting the two hobbyist groups portrayed in the documentaries Searching for Winnetou and If Only I Were an Indian, the thesis attempted to provide an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon of hobbyism, and the challenges that it poses. It also discussed the extent to which hobbyism might be perceived as a form of cultural appropriation. The first chapter introduces the origins of hobbyism in both Germany and Czech Republic and establishes some background information needed to comprehend the phenomenon of hobbyism. The roots of the fascination with Natives have been present since the days of Columbus in both countries, and flourished after the World
War II., where the state of the society and political situation bolstered the need for a form of escape from the reality, which in this case was through Karl May’s fiction, a major catalyst for the hobbyist scene. Hobbyism fulfilled the role as a means of escape to a world different from the post-war world and later (post)modern society, where the hobbyists struggled to live with the standards and reality of the regimes of Communism for example, or the political situations in Germany during the occupation by the Americans. From this sense of oppression and unwelcoming society, some of the hobbyists felt this connection to the struggles of Natives, described in the thesis as this feeling of “shared fate”. The second chapter explains the notion of “Indian” hobbyism and identifies two categories of hobbyists. The categorization by various academics such as Philip J. Deloria or Tóth F.
György is essential for the examination of the two documentaries Searching for Winnetou and If Only I Were an Indian because it shows how certain types of hobbyists treat Native cultures and how they might be perceived by Natives or academics who judge them.
66
Cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation are then examined in the following chapter.
The theory of cultural appropriation is a complicated topic, as R. A. Rogers points out, therefore, the emphasis in this chapter is on showing illustrate examples to show how complicated and ambiguous the question of cultural appropriation is, and how problematic the labeling is when it comes to specific examples. Chapter four analyzes the content of both documentaries which were they key sources for the idea of this thesis. It discusses two different approaches to hobbyism, providing an interesting between how Native cultures are admired by these hobbyists. It also provides opinions of Native people, who encountered hobbyism and spent some time observing the hobbyists and participating in their events. The following chapter expands on these firsthand experiences of Natives with hobbyism and tries to further examine the issues of commodification and appropriation of
Native cultures, providing a variety of arguments that highlight the complexity of the discourse on hobbyism.
The categorization by R. A. Rogers rules hobbyism out of the cultural exchange category, because of the power dynamic involved in hobbyism. Hobbyism fits all the other categories presented by Rogers, which would then identify hobbyism as a form of cultural appropriation, with all the negative connotations that go along with it. On the one hand, there is without a doubt a certain level of appropriation of Native cultures, especially when the hobbyists adjust or completely change the original meaning of the sacred rituals, erasing the long and complex history behind it, reducing it to mere props or acts of entertainment. All the Native voices commenting on the topic of hobbyism disapprove of the commodification of Native cultures and strongly oppose the perpetuation of misconceptions about the cultures. Some Natives as well as academics write off hobbyism
67 as a form of neocolonialism, which is a continuation of systemic racism, cultural genocide and assimilation of Natives. On the other hand, there some Natives who disliked some of the aspects, particularly the commodification and misinterpretation of Native cultures, but acknowledged that if hobbyism would celebrate Native cultures in the right way, they would not be opposed to it. Hobbyism in its pure form could potentially help the problem with Native representation in the world, as it would spread the notion about Native cultures throughout the world, and mostly in Europe and maybe it could help bringing the attention to the contemporary issues of Natives and gain more support from the public, which could then speed up legal issues. Due to the complexity of issues poised by hobbyism, the difference in approaches to Native cultures and Native responses to it, it is very difficult to determine whether hobbyism should be supported or even allowed. Theoretically, if one group receives an approval from Native representatives of those cultures the groups are using, then another group, which does not necessarily have the same amount of respect and understanding of the cultures might assume that there is nothing wrong with their representation either, which then contributes to the perpetuation of misconceptions about
Native cultures. Some groups, however, may not even be aware of doing something wrong and have true admiration for Native cultures, which may be put in the same category as hobbyists, that are knowingly contributing to the commodification and are, in fact appropriating Native cultures on purpose. Ultimately, there is an agreement among the
Native peoples that hobbyism should adopt a correct and respectful form of celebrating
Native cultures in order, not to spread ill-conceived stereotypes about Native cultures. Even though some academics might write hobbyism off as a form of neocolonialism or cultural appropriation, it should come down to the opinions of Native communities, rather than
68 people of non-Native descent. Having said that, there unfortunately seems to be a lack of communication from hobbyists, who due to the complexity and popularity of the topic of cultural appropriation, should be seeking the approval and knowledge about contemporary
Natives, whose culture they are celebrating. Glenn H. Penny touches on a similar idea:
We know that there are instances in which knowledge production has circumvented
the academy before - in art, in science - and at times I cannot help wondering if the
quick condemnation of hobbyist activities tells us more about academics and others
doing the condemning than the people they so often refuse to take seriously.
Perhaps they fear the implications of these surrogates “going Native,” a rather old
European fear, since transformation remains the obsession in their reports. Or
perhaps reflecting on themselves and their own lifeways, which often seems to be
the critical subtext. (Glenn 197)
Even though some critics might say that the hobbyists are merely celebrating Karl May’s fiction and do not involve anything from existing Native cultures, there needs to be more visibility for the actual Native cultures, because otherwise it is overshadowed by these misconceptions, which in the public mind, become the “true” representation of Native cultures. The two documentaries If Only I Were an Indian and Searching for Winnetou are shining examples of what the critical discussion of hobbyism should look like; a Native person witnesses the hobbyism scene from which they can form an opinion, correct the ways in which the hobbyists present Native cultures, and perhaps even offer an approval and guidance, like Joseph Young did by offering the hobbyists to go to the source, rather than study it from book.
69
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Summary
The master’s thesis “Karl May’s Legacy: Czech and German ‘Indians’ vs. Cultural
Appropriation” analyses the phenomenon of Indian hobbyism in Czech Republic and
Germany, by elaborating on two documentaries of If Only I Were an Indian (1995), by John
Paskievich and Searching for Winnetou (2018), directed by Drew Hayden Taylor. The thesis attempts to provide a critical overview on a question whether hobbyism is a form of cultural appropriation and what are the problematic issues of hobbyism. The first chapter provides historical background of the beginnings of hobbyism as well as events that might have led to the creation of hobbyism. The second chapter explains what hobbyism means, different styles of hobbyism, different groups and introduces of some of the key official organizations. By using practical examples and academic materials, the third chapter explores the terms cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation and aims to highlight the complexity of both terms. Fourth chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the two documentaries If Only I Were an Indian and Searching for Winnetou which outline the key issues of commodification, commercialization and appropriation of Native cultures, and provides opinions of Native people on the topic. The last chapters broaden the scope of discourse outlined by the two documentaries and provides a critical overview of the topic of hobbyism and the key issues with it. Though the thesis concludes that hobbyism is a form of cultural appropriation, hobbyism needs more attention from both Native people and hobbyists themselves. As the research conducted by this essay shows that even though theoretically it is a form of cultural appropriation, hobbyism could also be beneficial in terms of producing a representation of Native cultures to the public awareness, which at this current state is lacking. 77
Resumé (Czech)
Diplomová práce „Odkaz Karla Máje: Čeští a Němečtí ‚Indiáni‘ vs. Kulturní
Apropriace“ analyzuje fenomén Indiánského hobbyismu v České republice a Německu rozpracováním dvou dokumentárních filmů If Only I Were an Indian (1995), od režiséra
Johna Paskieviche a Searching for Winnetou (2018), od režiséra Drew Hayden Taylora.
Práce se snaží poskytnout kritický náhled to otázky, zdali je hobbyism formou kulturní apropriace a co jsou problematické záležitosti týkající se hobbyismu. První kapitola ukazuje historické pozadí a začátky hobbyismu, a také události, které mohli vést ke vzniku hobbyismu. Druhá kapitola vysvětluje, co to hobbyismus znamená, různé styly hobbyismu, různé skupina a představuje hlavní a oficiální hobbyistické organizace. Za použití praktických příkladů třetí kapitola zkoumá pojmy kulturní apropriace a kulturní obdivování a snaží se vyzdvihnout komplexnost obou pojmů. Čtvrtá kapitola se věnuje analýze dvou dokumentárních filmů If Only I Were an Indian a Searching for Winnetou a nastiňuje stěžejní problematiku komodifikace, komercializace a apropriace kultur původních obyvatel, a poskytuje názory původních obyvatelů na téma hobbyismu. Poslední kapitola rozšiřuje rámec rozpravy nastíněné těmato dvěma dokumentárními filmy a poskytuje kritický přehled o tématu hobbyismu a jeho stěžejní problematice. Přestože tato práce došla k závěru, že hobbyismus je formou kulturní apropriace, je třeba více pozornosti ze strany jak původních obyvatel, tak ze strany hobbyistů samotných. Jak již výzkum, provedený v této práci, naznačuje, hobbyismus by také mohl být prospěšný, pokud jde o zastoupení kultur původních obyvatel v povědomí lidí, které je v současném stadiu věci nedostačující.
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