Salvage Tourism in American Indian Historical Pageantry A
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“We All Have a Part to Play”: Salvage Tourism in American Indian Historical Pageantry A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY KATRINA MARGARET-MARIE WILBER PHILLIPS IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Adviser: JEAN O’BRIEN MAY 2015 Acknowledgements I am, like my father, often stubborn and independent. However, as I have been reminded time and time again throughout this humbling and gratifying journey, I just can’t do it alone. First and foremost, there is my adviser, Jeani O’Brien, who has read every single word I have ever written – many of them multiple times over. I am eternally grateful for the ways in which she has motivated me, encouraged me, and guided me throughout my graduate school career. I can never repay her for the time she has dedicated to me, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. David Chang has pushed me to challenge myself and expand my horizons, which has made me a better scholar. I thank David as well as Kat Hayes for serving as my reviewers, and their feedback was instrumental in shaping this final product. Kevin Murphy and Brenda Child have also kindly served on my committees, and I truly appreciate their time and insight. Barbara Welke’s comments during my preliminary exams urged me to look beyond the scope of my initial research. Any errors in the final product, though, are mine and mine alone. The American Indian and Indigenous Studies Workshop has been my academic home since my first year of graduate school – and special thanks to Boyd Cothran, who helped me with my senior undergraduate thesis and my graduate school applications. Many, many thanks to all those who have read my jumbled, nearly incoherent thoughts and helped shape them into this final work, including Jimmy Sweet, Marie Balsley Taylor, Samantha Majhor, and Jesus Estrada-Perez. My dissertation group has also been incredibly important to this work, and many thanks to Laura Luepke, Ellen Manovich, i Melissa Hampton, and Joanne Jahnke-Wegner. Laura and Joanne have been comrades and confidants since our first year of grad school, and they have proven time and time again that even somewhat disparate bodies of work can create more meaningful scholarship. Kasey Keeler, Rose Miron, Jess Arnett, Akikwe Cornell, and Amber Annis have become some of my dearest friends and colleagues. They have taught my classes while I was on research trips, babysat my son, come over during a Packers game to workshop materials, and have been wonderfully supportive through it all. My life is incredibly brighter because of you, and I am beyond thankful to have you all in my life. My dear friend Ruth Knezevich, who will have a Ph.D. of her own shortly, has shared with me the trials and triumphs of graduate school. Sarah Rickert and Elizabeth Huninghake babysat Leo for us, helping to ensure that this dissertation was finished in somewhat of a timely manner. Heidi, Elizabeth, and Kim have been wonderful friends since our undergrad years at the U, and I am so grateful for your friendship. Years ago, on my very first research trip, Brian and Moira Sharkey refused to let me take a cab to their house, even though multiple delays landed me in Boston in the middle of the night. Their hospitality was, and still is, much appreciated. Chris and Brooke Amys (and Taylor and Luke) welcomed me to North Carolina with open arms and homemade pizza, which sustained me throughout my research trip. To my grandmothers, Margaret Pascale (Ogichidaakwe) and Irma Wilber, who were without a doubt the two strongest – and funniest – women I have ever known. Miigwech to my uncle, Joseph D. Pascale III, for sending me the newspaper clippings and testimony that were the genesis for Chapter 2. I miss them more and more each day ii and, while I like to think I’ve made them proud, I bet they would think my little Leo hung the sun and the moon and the stars. My in-laws, Gary and Kathie Phillips, have helped us in innumerable ways. To Jeff and Jill Menzel; Tad, Sara, Ella, Lucas, and Ryan Campana; and Abby and Billy Wiberg – thank you for not taking it personally when I spent countless holidays reading and writing. My parents, Jerry and Karen Wilber, have been my most enthusiastic and ardent supporters, from ballet and piano recitals to my first NAISA presentation in Sacramento. I had written a long, rambling paragraph about them but, when it comes down to it, there is nothing I can say except thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you’ve done for me. I hope Leo and this dissertation are adequate repayment. And last – but certainly, certainly not least – there is Jake, who married me a month into graduate school and has never looked back. Jake has been my biggest advocate and the most understanding husband an academic could ask for, offering unconditional support and endless chocolate and cups of tea when the going got rough. Our son Leo, born in August of 2013, is a stubborn, silly, and smart little boy. His smile lights up my life, even though his intense desire to bang on a computer keyboard and reach for every book or loose paper within his reach is clearly a symptom of an academic mother. I love you – a lot, even. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables v List of Figures vi INTRODUCTION: “Another Openin’, Another Show”: Finding a Place for American Indian Historical Pageants 1 CHAPTER ONE: “Beside the Waters of Gitchee Gummee”: The Apostle Islands Indian Pageant 61 CHAPTER TWO: “We shall walk along with him on the shoreline”: The Red Cliff Ojibwe and Salvage Tourism in the Apostle Islands 127 CHAPTER THREE: “Out of the Darkness of Tragedy”: The creation of Unto These Hills 180 CHAPTER FOUR: “We are Telling Our Story”: Salvaging Unto These Hills 229 CHAPTER FIVE: “Days of Old West are Lived Again”: The Happy Canyon Indian Pageant and Wild West Show 275 CHAPTER SIX: “We All Have a Part to Play”: The Continued Allure of Pendleton 321 CONCLUSION “Should you ask me, whence these stories?”: The legacy of American Indian historical pageantry 362 BIBLIOGRAPHY 368 iv List of Tables Table 1 Unto These Hills, 2000-2005 237 Table 2 Unto These Hills, 2000-2011 269 v List of Figures Figure 1: Initial Apostle Islands National Lakeshore boundaries, 1963 177 Figure 2: Final Apostle Islands National Lakeshore boundaries, 1970 177 Figure 3: “View from Pageant Park,” 1920s 178 Figure 4: View from the former Pageant Park, 2013 178 Figure 5: “A series of 5 negatives overlooking the Indian Pageant grounds with the backs of spectators in the foreground,” 1920s 179 Figure 6: “Group of 11 Chippewa Indians in native dress that participated in the Indian Pageant,” 1920s 179 Figure 7: The intersection of Drama Road and Tsali Boulevard in Cherokee, North Carolina, 2012 273 Figure 8: Directional signs for tourist attractions in Cherokee, North Carolina, 2012 273 Figure 9: An Unto These Hills cast member stretches backstage, 2012 274 Figure 10: Pre-show entertainment at the Mountainside Theatre, 2012 274 Figures 11-13: Three distinct eras portrayed in Happy Canyon, 2014 360 Figure 14: The opening of Happy Canyon, 2014 361 Figure 15: The finale of Happy Canyon, 2014 361 vi Introduction “Another Openin’, Another Show”: Finding a Place for American Indian Historical Pageants1 “From the woodlands to your right will appear the remnants of a dying race of people,” the souvenir program for the 1925 Apostle Islands Indian Pageant proclaimed. “Within the last decade their numbers have been alarmingly reduced by neglect and subjugation. Already the American people realize the swiftness of a destructive force which is destined to eliminate the Red Man from his Native haunts and his happy virile life.”2 The pageant, held in northern Wisconsin along the south shore of Lake Superior in 1924 and 1925, was one of many that popped up across the country during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Opportunistic pageant committees, local businesses, entrepreneurs, and small-town residents all sought to capitalize on not only white American fascinations with American Indians but also on the widespread fear that, like the disappearing forests and open spaces on the outskirts of supposed civilization, American Indians would soon cease to exist. American Indian historical pageants (theatrical portrayals of local tribal history whose level of accuracy could leave much to be desired) allowed white Americans to retrace a particular historical thread by witnessing dramatic reenactments “in the exact spots” wherein the exciting action had originally occurred.3 1 “Another Op’nin,’ Another Show,” Cole Porter, Kiss Me, Kate (1948). 2 “Second Annual Apostle Islands Indian Pageant” program, 1925. Courtesy of Bayfield Heritage Association, Bayfield, Wisconsin. 3 Promotional booklet, Bayfield Progress Print, Bayfield, Wisconsin, 1923. 1 This dissertation, entitled “’We All Have a Part to Play’: Salvage Tourism in American Indian Historical Pageantry,” examines three historical pageants in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Oregon through the lenses of race and authenticity, performance and memory, tourism and the economy, and popular culture and federal policy. This dissertation centers on three American Indian historical pageants of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, each of which is analyzed as a case study, not a continuous narrative, due to geographic and chronological distinctions. The Apostle Islands Indian Pageant was staged in the early 1920s on the Red Cliff Ojibwe reservation in northern Wisconsin. It is unique in the sense that, unlike the other two, it was only produced for a few years due to what organizers deemed inadequate attendance based on the high production costs.