Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources Introducing the Davis Collection Native Americans and Geysers Waiting on the Beehive Volume 9 Number 4 Nineteenth century American landscape painters romanticized nature, which had become a symbol of national identity. Humans (note fleeing figure in lower left corner) were reduced to disproportionate size or omitted altogether. Con- versely, the dimensions of Giant Geyser in this engraving were magnified. “The Giant Geyser” from Picturesque America or The Land We Live In, edited by William Cullen Bryant, New York, Appleton and Co., 1872, p. 314. Myths, Memories, and Memorabilia For many people and for many rea- belief. In the process of doing so, he place to Susan Delin Davis since she sons, Yellowstone is legendary. Indeed, differentiates between the feelings of was a child growing up in Bozeman, it might be considered a land of legends. “fear” and “reverence” as they are attrib- Montana. She began collecting Yellow- Some of these myths and stories have had uted to things sacred. stone antiques in 1967. Since then, she a positive influence on how society per- Reverence is an emotion that many and her husband Jack Davis have as- ceives this place. By their very nature, cultures have felt toward Yellowstone. sembled the largest known private col- though, legends may not be well grounded From the American Indians, to the Euro- lection in the world. Among people who in fact and yet, they often contain a sym- American exploring parties, to today’s collect Yellowstone memorabilia, the bolic truth. This could be said of the visitors, Yellowstone is something of a Davis Collection is legendary. It is our famous “campfire legend” about how and mecca, a sacred place. It seems to possess great fortune that, through the efforts of where the national park idea was alleg- the power to provoke us, to impress itself the Yellowstone Park Foundation, the edly born. on our minds and in our hearts, and even park has been able to acquire this ex- Other legends, however, may do harm to transform lives. Mike Green’s article, traordinary cultural resource. “Souve- to the truth. This is the case with the story, Waiting on the Beehive is one such testi- nir” is French for the verb, “to remem- perpetuated over the past century or more, mony. Mike tells us how Yellowstone ber.” In fact, an industry has built up that American Indians were afraid of makes a memory for his family that tran- around the human need to recall its most Yellowstone. In his article Fear or Rever- scends generations. While reviewing this precious moments. The interview with ence? Native Americans and the Geysers article, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the Davises introducing their collection of Yellowstone, Joseph Weixelman pre- such experiences of my own and hope takes readers on a nostalgic stroll through sents another view. As an historian, that our readers will reflect on theirs, as the history of the visitor experience in Weixelman applies the rigors of his pro- well. Yellowstone and calls them to remember fession to chasing down the source of this Yellowstone has been an important their own. RJA Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources Volume 9 Number 4 Fall 2001 Table of Contents Fear or Reverence? Native Americans and 2 the Geysers of Yellowstone It has long been assumed that Native Americans feared the geothermal features of the Yellowstone area. Joseph presents another view. by Joseph O. Weixelman Introducing the Davis Collection 12 The Davis Collection of Yellowstone historic souvenirs, photographs, maps, guidebooks, brochures, and other ephemera is legendary among collectors and is the newest addition to the holdings of the Yellowstone museum, archives, and library. Interview with Susan and Jack Davis Yellowstone Nature Notes: Waiting on the Beehive 21 Editor A cherished childhood memory and lifelong dream become reality one Roger J. Anderson freezing January morning. by Mike Green Assistant and Design Editors Tami Blackford News and Notes 24 Renée Evanoff Nez Perce and Geysers • Science Conference a Success • Lower Brule Assistant Editors Sioux Tribe Delegation Visits YNP • Queen’s Laundry Bath House Listed on Mary Ann Franke National Register of Historic Places • Park Employees Receive Environmental Kevin Schneider Achievement Award • New Publications Available • Potential for Fossil Finds Alice K. Wondrak on Mount Everts Printing Artcraft, Inc. Bozeman, Montana Yellowstone Science is published quarterly, and submissions are welcome from all investigators On the cover: Coated specimens (early conducting formal research in the Yellowstone area. Correspondence should be sent to the park souvenirs), encrusted with mineral Editor, Yellowstone Science, Yellowstone Center for Resources, deposits from hot springs and terraces. P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. Left to right, horseshoe,1893; inkwell, The opinions expressed in Yellowstone Science are the authors' and may not reflect either National Park Service policy or the views of the Yellowstone Center for 1889; horseshoe, 1897. William Henry Resources. Copyright © 2001, the Yellowstone Association for Natural Science, Jackson stereoview of coating speci- History & Education. Support for Yellowstone Science is provided by the Yellow- mens at Mammoth Hot Springs, 1892. stone Association, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to serving the park All part of the Davis Collection; and its visitors. For more information about the association, including membership, or to donate to the production of Yellowstone Science, write to courtesy Susan and Jack Davis. Yellowstone Association, P.O. Box 117, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. Above: Beehive Geyser. NPS photo. Yellowstone Science is printed on recycled paper with a linseed oil-based ink. Fear or Reverence? Native Americans and the Geysers of Yellowstone By Joseph Owen Weixelman When two Pend d’Oreille Indians guided trapper Warren Ferris along Yellowstone’s Firehole River in 1834, he wanted to see the geysers and hot springs he’d heard about at the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous, an annual gathering of moun- tain men held under the auspices of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. He later wrote in his journal: Historical representation of Indians’ timidity at an erupting geyser. Note the I ventured near enough to put my confident stance and lead position of the fur trapper juxtaposed with that of his hand into the water of its basin, but native companions. Possibly portraying the Warren Ferris account (see withdrew it instantly, for the heat of below). From a park guide entitled “Yellowstone National Park: The Land of the water in this immense cauldron, Geysers” published in 1917 by the Northern Pacific Railway. Yellowstone was altogether too great for comfort, museum collection. and the agitation of the water, the disagreeable effluvium continually exuding, and the hollow unearthly years before the first Euro-Americans can perceptions of American Indians is a rumbling under the rock on which I gazed on the Firehole valley, many tendency to regard them as a single cul- stood, so ill accorded with my notions American Indians went to the geyser ture. Native North America can be di- of personal safety, that I retreated basins to pray, meditate, and bathe. Most vided into a dozen cultural regions, each back precipitately to a respectful dis- native peoples revered the land of Yel- with distinctive economic, political, so- tance. The Indians who were with me, lowstone and many treated it as sacred in cial, and religious systems. Yellowstone were quite appalled, and could not by their cosmology. While a sense of fear National Park lies near the junction of any means be induced to approach may have been linked with the geysers three of these cultural regions—the Great them. They seemed astonished at my and hot springs, the belief that this was Basin, the Plateau, and the Great Plains— presumption in advancing up to the the predominant emotion or indicated a where wide variations in native percep- large one, and when I safely returned, primitive intellect is mistaken. Instead, tions of Yellowstone could occur. Cul- congratulated me on my “narrow es- it is more accurate to say that American tural differences may also be found even cape.”— They believed them to be Indians understood the area to be linked between bands of the same tribe. If it is supernatural, and supposed them to to the powers of their Creator, powers misleading to speak of Indian culture as a be the production of the Evil Spirit. that were difficult to understand and monolithic entity, it is equally deceptive One of them remarked that hell, of could be dangerous. Such a place had to to speak of an Indian fear of Yellowstone. which he had heard from the whites, be properly respected and one could not Different tribes and bands responded to must be in the vicinity. take a journey there lightly. A different the geysers differently, just as they re- impression of native attitudes toward sponded to Euro-Americans differently. Ferris’s report has often been adduced Yellowstone can be arrived at by as evidence that Indians feared Yellow- deconstructing trapper accounts like Native Americans in Yellowstone stone’s geysers, an assumption that was those of Ferris and supplementing them relayed to early visitors to Yellowstone with oral histories, archeological evi- People have inhabited the Yellow- and became the prevailing view among dence, and other sources. stone region for at least the past 7,500 social scientists. However, hundreds of A common problem in Euro-Ameri- years. Although archeological evidence 2 Yellowstone Science has been found of Paleo-Indian presence and Buffalo Eaters (Kucundika). Al- stone. There is one mention of the Arapaho in the thermal basins, the first written though some early writers depicted the and a few that also place Lakota in the historical record indicates that the native Tukudeka as superstitious, poor, and even region.