Runners of a Different Race: North American Indigenous Athletes and National Identities in the Early Twentieth Century
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RUNNERS OF A DIFFERENT RACE: NORTH AMERICAN INDIGENOUS ATHLETES AND NATIONAL IDENTITIES IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY by TARA KEEGAN A THESIS Presented to the Department of History and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts June 2016 THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Student: Tara Áine Keegan Title: Runners of a Different Race: North American Indigenous Athletes and National Identities in the Early Twentieth Century This thesis has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in the Department of History by: Jeffrey Ostler Chairperson Marsha Weisiger Member Steven Beda Member Joe Henderson Member and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2016 ii © 2016 Tara Áine Keegan iii THESIS ABSTRACT Tara Áine Keegan Master of Arts Department of History June 2016 Title: Runners of a Different Race: North American Indigenous Athletes and National Identities in the Early Twentieth Century This thesis explores the intersection of indigeneity and modernity in early- twentieth-century North America by examining Native Americans in competitive running arenas in both domestic and international settings. Historians have analyzed sports to understand central facets of this intersection, including race, gender, nationalism, assimilation, and resistance. But running, specifically, embodies what was both indigenous and modern, a symbol of both racial and national worth at a time when those categories coexisted uneasily. The narrative follows one main case study: the “Redwood Highway Indian Marathon,” a 480-mile footrace from San Francisco, California, to Grants Pass, Oregon, contested between Native Americans from Northern California and New Mexico in 1927 and 1928. That race and others reveal how indigenous runners asserted both Native and modern American/Canadian/Mexican identities through sport, how mainstream societies understood modern indigenous people, and to what extent those societies embraced images of “Indianness” in regional and national identities, economies, and cultures. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Tara Áine Keegan GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Muhlenberg College, Allentown DEGREES AWARDED: Master of Arts, History, 2016, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, History and English, 2013, Muhlenberg College AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Indigenous History Colonialism Race Sports History Running/ Track and Field PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, Fall 2014-Spring 2016 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Peggy Pascoe Graduate Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2014 Pacific Northwest Research Travel Grant, the Cornwall Fund, Department of History, University of Oregon, Summer 2015 Pacific Northwest Research Travel Grant, the Cornwall Fund, Department of History, University of Oregon, Winter 2015 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without assistance from my advisor, Dr. Jeffrey Ostler, who has been an exceptional mentor and wonderful teacher. I’d also like to thank my three other committee members, Professors Weisiger, Beda, and Henderson. These professors have provided guidance and encouragement in matters of researching, writing, revising, and running. I would also like to thank the Department of History at the University of Oregon, including my graduate colleagues for their advice and assistance. I’d especially like to thank Richard Velázquez for checking my translations for Chapter Four of this thesis. The Department’s Cornwall Fund provided financial support for my travels to California on more than one occasion, and for that support, I am extremely grateful. This project was supported in part by the staff and collections at the Mendocino County Museum in Willits, California. I’d like to thank museum director Alison Glassey for granting me access to museum archives and archivist Sylvia Bartley for helping me navigate those archives and for sharing my enthusiasm for this project. Everyone I spoke to at the Mendocino County Museum was an absolute pleasure to work with. I am also grateful to the historians at the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah, California, and the Josephine County Historical Society who provided primary source material. I am very appreciative of the assistance and friendship of the present and past board members of the North Coast Striders running club who invited me to participate in the annual “Legends of the Redwoods” 10K that commemorates the 1927 and 1928 Redwood Marathons, and even speak on the history of those events at the starting line last summer. Rodger Schwartz and Mark Beaman contributed source materials and vi encouragement at the earliest stages of research, which kick-started my own excitement over the research process. The majority of my primary source examples came from the California Digital Newspaper Collection, a wonderful resource maintained by Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research at the University of California, Riverside. I also used sources from the British Newspaper Archive and Newspapers.com. Lastly, I need to thank my family and friends for their encouragement, support, and humor throughout the duration of this project. The three thousand miles between my family and me shrank with their constant reassurance and interest in my work. Rebecca Hastings, Haley Williamson, and Ceili Brennan form the West Coast family, and I could not do much of anything without them. My best friend, Steve, carried me through the homestretch of this thesis with much-needed coffee and exceptional kindness. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the late John Wesley “Mad Bull” Southard, for he was the source of inspiration that kept my head and heart in this thesis from start to finish. vii To the best professor and the best coach: Dr. Robert Thomas “Daddy” Keegan Thank you for my love of school and love of sport. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION: STARTING LINES ................................................................. 1 II. THE RACECOURSE: A ROAD THROUGH THE REDWOODS ....................... 23 III. HOMETOWN HEROES: INDIGENOUS IDENTITY AND INTERNATIONAL ARENAS ..................................................................................................................... 48 IV. THE RUNNING WOMEN AND MEN OF MEXICO ........................................ 79 V. POST-RACE REPORT: GRAND PRIZES ........................................................... 103 VI. THE REMATCH: SPORT VS. SPECTACLE ..................................................... 126 VII. EPILOGUE: THE CONTINUITY OF INDIGENOUS RUNNING ................... 148 REFERENCES CITED ............................................................................................... 156 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1.1. The racecourse along the Redwood Highway ...................................................... 1 2.1. The starting line through Sonoma County ........................................................... 23 3.1. Sonoma County through Humboldt County ......................................................... 48 5.1. Humboldt County through the finish line ............................................................ 103 5.2. Mad Bull reenacts his finish. ................................................................................ 109 5.3. Little Fawn in her role as Miss Redwood Empire, 1926. ..................................... 121 6.1. Mad Bull, Flying Cloud, and Bill Hayward. ........................................................ 132 6.2. Flying Cloud at finish line with Little Fawn. ....................................................... 146 7.1. Karuk runners prepare for race ............................................................................. 148 x LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Table 2.1. 1920 Federal Census data pertaining to labor in Happy Camp. ........... 40 2. Table 2.2. 1920 Federal Census data pertaining to labor in Zuni ......................... 43 xi I. INTRODUCTION STARTING LINES Figure 1.1. The racecourse along the Redwood Highway. Map created by author. !1 June 14, 1927 It was not the first time Al Jennings had fired a gun. By his own estimation, he was a surefire shot. But on the morning of June 14, 1927, the lawyer-turned-train robber- turned-actor stood before an enormous crowd and prepared to fire a pistol that was neither his trusted weapon in a raid nor a prop on the silver screen. Jennings represented a particular strand of “Americanness” — a Romantic outlaw turned against the justice system he had once served; a rugged antihero of the great “Wild West” of bygone days. He had avoided a lifetime prison sentence at the pardon of none other than Theodore Roosevelt, champion of twentieth-century American manhood. Jennings then became a silent film star and authored dime novels starring himself.1 Men like Jennings had defined the American West for a generation and would continue to represent Western history as a tale of gunslingers, vigilante justice, and the inevitable victory of the purebred white American male. Surefire shot he was not, according to those who knew him. But gun in hand, he was a guaranteed gambit for drawing an early-summer crowd on this chilly San Francisco morning. Jennings was the guest of honor at the event. The newspapers advertised his arrival and put his name in the headlines.2 But he was merely a starter at a footrace