Stories in Red and Write: Indian Intellectuals and the American Imagination, 1880-1930 by Kiara M. Vigil A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (American Culture) in The University of Michigan 2011 Doctoral Committee: Professor Philip J. Deloria, Chair Professor June M. Howard Professor Magdalena J. Zaborowska Assistant Professor Matthew M. Briones, University of Chicago © Kiara M. Vigil 2011 For my father, an intellectual and an artist: R. Max Vigil (1938-2006) ii Acknowledgements I could never have completed a project such as this without a tremendous amount of scholarly and personal support from other people. In particular, I am grateful for the presence of the Program in American Culture’s ever resourceful and sanguine Director, Gregory E. Dowd, and the administrative staff: Judy Gray, Mary Freiman, Tabby Rohn, Brook Posler, and Marlene Moore. In fact, Marlene, I know that I am not alone in saying that although I cannot begin to comprehend the magnitude of all that you know and do for graduate students in American Culture I have never been without an answer to an important question and a feeling of security because I have always had you there to rely on. As others have said before me, Marlene is simply the best. In addition to those I name in the pages that follow I would like to thank, more broadly, all the graduate students and faculty from American Culture at the University of Michigan for their inspiring work, and their tireless commitment to research in Ethnic Studies and American Studies. Many of the questions that have motivated my research and writing for this project began in coursework at the University of Michigan. Much of my inquiry has been supported directly and indirectly by the work of American Studies scholars, such as: Tiya Miles, Michael Witgen, Gustavo Verdesio, Vince Diaz, Kristin Hass, Meg Noori, Howard Kimewon, Anthony Mora, Penny Von Eschen, Kevin Gaines, Larry La Fountain-Stokes, Maria Cotera, Nadine Naber, Damon Salesa, Sarita See, Lori Brooks, iii Amy Carroll, Evelyn Alsultany, Joe Gone, Judy Daubenmier, Julie Ellison, Susan Najita, and Esther Newton. As many historians will tell you good research without the help from archivists and librarians would be really difficult to do. I have a number of institutions and particular people to thank for help while I visited their archive, and later while I needed extra bits of information. All of the librarians working at Dartmouth College’s Rauner library should be given special recognition for their knowledge of the collection and their ability to quickly select and photocopy just about any item that one might need. I especially thank Andi Bartelstein and Sarah Hartwell for their help. Also, thank you to Katherine Kominis at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University for your super sleuthing skills. In addition, I am grateful for the help of Amy Hague from the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. I was fortunate to receive lots of help from individuals affiliated with libraries, historical societies, and other institutions as well. Thanks so much to: John Cahoon at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Cheryl Gunselman at the Washington State University Library, Kevin Bradley at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland, and Ashley Adair at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as Sarah Allison and Gwido Zlatkes at the Rupert Costo Library of the American Indian at the University of California, at Riverside. Thanks also to: Brigham Young University’s well-organized and highly trained staff who work with their Special Collections and helped with Gertrude Bonnin’s personal papers, the friendly and helpful staff at the Center for Southwest Studies in Durango, Colorado, and the incredibly capable staff at the Wisconsin iv Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, as well as the always adept staff of the Newberry Library in Chicago for assistance with Carlos Montezuma’s personal papers. Of course thanks go to the many dedicated and highly trained librarians and archivists who work at the Hatcher Graduate library of the University of Michigan, the Bentley Historical library, and the Clements library, all are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My many research trips were well-funded because of travel grants from the Program in American Culture and the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan. I also received a Frances C. Allen Fellowship that enabled me to work and research at the Newberry Library. More recently, my work has benefitted from the support of Williams College. As the Charles Gaius Bolin Fellow in American Studies at Williams I worked closely with faculty and students at Williams, and this affiliation helped me to complete the writing of this dissertation. In particular, I would like to thank: Mark Reinhardt, Merida Rua, Cassandra Cleghorn, Dorothy Wang, Ji-Young, Maria- Elena Cepeda, and Scott Wong. I would also like to thank all the undergraduate students who participated in my Native American Studies seminar at Williams because so many of our class discussions influenced the ways that I wrote my second and fourth chapters of this dissertation. While a graduate student at the University of Michigan I found support in many places, including a Mellon Dissertation writing seminar led by Linda Gregerson, whose careful reading of my third chapter was invaluable. In addition, I met a handful of other graduate students from departments and programs across the Humanities, as a cohort they helped me in ways that I could never have anticipated. Special thanks to: Meg Ahern, Dan Birchock, Dan Blim, Seth Howes, Anne Kreps, Nate Mills, Kush Patel, Jared v Secord, Patrick Tonks, and Josh White. Through this incredible group of scholars I met a dear friend and colleague, Jenn Solheim. She, almost as much as my mother and my dissertation committee members, has read large portions of this manuscript at various stages. Thank you Jenn so much for your incredible insights, and crucial suggestions on everything from prose to gender theory. I look forward to continuing our conversations as fellow readers. Along with Jenn I found support from other University of Michigan graduate students whose intelligence and groundedness greatly shaped the type of dissertation that I have written. Among this cadre of talented people there are also those who I would like to thank for their friendship as much as their scholarly insights. Thank you so much: Alice Gates, Annah MacKenzie, and Sara Crider for laughing and crying with me at the moments when either or both of these actions made a lot of sense. Thank you: Matt Blanton, Denise Bailey, Mathieu Desan, Gene Cassidy, Trevor Kilgore, Patrick Parker, Elspeth Martini, Megan Biddinger, and Afia Ofori-Mensa, as well as Kathleen Tipler and Shannon Winston, for being excellent people, colleagues, and compatriots in our struggle to better Academe. A hug and thanks to Brenna Greer and Tayana Hardin for their feminist solidarity with me, good talks over wine, and ever useful bibliographies. And thank you to: Karen Miller, Margot Finn, and Lani Teves for commenting on a talk I wrote; your comments helped me to sharpen chapter four. Also a hearty thanks to the members of the American History Workshop for reading a very early draft of my introduction, in particular thank you: Joe Ciadella, Suzie Linsley, Rabia Belt, Sara Lampert, Elspeth Martini, Ronit Stahl, Kara French, Colleen Woods, and Brenna Greer. Thanks too for the Graduate Employees vi Organization at the University of Michigan and all its members; my work as Vice President and President of GEO helped remind me of the historical ramifications of my scholarship and the ways in which theory and practice can not only be intertwined, but must be continually reconnected for the sake of us all. Thanks also to the other students in my AC cohort, especially Alex Olson, and those above and below us for continuing to push at the boundaries of American Studies; as much as your efforts have improved my work they have also improved our various fields of study. In addition, grazie to Tyler Cornelius for teaching me the “AC ropes” and for going through a very rough draft of my fourth chapter with a fine-tooth comb that testified to his own brilliance. Tyler, your reading of my work was instrumental in shifting that chapter into a more focused, and I think better, argument. Along with Tyler, although far from the American Culture family at Michigan, were others who supported the completion of this project in one way or another. In particular, muchas gracias to Matt Duques and Susan Aramayo. Matt for always being there for me as a friend and a reader, first during our time together at Dartmouth and later as we each pursue advanced degrees; Susan, than you for reading my work with a keen editorial eye. And, thanks to Carlos for suggesting his mom could be such a stupendous reader in the first place. Susan, you rock! Along with friendship there is also family. I have a special Ann Arbor family who I thank for your sense of humor, your incredible support, and for helping me to not take myself too seriously while staying focused on the seriousness of my dissertation’s subject matter. For all of you I extend deepest thanks, especially to: Jan Shanahan, Kate Shanahan Woods, and Kevin Jones, as well as Urmila Alladi Venkatesh and Vincent Messana. vii The vast majority of research for this project took place away from Ann Arbor, and I have a few friends to thank for their hospitality while I was traveling in their cities to conduct archival research.