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Vol. XIX, No. 1 Winter 2003 Where the Reindeer and the Antelope Roam

Susan Scarberry-García, The Hulbert Center Endowed Chair 17 November 2002 carved as a swan and on the reverse side as a shaman’s face Train: Raton, New Mexico to Albuquerque in profile. Acquired in Khanty-Mansiisk in 1998, it is from En route on the Southwest Chief south of Raton, I Tobolsk, I was told, the artist’s sign two arrows emanating am thinking today of visual symbolic correspondences from a heart. To me this pendant represents the magical between the dry terrain of the power of flight and safe travel to llano here and the taiga opening remote places. into tundra in Northwestern Today I travel with Dr. Siberia. Today I have seen several Alexandr Vaschenko (Sasha) of herds of antelope, a far-ranging Moscow State University on train

Winter 2003 counterpart to the migrating S. Scarberry-García by Photo 120 from Moscow to Labytnangi, herds of reindeer north of the near Salehard, Russia on the Polar Arctic Circle. It is the animals, the Circle. original “old way people” who In the States I teach about resound in song, story and ritual Native peoples of the American Hulbert Center Hires New Program Director practice, who are the central Southwest, primarily the Navajo icons or images that make Native and the Pueblo. My courses cultures cohere. Whether sung reflect the integrated nature of The Hulbert Center is pleased to announce the hiring of calling of Pope John Paul II. That led to her being hired by for in a Navajo hogan or inside a literature, art and music that Pamela Cosel as the new program coordinator. She started Christian musician and TV’s former “Entertainment Tonight” Siberian Khanty chum, game is distinguishes these cultural work on September 18, 2002, and will work afternoons, 1-5 co-host John Tesh to coordinate private parties held in honored for its life-giving essence lifeways. American colleagues p.m. conjunction with his “Live at Red Rocks Concert” in 1994. in the lands where it journeys for such as N. Scott Momaday, Pam has a diverse background over the past 20 years While employed by the City of Ridgecrest, California, she water, hoof by hoof, paw by paw. Kiowa writer, Andrew Wiget, that includes work for non-profit organizations, was the liaison to the California Desert Tourism folklorist, and Andrew Becenti, city government, and the media. Association, promoting the area in connection 1 August 2001 Navajo culture specialist, among She has edited a weekly newspaper column with the local chamber of commerce and hotel Train: Moscow to Labytnangi, others, have also traveled this and been published in daily and weekly and restaurant industries, as well as managing Russia comparative ground between newspapers in Northern Colorado, as well as the city’s conference/recreation center. She On this long journey from Native North America and the regional and national trade magazines. She has also served as the liaison to the California Film Colorado Springs to Salehard, it Western Siberian Plain, seeking

written and produced newsletters, magazines Cosel courtesyPhoto of Pamela Commission. Prior to that, Pam was employed seems that the Native cultural parallel lifeways, reflected in and marketing materials in most of her previous by the City of Greeley for seven years and was symbols have pulled me this far, stories that sustain ecosystems jobs. She occasionally writes freelance for The a member of the first staff that opened and back to Siberia. I remember last Gazette, and is writing her first children’s book operated its performing arts facility, the Union Zinaeda Kondigina with her calf and healthy environments. In series and a contemporary women’s novel. She Colony Civic Center. summer seeing a pair of black this work we often focus on the Pamela Cosel does not shy away from visual projects, either, Her non-profit experience includes work swans painted on turquoise shed doors in the northern symbolic underpinnings of Native spiritual expression, and has also produced promotional videotapes as well as in marketing and public relations for Hospice of Northern Khanty village of Agan, reminiscent of the twin antlered including Deer, Raven and Bear, as reflected in oral cable TV shows. Colorado (Greeley), Colorado Music Festival (Boulder), and elk images on a brown gate in Villa Grove, Colorado that tradition, in order to better visualize what is at stake Pam has extensive experience planning and coordinating United Way of Weld County. She chaired the state Public I pass by on my way home. Indigenous animals establish in promoting the preservation of indigenous cultures’ events, the largest of which was serving as the internal Relations Committee for the Colorado Hospice Organization, the character of a place perhaps more profoundly than ancestral homelands against the processes of globalization communications/information services manager for World and has presented workshops at its annual state conferences. any other manifestation of its spirit energies. I wear around and wanton destruction of the earth’s resources. Youth Day ’93, the international event held in Denver at the She and her husband, Gary, a clinical psychologist, have my neck, always when I travel, a reindeer antler pendant Salehard, founded in 1595, also known by its old 8 (continued on page 2)1 (continued from page 1) name Obdorsk, is a crossroads for Russians of many Katravoz, a rather large northern Khanty village of several ethnicities and for indigenous tribes such as the Khanty, hundred people. The men are on the river fishing. We Southwest Calendar Nenets, Komi and Mansi. The local ethnographic museum notice scarved elderly women in traditional dress of red, “Yamal-Nenets Regional Museum” reflects this cultural blue and yellow fabric, as well as teenage girls in modern diversity and history of borrowing. Founded in 1906 by dress walking down a muddy hillside to the tanker in the Events January 21 Denver: Colorado Historical Society Lecture Series: Harvest Dance and various dances, 505-552-6654. Father Irinarh Shemanovski, a Russian Orthodox priest still harbor that provides a small store for the community. “Shaping the West: The Power of Maps on the April 5-9 Phoenix: Heard Museum Guild Native American dearly beloved by local people, the museum’s collections This “store” is reminiscent of the old-time trading posts Trans- Mississippi Landscape,” 303-866-4686. Student Arts & Crafts Show, 505-252-8840. represent his breadth of vision and love of Native people. established in remote regions of the Navajo reservation January 22 San Ildefonso Pueblo: Evening Firelight Dances, April 15 Denver: Colorado Historical Society Lecture Series, 505-455-2273. “Digging up Ludlow: Archaeology of a Tragedy,” The home of Khanty and Nenets traditional clothing, that still in some locales provide necessities to the people. January 23 San Ildefonso Pueblo: Buffalo, Comanche, and Deer 303-866-4686. duck dolls and wooden counting sticks, the museum is Farther up river, four hours out of Salehard, we Dances, 505-455-2273. April 20 Nambé Pueblo: Easter Sunday: Bow and Arrow February 1 & 2 Phoenix: 13th Annual World Championship Hoop Dance after Mass, 505-455-2036; Zia Pueblo: a focal point of Salehard pride. I gave the director Anna arrive at our destination—an extended-family Khanty Dance Contest, Heard Museum, 602-252-8840 or Dances Sunday and Monday, 505-867-3304. Cazonova a great Raven s u m m e r c a m p 8848. April 22 Albuquerque: American Indian Week Celebration, figure handmade by n a m e d Vo n d i y a z i . February 2 Picurís Pueblo: Candelaria Day Celebration: Dances, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, 800-766-4405. 505-587-2519. May 1 San Felipe Pueblo: San Felipe Feast Day: Huge Corn Skokomish tribal elder I immediately think March 1 & 2 Phoenix: 45th Annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Dance, 505-867-3381. Carol Johns Lee. Raven t h a t t h i s s o u n d s Fair & Market, Heard Museum, 602-252-8840. May 3 Taos Pueblo: Santa Cruz Feast Day: Blessing of the March 2 & 16 Albuquerque: Honoring Native Women, Indian Fields and Corn Dance, 505-758-1028. flew from the States and like a Navajo name, Pueblo Cultural Center, 800-766-4405. May 20 Denver: Colorado Historical Society Lecture

had been in the field in S. Scarberry-García by Photo incorporating as it March 18 Denver: Colorado Historical Society Lecture Series, Series, “‘The Most Picturesque and Siberia once before, does the common “Desperately Seeking Sacagawea,” 303-866-4686. Wonderful Scenery’: March 19 Laguna Pueblo (Old Laguna): St. Joseph’s Feast Day: Illustrations from the Pacific Railroad Surveys,” 303-866-4686. last year on the Agan surname “Yazzie.” River, but afterwards The people shyly Exhibits flew to Moscow and appear out of the log Arizona Phoenix, Heard Museum, 602-252-8840 or 8848, John Hoover: Art (through April 2003); Fifth Anniversary, an exhibition in honor of the then accompanied us plank house, first an and Life (February 15 through May 2003); Fusing Traditions, Native museum, acquisitions and selections from the permanent collection to Salehard to roost elderly woman in a American Contemporary Glass Art (April 12 through September 2003); (through January 14, 2003). near the Nenets, his short pink dress and Maria Martinez, works by the legendary San Ildefonso potter (May 10 Santa Fe, Museum of Fine Arts, 505-476-5068 or 5072, Idea through March 2004); Stars and Stripes in Native American Art (through Photographic: After Modernism (through January 19, 2003); Realism to “kinsmen” on the Yamal scarf, then two young April 2003); Native Peoples of the Southwest (through May 19, 2003). Abstraction: Art in New Mexico 1917-2002 (through February 3, 2003); Peninsula. A local TV Home at Vondiyazi teenage girls both Colorado New Histories of Photography: Brett Wilson (through April 7, 2003); station, Yamal Region, dressed in t-shirts. To Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 719-634-5581, Mind Over Matter: Reworking Women’s Work (through April 28, 2003). filmed the event of Raven’s arrival, as he danced swirling the north of the main house stands a chum, a canvas- Transcendent Spirit: Works by Luis Gonzalez Palma (February 1 through Santa Fe, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of April 25, 2003). Anthropology, 505-476-1250, Touched by Fire: The Art, Life and Legacy his button blanket and cedar leg bands. At home in the covered tipi nearly identical to those used traditionally by Denver, Museo de las Americas, 303-571-4401, Siquieros: The Spirit of of Maria Martinez (through January 12, 2003). Pacific Northwest, Raven the trickster is a bringer of light. the Apaches in the Southwest and by the Plains Indians a Revolutionary (through March 9, 2003). Santa Fe, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, 800-607-4636 In the Southwest Coyote is Raven in but another guise. such as the Kiowa, Cheyenne and Lakota. Nearby is the Denver, Denver Art Museum, 720-865-5000, New Classics, featuring or 505-982-4636, Darren Vigil Gray: Counterclockwise (through April On our second day in Salehard, we prepare early for a thatched-roof cowshed. A woman lets a two-week-old calf, some of the greatest contemporary pieces from the Museum’s 22, 2003). American Indian collections (through December 2005). Taos, The Harwood Museum of Art, 505-758-9826, Clarence Morgan boat ride on the Ob River, an excursion to Khanty summer wearing a red neckerchief, out to join her black and white Golden, Foothills Art Center, 303-279-3922, Colorado Clay Exhibition Works on Paper (through March 9, 2003); Native American Collections camp fishing villages. Having departed from a dock mother. As the calf runs helter-skelter into the tall grass as 2003 (March 22 through May 4, 2003). from the Wallace Bacon Estate; Three Pueblo Painters (January 24 through April 20, 2003); New Acquisitions (March 11 through May 11, Pueblo, Sangre de Cristo Arts & Conference Center, 719-295-7200, beneath a bluff over the Ob, we later learn that there are if lost in the field, the Khanty children stare and laugh at 2003). Khanty sacred places up there nestled amidst industrial the drama as their mother tries to corral the calf back to Magic Realism: A New Generation (January 18 through May 10, 2003); Iconography: A Sacred Pilgrimage (through January 25, 2003); Lea Taos, Millicent Rogers Museum, 505-758-2462, Millicent Rogers: repositories of gravel and steel girders. Another day we its mother for nursing. I am reminded of Navajos herding Gaydos: Biographical Iconography, (through January 25, 2003); Ritual Legendary Women of Style (through January 19, 2003); El Corazon would climb Green Hill where hunters of wild reindeer had sheep. Tamara stands among the children waving her & Ceremony: The Gene Kloss Collection, featuring sculptural works by (The Heart), features 14 artists who will be creating works in honor of El Corazon (January 31 through May 25, 2003). settled in the 13th century. Nearby another site, where goose wing fan to chase off the mosquitos. I am reminded Roberto Cardinale (January 25 through April 19, 2003); Traian Filip: Contemporary Iconography (through February 1, 2003). Oklahoma ivory with zoomorphic designs has been recovered, dates of watching Indians back home direct smoke with the New Mexico Tulsa, Gilcrease Museum, 918-596-2700, Art & Soul: Fritz Scholder to the 1st century B.C. From these elevated grassy sites sweep of an eagle feather towards a person’s body for Albuquerque, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, 505-843-7270, Indian (February 22 through April 6, 2003); Rendezvous 2003 (April 25 through you can see the Polar Urals, north towards the Obskaya blessings. Fortunately for these Khanty, the children are Culture Past and Current (ongoing). June 22, 2003). Guba—lip of the Ob—that empties into the Arctic Ocean, able to attend school in the vicinity and are not exiled to Santa Fe, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, 505-946-1017, Debating American Texas Modernism: Stieglitz, Duchamp and the New York Avant-Garde Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum, 817-738-1933, Laura Gilpin and the and south towards local Khanty fish camps. distant boarding schools for Native children as in other On the boat, we descend several steps into the parts of northern Khanty territory or still in remote areas cabin-galley where friends and colleagues have spread of the Navajo reservation back in the States. Just as we Aficionados Luncheons out a magnificent meal of dark bread, sausage, cheese, are leaving, a tiny dark-haired girl with a large purple bow Wednesday, January 29 Wednesday, February 26 Luncheon and talk Luncheon and talk tomatoes and cucumber on our small table. (I am runs in and playfully tosses a few fur scraps from a reindeer to be announced to be announced reminded momentarily of a simple Navajo meal of fish, hide bag into the air. Out into the bright river light once Wednesday, April 2 Wednesday, May 7 potatoes, onions and squash steamed over an outdoor again, Nina Sheyanova, the oldest inhabitant here, the Luncheon and talk by Luncheon and talk by grill near Tsaile.) Here on the river, toasts and tributes are greeter in the pink dress, says to me in Russian: “We were Beauty Bragg Susan Scarberry-García given to the Ob, to the spirit of mutual cooperation, and waiting so long for you. Do come, please come back. Next The Woman’s Educational Society Lecturer “From the Lichen to the Loom: “Identifying Major Themes in Chicana Literature” A Navajo Weaving Journey with Beverly Allen and Family” for the long-life of the Khanty people. time you come, you speak Russian and Khanty!” She says Buffet luncheons cost $11.00 and are held at noon in the Gaylord Room of Worner Center. For reservations call 389-6649. If you make a reservation and cannot After traveling up river for a few hours, past dense this laughingly, knowing that she has challenged me to a come please call to cancel, preferably two days in advance. No-shows prevent other Aficionados from attending these popular luncheons, and Southwest Studies taiga forests of birch, larch and pine, we come ashore at formidable task, but I assure her I will return in the future 2 7 Southwest Reading From the Director

Victoria Lindsay Levine, Professor of Music Sacred Objects and Sacred Places: Preserving Tribal Traditions, Andrew Gulliford. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, One of the most powerful means of introducing students to the peoples and cultures of the American Southwest A Word of Thanks Native Americans today are gaining ground in a centuries- is to acquaint them with some of the region’s legendary On behalf of the faculty, students, and staff of the Hulbert old struggle to reinstate and preserve cultural practices, to and spiritual icons, such as the Texas border hero Gregorio Center, I want to thank the special guests who assisted us reclaim human remains and sacred objects, and to protect Cortez or the Navajo holy person Changing Woman. Icons this fall. Claire Farrer, Phil Kannan, Michelle Lobato, Jimmy traditionally important places. It is often difficult for non- may be depicted through a wide variety of visual as well Newmoon Roybal, Lonn Taylor, and Will Wroth served as part- Natives to understand the complex historical, political, and as verbal imagery, which makes them especially relevant time visiting faculty members in our program, adding both spiritual issues behind repatriation and preservation efforts. in interdisciplinary teaching and learning. This issue of la depth and breadth to our curriculum. Our yearlong visitors, Written for a general audience, Andrew Gulliford’s book Tertulia features the work of two CC faculty authors who Hillary Hamann (W. M. Keck Visiting Scholar in Geography helps non-Natives understand why Native Americans are so have explored various aspects of Southwestern iconography. of the American Southwest) and Susan Scarberry-García passionate about these efforts. Sacred Objects and Sacred Susan Scarberry-García describes her comparative work (Hulbert Center Endowed Chair), continue to augment our Places: Preserving Tribal Traditions, is a lavishly illustrated, with Athabascan peoples of Arizona and New Mexico and program in important ways. Martha Sandweiss, this year’s lucidly written argument for respect for traditions, objects, Khanty people of Siberia. Although these societies are Norman Lecturer, gave two outstanding presentations that and landscapes of Native American peoples. widely separated in time and space, startling parallels exist enhanced our understanding of the role of photography Andrew Gulliford (Colorado College B.A.,’75, M.A.T.,‘76) in their iconography, as the photos accompanying the essay in shaping public perceptions of the Southwest. Our is Director of the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis demonstrate. Further study may shed light on how these Aficionados luncheon speakers included Barbara Waters, College in Durango. Throughout his career, Gulliford has parallels can be understood and interpreted. Doug Monroy Mary Jane Rust, and Andy Abeita (Isleta Pueblo). We are worked with Native peoples to further their efforts to reflects on the fictional character Ramona as an icon of grateful to each of you for your contributions to Southwest preserve their patrimony. This book is the culmination of Southern California, revealing some of the complexities and Studies. nearly a decade of research involving discussions with tribal contradictions surrounding nostalgia and the love of one’s New Faces elders and visits to sacred places. Each of five chapters begins homeland. These two authors thus suggest some of the ways We are delighted that Pamela Cosel has joined the staff in which cultural icons play a central role in expressing the with an explanation about the legislation, history, or issues of the Hulbert Center as our new Program Coordinator. I multivalent experiences and emotions that are deeply rooted hope you’ll have time to stop by our office to welcome her to be covered. Gulliford then illustrates points with a series of in a particular place, such as the American Southwest. case studies written by Native Americans, museum curators, historians, and others that cover ground from Washington Hulbert Center News State to the Southwest, from Hawaii to Tennessee. The lay Gulliford’s new book helps non-Natives understand why reader will appreciate the fact that Gulliford keeps jargon Native Americans are so passionate about preservation. and references to a minimum—expanded information is Nathan Bower, Professor of Chemistry, has been named Sharon Hall, Peter Marchand, Barry Rosenbaum, Marc the McKee Professor. In 2002, he presented a paper entitled Snyder, and Alex Vargo, and with students enrolled in BY/ contained in copious endnotes. addresses tribal preservation, which “for Native peoples in th In Chapter 1, perhaps the book’s most compelling America is about values and traditions and only remotely “Secrets from a Late 19 -Century Graveyard” to meetings SW 208, “Ecology.” This offers students a unique opportunity chapter, Gulliford explains the history, controversy, and about architecture” (112). Case studies include discussions of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society, and the to contribute to the body of scientific knowledge on fire ecology in the Southwest. Students will be involved in problems with the repatriation of Native human skeletal of the Ute Trail, Bighorn Medicine Wheel, and Devils Tower Society for Applied Spectroscopy. The paper summarizes his archaeochemical collaboration with Professor Mike Hoffman both faculty-directed data collection and student-directed remains. Gulliford captures the reader’s attention with National Monument. Chapter 5 focuses on the strategies th (Anthropology) on bones from the Colorado State Mental independent research projects. horrific tales of 19 -century plunder for the purpose of living tribal cultures have developed for preservation, such Health Institute. Last August, Clara Lomas, Professor of Romance the acquisition of scientific specimens. No one can read as language programs, copyrights, and culture camps. Last summer, Claire R. Farrer, Visiting Professor of Languages, conducted a book presentation and reading from this chapter and fail to see why the repatriation of human Appendix A lists tribal traditional cultural places, but readers Southwest Studies, visited the University of Hartford Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios (Duke University remains is such an important issue for Native peoples today. may find it difficult to use, as its organization is not obvious. (Hartford, Connecticut), where she served as the 2002-03 Press, 2001) at the Carnegie Library in San Juan, Puerto Gulliford effectively evokes the horror of modern looting, and Appendix B lists current tribal museums and community National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Rico and during a Radio Universidad broadcast, “Hilando he explains federal legislation such as the Native American centers, organized by state. Visiting Professor. She chaired the 2002 Victor Turner Prize fino desde las ciencias sociales.” The book is a product of Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Passed Gulliford presents a strong argument for Native American Committee for the Society for Humanistic Anthropology, a two summer institutes Clara directed with funding from by Congress in 1990, NAGPRA requires “all museums and rights, but the book is flawed in that issues of cultural division of the American Anthropological Association. She is the Rockefeller Foundation. She has also published an facilities receiving federal funds to inventory human remains authenticity and legitimacy—central to his thesis—are never included in the 2003 edition of Who’s Who Among American introduction to the Spanish edition of The Rebel/La Rebelde and associated burial goods in their collections and to notify addressed but are treated as given. Why should Native values Women. (which she edited). modern tribal descendants about the institutions’ findings” be privileged over those of other groups? Because of their Walt Hecox, Professor of Economics, worked with three Doug Monroy, Professor of History, delivered four public (14). The chapter concludes with a riveting case study—the antecedence on this continent? As redress for past wrongs? CC students last summer to revise Charting the Colorado lectures in 2002: “Lands of Promise and Despair: Spanish and repatriation of the bones of a young Cheyenne girl killed in Because of superior morality? Or, on the basis of mutual Plateau: An Economic and Demographic Exploration, first Mexican California before the Gold Rush” (University of Santa the Sand Creek massacre. respect for the beliefs and traditions of others? The latter published in 1996 by the Grand Canyon Trust. Walt serves Clara); “Imagining Ourselves Anew: Mexicans and Americans In Chapter 2, Gulliford focuses on tensions between is by far the strongest ethical position, yet Gulliford seems as Vice President of the Colorado Plateau Forum, a regional since the Days of Art Petit” (Arthur G. Petit Memorial Lecture, museums and Native groups over the curation and to ground his arguments in the former three. Throughout, initiative of government managers, educators, and elected CC); “Old Shoes for New Races” (Latino Youth Conference, repatriation of sacred objects. A highlight is the account of he one-dimensionally portrays “good” Native American officials. University of Colorado at Colorado Springs); and “Revisioning a Pawnee family medicine bundle and its ultimate curation values (e.g., the spiritual) as in conflict with “bad” western Victoria Levine, Professor of Music, published an article Ourselves Anew: Mexicans, Americans, and the New World at the Kansas State Historical Society. Chapter 3 focuses on values (e.g., development, capitalism) (e.g., 70), overlooking co-authored with Jason Baird Jackson, “Singing for Garfish: Border” (Lewis University). sacred landscapes—the mountains, springs, canyons, and the fact that many Native Americans are complicit in the Music and Woodland Communities in Eastern Oklahoma” Professor of Anthropology Mike Nowak is working on an article about the archaeology of Trinchera Cave for other landforms that are important to many Native peoples. commodification of their own culture. Gulliford considers (Ethnomusicology, 2002). She spoke on “Tenure and Promotion in Ethnomusicology” at the annual meetings of Southwestern Lore. Sacred places include those referenced by oral traditions, the beliefs of New Agers less valid than those of Native the Society for Ethnomusicology. Marianne Stoller, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, trails and pilgrimage routes, gathering areas, shrines, vision Americans, superciliously denigrating their “bogus sweats” Brian Linkhart, Assistant Professor of Biology, initiated a directed the 2002 Summer Institute in Southwest Studies. quest sites, sites for ceremonies, ancestral habitations, (148) and “pseudoshrines” (183); as a cultural relativist, I must long-term study of ecosystem dynamics associated with the She also celebrated the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision rock art, burial sites, and calendars. In Chapter 4, Gulliford protest. A stance which unilaterally privileges Native beliefs Hayman Fire. He is collaborating with Professors Jim Ebersole, on the Taylor Ranch (Sangre de Cristo land grant), which 6 3 Ramona, I Love You

Doug Monroy, Professor of History

I must disclose something right away because it is the as they do the rabbits and the gophers” (178). And that is men and not Mexican patriarchs, Ramona both suffers with absolute precondition to understanding all that I have to say exactly what happened, in the novel and in real life. fortitude her victimization as her culture told women to do, in this essay: Ramona, I love you. I’ve read your book several Jackson, of New England Protestant stock, minced no and she courageously rebels against it. Twice she flees her times now, and I’ve seen the movies of you, too. The ones words in her condemnation of the Americans: She has the oppressive homes and twice (!) she marries a good man. when you were Mary Pickford and Loretta Young, or they gentle and guileless Ramona say, “There is no hope. They Not only men like me love Ramona; women who experience were you, I can’t be sure which. Not as Loretta Young or Mary have power, and great riches...Money is all that they think of. the constraints of traditional, hierarchical cultures like that Pickford do I love you, and maybe not even as the beautiful To get money, they will commit any crime, even murder. Every of the californios will also identify with Ramona and yearn and reverential Dolores del Río (whose movie rendition of day there comes the news of their murdering each other for for the sort of passion she first experienced with Alessandro Ramona remains inaccessible), but as the character in the gold. Mexicans kill each other only for hate, Alessandro—for and then the deliverance she reaped when she escaped with book. I only love you when I read about you. hate, or in anger; never for gold” (230). Indeed, if Helen Hunt Felipe. I must say, too, that my love for your book character Jackson is to be believed, her country people acted like Surely, then, this is part of the reason that I love Ramona: I combines with a fair dose of topophilia, the love for our place, lawless, murdering thieves in their treatment of the Indians love the stories; I love the fantasy lifestyle which she inhabited our Southern California. This is our land, Ramona, where we of Southern California. And this is something which the in the novel; the way Jackson constructed Mexican ways as were born, where flora and peoples from all over the world historical record quite utterly bears out. so superior to American ones; and I honor the wholeness have replaced the indigenous plants It is, upon reflection, quite of Jackson’s telling which includes both the beauty and the and humans, where diverse people remarkable how critical of American meanness; and I feel nostalgia for this place that has never have mixed their love and their government and settlers Helen really—well, yes and no, actually—existed. And I love how blood. Hunt Jackson’s Ramona actually so many of us share this grandly encompassing story. It’s When Helen Hunt Jackson is. The American novel in print for probably understandable then that I yearn for a beautiful wrote your book, I know that she the longest time uninterrupted is landscape, I crave generous social relations, and I desire did so to call attention to the plight scathingly critical of the American Ramona. Photo by S. George H. Hastings S. George by Photo of your real love, Alessandro, and his mission in the Southwest. I cannot The book is not only always better than the movie, but people. To fall in love with you is to resist pointing out the obvious better than real life, too. The book facilitates imagination miss the point of the story. hypocrisy which Jackson reveals in in ways that the movie never can. The private world of the Ramona really is a combination the American character when she printed word is a special, dare I say magical, place: Rereading of outrage over the treatment points out the greed and meanness passages; thinking about the stories; considering oneself in of the Indians, the sentiments of of Anglo families who displace relation to the characters being read about; maybe being “California Pastoral,” the fables of the Indians, and the horrible transported to some place far away and long ago; or in the missions and the white woman’s consequences of Americans’ ready The Jackson book Ramona inspired a song and movie this case, a place very near and not so long ago, just very burden, and a spectacular and tragic resort to guns to settle their matters. different—all of these practices help us wonder, imagine, and love story. Strong and compelling Then, too, it is quite apparent court” of the house where “babies slept, were washed, sat engage in self-reflection. There is much more to love than stuff indeed. that Jackson, through Aunt Ri, in the dirt, and played..,” where “women said their prayers, songs on the radio and dramatic kisses on the screen. And Living in the actual story affirms those other American took their naps, and wove their lace..,” where “herdsmen there is much more to this simultaneously miraculous and Jackson told in Ramona would be values of respect for equality of and shepherds smoked (and) lounged..,” where “the young bizarre landscape of Southern California than meets the eye. terrible. She meant to make us sick opportunity, com-passion for those made love, and the old dozed...”(18). Beyond the house “all I guess that’s one of the things I’ve had to learn again writing to our stomachs and angry over less fortunate, and equal justice was garden, orange grove, and almond orchard; the orange my story of Ramona: a lover as perfect as Ramona, and a love Helen Hunt Jackson the treatment of the ex-mission under law. It is these sorts of issues grove always green, never without snowy bloom or golden as perfect as hers and Alessandro’s, exists only in a place we Indians of Southern California and to make us understand that Jackson intended that her readers confront, not that fruit; the garden never without flowers summer or winter... can mostly explore in a book, in the imagination. Maybe, the lawlessness of the Americans and their occupation of they should fall in love with her main character. Nothing was to be seen but verdure or bloom or fruit, at California. Alessandro tells how “I have no home; my father Californio society was mean to the Indians on the whatever time of year you sat on the Señora’s south veranda.” is dead; my people are driven out of their village. I am only ranchos—though not as much so as the missions had A curious sensation is this nostalgia for a place that never a beggar now” (171).1 And how he understands that it was been or the Americans would be—and warred constantly existed. “Americans—eight or ten of them. They all got together and and viciously against those in the wild. And I am aware of I will venture some thoughts, too, about why Mexican brought a suit, they call it, up in San Francisco; and it was the selective appropriation of the Ramona story by Anglo women have so adored Ramona. Many have commented that decided in court that they owned all our land. That was all Americans. They only take what is gratifying and ignore that “la gente mexicana tiene tres madres.” The first is the Virgin Mr. Rothsaker could tell about it. It was the law, he said, and which would complicate their tenure on the land of Southern of Guadalupe, the virginal, forgiving, mestiza goddess; the nobody could go against the law” (172). And how “He said California. I still love Ramona. second is La Malinche, the mistress of Córtez, once called “la Newsletter of the Hulbert Center for Southwestern Studies the judge had said he must take enough of our cattle and Surely part of the reason is the nostalgia that I feel for puta,” the whore, but now seen in the same complex ways of The Colorado College horses to pay for all it had cost for the suit...” (17). Alessandro 19th- century California as Jackson envisioned it: “The Señora that we see the virginal Ramona; and the third is La Llorona, Editor: Pamela Cosel concludes with the drastic prediction that “These Americans Moreno’s house was one of the best specimens to be found the wailing woman who searches for her children whom she Asst. Editor: Kathy Kaylan will destroy us all. I do not know but they will presently begin in California of the representative house of the half barbaric, has killed after her husband has wronged her. Too passionate to shoot us and poison us, to get us all out of the country, half elegant, wholly generous and free-handed life led there and in love with a man for virgin status, Ramona resonates www.ColoradoCollege.edu/Dept/SW/ The Colorado College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religion, 1 All quotes from the novel are cited in parentheses. While there have been by the Mexican men and women of degree...” (15). There are with the wronged women of Mexican society and culture. sex, natural origin, sexual orientation or physical handicap in its education program, numerous issues of Ramona I have used the popular Avon paperback edition descriptions of the “wide veranda on three sides of the inner While her persecutors are Sra. Moreno and the americano activities or employment policies. 4 5