Belonging and Belongings: Ethnographic Collecting and Indigenous Agency at the Six Nations of the Grand River
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Belonging and Belongings: Ethnographic Collecting and Indigenous Agency at the Six Nations of the Grand River by Stacey Anna-Marie Loyer A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Cultural Mediations Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario ©2013 Stacey Loyer Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du 1+1 Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-94551-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-94551-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada ABSTRACT This thesis is about objects collected from the Six Nations of the Grand River in the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, and the contexts surrounding their collection. 1 argue that for Onkwehonwe community members, collaborating in Western practices of collecting could serve as a strategy for preserving connections to their history for themselves and for future generations. I also suggest that this strategy was a means by which the community asserted a sense of their own place within modernity. I draw on the writing of Susan Stanford Friedman, Marshall Berman and others to define modernity as a relational phenomenon, enmeshed with colonialism. Drawing upon the critical literature on early twentieth-century ethnographic work developed by anthropologists and scholars of cultural studies, I then discuss relationships formed between the Six Nations community and anthropologists during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in order to highlight how collecting emerged as a point of shared interest for both groups. Next, I explore this topic through four case studies, each built around a specific object or set of objects collected from the Six Nations of the Grand River: a lacrosse stick, a wooden ladle, a beaded picture frame and two pairs of comhusk dolls. Together, the case studies illustrate how collecting has been one way for the Six Nations community to maintain a sense of cohesiveness despite varying geographic backgrounds, splintered political and religious affiliations, and other disconnections resulting from colonialism. Although a historical study, my approach is interdisciplinary. I draw on methodological techniques from microhistory and material history, and theoretical literature about objects and materiality from the field of anthropology supports my use of objects as entry points into ways of knowing the past, or as heuristics. Third, the concept of agency emerges in my case studies in two different ways. The first relates to how collecting was a way for Six Nations Onkwehonwe to preserve connections to their history, and to assert their presence, on their own terms, within modernity. The second relates to the agency of objects, or their ability to have an impact upon people or contexts. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The unwavering faith and good humor of my thesis advisor, Ruth B, Phillips, has been crucial to the formation and completion of this dissertation. Heidi Bohaker gently encouraged me to pursue a research topic close to my heart and offered continual support. Many discussions with Brian McKillop inspired me along the way and I am grateful for his willingness to read this manuscript in its earlier, less comprehensible, incarnations. Similarly, my thesis would not be what it is without Frances Slaney’s keen editorial and theoretical suggestions. My interest in museum collections grew into a passion in 2007 during my first research trip with the Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures (GRASAC). Hours spent in museum storage spaces with too many people to name individually taught me about the value of collaborative research and looking closely at objects. My participation in the 2009 Smithsonian Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology (SIMA) helped to shape my project in its earlier stages, particularly the section on comhusk dolls. The 2010 Otsego Institute in Native American Art History pushed me to reflect on the relationships between value and knowledge production. At the Woodland Cultural Centre, Judy Harris graciously taught me about material from Six Nations, while Paula Whitlow and Janis Monture made it possible for me to spend valuable time with the objects and archives. Judy Hall allowed an earnest graduate student the time and freedom needed to work closely with material at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, as did archivists Benoit Theriault and Jonathan Wise. V I am grateful to acknowledge financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and The Grand River Post Secondary Education Office. As well, Carleton University’s Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture generously funded my participation in several conferences throughout my doctoral studies. The completion of this thesis, however, is largely the result of moral support from friends, colleagues, and family. I owe thanks to Alan Corbiere, Anne DeStecher, Heather Igloliorte, Crystal Migwans, Polly Nordstrand, Glora Bell, and Stephanie Pyne for conversations that gave me the confidence to see this project through. Shangeetha Jeyamanohar’s editorial assistance and pointed questions enabled me to clarify key sections of my dissertation. As well, Steve Rifkin’s close reading of later drafts was eminently helpful. Finally, thank you to those who have reminded me of the bigger picture throughout this journey. VI PREFACE Written history represents a self-conscious effort to establish the meaning of experience for the present and is subtly and unpredictably coloured by the milieu in which the historian lives. The concerns and preconceptions of his own world constantly interject themselves into the complex dialogue between the living and the dead. - Carl Berger, The Writing o f Canadian History, 1976. Searching the internal database of the National Museum of the American Indian for items catalogued as from “Six Nations” will result in a list of about 553 objects.1 Objects from Six Nations can also be found at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec, and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario. In addition to the substantial collections of Six Nations material in museums across North America and beyond, the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario, associated with the Six Nations of the Grand River, holds its own material from the community. These institutions may have other items from Six Nations, as well, labelled as “Iroquois,” or “Northeastern North American,” or misattributed to another place entirely. If you are fortunate enough to visit a museum storage facility that has a shelf labeled “Six Nations of the Grand River,” here is what you might see: leggings of blue, red, or black woolen broadcloth decorated along the bottom edges and sides with curvilinear designs in small white seed beads, with the occasional use of coloured beads. Red woolen finger-woven sashes with white bead inlay of zigzags and diamond shapes. Headdresses with feathers attached to velvet caps or bands, 1 This estimate was accurate as of 2010. some of which might be decorated with colourful beadwork. Beaded bags, pincushions, picture frames, birds, and other ‘whimsies’ made for the Victorian souvenir trade.2 Comhusk dolls, often in male/female pairs, dressed in the style of traditional Longhouse clothing. Hats made of braided straw or comhusk. Carved items such as cradleboards, wooden paddles, spoons, bowls, clubs, snowsnakes, lacrosse sticks, small round pebble-like balls from a peach stone game. Woven baskets of various shapes and sizes. And then there are the items that you may not see, especially if you are in a North American museum.Gah-goh-sah, or medicine masks, wampum belts, comhusk masks, turtle rattles, gourd rattles, carved miniatures, for example. These, and