WHAT SORT OF INDIAN WILL SHOW THE WAY? COLONIZATION, MEDIATION, AND INTERPRETATION IN THE SUN DANCE CONTACT ZONE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Sandra Garner, B.A., M.A. Graduate Program in Comparative Studies The Ohio State University 2010 Dissertation Committee: Lindsay Jones, Advisor Maurice Stevens Richard Shiels Copyright by Sandra Garner 2010 ABSTRACT This research project focuses on the Sun Dance, an Indigenous ritual particularly associated with Siouan people, as a site of cultural expression where multiple, often conflicting concerns, compete for hegemonic dominance. Since European contact the Sun Dance has been variously practiced, suppressed, reclaimed, revitalized, and transformed. It has also evoked strong sentiments both from those that sought to eradicate its practices as well as those who have sought its continuance. In spite of a period of intense colonial repression, during the last three decades the Siouan form of the Sun Dance has become one of the most widely practiced religious rituals from Indigenous North America and the number of Sun Dances held and the numbers of people participating has grown significantly. How has the Sun Dance ritual endured in spite of a lengthy history of repression? What is it about the Sun Dance that evokes such powerful sentiments? And, how do we account for the growth of the Sun Dance. I argue that the current growth and practice of the Sun Dance must be considered within the context of colonialism; a central focus of this dissertation. I identify the complex and messy ways that individuals mediate the inequitable power relations that shape colonialist interactions, as well as the way they interpret these social spaces. One of the hallmarks of power is the way that it works to conceal its processes and produce invisibility. This project seeks to uncover the concealed processes and the invisible, which continue to shape the contemporary Sun Dance practice. Each section of this ii dissertation, which is provisionally divided to attend to four eras of contact, is attentive to the ways that the Sun Dance ritual has been shaped by the historical conditions of colonialism that ―in the past banished certain individuals, things or ideas, how circumstances rendered them marginal, excluded or repressed.‖1 Representation is one of the critical forces of the colonial project. In spite of the tremendous volume of published works on the Sun Dance, there has been relatively little attention paid to the material effect of the circulation of either the representation of this practice or the lived experiences of those participating. This project historicizes representations of the Sun through textual, archival, and ethnographic research and demonstrates that Native interventions in these productions of knowledge have been largely concealed and underrepresented. The dissertation reveals multiple layers of concealment that go beyond the obfuscation of Native contribution. In each historical era, a Native contributor is brought to the fore: George Sword, Ella Deloria, the Medicine Men‘s Association, and Elmer Running. Each has contributed significantly to the way we think about Sun Dance today. By tracing these contributors, I show that Native contributions and interventions were not monolithic; rather there was a wide range of approaches used to negotiate and mediate the lived experience of colonialism, which in turn shaped their own engagement with and interpretation of the ritual. 1 Janice Radway, ―Foreword‖ in Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1997, 2000), viii. iii DEDICATION Dedicated to Agna Iyanka nahan Wanbli Gleska Cikala. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Graduate school and the final product, the dissertation, are not possible without a tremendous amount of support, guidance, and advice from many and I am indebted to countless people and organizations. Foremost among them is my dissertation advisor, Lindsay R. Jones. He has been (beyond the ―call of duty‖) exceedingly generous with his time, guidance, and advice throughout my graduate training and in particular throughout this process. He has modeled patience and flexibility with a student that has not always been an easy one with whom to work. Words cannot express my gratitude. As a committee member and reader, Maurice E. Stevens, exemplifies a pedagogical approach that transforms. His support, encouragement, and quiet, well-timed advice has nurtured not only this project, but has contributed greatly to a climate in which I have grown and thrived. Tanya Erzen has supported this project and my graduate training in countless ways—as a reader, teacher, and letter writer. She has supported and enriched my work and her guidance on ethnography has been crucial to this project. Dick Shiels graciously agreed to step in at the very end of this process. I have worked for him at the Newark Earthworks Center for a numbers of years and his dedication to and passion for education is a model to which I aspire. His support on many levels has been very important at critical junctures of this process. v Coursework, conversations, and email exchanges with scholars have introduced key ideas, approaches, and concepts that inform this project. To that end I want to thank Chad Allen, Christine Ballengee-Morris, Sandra Black Crow, Maria Cotera, Raymond DeMallie, Barbara Lloyd, Lucy Murphy, Malea Powell, Dan Reff, Brian Rotman, Philip Round, Barry Shank, Amy Shuman, Pat Stuhr, Robert Warrior, and Julia Watson. Similarly I am indebted to my graduate cohorts. Our writing groups, student organizations, and various conversations about our projects have caused me to think and talk through aspects of this project and I value our exchanges. Thanks to Lindsay Bernhagen, Tracy Carpenter, Anne Keener, Alana Kumbier, Annelieke Dirks, Kathryn Magee-Labelle, Teresa Roberts, Beth Shively, and everyone in InterSect and the Religious Studies Roundtable. I have benefitted immensely as a result of my association with a number of organizations and from presenting at numerous conferences. Foremost, I have appreciated and learned a great deal from my association with the Consortium for Institutional Cooperation in American Indian Studies (now the CIC-AISC). The climate created by this organization has been crucial to my development as a scholar in American Indians Studies. I have learned a great deal from the seminars, workshops, and conferences organized by this group. In addition to scholars already mentioned as a result of my involvement with the CIC-AIS, I‘d also like to thank Susan Sleeper-Smith and remember Susan Applegate Krause. Both exemplify a strong commitment to graduate training. I have also developed as a result of the opportunity to attend and present at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Conference. It is uplifting to vi attend a conference that draws hundreds of Native scholars and gives hope for the future of American Indian and Indigenous studies. There is no other place that I can imagine as a ―fit‖ for me during my graduate training than the Department of Comparative Studies. I have learned a great deal from every faculty member in the department. I have also appreciated the opportunity to work at the Center for Folklore Studies this past year, where I saw enacted a truly supportive intellectual exchange. Last, but not least, my association with the Newark Earthworks Center and, the various projects and programs developed by this organization has sustained and enriched me. In addition to Dick Shiels I want to thank Marti Chaatsmith, whose support and advice has been very important. I received financial support from a number of organizations and could not have completed this research without this help. A pre-dissertation Tinker Grant from the Center of Latin American Studies (OSU) helped me hone the topic of this project and resulted in a journal article that was published in the fall of 2009. American Indian Studies at OSU, the Newark Earthworks Center, and the Department of Comparative Studies provided funds that allowed me to travel to a number of conferences and workshops. A research grant from the American Philosophical Society supported fieldwork in South Dakota in the summer of 2008, which was critical to this project. And, research grants from the CIC-AISC and The Ohio State University Alumni Research Graduate Grant provided funding for the completion of fieldwork in 2010. I would not have finished this project without a strong supportive circle of friends and family. I am blessed and grateful. I want to remember Brenda Hubbard, who passed away during this process. There is no one that I‘ve ever known who possessed such an vii open heart and generosity. She took me in when I had nowhere else to go and celebrated my decision to go back to school. I would not have begun this process without her encouragement. My long-time friends Sheila Kelly, Janice Musick, and Joan Staufer have ―had my back‖ and encouraged me every step of the way. Thanks to Jen Black, a colleague whom I greatly respect and adore, who would never allow me to talk about ―work;‖ only the magic—a wonderful reprieve. I was fortunate early on to become a part of a wonderful, brilliant, supportive, and nurturing group of women. I would not have made it through this process without the companionship of the ―fab four‖—Kate Dean- Haidet, Peggy Reynolds, and Rita Trimble. I am grateful to each of you as you have enriched my world and I know we have developed a lifelong bond—personal and intellectual. I would like to thank Rita in particular—who has gone above and beyond— not only reading and offering editing suggestions on this entire dissertation, but providing a safe, supportive, and intelligent space where I could talk out issues. My family has been exceedingly patient and supportive.