"Seven years after Kennedy's nomination, American troops would be describing Vietnam as 'Indian Country' and search-and-destroy missions as a game of 'cowboys and Indians' ; and Kennedy's ambassador to Vietnam would justify a massive military escalation by citing the necessity of moving the 'Indians' away from the "fort' so that the 'settlers' could plant 'corn'." (p. 3)
This quote is from a section on how Kennedy used the concept of "Frontier" to identify his campaign.
"1890, the moment when the landed frontier of the United States was officially declared 'closed', the moment when 'frontier' became primarily a term of ideological rather than geographical location." (p.4)
"The myth of the Frontier is our oldest and most characteristic myth, expressed in a body of literature, folklore, ritual, historiography, and polemics produced over a period of three centuries. According to this myth-historiography, the conquest of the wilderness and the subjugation or displacement of the Native Americans who originally inhabited it have been the means to our achievement of a national identity, a democratic polity, an over-expanding economy and a phenomenally dynamic and 'progressive' civilization." (p. 10)
"Violence is central to both the historical development of the Frontier and its mythic representation." (p. 11)
"The moral landscape of the Frontier Myth is divided by significant borders, of which the wilderness/civilization, Indian/White border is the most basic. The American must cross the border into "Indian Country' and experience a 'regression' to a more primitive and natural condition of life so that the false values of the 'metropolis' can be purged and a new, purified social contract enacted." (p. 14)
"The heroes must understand and at times take the roles of Indians." (
"Based on the historical Daniel Boone, Hawkeye became the model for future versions of the frontier hero in the writings of antebellum historians, journalists, and politicians interested in the important questions of Indian policy, emigration, and westward expansion." (p. 16)
Hawkeye was the hero of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking tales.
Roosevelt read Francis Parkman. (p. 33)
"Like
July 12th, 1893: Frederick Jackson Turner published, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", a key bit of literature.
..."and the vision of the westward settlements as a refuge from the tyranny and corruption...(p. 30)
"The histories they produced portrayed the Frontier as the source of exemplary tales that provided a model of the workings of natural, social, and moral law in history. From these tales they derived a paradigm of interpretation and a model of social behavior which, if understood and followed, would keep Americans true to the values and practices of republican democracy despite the transformation of the economy." (p.32)
"By associating 'savages' with the class of White 'failures' under the rubric 'cumberers of the earth', Roosevelt was working within a tradition of public discourse that dated to the newspaper editorials of the mid-1870s, when labor disorders attending the depression of 1873 coincided with a period of Indian hostilities over the Black Hills of Dakota (not far from Roosevelt's ranch)." (p. 40)
"Like Parkman's histories, The Winning of the West treats the Indian wars as the central matter of American history." (p. 42)
"Instead of the biological exchange with savages of another race or folk, the Americans participate in a spiritual exchange, taking from the enemy certain abstract ideas or principles but accepting no admixture of blood." (p. 47)
It was at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 that Frederick Jackson Turner gave his speech "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"
At the 1893 Exposition the walk itself reflected ascending races (Social Darwinism) with Indians equal to blacks. (p. 63-64)
"The American Indians in the Midway were the objects of overt hostility from the White crowds..." (p. 65)
"'Buffalo Bill's Wild West' was for more than thirty years (1883-1916) one of the largest, most popular, and most successful businesses in the field of commercial entertainment. The Wild West was not only a major influence on American ideas about the frontier past at the turn of the century; it was a highly influential overseas advertisement for the United States during the period of massive European immigration..." (p 66-67)
Sitting Bull and Geronimo both performed; their status as famous and authentic figures proclaimed the historical accuracy of the Wild West performances (p. 68)
"Cody advertised himself negotiating the post-Wounded Knee peace treaty and "charging into a village to rescue White captives". (p. 78)
"Cody framed the ceremony with a set of overt appeals for reconciliation between Whites and Indians." (p. 78)
"The Program now represented 'the savages' as 'The Former Foe-Present Friend-the American." (p. 79)
"It is also characteristic of Cody that he emphasizes the ethnic and racial diversity of the soldiers, 'white, red and black', who followed Roosevelt." (p. 84)
referring to the Rough Rider Charge at San Juan Hill as presented in his show in 1899.
"In an interview given to the New York World in April, 1898, Cody proposed a 'Wild West' approach to the coming war; 'Buffalo Bill Writes on "How I Could Drive the Spaniards from Cuba with 30,000 Indians" assisted by such chieftains of the 'noble but drying race' as Geronimo and Jack Red Cloud..."
"Buffalo Bull himself was identified as 'an avowed expansionist' and was quoted as declaring that the American Indian 'outranks the Filipino in the Matter of Common Honesty'." (p. 85)
"In Harper's Weekly in 1890-91, Remington's article Indians as Irregular Cavalry finds use for the Indians. 'Remington imagines the new regimental order as a utopia in which the noblest aspects of savagery are preserved to serve as reminders to the White man of the primal virtues of a warrior race." (p. 96)
"From the 1840s through the Reconstruction period, most cheap frontier stories followed the formula of Cooper's historical romances, using Indian warfare and captivities (actual or threatened) and a colonial or Revolutionary War setting to provide a "historical" context for the action of the plot. The cast nearly always included a Hawkeye-type hunter and his faithful Indian companion; a monstrous savage, aided by a White renegade; and a set of ingenues, male and female, awaiting rescue by the 'man who knows Indians'." (p. 127)
Deadwood Dick Series of books, late 1800s
"References to the Black Hills, Sitting Bull, and Custer abound and establish the drama as belonging to the Frontier but Indians are rarely the primary villains, and on occasion they appear as allies of the hero in a struggle against a common enemy. That enemy is usually identified with the wealthy classes in general..." (p .144)
Detective Series in the 'cheap literature' genre
"...and 'Sam Sixkiller', the Cherokee detective, is a full-blooded Indian whose racial gifts of skill, courage, and ferocity make him the Jameses' most dangerous foe." (p. 148)
More New York Detective: Old King Brady
"In the West, Brady finds himself in sympathy with the working man, Indians, and even outlaws victimized by corrupt officials and businessmen." (p. 149)
Other Brady Stories
"...takes a forthrightly pro-Indian stance. The villain of the piece is a crooked railroad baron who underpays his clerks and foments an Indian war to cover his defalcations. ..The Indian Ghost Dancers, led by Sitting Bull, play the traditional role of the cavalry, riding to rescue the detective and his young associate." (p. 151)
"In the end, Brady represents Sitting Bulls' death as "Murder by the United States government"... "(He was) a good friend to me, and while I was among the Indians I learned some things to make me ashamed to call myself an American Citizen." Though hardly unique, this expression of sympathy is rather strong, measured against the editorial opinion of the day." (p. 151)
Burrough's character John Carter
"As a descendant of the First Families of Virginia he is not ashamed to include the blood of Pocahontas in his lineage, and he has lived with the Sioux as a warrior among warriors." (p. 203)
Early movies sought authenticity; however, the "Indians living in small cabins and dressing like dirt farmers ' were not accepted:people believed the image of "feathered warriors on painted horses"'" (p. 236)
Federal Writers Project (FWP)
"Angie Debo's chapter on the history of Oklahoma was suppressed by officials in charge of the state project because it took a favorable view of the state's development under Indian home-rule and gave a devastating account of the way in which Indians had been abused by Anglo-American proponents of statehood and economic modernization." (p. 282)
In the late 1930s and early 1940s "The Indian Wars figured prominently as subjects for epics." Some "...deal with attempts by military officers to avoid an Indian War. To do so they have to fend off the Indian's savage propensity for bloodshed on the one hand, while on the other exposing and defeating the machinations of American politicians, land-grabbers, and war profiteers." (p. 288)
Dodge City (1939) "The arrest of Surrett presents Hatton as the protector of Indian rights; and this, taken with the end of buffalo hunting, tells us we are witnessing the last act of the Indian fighting phase of frontier history. Indians and buffalo alike are now under the protection of well-disposed White men like Hatton." (p. 289)
The Oklahoma Kid (1939)
"The opening titles ominously inform us that this 'last free frontier' has been acquired through an act of economic and racial injustice- the unfair expropriation of Indian land by a government devoted to the advancement of whites." (293) "The montage is accompanied by narration which explains that 'land-grabbing' and 'empire building' are what drive the process and that violence and theft are endemic to it. The Whites steal Indian land by the gun..." (p. 294)
When he is speaking of Blacks in WWII, "Ideological change was reinforced by the ethnic and racial mixing that mobilization fostered and by the mobility (geographical and social) that the expansion of war industries promoted." (p. 320)
"But in Fort Apache the meaning of the symbols is invented; the colonel of the regiment is the fanatic and tyrant who breaks the code of warrior, women's values stand equal to men's, the Indians are victims and honorable fighters rather than savage rebels or aggressors, and the film's last stand is less a glorification of Western civilization than the culmination of a subtle critique of American democratic pretenses." (p. 335)
"York's mission marks his character as the White man who does indeed know and sympathize with the Indians and is not afraid to go among them disarmed." (p. 341)
"The average audience share for Western series from 1957-58 to 1960-61 varied between 32.5 percent and 36 percent, reflecting a phenomenal level of audience interest. (P 348)
"But televisions' importance as a medium for disseminating mass-culture mythology, for most of the 1950-70 period movies remained the most important source of myth-making." (p. 348)
In Rio Grande "We understand that the Apache are their enemies, but that they do not hate Indians (the scouts belong to the fort)" (p. 356)
"Beginning in 1950 a second "cult" developed, centered on a sympathetic portrayal of the Indian side of the cavalry/Indian wars. The iconography and ideological state of this 'cult of the Indian' was the mirror image of the 'cult of the cavalry'. Its' terms offered a safe and effective vehicle for a liberal critique of the Cold War and the unfulfilled promises of the New Deal." (p. 365)
"Like the cavalry Western, the Cult of the Indian was an elaboration of the constituent elements in the complex mixture of Fort Apache. Ford's sympathetic treatment in that film anticipated both the general phenomenon of pro-Indian film and the specific figure who would be its primary symbol." (p. 367)
"Sympathetic depictions of Indians and polemics for Indian rights were not without precedent in Western literature and earlier movie traditions. The 'Indian Romance' had been a staple of nineteenth-century fiction. In 1911-14 Thomas Ince had made a number of Westerns that treated Indians sympathetically, and successful feature movies had been made of The Squaw Man, Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona, Oliver LaFarge's Laughing Boy, and Zane Grey's Vanishing American. Warner Brother's Massacre (1934) presented contemporary Indian problems in the muckraking terms of the social drama." (p. 367-368)
"Like the 'Cult of the Cavalry', the 'Cult of the Indian' continued to develop after 1950. Between 1950 and 1965 usage of the two forms diverged; the cavalry film continued to be responsive primarily to Cold War issues, while the Indian film provided a setting for stories related to the domestic struggle over Civil Rights. The Cult of the Indian was particularly active during periods of intensified civil-rights activism, in 1950-55 and 1960-64. After 1965, the two genres would show a tendency to 'merge', in response to the simultaneous interrelated crisis over "Black Power" and the Vietnam War." (p. 377)
"From the earliest Indian-war narratives down through Fenimore Cooper to the dime novel and the Western movie, the best allies of American myth-heroes have always been wild Indians rather than tame or reservation Indians." (p. 449)
"This was what General Custer had in mind when he made his famous declaration that if he were an Indian, he would prefer dying with the hostiles to living on a reservation." (P. 449)
Letters printed in Time in response to photos and stories about My Lai:
"A Native American connects the massacre to the primal race-war of American history; 'history repeats itself and this is not the first time American soldiers have murdered women and children...how about Wounded Knee'" (p. 589)
"At least since 1966, Native Americans and their culture had become important symbols of rebellion in the so-called "counter culture' of college-age White Americans. The connection had been recognized (and propagated) by the mass media since the Woodstock Festival in the summer of 1969, and cultural critics like Leslie Fiedler had noted the phenomenon as early as 1967-68." (p. 590-591)
"Three types of alternative Western were produced during the 1969-72 period, which might be called the formalist, the neo-realist, and the counterculture (or 'New Cult of the Indian') Western." (p. 629)
"From a political view, the most important of the alternative types were the 'counterculture Westerns' that comprised the new Cult of the Indian. But where the earlier films of the this type had been content to demonstrate the ethical culpability of Whites and appeal for peaceful co-existence until the Native Americans could learn civilized ways, the new films suggested that Native American culture might be a morally superior alternative to 'civilization'. The renewal of the cult began as early as 1964-65 with John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn and Sidney Salkow's Great Sioux Massacre. These films appeared just as American critics and scholars were undertaking a broad and thoroughgoing re-evaluation of Native American history and ethnography. Leslie Fiedler's Return of the Vanishing American (1966) forcibly reminded academic and public intellectuals of the Indian's significance as both fact and symbol in American history and culture and identified them as embodiments as a set of ALTERNATIVE values in sexuality, culture, and politics. Popularizations of the new ethnography suggested that by studying native societies we might discover alternative models of development. This renewed interest coincided with (and was energized by) the revival of Native American political movements, whose emergence on the national scene was signaled by the organization of the American Indian Movement (AIM), formed in 1968, and the publication of Vine Deloria's Custer Died for Your Sins (1969).
But Native Americans were also pressed into service as symbols in political and cultural controversies that chiefly concerned non-Indian groups. For the civil-rights and anti-war constituencies, Indians figured as the archetypal victims of White America's bigotry and imperialism. Proponents of the so-called 'counter culture' paid homage to the values they found in various Native American societies. For the new environmentalist movement, the Native American's religious bond to nature symbolized an ecological critique of the exploitation and pollution of the natural world that accompanied industrial progress. Some New Left ideologies idealized tribal society as a distinctly 'American' and 'exceptional' alternative to both the self-congratulatory rationalizations of American capitalism and the totalitarian doctrines of Leninism. Critics of American social and personal psy- (p. 629)
chology, of the deflection or repression of sexual and imaginative energy of the 'Preotestant' or 'work ethic' celebrated Indians as symbols of liberal libido. The drug-culture variant of this symbolism looked to the peyote cults (as well as orientalism) for models of a lifestle based on chemical mysticism. Beads, fringes, and painted faces symbolized the rebellion of Woodstock Nation by signaling the affiliation of the 'youth culture' with the long-despised 'Other'. The ultimate absorption of this revalued 'Indian' into the mainstream of American culture was registered by Life's devoting a special section (in 1971) to 'Our Indian Heritage', complete with a revisionist account of the Indian Wars which emphasized White responsibility and celebrated Indian leaders like Crazy Horse as 'great men', not 'savages'." (p. 629-630)
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