Historical context

shift perspective from England to North America

· French, Spanish, British, and newly established American colonies vie with Native Indians for rights to American soil

· 1775 – pre-Revolution – both Britain and colonists acknowledged that Indian possessed rights of soil to be sold in treaty

· 1776 – post Revolution, Britain ceded Indian lands to the U.S. without Indian knowledge; U.S. claimed Indians forfeited their right to land if they had sided with British; some Indian tribes given land in Canada as consolation or sent to unknown areas west of Mississippi

· 1763 – Treaty of Paris – Britain, France and Spain divide up North American largely without consultation with Native Indians

· 1787 – Westward expansion of settlers leads to hostilities between colonists, military and natives – continues for next 100 years; American government uses various strategies to resolve the conflicts, trebles number of soldiers. New policy is to negotiate with Indians for land since payment cheaper than war, but govt believes Indians will eventually yield land and the goal is to move Indians off the land to allow for agrarian use by white settlers

· Between 1795 and 1830, Indians were systematically pushed further west; Official policy is that white settlement is not to be obstructed by Indians; Indians cannot sell their land, only the government was authorized to control sale

· 1795 – Ohio cleared of Indian title; Indian moved west

· 1803 – Louisiana Purchase – France sells U.S. area between Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains for $15,000,000 U.S. (from Montana to Florida, Wyoming to Iowa)

· 1812 – Indiana, Illinois cleared of Indian title

· 1820 – Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota cleared

· 1830 – Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska cleared

· 1830 – Indian Removal Act – government reneges on previous treaties for native land in the southeast. Indians forced to move to “Indian Territory”: land designated as permanent homeland for natives in the west. Originally included most of Oklahoma, parts of Kansas and Nebraska. Tribes ceded lands in exchange for protection, goods, annuities and reservation. Estimate that the Plains tribes sold ~290 million acres for less than $0.10 an acre, less than market value

· 1838-9 Trail of Tears – Cherokee Indians were forced to leave their territory in Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Alabama when gold was discovered on the land. Moved in the winter, on foot in a forced march by the U.S. Army; 4000 Cherokee died enroute; displaced to Oklahoma

· 1846 -8 U.S. declares war on Mexico; Mexico cedes most of South-west to U.S.

· 1840s – Oregon Trail established by fur traders; began in Missouri and ended at the mouth of the Columbia Rivers – 3,200 km through Shoshone Territory and took 6 months by wagon train; major route for emigration in the 40s

· 1845 – U.S. annexes Texas from Mexico

· 1846 – U.S. gets Oregon Territory (Oregon, Washington and part of Idaho) from Britain

· 1848 – Gold Rush in California; U.S. buys what will become California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and parts of Colorado and New Mexico from Mexico

· California (a.k.a. Overland Trail) -estimated that in 1849, 6,200 wagons, 21,000 people, 50,000 head of livestock passed over the trail. Ruined local grasses used for seed, introduced diseases to livestock which spread to native population

· Natives respond by withdrawing to other areas

· stealing/begging for food

· forming raiding parties for ammunition

· 1858 – U.S. government adopted reservation system for natives; theory was to concentrate Indians in small areas of land until they could learn to survive in the dominant white culture and release land for white settlers; Indian children trained in schools to be manual labourers – taught rudimentary arithmetic, writing and reading

· Reservation system proved inadequate for traditional hunter/fisher/gatherer lifestyle starvation, poverty

· 1860 – 1^st Pony Express Station

· 1861 – 22 stage coach stations, usually located at Indian watering sites; construction of telegraph coast to coast

· 1861-5 - U.S. Civil War

· 1862 – Homestead Act – settle on surveyed, but unclaimed public land and receive title after five years if improvements made

· 1866 – Frank and Jesse James rob a bank at Liberty, Missouri

· 1867 – 77 Reconstruction of the south following the war; establishment of universities for African Americans

· 1867 – Ku Klux Klan organized; U.S. purchases Alaska from Russia

· 1871 – no further treaties signed with natives. Regardless of expertise or land conditions, natives urged to farm. Shamanism and native religion forbidden; native languages forbidden in schools

· Pres. Grant’s Peace Policy assigned different reserves to different religious groups who sent missionaries. Missionaries often recorded Indian language for posterity and many Natives sent their children because room and board were free.

· 1878 – Boarding schools for natives created away from reservations; object is assimilation

· 1887 – General Allotment Act (Dawes Allotment) – New reservations divided into allotments of 160 acres per family to force natives to assimilate through private ownership. Collective tribal title ceased. U.S. citizenship offered to property owners who relinquished ties to tribal life. Any land in excess of the reservation requirements was sold to white settlers. 91 million acres of reservation land was sold as surplus.

· 1898 – Spanish – American War: Spain lost Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines to the U.S.; Hawaiian Islands annexed

· 1924 – Native Indians given right to become U.S. citizens

Mignon, Molly R. and Daniel L. Boxberger, ed. Native North Americans: An Ethnohistorical Approach. 2^nd ed. Iowa: Kendall Hunt, 1997.

Washburn, Wilcomb E. Handbook of North American Indians. vol 4. History of Indian-White Relations. Washington, D.C : Smithsonian, 1988.

U.S. map of Nineteenth Century showing territories and acquisitions

Zitkala-Să – Red Bird

· born 1876 as Gertrude Simmons on Yankton Reservation in South Dakota (Sioux)

· mother: Ellen Simmons, Tate I Yohin Win or Reaches for the Wind – also Yankton Dakota

· father: Mr. Felker, white man who deserted family before daughter born

· mother remarried John Haystring Simmons

· Zitkala-Să lived traditional life for first eight years

· pleaded to be allowed to attend white missionary school in Indiana run by Quakers

· 1884 – attended White’s Manual labour Institute in Wabash, Indiana. Liberal school, lacking in dogmatism and preaching

· attended Santee Normal Training School in Nebraska

· 1895 - awarded scholarship to Earlham College in Indiana; honours for writing and oratory

· 1896 – competed in state oratory contest

· 1898-1899 – teachers at Carlisle Indian Industrial School; militaristic; with Army style uniforms for students, anti-Indian and pro-Christian, no native language- trained for farm or manual labourers. Carlisle got cash subsidy from government for each student; runaways had bounties on their heads

· taught violin at Carlisle; recorded as having done a recitation of “Hiawatha” in buckskin, where she made the audience cry when female character dies

· scholarship to study violin at Boston Conservatory of Music

· Member of Indian Band orchestra that played for Paris Exhibition

· 1900 – begins writing for Harper’s and other prominent periodicals; names herself Zitkala-Să, (Red Bird)

· 1900 pub. “The School Days of an Indian Girl” in the prestigious magazine, Atlantic Monthly autobiographical account of the trauma and racism of her experience in missionary school; also critiqued assimilationist approach and likely shortened career at Carlisle

· met fiancé Yavapai (Mohave-Apache) physician Carlos Montezuma; he wanted her to move to Chicago; she broke off the engagement

· on Harper’s Bazaar list of “Persons Who Interest Us”

· Boston book company awarded her a contract to collect Indian legends; returned to reservation to care for mother and to work on Old Indian Legends – accounts of traditional narratives

· 1902 – married Captain Raymond T. Bonnin, mixed blood who worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs; 1903 has child Raymond O. Bonnin;

· wrote “Why I am a Pagan” later retitled “The Great Spirit”

· 1913 – collaborated with William Hanson on Indian Opera, The Sun Dance; performed by New York Light Opera Guild in 1937; depicted Indians in religious ceremonies and dances

· 1914 – joined Society of American Indians – dedicated to Indian self-determination; editor of accompanying magazine, American Indian Magazine, 1918-1919

· 1916 moved to Washington, D.C., focused on political activism and writing; lobbied for Indian citizenship, land ownership

· 1921 – pub. American Indian Stories collection, autobiography and fiction

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· went to Oklahoma to report on corruption of whites who were ostensibly looking after Indian interests; co-authored Oklahoma’s Poor Rich Indians; revealed robberies and murders and helped to prompt federal investigation into misappropriation of funds. Led to Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and re-establishment of trust for natives. Act attempted to stop sale of remaining oil rich lands and established tribal councils

· buried 1938 in Arlington National Cemetery as Mrs. Bonnin (wife of Army captain)

Exoticization of the “Other”

· Means by which the dominant culture marginalizes groups which differ through gender, ethnicity and or race

· exoticism operates through both a romanticization of differences and simultaneous silencing through oppression

· means of control by which the marginalized ‘other’ is acknowledged, but through an identity constructed by the dominant culture

In the photograph above, Joseph Keiley “presents Zitkala-Să as a dreamy, unfocused representative of Indian womanhood. Among the several portraits Keiley took of Zitkala- Să are four photographs of her in Chinese dress; these represent Keiley’s view of her as an exotic “type” without regard to her individual identity or her Lakota origins” (“Images of Zitkala- Să,” Catherine Lavender, 13 September 2000. Accessed 15 February 2008: 1-2.. http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/zitkalasaimages.html)

Gertrude Käsebier (1852-1934), also photographed Zitkala- Să around the same time as Kieley. However, Käsebier allowed Zitkala- Să to choose her clothing and pose. Lavender argues that Käsebier’s photographs (below) “reflect Zitkala- Să 's complicated multiple identities” as writer, advocate, and musician, noting that Zitkala- Să used her native name in performance and writing and her English name, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, for legal dealings.

In both of the above pictures, also taken by Käsebier, Zitkala- Să is dressed in European dress of the period. The left photograph shows her capability with the violin, marking her as a musician; the right photograph portrays her identity within two cultures as she is in European dress carrying an Indian basket. (all photos taken from (“Images of Zitkala-Sa,” Catherine Lavender, 13 September 2000. Accessed 15 February 2008: 1-2. http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/zitkalasaimages.html)