Many Feathers and Much Paint Don't Make an Indian

1942, Jan 4 The Palm Beach Post  1942, Jan 6 Valley Morning Star  1942, Jan 12 Miami Daily News Record 

Heap Big Pickets!                                                                  1941, June 21 The Cincinnati Enquirer  The technic of the picket line is doubtless a white man’s invention, arising from the unhappy exigencies of the machine age. But it has been adopted by the Red Man, we find. At Watonga, Okla., the post office boasts a flashy new mural painting, depicting the Cheyenne Indians of Roman Nose Canyon as of many, many decades ago.      Alas, the Cheyennes are not pleased. They are so displeased by the WPA or possibly PWA version of their forebears that they have formed a picket line with placards proclaiming:      “Post office mural unfair to Cheyenne Indians.”       Although their picket line is a streamlined innovation, reminiscent of the mundane quarrels of white men in search of the more abundant life, the Cheyennes base their campaign on purely artistic considerations.      Chief Red Bird, leader of the picketing tribe, does not speak the white man’s lan

JUSTICE PROMISED                                                                   1941, June 15 The Philadelphia Inquirer  Washington, June 14 – Cheyenne Indians at Watonga, Okla, were assured today that proposed changes in the portrait of Chief Roman Nose would be made if they are justified.      Edward Rowan, assistant chief of the fine arts section of the Public Building Administration, advised the Indians to present their complaint to him immediately, and said he felt sure the artist would make “all necessary changes if they are justified.”      The portrait was painted by Edith Mahier, an art instructor at the University of Oklahoma.      “I advised them (the Indians) to communicate immediately with this office and I am sure she will make all changes necessary,” Rowan said.  1941, June 15 The Philadelphia Inquirer 

In 1941, this Post Office mural created quite an uproar in Wantonga, Oklahoma. Chicago Daily Tribune (June 15, 1941) published the image below - along with the reasons for the protest. Representatives from the Cheyenne Nation objected. The articles below illustrate their reasons: Big Chief Say Mural ‘Smells” So Indians Picket Postoffice Streamlined Cheyenne Tribe Strike to Protest Oklahoma  Painting of Dead Chieftain; Claim Scalping’s Out of Date.                                                                        1941, June 14 Battle Creek Enquirer  Watonga, Okla. – Cheyenne Indians started picketing against a new mural depicting their forebears.      Attired in full tribal regalia, they bore placards saying:      “Postoffice mural unfair to Cheyenne Indians.”      The mural was painted by Miss Edith Mahler of the University of Oklahoma art department. It represents the Cheyenne Indians of Roman Nose canyon, now a state park, at the time of the coming of

                                                                    1931, Oct 24  Pittsburgh Post Gazette  here's on for the book... The script of Paramount's new football picture, "Touchdown!" lists the character name of Jim Thorpe, famous Carlisle Indian star and American Olympic hero of 1912.      The actor who was the play the role was directed to the makeup department, where a makeup man commenced his task of making the player look like Thorpe.       After an hour's careful work the makeup man backed away with a sign of satisfaction. He pronounced the makeup perfect.      But the actor complained mildly, "Do you really think you need those lines under my eyes?"      "Certainly," the makeup artist replied. "We have to make you look as near like Thorpe as we can."     Satisfaction turned to chagrin a moment later.      As the actor departed for the set he commented, "I AM Jim Thorpe." 1931, Oct 24  Pitts

Indians Misrepresented  1915, April 21. The Washington Times  "If Santa Fe could inspire Ben Hur, surely it has attractions of some worth. Then, of course, there are the Indians.      "Americans are so very anxious to go and see Europe for themselves, and yet they are willing to take all sorts of stuff as gospel concerning the former inhabitants of their own country. The American Indians are far more interesting and far more widely misrepresented than any other race."      Just at this point I found what had really charmed Miss Church, in Santa Fe, and fairly held by breath in order that I might not disturb her in her narrative, which she gave unhesitatingly at last, with all fear of "publication" gone.      "As far as my studies of the Indian is concerned, let me say again, that my work was done merely for my own pleasure and satisfaction, and my desire was to get some idea of the present-day Indian, rather than of his forefathers," she prefac

"Should Teach Children Truth About Indians"                                                                    1938, Feb 12  The Maryville Daily Forum  "The Plains Indian," was discussed by Ralph Hubbard of Ten-Sleep ranch, Colo, at the Marysville Teachers College...      Mr Hubbard told prospective teachers that they should teach children the truth about the Indian. Stories about Indians often give the children wrong ideas, he said. In order to impress upon his hearers that the Indian was civilized, the speaker showed bead work with intricate patterns, which he said could not have been so well done by an uncivilized race.      Mr. Hubbard believes that white people should be educated to think of Indians as a picturesque and interesting race rather than an uncivilized one. The Indian people are intelligent, he said. They learned to imitate skillfully the calls of  different animals, a trick which they used many times.      Mr Hubbard had with him be

Redskins Bit Dust In Movies Too Often 1949, Dec 10 Fort Dodge Messenger and Chronicle           Washington - Dec 9 -- Then evil Redskins has bitten the dust once too often in the movies, the Association on American Indian affairs said today. 1949, Dec 10 Fort Dodge Messenger and Chronicle       It has organized a national film committee to see that American Indians get "seriously new cinematic treatment."      Oliver La Farge, president of the committee, will attempt to have the story of the American Indian, presented accurately first in feature films, and eventually in radio and television also.        A few 1949 movie posters 

Hollywood Picks 'Indian' Right out of Times Square  by Patricia Clary 1949, Oct 6 Daily Capital Journal       Hollywood - There are plenty of Indians hooting around away out west here. But for a movie Indian, they pick a New Yorker who's never been off the Times Square Reservation.      "Until I began playing Indians in movies," Joe Vitale said, "I'd never been outside a Broadway cigar store."      Vitale was a full dress city slicker from the Toots Shor tepee until Bob Hope called him westward ho! on the heap-big Chief. He played a redskin in "The Paleface" and made such a good one that Hope asked him to repeat in his current Paramount western, "Fancy Pants."      "Hope told me they'd love me at the Lambs club," Vitale grunted, wagging his feather headdress, "I'm sure my performance will turn even the reddest redman's face red.      "Please don't scalp me, fellows. It's all done

Spokesmen for Redskins on the Warpath; How Far Should Censorship Be Carried?  1949, Dec 19  The Salt Lake Tribune                 Is the lusty, rootin’, shootin’, western movie on the way out? The Association of American Indian Affairs has launched a campaign to eliminate the Indian stereotype from the films. If that means no more scenes of yelping red men menacingly circling around an ambushed wagon train, we predict bad times for thousands of motion picture palaces. And what will boys  (up to 65 years old) do for red-blooded entertainment?                The association wants the Indian presented accurately. If that means the Indians must be shown winning forays against the plainsmen, a great legend will bite the dust. Oh, for the good old days when a movie was just a movie – a vehicle for sheer entertainment. Shed a tear for the time when you could escape into never-never land of theaters free from a tussle with a moral or a penetrating social problem. Cannot a show be just

Indians Criticize American Movies 1949, April 14. The Muscatine Journal and News Tribune       Oklahoma City -- A couple of Choctaws and a Creek -- all three members of the Oklahoma legislature -- went on the warpath Wednesday against the motion picture version of the American Indian. 1949, April 14. The Muscatine Journal  and News Tribune       "When modern movie makers tire of hoodlum picture-making for coddling the blood-thirsty but unbrave masses who love cheap thrillers," said a resolution offered by the Indians in the legislature, "a change of scene portrays combat between white and Indian. It's battle if the white man wins, a massacre if the Indian is victorious." Hollywood Replies To Indian Critics of Redskin Movies  1949, April 21  The Daily Mail       Hollywood, April 21 – The villainous movie Redskin may follow his cigar store counterpart out of the American scene.      Three Oklahoma legislators who are Indians charged that the

Indian Solon Blasts Movies 1949, June 26  Abilene Reporter News       Oklahoma City, June 25 - An Oklahoma senator of Indian descent who criticized the movie industry during the legislative session earlier this year revealed a new blast Saturday.      Sen J Gladstone Emery, Wilburton, took issue with a statement recently by Arthur H Debra, official of the Motion Picture Association of America.       Emery has been contending that movies are portraying the American Indian unfavorably by showing them as the villain. Debra had quoted statistics showing that in 27 of 36 movies last year portraying Indians, the treatment was "sympathetic."      In a letter to Debra Saturday Emery said:      "Never has the Indian been portrayed as the defender of his homeland in his meager attempt to preserve his homeland from the white aggressor.      "By sitting through 'Custer's Last Stand" some years back twice, I've seen the Indians win twice. Of cours

Misconception About Indians                                                                   1 948, July 12 Great Falls Tribune       Most everybody agrees that our governmental policy handling the American Indians throughout the years of their wardship under treaty agreement has not been either successful or just.      Oliver La Farge, writing in the New York Times magazine, blames the deplorable failure to progress toward solution of the "Indian problem" largely on a number of misconceptions of the white population regarding the Indians. He points out that all sorts of wild ideas exist as to the status of an Indian and the meaning of the "reservations" on which many of the Indians live.      By exploiting these misconceptions, millions of acres of Indian land and millions of dollars of Indian money have been stolen from them - and the drive to get the rest continues.      This writer points out that it should be understood that it is neither the reservation

Indians Not Type to Portray Indians      After testing more than a sozen accomplished Indian actors in a fruitless endeavor to find two to portray Indian chiefs in "Badman's Territory," starring Randolph Scott, Director Tim Whelan was in a quandary. None of the Indians was the type to play the chief.       Then along came two white men, Chuck Hamilton and Alex Montoya, who won the roles without further ado. They made up to look more like Indians than the Indians themselves . * Note: Translation: The REAL American Indians didn't fit the stereotypical image of what an ENDIAN should be - so I cast white people who would paint themselves and wear wigs. 1945, Nov 30 Pittsburgh Post Gazette  Hollywood Makes Redskins See Red                                                                     1946, Nov 26 The Burlington Free Press       Denver - When he's not working as a clerk and patrolman for the Denver and Rio Grande Western railroad, a tall Sioux-India

Redskin Rejects Role in Movie as Drunk Indian 1941, Jan 5. The Courier Journal       Hollywood, Dec 4 - Rather than disillusion millions of youngsters, Chief Thunder Cloud refused to play a drunken Indian in a motion picture.      A studio cast him for Zane Grey's "Western Union," but when he read the script, he insisted that the writers make him a sober red man. Directory Fritz Lang relented when he found that the code of the Indian Actor's Association forbade its members enacting drunken Indians.        Thunder Cloud insister that he was a hero to millions of boys and girls every Saturday afternoon who crowd the country's theaters to see him as Tonto in a serial.  1941, Jan 5. The Courier Journal  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Redskins are on Hollywood Warpath by Mary Armitage                                                                               1946, April 20 The Main-Adelaide       For a start, nine film

1934, Jan 30   The Ruston Daily Leader  Indians Want in Movies Too Jim Thorpe Complains That White Actors Get Redskin Roles  Indian Casting Office: 1935 - Jim Thorpe, one-time Olympic Games champion and famed Carlisle Indian School football hero, has a new job. He runs a casting agency in Hollywood for Indians, collecting his tribesmen in the numbers demanded by the studios. He brought fifty braves with himself as the cheif for "Barbary Coast." 1935, July 18  The Lost Angeles Times  1936, Sept 24  The Los Angeles Times 

Six Nations Protest  1940, May 5 Democrat and Chronicle      Representative of the Iroquois League, meeting as the Six Nations Indian Association at Canandaigua, have drafted a statement condemning inaccuracies in literary and motion picture portrayals of the American Indian      Modern descendants of New York State Indian warriors do well to protest against the more or less one-sided portrayal of their ancestors and of themselves in film and book and magazine articles of this supposedly enlightened age. The story of the Indian, as seen in picture drama, in literature and to a large extent in history, is the view of white men intent on seizing control of lands acquired with more or less justice from their ancient owners, the Indians. Not unnaturally, the Indians fought back for what they consider their rights and for the lands of their fathers. The fact that they fought in the Indian mode, in the ancient, cruel, primitive way of their ancestors, proved merely that they knew no b

1940, April 17  Albuquerque Journal  ..Secretary of the Interior, Ickes, created an Order that would charge movie companies $50-$500 a day for shooting on government land (including reservations.) The order mostly pertained to Western films who often shoot for the scenery at national parks. Governor Bob Jones of Arizona said the fees would cripple a new industry and the state plans to protest. He planned to protest. Concerning motion pictures on Indian reservations, Ickes’ order said:      “The photographing for whatever purpose, professional or amateur, commercial or otherwise, of ceremonial performances, dances and places or persons within any of the pueblo of New Mexico and Arizona is subjected to the consent of the governing officials of such pueblo. Fees Up To Indians      “In all cases, throughout the Indian country, any maker of pictures, including Government employers, on tribal lands, must consult beforehand the tribal officers or superintendents. Limitations w

Done With Paint and Feathers 1930, Feb 2. Democrat and Chronicle      "The Christian Indian has no use for feathers and paint, save as the women have learned to paint from their white sisters," he added facetiously, referring to the present Christianized Cattaraugus group. "They are trying to rid their people of the paint and feathers and Indian dancing, which is very important in this way: As long as the white man thinks of the red man in his paint and feathers and ceremonial dances, he will be a curiosity and this will keep him from the national right which is his."  1930, Feb 2. Democrat and Chronicle Curse of the Red Man 1930, Dec 10 Wausau Daily Herald  Wrath of the Savage Redskins 1927, July 6 Santa Cruz Evening News 

In 1976 a controversial statue -  The Rescue  -  was dropped by a crane, breaking into several pieces, while being moved to a new storage unit at the Smithsonian in Maryland. It was the near-end to a 120_ year old sculpture that used to sit prominently at the capitol building steps - on the opposing side of another famously controversial statue -  Discovery of America . Discovery of America is on the left and The Rescue on the right.  American Indians, and others, wanted these statues removed because of the manner in which the Native people were portrayed. In April of 1939 this issue gained national exposure when Rep. Usher Burdick, (Rep. ND), urged Congress to remove the tomahawk-yielding offense from the steps of the Capitol - and even had himself photographed on the actual statue itself. A newspaper article (1939, April 27. Albuquerque Journal ) wrote Congress was asked by Burdick "to order the famous Indian statue near the east entrance to the capitol removed, '