1913 - Wild West Shows are "degrading, demoralizing and degenerating"
In 1913, Chauncey Yellow Robe (Canowicakte/"Kills in the Woods". 1867–1930), of the Sioux Nation and raised in the Sicangu Lakota tradition, was founding member of the Society of American Indians - an organization run by and for American Indians - from 1911-1923. Yellow Robe was an educator, lecturer and activist who was widely known and respected. He believed indigenous people were capable of achieving great things, and fought for their American citizenship.
The organization would meet yearly and discuss issues pertaining to their people. Below is the speech he gave on October 14, 1913 in Denver, Colorado.
I have come to this convention with a question that is familiar to you all -- the Wild West Indian Show.
Before I go any further to speak upon this subject I wish to ask one question: Is there any one here that will tell me that the Wild West Show is a good thing for the Indian? If this Society is in favorable accord with such a practice, I am willing to form a new Wild West Show right here among the members of this Society to take the place of the celebrated Buffalo Bill, whose last camping ground was Denver.
The Indian is not to be censured for the Wild West Indian Show, for his condition and the present life which the Indian is forced to lead has drawn him into such shows. What benefit has the Indian derived from these Wild West Shows? None, but what are degrading, demoralizing and degenerating, and all their influences fall short of accomplishing the ideals of citizenship and civilized state of affairs which we most need to know. Tribal habits and customs are apt to be degraded for show purposes, because the Indian Bureau under our government is constantly encouraging the Indian to degenerate by permitting hundreds of them to leave their homes for fraudulent savage demonstrations before the world. All these Wild West Shows are exhibiting the Indian worse than he ever was, and deprive him of his high manhood and individuality.
We see the Indian. He is pictured in the lowest degree of humanity. He is exhibited as a savage in every motion picture theater in the country. We see the Indian, in his full native costume, stamped on the five-dollar bills as a reminder of his savagery. We see a monument of the Indian in New York harbor*[1] as a memorial of this vanishing race. The Indian wants no such memorial monument, for he is not yet dead.
The name of the North American Indian will not be forgotten as long as the rivers flow and the hills and the mountains shall stand, and though we have progressed, we have not yet vanished.
At every celebration upon the reservation borders the Indian is in demand for show exhibitions. I have had the privilege of witnessing some of these occasions where the Indian is induced by pay to perform the naked war dance before the intelligent people who call themselves Christians. Under these circumstances is it any wonder that sometimes it is considered that the Indian does not possess the adaptability for Anglo-Saxon civilization?
The fact is here demonstrated that the Indian is truly a man, and that he can become adapted to the highest state of development and achievement. Every effort should be made to lead him through the paths of education and Christianity to self-supporting and independent American citizenship. It is for us who feel more deeply and trust in our God to consider our own difficult questions, to hope that the day is not far distant when the reservation system and all these hindrances that concern us will be removed, and that all of our people will enjoy the same privilege of citizenship that you and I do.
1] A monument to the "Vanishing Race" was set to be built in the New York harbor, and probably would have, if it were not for WWI. More on that story later.
The organization would meet yearly and discuss issues pertaining to their people. Below is the speech he gave on October 14, 1913 in Denver, Colorado.
The Indian and the Wild West Show
I am glad that the circumstances enabled me to be present upon this convention; and as I look about this gathering, of the leaders of my own race, it is a great inspiration to me to think that we are assembled here in the interest of our common cause.I have come to this convention with a question that is familiar to you all -- the Wild West Indian Show.
Before I go any further to speak upon this subject I wish to ask one question: Is there any one here that will tell me that the Wild West Show is a good thing for the Indian? If this Society is in favorable accord with such a practice, I am willing to form a new Wild West Show right here among the members of this Society to take the place of the celebrated Buffalo Bill, whose last camping ground was Denver.
The Indian is not to be censured for the Wild West Indian Show, for his condition and the present life which the Indian is forced to lead has drawn him into such shows. What benefit has the Indian derived from these Wild West Shows? None, but what are degrading, demoralizing and degenerating, and all their influences fall short of accomplishing the ideals of citizenship and civilized state of affairs which we most need to know. Tribal habits and customs are apt to be degraded for show purposes, because the Indian Bureau under our government is constantly encouraging the Indian to degenerate by permitting hundreds of them to leave their homes for fraudulent savage demonstrations before the world. All these Wild West Shows are exhibiting the Indian worse than he ever was, and deprive him of his high manhood and individuality.
We see the Indian. He is pictured in the lowest degree of humanity. He is exhibited as a savage in every motion picture theater in the country. We see the Indian, in his full native costume, stamped on the five-dollar bills as a reminder of his savagery. We see a monument of the Indian in New York harbor*[1] as a memorial of this vanishing race. The Indian wants no such memorial monument, for he is not yet dead.
The name of the North American Indian will not be forgotten as long as the rivers flow and the hills and the mountains shall stand, and though we have progressed, we have not yet vanished.
At every celebration upon the reservation borders the Indian is in demand for show exhibitions. I have had the privilege of witnessing some of these occasions where the Indian is induced by pay to perform the naked war dance before the intelligent people who call themselves Christians. Under these circumstances is it any wonder that sometimes it is considered that the Indian does not possess the adaptability for Anglo-Saxon civilization?
The fact is here demonstrated that the Indian is truly a man, and that he can become adapted to the highest state of development and achievement. Every effort should be made to lead him through the paths of education and Christianity to self-supporting and independent American citizenship. It is for us who feel more deeply and trust in our God to consider our own difficult questions, to hope that the day is not far distant when the reservation system and all these hindrances that concern us will be removed, and that all of our people will enjoy the same privilege of citizenship that you and I do.
- The End -
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| Chauncey Yellow Robe. 1895. |
