1904: " The public's tendency to regard the red man as a show is well known, and they are used to him in his show clothes - that is, feathers, paint and buckskin leggings."

Doesn't this headline pretty much say it all? Well, wait to your read the article! 

          The educated Indian as an exhibit, says Mr McGowan, who is in charge of the Indian School at the (1904 World's] Fair, has not attracted the attention which is his due.

          Mr McGowan, incidentally, is superintendent of the Indian Agricultural College at Chilocco, Ok, and his pride is the red man who has met and mastered the white man's education.

          Great forward strides have been made in lifting the younger generation of Indians to the plane where self-help is a possibility, and that the public stares after the brave in plumes and war paint and gives his educated brother only a passing glance moves Mr McGowan to protest.

          The public's tendency to regard the red man as a show is well known, and they are used to him in his show clothes - that is, feathers, paint and buckskin leggings. The public looks at him in this garb and says to itself: "Now, here we have the aborigine; here he is in all his native splendor."
          Still, nowadays the public often is fooled due to the labors of many such as Mr McGowan. Numbers of these aborigines are well along on the road to civilization -- so far along that they are in the aborigine business at a per diem consideration.

          However, Mr McGowan does not lay emphasis nor point out with satisfaction the red man or red girl who cold-bloodedly goes into the aborigine business. He dwells upon the harnessmakers, the seamstresses, the carpenters, the wagon-builders, the cooks and laundresses who are to be seen at their various tasks upon the eastern side of the exhibit floor of the Indian school.

                  AMONG THE UNCIVILIZED

          Most of us, of course, have been to the India School; and most of us probably would confess to Mr McGowan that we devoted our time and attention principally to the west side of the building. There we found old Geronimo signing his ugly name at 10 cents a sign. There we found Indian at their native tasks, making blankets, modeling potteries, molding in silver, whittling out bows and arrows. And then we went out among the native huts of the red man and inspected the pristine simplicity and the pristine dirtiness of his natural way of living.
          Still, the Indian girl, nicely clad in the white maid's garb, often looking singularly pretty, attracted at least passing attention as she busied herself in the exhibition kitchen, turning out pies, cakes and other dainties from an electric over. So with the seamstresses, so with the carpenters, so with the harness makers. We did not fail to see them. 

          What is more, most of us probably did not fail to do a little thinking after we had seen them. They are the kind of a "show" that we look at for a little white and think of oftentimes and longer.  We saw enough to see that they made very good pies' possibly we undertook to taste and find out. We saw that the harness was excellent harness, handmade every single article of it, strong, attractive, and durable. We saw that the girls sewed very well and were convinced that the Indian brave who would be lucky enough to marry one would have his socks well looked after; that is, if he would wear any. We saw that the boys made farm wagons quite as good as come from the factor, and so on.

          Moreover, we saw that Miss Gray Eyes or Miss Big Walker, or Mr John Red Owl, had the face and appearance of young people who were mentally very much alive.

          So Mr McGowan probably can rest at east. Most of us doubtless carried away the conviction that the red race, or some of it, is progressing finely. We noted what the Indian schools are doing and it is quite certain that few who have visited the Model School at the Fair would for an instant entertain the thought of protesting against reasonable Government expenditures for the continuance of the work. 

DEFINITE OPINIONS

          Many and many a man, carried by business into one locality or another, where many Indians still remain, comes away after a very brief experience with very definite opinions on the Indian problems. After a stay among the Choctaws and Chickasaws, I came to the conclusion that the only smart Indian was a half-breed, or one with some white blood in him. So far, this seems to be true in the Choctaw and Chickasaw country, but it is not true as regards the pupils at the World's Fair Indian School.
          It is admitted that some of the pupils at this school are half, quarter or three-quarters of Indian blood. But many of them equals in intelligence, in amenity to education, are full-bloods. These full-bloods discover an ability to learn as quickly as while children, and they progress as fast in the school curriculum.
          "Show the Indian that in education lies his or her way to independence in money matters, and watch how quickly he or she masters the lessons," said Mr McGowan. "They all want to make money. They do it, too. There is great demand down in Oklahoma for the Indian seamstresses from our school. They get employment and keep it, and they make good wages."

          Probably the most significant and interesting of the showing of the advanced Indian is the printing plant. Some World's Fair job work is done there, and a small daily newspaper, reporting news of interest to the Indians, is published. "The Indian School Journal," a monthly, of size and pretensions, also is "set up" by the Indian typesetters there employed. Mechanically the work is regarded as good.
          In cleanliness, the contrast between the native Indian, as seen on the west side of the building, and the student upon the east side, is apparent. The conviction, then, is quickly thrust upon you that cleanliness, indeed, is the principal characteristic, and certainly the initial requisite of civilization.

INDIAN OFFICE STATISTICS

          Statistics prepared at the Indian Office show that in 1902   28,411 Indian students were enrolled. The average attendance in 1903 was 24,282, an increase of 262 over the year previous..........  Only about 43,000 Indians still cling to "the blanket"; that is, who avoid the work of civilization, and the number of full bloods in rapidly diminishing. ....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Editors Note: 

It's interesting to read how these non-Native people viewed "the Indian problem" - one that they created, and then kept trying to fix. Never, it seems, was the idea to follow their own agreement and allow Native Nations to govern themselves. Rather, they constantly changed policies, theories, strategies, treaties, and laws. 

And at this World's Fair, it was argued that people should not be put on display. But they were anyways, because it was a popular tourist attraction.. it was for entertainment of the masses. The, often, white masses. They wanted to see indigenous people as they wanted them to be - looking wild and savage. The government want to show both sides - to say "Here.. look what we done. We civilized them." But it's still a human zoo. It's still exploitation. It's still creating romanticized stereotypes of a race that's grouped together as one. It's still commercializing people, lording over them, forcing them to be on display. 

1904, Aug 21   The St Louis Republic