In the early 1930's, when most people still believed Native people were the "Vanishing Americans," -- doomed to die out through cultural absorption - white people, under the guise of "preserving Indian ceremonies," were publicly performing sacred, religious Indian ceremonial dances for profit. Two of the most famous were The Smoki Indian Tribe of Prescott, Arizona, made up of white businessmen who donned Hopi attire and created an entire tourist community around their appropriation, and the
Koshare Indian Dancers who were, in reality, Boy Scout Troop 232, located in La Junta, Colorado.
Only one still performs today. And it's not the white businessmen. That ended in 1991.
Now during the 1930's a lot was happening. Native people were trying to
end a three-decades old ban on their being permitted - by the federal government - to hold their own religious ceremonies. During this time,
other groups performed their dances (such as the before mentioned
Smoki of Arizona), and the real Hopi Nation wanted to put an end to it.
The Hopi won their battle against the federal ban in early 1930, and was
requesting the government to prohibit the Smoki's from continuing theirs. In a case of absolute hypocrisy, the government said the Smoki's had the right to continue their mockery of the Hopi Snake Dance, which was described in 1923 as: "What Easter signifies to the Christian world, what the Feast of Passover is to the Jews, so is the snake dance to the Red Man."
In February, 1933, Scoutmaster
James F. "Buck" Burshears decided merge his two favorite interests: Scouting and Indian lore into what would soon be famously known as, The Koshare Indian Dancers. In the next post I'll republish a 1946 article that explains why Buck started the group, but for now I want to stick with this one topic: The Hope Snake Dance.
The Koshare Dancers continue today, which is mind-blowing when you think about it, and Buck himself professed his respect to Native people, but one has to really question that respect when this Scoutmaster had his group of white children reenact the sacred Snake Dance in the 1940's - at a time when the Hopi were making headlines with their protests.
From a March, 1941 newspaper article:
"Deeply grieved over "profanation" of their sacred ceremonial dances by profit-minded white people and tribal renegades, responsible heads of the Hopi Indians are in Phoenix to protest. They have called on the Governor, various Federal officials and prominent citizens for aid in a struggle which is a dozen years old, but which they now hope to win without further delay."
This made national news, and yet, just four months later, the Koshare Indian Dancers were running around with snakes in their mouths, imitating the Hopi's religion!
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| 1941, July 6 St Louis Post Dispatch |
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| 1941, Sept 10 Greeley Daily Tribune |
And the following year:
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| 1942, June 3 The Wilkes Barre Record |
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| 1942, June 5 The Times Recorder |
So where is the respect?
From the very beginning, "Buck" Burshears had to of been aware that the Hopi's had fought long and hard to not only gain the right to perform their own dances, but to try to stop the Smoki's from enacting their's. And yet, what dance were the kids performing in 1941? That very same sacred Snake Dance.
Did they enact it before? Not sure.. but other Boy Scout troops did.In 1935, a scout was actually bitten by a snake.
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| 1935, July 25 The Indiana Gazette |
Click next to read how the Koshares were "playing Indian" in 1943.
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| 1938, July 1 Quad City Times |
