![]() The same newspaper had described him, on the occasion of his arrival in the city for the fair, as “the celebrated Apache chief and warrior, who has a record for ferocity equal to that of any Indian who ever lived.” While Geronimo’s arrival was notable, newspapers readily embellished parts of the story to draw out the apparent symbolism. His legend had grown as people read versions (often greatly exaggerated ones) of his story over the previous thirty years leading up to this point. Louis newspaper described him as “broken in spirit.” Geronimo survived capture and imprisonment only to suffer ongoing exploitation as a showpiece in Wild West shows and at fairs to be gawked at by curious throngs in zoo-like conditions. Army units assigned to track and capture his small band. Deep in his memory were violent raids boldly led against enemy tribes and run-ins with the growing number of U.S. ![]() His mother, wife, and children had all been murdered. By this time in his life, he had witnessed family and friends slaughtered in ugly fighting across the American West. Geronimo, from their perspective, became notoriously prickly in his habitual refusal to satisfy their constant requests and demands.Īt seventy-five years old, Geronimo had more than enough reason to feel irritable. Newspaper reporters, anthropologists, and other chroniclers all approached him regularly. Geronimo mainly sat in the Indian Building at the fair, signing a few autographs on tinted cards here and there for ten cents each. Densmore felt tantalizingly close, however, to what she coveted the most. She wrote down as best she could the songs that she heard performed by indigenous people of the Philippines, even having the chance to listen to the music lessons that elders at the fair were offering to the younger members of their party. Louis, she believed she was having some success. ![]() Once Densmore settled into her work at the fair in St. Here savagery met civilization, the presumed past met the present, stability met change.” If change was to be the inevitable price of human progress, some thinkers wondered if this toll might be diminished by preserving elements of the threatened cultures on the road to extinction. Salvage provided the opportunity for human contact and human contrast. Gruber reflected on the ideas behind this troubled history: “The loss of the savage, so real to the anthropologist, pointed up his value. The meeting she envisioned would contribute to a critical effort to record or “salvage” cultural traditions, a phenomenon that writers later described as “salvage anthropology” or “salvage ethnography.” In one 1970 essay, anthropologist Jacob W. More than anything, however, Densmore wanted to meet the famed Apache leader Geronimo. The fair would be filled with chances to meet people and to record music. ![]() Her work was part of a much larger, multifaceted effort to record and preserve seemingly fleeting aspects of Native societies. Her time at the fair would be important, Densmore thought, maybe even the most important opportunity in her life. Rarely one to let her mind wander, she sat on the train thinking about meeting Native people who she hoped might shed light for her on their threatened cultural traditions. At thirty-six years old, Densmore had little interest in attending the fair to see the colorful sights, the remarkable new technological innovations on display, or the crowded exhibitions contributed by foreign countries from around the globe.Īs the train moved south, her thoughts instead drifted to the lecture she was to give at the fair about Native American music. More than a thousand buildings had been constructed on the fairgrounds. Hundreds of acres in size and attracting nearly twenty million people, the fair was intended to dramatically celebrate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. Louis, she eagerly made her way to Missouri. Having heard that hundreds, if not thousands, of American Indians and other Native people were going to be at the world’s fair in St. Her passion was music, and she hoped to preserve something about indigenous people, specifically the American Indians who had fascinated her since childhood. Resolute and sharply dressed, she had arranged to ship a trunk filled with rare musical instruments to meet her at her destination.ĭensmore, like many other Euro-Americans, believed that the traditional lifeways of indigenous people all over the world were doomed to vanish. After a relentlessly cold winter up north in Red Wing, Minnesota, she boarded a slow-moving steam train rumbling south toward St. Frances Densmore hoped to stage an encounter with one of the most famous men alive.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |