To Hell with the Wigs! Native American Representation and Resistance at the World’s Columbian Exposition

In September 1893 Professor Frederic Ward Putnam, director of the Department of Ethnology and Archaeology at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, asked his young Native American assistant, Antonio Apache, to organize an Indian pageant. Apache promptly recruited twenty-four men, and while he was pleased with his newly formed troupe, he thought that their short hair made them look too “civilized” for the performance. Apache decided to secure an assortment of wigs for the men to perform in and stored the wigs in his tent. The following morning, as he was standing outside his tent, some fairgoers came by, staring curiously at Apache. Presuming he did not understand English, they proceeded to make several comments about his tribal affiliation, with one thinking he was Sioux and another believing he was Cheyenne. After considerable debate, they discussed whether he was “really very ugly” or not, with everyone finally agreeing that he looked like a “savage.”¹ Disgusted with their smug and presumptuous comments, Apache scowled, stormed into his tent, and threw out the wigs. Thinking Apache was throwing out scalps instead of wigs, the tourists fled in fright.

In a moment’s time, the profound ignorance of these fairgoers compelled Apache to resist providing them with a contrived Indian performance. Ignorant of the fact that short hair for many of these performers symbolized grief, tourists equated short hair with assimilation. They wanted traditionally clad Indians, and, initially, Apache wanted to appease them. Indian performers and their managers, like Apache, lingered between fact and fiction and real and imagined representation at the fair. However, by disposing of the wigs and having the troupe perform with short hair, Apache could demonstrate with his simple act of resistance that even in the most grievous circumstances, Native Americans responded to and resisted scrutiny from fairgoers and other personnel in their own ways at the World’s Columbian Exposition. This resistance ultimately spoke to their resiliency as an unconquered people directly countering the progressive theme of the exposition.

The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, in celebration of the quadricentennial anniversary of Columbus’s landing in the Americas, spread over six hundred acres of reclaimed marsh lands in Chicago’s South Side.² Fourteen great buildings and two hundred additional buildings stood on the fairgrounds, and if tourists had visited every exhibit, they would have walked a total of 150 miles. A progressive theme demonstrating human achievement since 1492 provided exposition management, concessionaires, and exhibition companies the opportunity to showcase their accomplishments. For a fifty-cent admission, over 27.5 million fairgoers leisurely traveled the world as they learned about the achievements of anthropological and agricultural sciences, educational progress, various art forms, and technological wonders of the time. A comparative approach for exhibiting the evolutionary track of human beings with living indigenous peoples was believed to be a more effective means of illustrating human cultural development. Consequently, dialectical presentations of “civilized” and “traditional” peoples were ubiquitous at the exposition, resulting in rampant exploitation of numerous indigenous performers. Educational exhibits, like the Indian School Exhibit managed by the Office of Indian Affairs, focused on Indian progress, but the remainder of Native American exhibits featured performers traditionally. Such representation led to seemingly uncompromising situations where Native peoples mitigated significant exploitation and injustices. Indigenous exhibitions were essentially contradictory sites in a colossal heterotopia that simultaneously presented idealized and realized spaces Native peoples inhabited, worked, and, most importantly, resisted within.³

Human exhibition varied at the exposition. Some of the more popular exhibits included village encampments of indigenous peoples living in traditional homes where they sang and danced as well as performed everyday tasks like cooking and cleaning. Fairgoer amusement was a priori, so fair organizers failed to recognize the constant pressures Native performers were under, nor did they question the authenticity or presentation of Native performances. Tourists left these exhibits satisfied that they had experienced an entertaining cultural event. Traditionally clad Native performers also exhibited their manufactures and interacted with tourists when possible. Personal engagement with indigenous peoples and Native-to-Native...