The 1904 Anthropology Days and Olympic Games: Sport, Race, and American Imperialism

Chapter 5. "From Savagery to Civic Organization"

217 In August of 1904, organizers from the Departments of Anthropology and Physical Culture of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (lpe) arranged an athletic event dedicated to displaying the physical prowess of “primitive” peoples of the world. This event was termed “Anthropology Days” and has since been described as “an unusual set of ‘athletic’ events,” that took place on August 11 and 12 during the Olympic Games.1 This athletic competition of “surpassing” interest was to be organized “under the auspices of the Department of Physical Culture, participated in by representatives of all the tribes of strange people at the Fair.”2 However, historical records suggest that Canada’s assemblage of “strange people,” otherwise known as Canadian Indians, remained conspicuously absent from the Anthropology Days athletic event. To understand why Canadian Indians were not represented as competitors on Francis Field, the site of this two-day “Olympic” event, four areas of analysis are identified for investigation. The first area of study broadly historicizes the participation and showmanship of Canadian Indians, particularly the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke, in nineteenth-century lacrosse tours. While the growing popularity of world’s fairs and Wild West shows in the second half of the nineteenth century relegated lacrosse tours, and thus their spectacle dimensions, to a peripheral position, this did not deter Mohawk Indians Chapter 5. “From Savagery to Civic Organization” christine m. o’bonsawin The Nonparticipation of Canadian Indians in the Anthropology Days of the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games o’bonsawin 218 from competing in various sporting contests, including the 1904 Olympic Games proper. Accordingly, this examination recognizes Canada’s sizeable and successful participation in the St. Louis Olympic Games. The significant representation of Canadian athletes at the St. Louis Games is examined in relation to the contrasting absence of Canadian Indians in the Anthropology Days athletic event. This discussion adopts a holistic analysis of the Department of Anthropology and theorizes that the absence of Canadian Indians from this “Olympic” event is diametrically related to the aims and objectives of this division. In line with American Indian policy objectives and ideological visions, Canadian Indians assumed a nominal role in the anthropological and ethnological exhibits of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, which consequently led to their absence in the Anthropology Days event of the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games. Canadian Indian Showmanship The appropriation of Indian spectacles can be traced to the landing of Columbus and the initial years of European colonization. The earliest printed reports of the New World not only provided verbal accounts but also ethnographically inaccurate illustrations of the new land’s indigenous peoples.3 In 1999, Christian F. Feest published a compilation of interdisciplinary essays entitled Indians and Europe.4 This edited volume organizes, chronologically, over thirty contributing essays that address the Eurocentric fascination with Indians. The anthology commences with examples of European exposure to stereotypical presentations of North American Indians in the sixteenth century and then sequentially reports on European interpretations and reactions to Indian lore throughout the subsequent centuries, concluding with the twentieth century. Appropriately, in his postscript, Feest concludes, “A simple explanation for the reasons of the special relationship between Europeans and the native populations of North America is that no such relationship exists.”5 Although North American Indians have, in some respects, been characterized throughout history primarily as a homogeneous population, “From Savagery to Civic Organization” 219 the cultural diversity of Indian societies has been adapted and appropriated to accommodate stereotypical European perceptions of “Indianness” or “Indian exoticism.” The latter half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century witnessed a proliferation of Canadian Indian populations serving as prominent public spectacles, particularly in celebrations of national significance . For example, the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, participated in dramatic performances at the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Fair.6 At the Quebec tercentenary celebrations of 1908, the inclusion of Native actors in dimensions of spectacular pageantry assisted in the process of deception, thereby presenting a harmonious unification of two culturally diverse populations (the French and the indigenous peoples) and the perceived acceptance of an otherwise marginalized Aboriginal population .7 In 1927, Native populations enthusiastically participated in the artistic programs of national celebration during the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation .8 When reviewing the literature on Canadian Indian showmanship, one cannot dispute the longstanding tradition of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke in participating in such events. Kahnawá:ke...