On September 30, 2013 I did a major revision to both the
text and images in this blog posting to correspond with
an article I wrote for Whispering Wind Magazine on the same topic (volume 42,
#1, 2013). This posting also has additional images that space constraints would
not allow in the published article.
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Participation in 19th
Century Medicine Shows
On the back of a recently discovered
image, the subjects are identified as “Running
Antelope and family, Warm Spring Indians, from Galion, Ohio” (figure 1) (the Warm Spring Indian Reservation is
located in Oregon). In at least one other image
of Running Antelope and his family (figure 2),
they are identified as Mohawks from Caughnawaga, (today called Kahnawake) near
Montreal. Their clothing, which is idendical in both images, and the motifs
depicted in their beadwork would also suggest that they are Mohawks. The inked note on the back of figure 1 is faded and it appears to be from the
period; so why was this Iroquois family
identified as Warm Spring Indians? The answer to this intriguing question is veiled
in the history of patent medicines.
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Figure 1 –
Cabinet Card, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Circa 1890. Identified on the front as Running
Antelobe (sp) and Family. Period note on the back reads: “The Warm Spring
Indians, Galion, Ohio. Running Antelope and family.” Both sides shown. Private
collection.
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Figure 2 –
Cabinet Card, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Circa 1890.
The subjects are identified on the back, in a period note, as Running
Antelope, Caughnawaga [Kahnawake] Indian Sharpshooter. Photographer: E.J.
Potten, Mansfield, Ohio. Both sides shown. Private collection.
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The story of patent medicines begins in seventeenth century England with
the Crowns’ issue of a patent for Anderson’s Scots Pills. The inventor, a
Scottish doctor named Patrick Anderson, claimed he got the recipe in Vienna. He
subsequently relinquished the formula to his daughter who later conveyed it to
a Dr. Thomas Weir, in 1686, who produced and sold the tonic as a laxative (Dary
2008:244).
English patent medicines found their way to the New World with the first
colonists, but these early settlers soon discovered it was cheaper to make them
here, rather than import them from Europe, so a home-spun, American patent
medicine industry was born. This was facilitated by the fact that few Americans
trusted doctors, many of whom still used implausible treatment methods such as
purging and bloodletting. In a new country, with few trained doctors,
self-medication for practically every illness known to man was a way of life
that few questioned.
In 1715, a patent for distilling corn was issued
to Thomas and Sybilla Masters. In addition to purifying the corn, their petition
indicated that “…the said Corn so refined is also an Excellent Medicine in
Consumptions & other Distempers” (Armstrong and Armstrong 1991:159). They received a license for the first “patent”
or over-the-counter medicine in America and it had the distinction of being
called Tuscarora Rice.
By the
mid-nineteenth century most drug stores, many of which were owned and operated
by doctors with questionable credentials, had generous supplies of elixirs on
hand that claimed to cure ailments such as dysentery, malaria, small pox,
yellow fever and consumption (tuberculosis of the lungs). This was the heyday
for patent medicines in America and the countryside was replete with peddlers
hawking remedies that claimed to cure virtually every ailment known to man. Between
1865 and 1900, hundreds of traveling salesmen were touring the country selling
patent medicines. In an effort to attract crowds and spur interest in the sale
of their products, they began providing entertainment with their offerings and
the “medicine show” was born (figure 3 and 3a). They were a garish fusion of carnival-like
entertainment and sales pitch. The pitchman was often surrounded by performers
drawn from the circus, traveling theater troupes and minstrel shows. Before
radio, movies and television, these medicine shows were a leading form of
entertainment in both urban areas and remote towns across America. Alarmingly, they were also the foremost
providers of health care.
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Figure 3 –
Oversized cabinet card of an Indian Medicine Show in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. 5 inches high by 8 inches wide. Late nineteenth century. The
stage was for the firm’s pitchman, who extolled the virtues of their products.
The second man from the left is holding a small, rectangular box, as is the
young boy seated in the foreground. This was likely the Indian remedy or tonic
they were hawking. The dress style of the lady on the far right helps us to
date this image. The skirt is draped in
pleats, asymmetrically to one side, in a style that was popular for a short
time between 1887 and 1888. Photographer: C.M. Fowler & Co., Albany, New
York. Private collection.
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Figure 3a –
Cabinet card, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Circa 1890. Displayed is the main tent of the
Oregon Indian Medicine Company. No location indicated. Private collection.
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Through most of their history, patent medicines enjoyed a
free-flowing existence. No government agency required that medicine makers
prove their tonics were effective or even safe. No law stopped them from
listing on the labels or in advertisements whatever “cures” happened to be in
fashion at the time, or required a list of ingredients or warnings on the
labels (Armstrong and Armstrong 1991:160).
These shows were fueled by advertisements that contained unproven claims
and the use of scare-tactics was common. One particular ad for Ka-ton-ka, a
blood, kidney, liver and stomach medicine, included a long checklist of
symptoms for kidney disease such as: “an unusual desire to urinate at night;
appetite alternately ravenous and meager; acid, bitter taste, with furred
tongue in the morning; intense pain, upon sudden excitement, in the small of
the back; indescribable crawling feeling up and down the back with extreme
nervous irritability; annoying and perplexing loss of memory, even of common
things,” were among the twenty-two manifestations included in the advertisement.
It went on to state that “any number of the above symptoms, which too long
neglected, will certainly terminate in Bright’s disease… (described by modern
medicine as acute or chronic nephritis). Delay, therefore, in removing the
above symptoms is exceedingly dangerous. They are the commonest order, and
their very commonness encourages fatal neglect” (Edwards 1884:32).
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Figure 4 –
Trade Card for Kickapoo Indian Remedies, 2.75 inches wide by 4 inches
long. Both sides shown. 1880s-1890s.
Many of the Indian trade cards from the late nineteenth century depicted scenes
of Indian life, battles, etc. suggesting their products came from a healthful
and vigorous people. Private collection.
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Every print medium was used to promote the company’s products such as trade
cards (figure 4), handbills, posters,
newspapers, magazines, etc. A late
nineteenth century handbill for Dr. S. P. Townshend’s extract of Sarsaparilla
reinforced the notion that no embellishment or distortion of the facts was too
farfetched; no statements about benefits or cures too outrageous. It claimed
that his tonic was “The wonder blessing of the age and the most extraordinary
medicine in the world!” It unabashedly went on to describe how
The great beauty of the superiority of this Sarsaparilla
over all other medicines is, that while it eradicates the disease, it
invigorates the body… It not only purifies the whole system and strengthens the
person, but creates new, pure and rich blood; a power possessed by no other
medicine, it has performed within the last three years, more than 150,000 cures
of severe cases of disease; at least 20,000 were considered incurable
(Armstrong and Armstrong 1991:166).
Americans wholeheartedly believed that Indians had a deep knowledge of
natural medicine and were skilled in its use.
One facet of the infatuation with the Romantic West
reflected that Indian life illustrated by Longfellow in “Hiawatha.” As a Child
of Nature, the American Indian was Learned in Nature’s Secrets, fathoming
mysterious herbs and roots, capable, through Nature’s Direction, of controlling
disease and thereby leading a ridiculously healthy existence (Clark and Clark
1971:vii).
Populations in the East in particular, believed in the efficacy of
Indian medicines and unscrupulous promoters capitalized on this. Firms that
incorporated an Indian theme in their medicine shows had the most success.
Company representatives had to present at least the perception of
authenticity in merchandising their products, especially if they were hawking
purported “Indian Medicines.” Non-Indian enactors who performed in these events
had to look and dress like Indians as many popular products had indigenous or
Native American sounding names. Products
such as Allen’s Indian Blood Corrector, Dr. Seneca’s Gall Remedy, Dr. Roger’s
Indian Fever Cure, Aztec Pile Cure and Dr. Kilmer’s Indian Cough Cure
Consumption Oil claimed to ameliorate cancer, syphilis, kidney disease and a
host of other ailments. These were just a few of the thousands of remedies that
were offered for sale with names that implied they were an indigenous cure for
practically any illness known to man.
The medicine shows were the forerunners of the Wild West shows and The
Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company and the Oregon Indian Medicine Company were
two of the largest. They chose a different approach to selling and took the
medicine shows to another level by including actual Native performers who were
paid, on average, $30 a month for their services (figure
5). Native people were employed by these outfits to demonstrate Indian
life which gave the company’s patent medicines an air of authenticity. Many product advertisements claimed that
their “medicines” were “MADE BY INDIANS; USED BY INDIANS, AND SOLD BY INDIANS.”
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Figure 5 –
Cabinet card, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. A group of Iroquois medicine show entertainers.
Period inscription on the back of the card reads: Caughnawaga [Mohawk] Indians
with the Kickapoo Medicine Company. Season 1891. R.W. Telford, Manager. Private
collection.
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One of the founders of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company, Texas Jack
Bigelow, claimed to have been nursed back to health, from a deadly prairie
fever, by a medicine prepared by the Native family that found him. He alleged that they shared the formula with him
for a remedy that was made from rare ingredients that were difficult to acquire
and hard to prepare. In reality, Bigelow’s Segwa tonic was simply a mixture of mundane
herbs, roots, aloe, baking soda, sugar and of course alcohol (a primary
ingredient in many patent medicines), all purchased from a pharmaceutical firm.
It wasn’t the ingredients that made this tonic famous; it was the promotion and
the patent medicine companies were very good at this.
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Figure 6 –
Small pamphlet advertising the products of the Kickapoo Medicine company. An
illustration of the fictional “Bright Eyes” appears on the cover. Private
collection.
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The Kickapoo’s founders even created a brand for themselves in the form
of an Indian princess by the name of Bright Eyes (figure
6).
Healy and Bigelow were masters of image and promotion. As
devotees of the great Barnum, they followed many of his practices, such as
decorating every inch of the building and adopting a mascot. Unlike Jumbo
[Barnum’s elephant], the Kickapoo mascot required no upkeep – she was
fictional. Her name was Little Bright Eyes, an Indian princess who appeared in
the company’s literature. Healy and Bigelow played the exotica card for all it
was worth, publishing countless ads, pamphlets, and magazines built around the
romantic Indian who was in perfect harmony with the environment, never got an
illness he couldn’t cure, and was the physical and spiritual superior of the
white man (Anderson 2000:63).
The fictional Bright Eyes no doubt spurred real life counterparts (figure 7). In this image of a group of Mohawks, both
women have the name Bright Eyes beaded along the bottom of their dresses. In a
circa 1894 image from the Library of Congress collection and illustrated in
Trading Identities, by art historian Ruth Phillips, a similarly dressed woman
is posing with a troupe of Mohawk entertainers from the St. Regis [Mohawk]
Indian Show Company. Phillips writes that
the photograph documents the semiotic complexity
characteristic of clothing worn in touristic performances. While the crown-like
headdress worn by the woman refers to the standard Indian princess image, the
prominent tree of life on the skirt pictures and preserves a key symbol of
Iroquois cosmology and oral traditions (Phillips 1998:15).
In
both photographs, the women are wearing comparable dresses that have a
variation of the “tree of life” motif, and in at least one other photograph of
the Bright Eyes troupe, they are identified as Mohawks.
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Figure 7 –
Cabinet card, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Possibly a group of Akwesasne Mohawk
entertainers from the Saint Regis Indian Show Company. Both women have “Bright
Eyes” beaded along the bottom of their dresses. Private collection.
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Healy and Bigelow were accomplished promoters and they got the greatest
showman of their day, Buffalo Bill, to endorse their most famous product. He
was quoted in advertisements claiming “Kickapoo
Indian Sagwa... is the only remedy the Indians ever use, and has been known to
them for ages. An Indian would as soon be without his horse, his gun or blanket
as without Sagwa,”
The Bigelow Society indicates that the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company
claimed over eight hundred employees by the late 1880's. Alas, the
actual Indians were never Kickapoos but primarily Eastern tribes like the
Iroquois and tribes from the West like the Sioux, Blackfoot, and Cherokee. A
few were hired from reservations, as was done by Cody, and some were enticed
away from Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
Company representatives traveled ahead of the show to a target city,
with advance publicity, to stir up interest in an upcoming event. Rallies were
held in front of drug stores to promote the company’s products and special
displays were set up in store windows with posters and a sampling of the
company’s remedies. There were usually Indians on hand at these events to
ensure the authenticity of the company’s products (figure
8). In this image, a young Indian family is
standing before Hurds Pharmacy in Fairfield, Maine. Behind them is a display of
Indian beadwork, suspended across the storefront window, perhaps offered for
sale as a way for them to earn extra income? There is also a poster for the
Kickapoo tonic, Segwa in the lower right hand corner of the window.
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| Figure 8 – Real Photo Post Card, 3.5 x 5.5 inches. Circa 1910. A young Indian family standing in front of Hurd’s Pharmacy in Fairfield, Maine. On another postcard of this same family group and in front of this same store, they are identified as Chief Big Thunder and Princess Talikeno and daughter, Lightning Talikeno. Talikeno was possibly Iroquois. Text on the back of the card indicates that they “had entertainments and advertised Kickapoo remedies.” A poster for Kickapoos’ Indian Segwa, a blood, liver, stomach and kidney renovator, is seen in the lower right hand corner of the store window. Private collection. |
Once a show came to town, a typical performance ran for about two hours
and it didn’t follow any particular format (figure 9).
On the bill could be displays of marksmanship, broad
ethnic comedy steeped in rough stereotypes, magic, stunts and acrobatics,
dancing, or perhaps a strongman. Entertainments would make up about two thirds
of the show. The performers worked on a stage with a runway into the crowd and
a canvas backdrop with painted scenes of nature and life among the Native
Americans. On the lip of the stage might be glass jars with repulsive-looking
tapeworms suspended in clear liquid. The huge worms, said to be removed from
prominent local citizens, were actually purchased from stockyards. Tapeworm
expellers–need it be said?–were big sellers (Armstrong and Armstrong 1991:177).
In another cabinet card that depicts Iroquois performers in these
medicine shows, the seated child on the right is holding a box containing a
bottle of Kickapoo Segwa, the company’s most popular patent medicine (figure 9a). It’s hard to see in the image but the box
has the word SEGWA across the top. I’ve
often wondered if these old photos were done as advertisement for the Wild West
and Medicine show promoters because images like these gave them at least an air
of authenticity since they had real Indians working for them. This also
suggested to their patrons that their patent medicines were authentic as well
and made by the Indians, a totally fabricated notion of course.
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Figure 9 - Cabinet card, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Circa
1890. A group standing before a stage display for the Kickapoo Indian Medicine
company. Based on the clothing and beadwork style, the three individuals on the
far left may be Iroquois. No photographer or location indicated. Private
collection.
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| Figure 9a – Cabinet card, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Circa 1890. A group of Iroquois performers, possibly Akwesasne Mohawks, working for the Kickapoo Medicine Company. The child seated at the right is holding a package containing a bottle of Segwa, the company’s most popular patent medicine. Photographer: Dorge, Minneapolis, MN. |
There were star performers on the Medicine Show circuit. One such
individual was Nevada Ned Oliver. As the manager and head scout of the Kickapoo
Indian Medicine Company he was usually seen wearing buckskins, a fancy,
wide-brimmed hat and long hair. During a typical performance he would introduce
the company’s troupe of Indians to the crowd, and it was reported that they would
acknowledge him with nothing more than a grunt. When the final Indian appeared
on stage, he delivered an oration, in his Native language, which Nevada Ned interpreted.
Typically, Ned’s translation described how the Indian medicine they were
offering to the crowd had saved the lives of untold numbers of Native people.
After the sales pitch was delivered, the Indians would move about the crowd to
sell the company’s remedy.
Nevada Ned Oliver once admitted
that he had never been within 2000 miles of Nevada. In addition to his job as
show manager, he was also a trick shot and in his spare time he wrote crime
novels.
Oliver was also honest enough to laugh at himself. As the
manager (Indian agent) of the Kickapoo show, Oliver was supposed to translate
the speeches, given in various Native American languages… But, as he later
wrote, “what the brave actually said, I never knew, but I had reason to fear
that it was not the noble discourse of my translation…” (Armstrong and Armstrong 1991:180).
Quite a few nineteenth century photographs have survived that depict
Native people who were involved in these medicine shows and in many of them the
subjects are Iroquois (figures 10 and 11).
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Figure 10 – Cabinet card, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Circa
1890. The
subjects are identified on the back as Mohawks. Photographer: A. B. Comstock,
Waverly, New York. Private collection.
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Figure 11 –
Cabinet card, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Circa 1890. The subjects are identified on the
back as Seneca. Photographer: Chas. Latham, Bradford, Pennsylvania. Bradford
was located just a few miles from the Seneca Reservation in Salamanca, New
York. Private collection.
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The 1892 New York State census indicated that the use of traditional
medicine practices among the Iroquois had almost disappeared by this date and
that many were now involved in the medicine shows.
The days of the old “medicine man” have passed away.
Young men from each of the reservations including Chief Philip T. Johnson, of
Tuscarora, are “travelling men” for so-called Indian medicines, and make
themselves welcomed and successful through the prestige of their Indian
character and good address (Donaldson 1892:50).
This same statistical study also listed 20 Mohawks from Akwesasne as
traveling show men and no doubt there were many more from Kahnawake, in Canada,
who were not included in the New York census.
Not
only were the Iroquois performing in the medicine shows, but some of them were
involved in the direct sales of these medicines. The Department of Indian
Affairs in Ottawa, Canada, reported that the Mohawk from Kahnawake were
“engaged in the extensive manufacture of beadwork … [and] in 1903 several residents of Caughnawaga
were making good profit by selling patent medicines in Canada and the United
States” (Department of Indian Affairs 1967:19).
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| Figure 12 – Circa 1890 advertising photograph for the patent medicine Ka-Ton-ka. 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Portrait of Chi-la-kaw, Wounded Wolf, an Iroquois working for the Oregon Indian Medicine Company. Both sides shown. Private collection. |
Another interesting image from the same period (figure
12) holds the key to the significance of many of these old images. The
subject, identified as Chi-la-Kaw, is wearing an Iroquois style yoke or collar and
his headpiece has Mohawk elements to it yet he is posing for the Oregon Indian
Medicine Company which was located just a short distance from Seneca
Reservation in Salamanca, New York.
The Oregon Indian Medicine Company was founded by Colonel Thomas Augustus
Edwards who was born in 1832 in Saugerties, New York. By his twenty-third
birthday, he was already on a career in the entertainment business when he became the manager for the Spaulding and Roger's Circus. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was hired by the government
to track down blockade runners. He was captured and held prisoner for a time
and carried out a daring escape. Towards the end of the war, he became a
government scout and in 1866, during the Snake War, he travelled to Oregon. It
was on this campaign that he met the Cayuse scout, Donald McKay (figure 13).
It was in Oregon that Edwards learned about Indian medicine
through Dr. William C. McKay, one of four sons of Alexander McKay… McKay was a
physician to the Indians. His brother, Donald McKay was a prominent scout and
Indian fighter. Both men had Indian wives. Both McKays returned east with
Colonel Edwards about 1874, taking with them a party of Warm Spring Indians.
Edwards and the Indians toured Europe and then New England demonstrating Indian
skills and customs. In 1876 he took the Indian show to the Centennial
Exposition in Philadelphia. It was there that he began selling Indian medicines
(Dary 2008:259).
In a circa 1888 advertising booklet for the Oregon Indian Medicine
Company (OIMC) titled Luk-Cay-Oti –
Spotted Wolf, one page is devoted to their celebrated manager, along with a
general description of the origins of his company and the preparation of its
products.
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Figure 13 - Stereoview
(circa 1873) of Donald McKay, captain of the Warm Spring Indian scouts during
the Modoc War (1872-1873). Photographer: Louis Heller, Yreka, California. Private
collection.
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Warm Spring Indian Show
Col. Edwards has seen much of frontier life, and is
perhaps the best posted man on Indian life, Indian customs and habits in this
country. He has been the Manager of the Lava Bed Heroes since 1876; and their
great success in selling their Medicines is largely due to his skilful and
energetic management…The Warm Spring Indians never employ white performers to give
their exhibitions. By this one feature alone the public can know the imitators.
The standing figure of Donald McKay is on every bottle of Ka-Ton-Ka, printed in
colors on a white wrapper. The ingredients of Ka-Ton-Ka are all gathered by the
Warm Spring Indians in Oregon and Washington Territory. They prepare them in
their own peculiar manner; and no druggist can duplicate that simple Indian
preparation from his extensive stock of drugs, and all his experience and
knowledge combined. If the white people could only enjoy the splendid heath of
the Indian, what a happy race they would be; what money they could save in
doctor’s bills, and what misery they would avoid (Edwards c1888:5).
The OIMC was originally based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and their
principal cure-all was a tonic called Ka-ton-ka. In 1882, the company moved to Corry,
Pennsylvania and was in full operation by 1885.
Edwards claimed his business partners in this venture were the McKays
from the Warm Spring Reservation, in Oregon. Donald McKay worked for both the
US Army and the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the captain of the Warm Spring
scouts during the Modoc War (1872-73). His
success in this endeavor earned him a good deal of publicity and fame with the
public. He eventually left his life as a government scout and embarked on a
career in both the Medicine shows and Wild West shows. McKay’s step-mother, Isabelle Montour, was
Iroquois and during the 1880s, he and his wife (Susan) and daughter (Minnie)
toured the country promoting products for Edwards and the Oregon Indian Medicine
Company.
Edwards took advantage of McKay’s notoriety and used the old Indian
scout’s likeness in many of the company’s advertisements. Although their
operation was not as extensive as that of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company,
they did have several shows touring the country at the same time.
Around 1888, Edwards published a list of the Indians that toured with
him in his medicine shows.
Names of the Indians Comprising
this Troupe.
Donald McKay’s Heroes of the Lava Beds. Indian Warriors,
Indian Squaws, Indian Papooses, Indian Braves, Indian Interpreters, Indian
Children, Indian Trailers [Trackers], Indian Scouts. Chief American Horse,
Tribal Chief. Ae-Le-Ta or Dove Wing and
Papoose. Scar-Face Bear, Great War Chief. Spotted Wolf, Pawnee Athlete. Ka-Kos-Ka,
Medicine Man. Swift Runner, over 80 years old. Oc-A-La, Good Woman. Kaw-Sha-Gans,
Red Wild Cat. Red Leaves, Half Breed Interpreter. Fluttering Willow, the Mother
Squaw. Sul-Te-Wan, Bright Sun. Wi-Ne-Mah, Mountain Bird. These Indians have
been traveling twelve years, two years of which they spent in Europe. Their
Entertainments consists of the Manners, Habits, Customs, and Ceremonies of a
Race of People once powerful, now nearly extinct (Edwards c1888:7).
Many
of the same names appeared in a late-nineteenth century advertisement that was posted
in the Altoona Tribune, an Altoona, Pennsylvania newspaper (figure 14). The ad was taken out by the Oregon Indian
Medicine Company to advertise the upcoming appearance of the Warm Spring
Indians in Altoona. The announcement indicated that the Indians would perform
at the Opera House and their Indian medicine men would be curing patrons, free
of charge. The Indian’s were presumably doing this with the company’s patent
medicines. A number of the Indians listed in the Altoona advertisements were Iroquois
as I will point out below.
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Figure 14 – Replica
of an advertisement that appeared in the Altoona Tribune around 1885-1890. This
was an Altoona, Pennsylvania newspaper that was advertising an appearance of
the Warm Spring Indians at the Opera House. Original from the collection of
John Odell.
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In 1886, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show played on Staten Island, in New
York and the Oglala chief American Horse (figure 15)
had replaced Sitting Bull as the Indian star of the show. That winter Buffalo
Bill’s troupe also performed at Madison Square Garden (Scarangella McNenly
2012:25). The Altoona Opera House advertisement
indicates that American Horse would be appearing in Altoona and the Luk-Cay-Oti booklet mentions that he was
a member of the Oregon Indian Medicine Company.
Did Colonel Edwards somehow entice American Horse to leave Buffalo Bill’s
Wild West show to perform in his medicine show? It’s not likely. As the Oregon Indian Medicine
Company grew, Edwards hired more Native entertainers and his company’s
proximity to the Seneca Reservation, in Salamanca, New York may have provided a
ready resource of Iroquois representatives or a gateway to other Iroquois
reservations.
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Figure 15 – Studio
portrait, 7 x 9 inches. 1898. This is the American Horse who toured with
Buffalo Bill in his Wild West show. Photographed at the U.S. Indian Congress of
the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, 1898. Photographer:
Frank A. Rinehart (ca. 1862-1928) or his assistant Adolph F. Muhr (ca.
1858-1913). Private collection.
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During this period, the entertainment business played an important role
in the lives of many Native people as it provided them with another means to
earn a living. It was also important for another reason; the Wild West and
Medicine shows were a way for Native people to maintain many of their traditions.
The Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) together with Indian schools such as
Carlisle (as well as the church run residential schools in Canada), discouraged
Indian participation in these events because they believed the shows were
counterproductive to their assimilation efforts. Show promoters on the other hand encouraged
these performances as they were good for business. For the Indians, it was a
way to openly engage in their traditional dances and ceremonies, thereby
overtly circumventing the work of the churches and the OIA. Kahnawake Mohawks
in particular had a good deal of experience in the entertainment business and
show recruiters sought them out because “people there were well suited to the
industry and participated willingly” (Scarangella McNenly 2012:104-105).
Chi-la-Kaw, pictured on the advertising card in figure
12, is listed on the Opera House advertisement. Dove Wing, a
sharpshooter from Kahnawake, is also slated to appear. In the Luk-Cay-Oti booklet she is described as
…one of the prominent features of this show… Her voice is
a marvel. She produces those sweet, plaintive, melodious cadences, so peculiar
to her race. When the troupe are singing their – wild and weird songs – the
voice of Dove Wing can be heard like the rippling of water, soothing and
modifying the wild tones into musical harmony (Edwards c1888:13).
Dove
Wing is pictured in several nineteenth century cabinet cards and in at least
two of them she is depicted with American Horse and Scar Face Bear (figure 16 and 17).
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Figure 16 – Cabinet
Card, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Circa 1890. Depicted from left to right: Scar Face
Bear, American Horse and Dove Wing, Mohawks from Kahnawake. Photographer: Smith
and Hodson, St. Mary’s, Ohio. Private collection.
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Figure 17 –
Cabinet Card, 4.5 x 6.5 inches. Circa 1890. The individuals depicted are Angus
Montour (1851-1928), aka American Horse and his wife Dove Wing. Although American
Horse was christened Angus, his Mohawk name was Twanietanekan, meaning the Two
Snow Hills. He was a notable Mohawk chief who took part in several European
tours with a Wild West Show. Several
years after the death of Dove Wing he was at The Hague, in the Netherlands,
with a troupe of Indian entertainers, where he met Johanna Elisabeth van
Dommelen. They fell in love and before long they were married. Afterwards he
moved back to Kahnawake with his new bride (Altena 2009). Seated beside him in
this image is his first wife, Charlotte “Sara” Beauvias, aka Dove Wing. She
died in 1902. Photographer: Keethler, from Cynthiana, Kentucky. Private
collection.
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She was American Horse’s wife (Edwards
c1888:1) and in both images she is wearing the same under dress with the
identical border design along the bottom and her facial features are identical.
The American Horse she is depicted with clearly not the same chief who
participated in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show (figure 15).
The
American Horse that Dove Wing is depicted with is the Mohawk deer clan chief
Angus Montour. Other identified images of him confirm this. Considering his
promotional skills, it’s quite possible that Col. Edwards gave Angus Montour the
name American Horse so that he could take advantage of the Oglala chief’s
notoriety.
Scar Face Bear, who is wearing a wide-brimmed hat in figure 16, is also depicted in figure 18 wearing the same hat. The Luk-Cay-Oti booklet
describes him as a Warm Spring Indian.
Scar Faced Bear, hero of the Lava Beds, [his exploits in
the Modoc War are described in the Luk-cay-oti booklet although they are not
presently verifiable ] is a Warm Spring
Indian. While he is ignorant of the lore learned from books, he has learned
much from the great teacher, Nature, and in plain forest and mountain craft he
is unexcelled. He is an unerring shot, a splendid trailer [tracker], a good
horseman, and possessed of an abundance of that cool courage so essential to an
Indian. In the course of his career he has passed through adventures of the
most startling and hazardous description, though he rarely speaks about
himself, and what we have learned of his history was gleaned by dint of much
questioning in conversations around the camp-fire. Physically he is a splendid
specimen of manhood. His body is covered with scars received in battle; he is
tall, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and as strong as a mountain lion (Edwards
c1888:18).
Even though he is described as a Warm Spring Indian on the back of figure 18, in reality, Scar Face Bear was also a
Mohawk entertainer from Kahnawake and he has descendents that are living there
today.
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Figure 18 –
Carte-de-visite, 2.5 x 4 inches of Scar Face Bear (both sides shown). A period
note on the back reads: “Scar-Faced-Bear. Accurate rifleman and celebrated
war-chief. Ashland, Ky. July 1886. Of the Warm Spring Tribe.” This suggests
that he was working for the Oregon Indian Medicine Company. His name can also
be seen beaded onto his yoke. Private collection.
|
Along with American Horse, Chi-la-Kaw and Dove Wing, the Altoona Opera
House advertisement also list’s Kaw-shaw-gan, (the Red Wild Cat). The Luk-Cay-Oti booklet has a fanciful and
perhaps somewhat apocryphal characterization of him.
Kaw-Shaw-Gance or Red Wild Cat.
Kaw-Shaw-Gance, or Red Wild Cat, is a full blooded Indian
of the Warm Spring tribe of Indians, whose reservation is located in Crook
County, Oregon. He was one of the seventy-one who were employed by the
Government to conquer the Modocs in 1873. He distinguished himself as a warrior,
brave, fearless and persevering. The conquering of Capt. Jack and his hostile
band was due to the courage, cunning and subtlety of Warm Spring Indian scouts.
Red Wild Cat was foremost in his zeal and ambition to show the soldiers what
stuff he was made of, and he received personal recognition from Gen. Davis, to
whom he turned over some of the prisoners that he had captured. He has been
traveling with the Indians, introducing their Indian Ka-Ton-Ka for several
years. He is a valuable exponent of the rights of the Indians, and represents
manners, habits and customs of his race. He exhibits in his appearance on the
stage the characteristics that distinguished him during the Modoc war –
bravery, dash and courage (Edwards c1888:10).
The following narrative describes the birth of the character Red Wild
Cat and reveals that he was not a Warm Spring Indian as Edwards claimed but
rather an Iroquois. In an 1889 account of the exploits of William Glazier, John
Owens writes that:
At one time he [Glazier] joined another eccentric
character named Tom Lolar, an Indian of the Seneca tribe, whose lands in the
long ago of Indian history bordered the blue waters of Lake Seneca in central
New York. This peculiar pair proceeded to electrify certain rural communities
in their immediate neighborhood with huge posters, announcing that on a given
night:
Kaw-shaw-gan-ce, or The Red Wild Cat, The Great Chief of
the Walaitipu Indians, now traveling for the benefit of his tribe, proposes to
exhibit to an enlightened public the trophies won by his braves, in their
battles with other ferocious tribes beyond the Rocky Mountains, and the Great
Chief will likewise give an exhibition of the WAR DANCES OF HIS NATION.
Accordingly, upon the night in question, Tom Lolar, as
“Kaw-shaw-gan-ce,” and Henry Glazier as ticket agent, reaped such an excellent
harvest that the latter concluded to start a “live Indian” upon his own account
(Owens 1889:51).
Tom Lolar no doubt invented Kaw-Shaw-Gance for
the purpose of entertaining audiences and the financial remuneration that
ensued. Col. Edwards alleged that he participated in the Modoc War and the
capture of Captain Jack but that is presently unverifiable. He was most likely
the individual described as the Warm Spring Kaw-Shaw-Gance on the Altoona Opera
House advertisement and in the Luk-Cay-Oti
booklet. Edwards did this no doubt to bolster his case that all of his
entertainers were from out west and therefore more exotic than if he claimed
they were from a local tribe. In an engraving of Kaw-Shaw-Gance in the Luk-Cay-Oti booklet, his attire has many
Iroquois elements to it, including a jacket that is quite similar to the one on
the man in figure 11,
complete with beaded collar and cuffs in the Iroquois style (Edwards c1888:10).
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Figure 19 –
Cabinet card, 4 x 5.8 inches. 1880-1890. Louisa Stump was born on May 5, 1868
of Iroquois parents from Kahnawake. She was an expert shot and traveled with
the Kiowa Medicine Company for a time. She also worked with several other shows
during that period. She was known to her friends as Rosy Gordon. Buffalo Bill
Cody called her "The Prairie Flower" when she worked for him. She
also awed the crowds with her trick shooting under the name "Texas
Lillie". Her picture appeared in the National Police Gazette on July 26, 1890,
where she challenged all "wing shots" in the world (wing shots were
experts at shooting birds in flight). Louisa died in the 1940s. Posed in this image with
her husband, Louis Belmont Newell. Private collection.
|
Prairie Flower, (figure 19) is not listed
in the Luk-Cay-Oti booklet but she is
featured in the Altoona Opera House advertisement. Louisa Stump (born in 1868;
died in the 1940s), aka Prairie Flower, aka Texas Lillie, was a Mohawk from Kahnawake.
She was a sharpshooter who worked with several Wild West and Medicine Shows
during her entertainment career, among them Buffalo Bill’s and the Kiowa
Medicine and Vaudeville Company of Steamburg, New York, which was located just
a short distance from the Seneca Reservation in Salamanca. She was married to
Louis Belmont Newell, aka Rolling Thunder, that at least one source identifies
as Wabanaki.
The
photographic and written record indicates that entire Indian families worked
and travelled together in both the Medicine Shows and Wild West shows. Native
performers, photographed in their best regalia, were making statements of their
identity, even if these images were taken to promote the company and convey an
air of authenticity on the medicine shows and their patent medicines.
So this brings us back to the original Mohawk image of Running Antelope
and his family (figure 1). Why were they
identified as Warm Spring Indians? It’s clear that they, along with many other
Iroquois, were working for the Oregon Indian Medicine Company. It’s not likely the general public had a
personal interest in the specific tribal origin of the company’s
representatives; their interest was in the company’s patent medicines and the
entertainment value of their shows. Since the company’s advertisements always
claimed their representatives were Warm Spring Indians, the public more than
likely regarded all the Indians that worked for them as such, hence the note on
the back.
In a letter by Donald McKay to his half-brother Dr. William McKay in Oregon,
he admits that whenever he encountered people asking about the veracity and
efficacy of the company’s Indian medicines that
I tel them that you git the old wemen to gather the ruts
[roots] and dry it and you send it to me and they all think it so (Clark
1971:xiv).
Perhaps the most revealing comment about the efficacy of patent
medicines comes from the founder of the Oregon Indian Medicine Company himself.
In his later years, Col. Edwards, “with creaking joints, maneuvered himself in
a barber chair,” when a local resident of Corry, Pennsylvania asked: “Why not
take some of your own medicine?” The old colonel replied: “That ain’t made to
take. It’s made to sell” (Clark 1971:xix).
 |
If you have an interest in Northeast Woodland beadwork you
might find my book of interest. Titled: A Cherished Curiosity: TheSouvenir Beaded Bag in Historic Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Art by GerryBiron.
Published in 2012. This is a brand new, hard cover book with dust
jacket. 184 pages and profusely illustrated. 8.5 x 11 inches. ISBN
978-0-9785414-1-5.
Since the early nineteenth century,
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) beaded bags have been admired and cherished by
travelers to Niagara Falls and other tourist destinations for their aesthetic
beauty, detailed artistry, and the creative spirit of their makers. A
long neglected and misunderstood area of American Indian artistry,
"souvenir" art as it's come to be called, played a crucial role in
the subsistence of many Indian families during the nineteenth century. This
lavishly illustrated history examines these bags – the most extensively
produced dress accessory made by the Haudenosaunee – along with the historical
development of beadworking both as an art form and as a subsistence practice
for Native women.
In this book, the
beadwork is considered in the context of art, fashion, and the tourist economy
of the nineteenth century. Illustrated with over one hundred and fifty of the
most important – and exquisite – examples of these bags, along with a unique
collection of historical photographs of the bags in their original context,
this book provides essential reading for collectors and researchers of this
little understood area of American Indian art.
|
References
Cited:
Altena, Marga
2009 “The
Lady and the Indian: Representing an Inter-ethnic Marriage in Dutch and
Canadian News Media (1906-1928).” Published
in the International Journal of Canadian
Studies/Revue international d’ètudes canadiennes 38.
Anderson, Ann
2000 Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones – The
American Medicine Show. McFarland & Company, Publishers. Jefferson, NC.
Armstrong, David and Armstrong,
Elizabeth
1991 The Great American Medicine Show, Being an
Illustrated History of Hucksters, Healers, Health Evangelists and Heroes from
Plymouth Rock to the Present. Prentice Hall, New York.
Clark, Keith and Donna
1971 Daring Donald McKay or The Last War Trail of
the Modocs. Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon.
Dary, David
2008 Frontier Medicine from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, 1492-1941. Alfred A. Knopf,
New York.
Department of Indian Affairs (DIA)
1967 Department
of Indian Affairs and Northern Development – Indians of Quebec and the Maritime
Provinces (An Historical Review). DIA, Indian Affairs Branch, Ottawa,
Canada.
Donaldson, Thomas
1892 The
Six Nations of New York – Cayugas, Mohawks (Saint Regis), Oneidas, Onondagas,
Senecas, Tuscaroras. Eleventh Census of the United States. Robert P.
Porter, Superintendent. Extra Census
Bulletin. Indians. Washington, D.C. United States Census Printing Office.
Edwards,
Col. T.A.
1884 Daring
Donald McKay, or the Last War-Trail of the Modocs. The romance of the life of
Donald McKay, government scout, and chief of the Warm Spring Indians. Third
Edition. An advertising booklet published by The Herald Printing and Publishing
Company, Ltd. Erie, PA.
c1888 Luk-Cay-Oti
- Spotted Wolf. An advertising booklet published by the Oregon Indian
Medicine Company, Corry, PA.
Odell,
John
1997 Indian
Bottles and Brands. Published by the author.
Owens,
John Algernon
1889 Sword
and Pen; or Ventures and Adventures of Willard Glazier (the Soldier-Author) in
War and Literature: Comprising Incidences and Reminiscences of his Childhood;
his Checkered Life as a Student and Teacher; and his Remarkable Career as a
Soldier and Author; Embracing also the Story of his Unprecedented Journey from
Ocean to Ocean on Horseback; and an Account of his Discovery of the True Source
of the Mississippi River, and Canoe Voyage Thence to the Gulf of Mexico.
P.W. Ziegler & Company, Publishers. Philadelphia.
Phillips,
Ruth B.
1998 Trading
Identities – The Souvenir in Native North American Art from the Northeast,
1700-1900. University of Washington Press, Seattle and London.
McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal and Kingston.
Scarangella
McNelly, Linda
2012 Native
Performers in Wild West Shows from Buffalo Bill to Euro Disney. University
of Oklahoma Press.
