Correcting Representation and Giving Self-Representation: The Work of George Caitlin and Etahdleuh Doanmoe - Essay Example

Correcting Representation and Giving Self-Representation: The Work of George Caitlin and Etahdleuh Doanmoe On the North American continent, relations between indigenous populations and European settlers have been rocky and tumultuous at the best of times. Much of that tumult is invariably due to the logic of domination and oppression imposed by European colonization played out through strategies of annihilation and then secondarily forced relocation. The plausibility structure which has supported those strategies is at least in part constructed by misguided and at times malicious representations of Native American People, having been portrayed as an immoral, mostly naked, primitive, backward, superstitious and savage people. Current conceptions and representations of Native American culture sometimes suppose they are lazy, casino owning alcoholics who ignorantly refuse to assimilate into modern society. One artist of the 19th century attempted to re-categorize the representations of Native Americans, George Caitlin. In his works, one sees an obvious and intentional desire to portray Native Americans as noble and civilized, some works going as far as to suggest that it is European civilization that is the problem as it is a corrupting and destructive influence on the indigenous populations of the Americas. Self-representation of oppressed and minority populations has proven an effective way to create a voice in the public discourse and to question the validity of particular suppositions which underlie the dominant paradigms of understanding. Unfortunately, there has been limited access to Native American self-representations in the public space until very recently. An exhibition of a rare sketchbook, A Kiowa's Odyssey, is traveling around the country showing the drawings of an autodidact, Etahdleuh Doanmoe, whose sketches depict the capture and relocation of 72 Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne and members of other tribes from Fort Sill, Oklahoma to St. Augustine, Florida. Though these Doanmoe sketches lack the formal compositional techniques of Caitlin's oeuvre the contrast between representation and self-representation of Native American populations is well manifested in the juxtaposition of these two bodies of work. This paper will focus on the context and intention as embodied by and through the sketches and paintings. The drawings that appear in the Sketchbook of Doanmoe were originally collected by Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt, a strong advocate of Indian assimilation and the founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.1 Pratt believed that the Indians needed to reject their primitive ways and become educated in Western language, manners, and religion. To this end after capturing Doanmoe and some 70 other Native Americans he marched them 1,000 miles from Fort Sill in Oklahoma to Fort Marion where they received "training" for three years. The sketchbook catalogued the events that took place there, and their titles once assembled were type-written on the top by Pratt himself.2 One feature of the sketches that is immediately noticeable is the unusual perspective that Doanmoe utilizes, namely a rather panoramic perspective as illustrated in his Prisoners Entering Fort Sill.3 This perspective intimates a fundamental disconnect with the subject matter. This fundament disconnection lies in stark contrast to many of the paintings of George Caitlin. Caitlin painted over 35 portraits of tribal chiefs and most of them such as Shonkakihega, Horse Chief, Grand Pawnee Head Chief 4have a very close and intensely intimate impression, with the subject dominating a rather contrived background that only serves to highlight and foreground the features of the subject as the colors in the background seem only chosen to compliment the various colors used for the subject. Caitlin was determined to attach a sense of nobility and austerity to the indigenous subjects of his works. This distinction in perspective reveals something about the relative positions of the two artists and their respective representations. Doamoe's disconnected perspective possibly represents a disconnection with the conditions in his life: relocated from his home, forced indoctrination to an alien language and its attendant alien culture must have prompted minimally a kind of existential break with his past life. So either in an effort to reconnect with the loss or to step back from the immediacy of his current situation, the sketches have this distant perspective as if to try "to take it all in" or conversely "to try and leave it all behind." Caitlin on the other hand is self-evidently struggling to focus and clarify representations of Native Americans for himself and his white peers in such a way as to make immanent the human and noble nature of these tribal peoples instead of the distant and fuzzy stereotypes that monopolized the white imagination at the time. It is also a testament to Caitlin's mission that many of the depictions are in fact accurate with regards to the various adornments and clothing worn by each tribal leader. Caitlin was also self-taught and so many of his works have almost a cartoonishly consistent chromatic spectrum, and thus many of the chiefs faces are uniformly red in color as seen in Hawnjetah, One Horn, Head Chief of the Miniconjou Tribe but that seems more a function of a lack of training than of imposing a "redskin" stereotype. 5 Caitlin also effectively uses color to depict particular moral valences as in Comanche Meeting the Dragoons.6 In this work we can see the pure whiteness of the horse match the pure whiteness of the flag of peace that the Comanche warrior is holding. In the description of this scene Caitlin waxes poetic about the nobility and beauty of what is transpiring, as he was initially concerned about the military detachment that he travelled with, fearing that they might "scare off" his subjects. He writes, "This moment was the commencement of one of the most thrilling and beautiful scenes I ever witnessed. All eyes, both from his own party and ours, were fixed upon the maneuvers of this gallant little fellow, and he well knew it."7 Again, not portraying the Comanche as feeble or meek in the face of the Dragoons despite the offering of peace, the horse is rearing up, its front legs arrogantly in the air and the flag itself is positioned at a rakish, aggressive angle in front of the soldiers. The Comanche rider has gone out far ahead of his fellow tribesmen to meet the dragoons face-to-face in an open, even militarily vulnerable expanse. Doanmoe also uses color effectively but much more sparingly and seemingly non-mimetically. His An Omaha Dance Given by the Prisoners is almost totally devoid of color except for the prisoners performing the Omaha dance. 8 The arrangement of colors on each individual prisoner is somewhat different and unique, while the markedly monochromatic and nondescript onlookers in the background watch with absolutely featureless faces at the ritual transpiring in front of them. What is also notable about this sketch is the spacing and arrangement of the prisoners in comparison with the soldiers garrisoned at the Fort. The detainees are spread rather far apart from one another around a colorless fire while the masses of people behind them are much more closely spaced together further homogenizing the crowd. Overall this dichotomy reinforces some sense of importance regarding the ritual and the individuals performing it and deemphasizes the crowd of soldiers watching it. It is likely because of Lieutenant Pratt's dislike or rejection of the value of Native American culture that the permission to perform these events was given precious few times, and when such permission was granted, it was an important event for the group of prisoners. A brief respite from their sense of imprisonment by performing a dance gave them the opportunity to individualize and distinguish themselves from the rest of the people in the Fort. Doanmoe's appreciation of this fact affected via the use of color is reinforced by One of Classes in the Casements of the Fort.9 In this drawing a truly prison like classroom is drawn, a stark seemingly exit-less quarter-dome surrounded by a great deal of whitespace is totally devoid of color or individuality on the part of the class. Furthermore, each one of them drawn almost exactly the same standing inordinately close to one another in a straight line, while a teacher who seems to be wearing a hat is standing next to a chalkboard. This work all together gives a strong sense of stillness, staleness and oppression. It does not seem that Doanmoe particularly enjoyed these cultural indoctrination classes, and manages to convey this sentiment rather strongly in this work. Caitlin's methodology was one of corrective pedagogy; he was unapologetically interested in reeducating White America about the nature of the Native American, to the point of occasionally taking the Native American plight out of context. These regal displays of chiefs though mostly authentic in their representational qualities failed to evince the current social status and political conditions afflicting North American indigenous populations. However, Wijnjon, Pigeon's Egg Head (The Light) Going to and Returning from Washington is a bit different as assuredly it is one of Caitlin's most "honest" if not one of his most "realistic" works, because of its clear reference to that situation.10 In this painting we see the noble, traditionally garbed and erect chief on one side with his face turned towards the viewer and Washington D.C. in the distance, holding an un-smoked peace pipe in his left-hand. In the other half of the painting we see the same character, this time with his back to the viewer, dressed like a European dandy, fit with a feathered top-hat and an umbrella, oddly leaning back as if unbalanced on his high-heeled boots, smoking a very un-peace pipe looking pipe with something that can only be a liquor bottle in his back pocket. Caitlin's message is bluntly obvious regarding the disrupting and detrimental effects that assimilation can have on this population. The clarity of Caitlin's message reverberates powerfully as the unnatural and awkward representation of the returning Wijunjon to his tribal home replete with tents is quite visually jammed together with a stately chief heading to the Capitol with an offering of peace. This corrective impulse in Caitlin's work speaks a great deal about attempting to alter reified public representations of a tribe, class or race. In order to overcome the difficulties present therein, sometimes these representations must be collided together and explicitly compared in order to make others realize the possibly follies of a particular strategy of interaction, i.e. cultural assimilation. In Etuahdleuh Doanmoe's drawings and sketches, the follies of that strategy are much more subtle and even sublimated as self-representations, but are made all the more tragic and compelling as a result. Representation is often less about re-presenting reality or accurately copying it, but it is about striving to illustrate a belief or a cause in a visual way that expresses a particular "truth" held to be case by the artist. Self-representation is also about expressing beliefs and visualizing truths, but is often harder to see for others as it is often presented in a way that does not always make sense to someone not being represented. But in the end, that fact certainly does not make those truths or beliefs any less worthy of discovery. Works Cited Amazon. A Kiowa's Odyssey: A Sketchbook from Fort Marion. October 10, 2007. http://www.amazon.com/Kiowas-Odyssey-Sketchbook-Fort-Marion/dp/0295987278/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204619794&sr=8-1 (accessed March 3, 2008). Smithsonian Museum of Art. Campfire Stories with George Caitlin. 2003. http://catlinclassroom.si.edu/cl.html (accessed March 3, 2008). Traditional Fine Arts Organization. A Kiowa's Odyssey: A Sketchbook from Fort Marion. January 25, 2008. http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/7aa/7aa979.htm (accessed March 3, 2008). Image 1: Prisoners Entering Fort Sill Image 2: Shn-ka-ki-he-ga, Horse Chief, Grand Pawnee Head Chief Image 3: Ha-wn-je-tah, One Horn, Head Chief of the Miniconjou Tribe Image 4: Comanche Meeting the Dragoons Image 5: An Omaha Dance Given by the Prisoners Image 6: One of the Classes in Casements of the Fort Image 7: Wi-jn-jon, Pigeon's Egg Head (The Light) Going to and Returning from Washington Read More