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Activities: Context Activities Moving Pictures: Native American Self-Narration  Back to Context Activities
In their coverage of Native American autobiographical texts, literary anthologies tend to focus on works by Indian authors who wrote their own stories in English (such as Zitkala-Sa or Charles Alexander Eastman) or on those who dictated their oral narratives to white translators and editors (such as Black Elk). But Native American autobiographical expressions are in fact part of a richer and more diverse tradition of representational practices that is often overlooked. Drawing on traditions of pictography, oral storytelling, performance, and dance, these acts of self-narration do not necessarily conform to Euro-American standards of autobiography: they are not written and they usually do not follow European conventions of chronological narration or closure. Instead, many Native American autobiographical texts rely on visual and oral expression, anecdotal orderings of significant events, and an emphasis on communal relationships rather than individual development. The collaborative mode of Native American self-expression could also extend to the performance of a text--friends and assistants could help storytellers, dancers, singers, and performers enact their autobiographical accounts. Given the nature of Native American ideas of self, narration, and representation, scholar Hertha Dawn Wong argues that "the word autobiography (or, self-life-writing) is inappropriate.... A more suitable term might be communo-biooratory (or, community-life-speaking), since its roots reflect the communal and often oral nature of early Native American autobiographical expressions." Thus, while non-written Native American texts can be difficult for non-Indians to understand, they are crucial records of Indian self-expression unmediated by the imposition of European cultural standards and expectations. Of the more than five hundred languages that were spoken by indigenous peoples in North America prior to contact with Europeans, not one of them had a written alphabet. Instead, sophisticated forms of visual and oral notation and recording allowed authors to represent their stories to listeners, viewers, and participants. Pictographic narratives consisting of symbols, totems, and emblems conveyed expressions of personal and group identity as well as spiritual or military experiences. In Meso America in particular these systems were phonetic and quite complex. In some tribes this symbolic language was so highly evolved that individuals could "read" about one another by examining the pictures on robes, tipis, and shields without needing any accompanying oral explanation. An animal skin tipi belonging to Kiowa chief Little Bluff, for example, was emblazoned with symbolic records of the Kiowas' military successes that would have been legible to any Plains Indian viewer. Images of American soldiers felled by braves' arrows and lances attest to the tribe's martial prowess, while vertical rows of tomahawks and decorated lances might have served as records of especially important exploits or as "coup" counts. A common Native American practice, coup counting was a historical record of an individual warrior's feats of bravery. Each time he touched an enemy in battle, either with his hand or with a special "coup stick," a Native American warrior acquired prestige and power--and the right to brag about his military successes. Rows of pictographic images could serve as a kind of account book or mnemonic device to enable a warrior to recite his triumphs. Clothing could serve a similar autobiographical function: painter and ethnographer George Catlin noted that Mandan chief Mah-to-toh-pa, or Four Bears, was famous for his pictographic buffalo skin robe. Drawing on the robe's visual "chart of his military life," Mah-to-toh-pa would point at the paintings on the back of the garment and dramatically re-enact the incidents depicted. As Wong has pointed out in her study of the robe, by combining the visual, oral, and performative, Mah-to-toh-pa constructed a vivid autobiographical narrative that did not rely on writing. Native American naming practices could also serve as oral expressions of identity and personal development. Unlike Euro-Americans, Indians could acquire multiple names over a lifetime, taking one at birth, gaining others as a result of significant life events, and even keeping some secret. A new name would not necessarily replace earlier names but instead could exist in dynamic relation to them. Charles Alexander Eastman, for example, was assigned the name of "Hakadah," or "The Pitiful Last," because his mother died shortly after his birth. Later, when he performed admirably in a lacrosse game, he acquired the new name "Ohiyesa," or "The Winner." Eventually, he adopted the Anglicized name "Charles Alexander Eastman" at the request of his father, and then changed his title again when he received the degree of "Doctor." Kiowa warrior Ohettoint had several Indian names and was known variously as "High Forehead," "Charley Buffalo," "Padai," and "Twin." Such naming practices were understandably confusing to white authorities who wanted to compile accurate lists of tribal members. To help resolve this cultural misunderstanding, Eastman worked for several years to assign Anglicized surnames to Sioux individuals, hoping that more "American" names would help them register with the U.S. government and thus claim property rights guaranteed to them by law. Unfortunately, this kind of enforced assimilation left little room for the important autobiographical work performed by traditional Indian names. As Native American cultures came into contact with Euro-Americans, their autobiographical practices changed significantly. Materials such as commercial paint, paper, and colored pencils acquired by trade, gift, or capture provided new media for recording pictographs. In response to these new materials and the shortage of old materials such as buffalo hides, Indians began to record pictographic tribal histories (sometimes called "Winter Counts") in partly used ledger books, army rosters, and daybooks acquired from whites. One unknown Cheyenne artist somehow acquired an envelope addressed in European script to "Commanding Officer, Company G, 2nd Cavalry" and used it as a canvas for his moving depiction of a courtship scene. In the pictograph, two lovers meet and then join each other in front of a tipi. Thus, the artist used the materials of the enemy's army to construct his own expression of romantic connection. White Bull, a Teton Dakota chief, created a hybrid pictographic autobiography in a business ledger, using traditional visual symbols as well as printed words to tell his life story. Commissioned by a white collector who paid White Bull fifty dollars for his work, the ledger graphically presents the author's genealogy and hunting and war record. White Bull portrays himself counting coup on an enemy warrior and interprets the image in script written in the Dakota language using the Dakota syllabary. By the nineteenth century, some tribes had developed scripts called syllabaries that included characters for their vowel and consonant sounds and thus enabled them to write in their own languages. First developed by Sequoyah for the Cherokee language, the syllabaries enabled the creation of hybrid Native American expressions. No longer visual or oral, texts written in syllabary adapted the Western technologies of writing to traditional Native American languages. Questions
[2044] N. C. Wyeth, The Last of the Mohicans (1919), courtesy of Reed College Library. Wyeth's image of Chingachgook, father of Uncas, and friend of Hawkeye. Chingachgook's knowledge of white culture allows him to better understand the Europeans and mirrors Natty's understanding of Native American culture. [5917] George Catlin, Wi-Jun-Jon--The Pigeon's Egg Head Going to and Returning from Washington, courtesy of the Library of Congress. Wi-Jun-Jon's tales about the wonders of the white man's world were met with skepticism and distrust by members of his tribe. The Assiniboine chief was eventually murdered by one of his own tribesmen. [6823] F. W. Greenough, Se-Quo-Yah [Sequoiah] (c. 1836), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZC4-4815]. Half-length portrait of Sequoyah, dressed in a blue robe, holding a tablet that shows the Cherokee alphabet. [8102] Shirt of the Blackfeet Tribe (c. 1890), courtesy of the Portland Art Museum, gift of Elizabeth Cole Butler [86.126.32]. Shirts such as this one were worn during the Ghost Dance Movement. Clothing varied from tribe to tribe, but many felt that the shirts would protect wearers from bullets and attack. [8106] Anonymous, Girl's dress (c. 1890), courtesy of the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon. This hoestùtse, or Cheyenne dress, incorporates beadwork as a means of expression. This style was developed by the Kiowa in the mid-1800s and copied by other Plains tribes. [8112] Anonymous, Rawhide soled boots (c. 1900), courtesy of the Portland Art Museum, gift of Elizabeth Cole Butler. Fringes and beadwork on moccasins and clothing displayed the skill of the maker, as well as the status and social location of the wearer. [9067] Anonymous, Facsimile of an Indian Painting (n.d.), courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-USZ62-28805]. Paintings such as this one represent one of the ways that Native Americans recorded their perspectives on historical events even after contact and the introduction of written history by European Americans. |
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