Misrepresented

"Chief White Hawk in the Big Hollow Tree, Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada." This commercial postcard from the 1930s is staged and depicts a model. The real Chief White Hawk was a Nes Perce warrior who accompanied Chief Joseph when in 1877 he led his surviving people on an escape from the US Army to Canada. The postcard image misrepresented him by accomodating white preconceptions.

Misrepresented

Redwashing

"The Artist Painting a Chief."
Engraving by George Catlin, 1841

George Catlin's "North American Indians" was the most widely read 19th century American travel book. First published in 1841, it went through many new editions and reprintings. Catlin's 300 documentary engravings were essential to the popularity of his book. The frontispiece is entitled "The author painting a chief at the base of the Rocky Mountains" (left). Here Catlin is seen painting the portrait of a chief as part of his intent to preserve a record of the Indians in their "wild and unsophisticated state" from the "uncivilized regions of their uninvaded country." Catlin is featured in the virtual exhibition "The Illustrating Traveler" organized by the Beineke Library at Yale University: Encountering Native Americans.

The exhibit George Catlin and His Indian Gallery was organized in 2002 by the Smithsonian Institution. Its companion book is introduced by W. Richard West, director of the National Museum of the American Indian: "A native person is challenged ... not to feel on some level a profound resentment toward Catlin; his obsession with depicting Indians has an extremely invasive undertone to it ... . [But] Catlin placed great value on Indians and their cultures, revealing genuine concern at how they were being systematically stressed or destroyed by non - Indians. No artist could so passionately pour himself into his work the way Catlin did without having sincere respect and affection for the subjects of his work."

The Bancroft Library (University of California - Berkeley) presented the digital exhibit "Images of Native Americans" from its collections in 2006 (right). "Are the images an accurate portrayal of Native Americans? Do the illustrations represent a mis-interpreted view of American Indians by a white society? Is it possible to distinguish between the perceptions of the individuals who created and viewed these images years ago and present - day understanding of these same images? Do these images tell us more about the creators of such works than they reveal about the individuals depicted?" Images of Native Americans.

"Legacy and Legend," 2007.
Photo: Huntington Library

"Images of Native Americans," 2006.
Photo: Bancroft Library

The Huntington Library in Pasedena, California, staged the 2007 exhibit "Legacy and Legend" from its collections (left). "For centuries, European trained artists created art for audiences that knew little about Indians, and so their images often romanticized them and focused on the more dramatic ... on native American men as exotic and grand, living freely in nature, unconstrained by government or religion ... Women are hardly seen, even though many tribes were matrilineal and women held important roles in government" Legacy and Legend.

The Goettingen State and University Library organized an exhibit of photographs by Edward Sheriff Curtis in 2004, "The North American Indian" (right). "His photographic oeuvre not only ties in with our traditional idea of the North American Indian, but has largely moulded this notion. Curtis' photographs show Indians as they might once have been – or, rather, as we might wish them to have been" Hans Christian Adam: Die Indianer Nordamerikas. The exhibition was staged in Pauliner Church: Die Paulinerkirche.

In Germany and Europe, North American Indians have been misrepresented as Noble Savages, while in the US and Canada, images of Indians are rooted in the recent colonial past and reflect the settlers' derogation of aboriginal people whose land they robbed. "The contradictory stories non - Natives tell about Imaginary Indians are really stories about themselves and the uncertainties that make up their cultural heritage" (Daniel Francis, The Imaginary Indian, 1992).

Exhibit at Goettingen University Library.
Photo: Karen Wonders

"Justice," BC Legislature.
Mural by George Stockwell, 1935

The mural "Enterprise" shows the landing of the first white entrepreneurs on Salish Territory (right) and "Courage" depicts the first encounter between the Nootka people and two British sea captains (below right). The most controversial mural is "Labour" (below left). It shows the construction of Fort Victoria in 1843 by bare breasted Indian woman working under the command of white men. Aboriginal leaders in BC have called this painting "highly offensive, demeaning and degrading to First Nations people in the province." A government report (28 March 2001) recommended the removal of the four murals.

Four murals were commissioned in 1932 for the rotunda of the BC Legislature to illustrate Courage, Enterprise, Labour and Justice; "the historical qualities necessary for the establishment of a civilization." According to the artist, the "Justice" mural was to show how the first colonial judge had "pacified" some "troublesome Indians who threatened war on the whites" (left). In fact, Chief Klatsassin and five Tsilhqot'in warriors were sentenced to death and hanged on 26 October 1864. The memory of this travesty of justice is kept alive by the Tsilhqot'in people who every year mark the anniversary date of the hanging.

"Enterprise," BC Legislature.
Mural by George Stockwell, 1935

"For many years, many aboriginal and non aboriginal people have found the images and message of the murals to be not only disturbing but offensive and hurtful. The value of the art and the historical accuracy of the murals are less important than the hurt they cause others" (A Review of the Depiction of Aboriginal Peoples in the Artworks of the Parliament Buildings, 2001). Six years later, on 24 April 2007, a parliamentary motion was passed to remove the four offensive murals from the Legislature. See: Artworks Debate (Hansard Report).

"Labour," BC Legislature.
Mural by George Stockwell, 1935

"Courage," BC Legislature.
Mural by George Stockwell, 1935

Words like "reconciliation" and "new relationship" are cynically cast about by the BC government without substantive action to make up for historic injustice. Removing the four murals is an empty public relations act that does nothing to lift the yoke of subjugation from the shoulders of indigenous peoples. The granddaughter of the artist who painted them says "jackhammering the murals off the walls of the rotunda will not atone for the past wrongs to alleviate the social injustices afflicting BC's first nations."

Legislature mural rotunda, 2007.
Victoria, British Columbia

On 1 October 2007, Stó:lo Steven Point, one of Canada's few First Nation judges, was appointed the new lieutenant governor of British Columbia, becoming the first indigenous person to represent the Queen in the 150 years of the former British colony. The occasion was marked by an elaborate ceremony in the BC Legislature. Significantly, the four historical murals on the ground level of the rotunda which commemorate white supremacy were covered up - a meek admission by the government of the shameful history of colonization as late as 1935, when the murals by George Southwell were completed (left).

Not covered up were four iconic scenes in the cupola above the rotunda: Fishing, Forestry, Mining and Farming (i.e. Development). This is shockingly revealing as no amount of damage done by these industries to the survival of indigenous communities and culture has ever kept the BC government from pursuing its historic policy of land grabs and resource exploitation.

"Medicine Mask Dance" of the Esquimalt Indians near Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island. Painting by Paul Kane, 1848.
Location: Royal Ontario Museum

Redwash: Alcan Indigenous Peoples Policy

Redwashing