Sunday, June 15, 2008

What we value enough to copy

The reminder came in recent conversation: To be a storyteller you need a story to tell. To be a blogger, not so much. So, I start.

Since vacationing, I have been sitting with a story that ignited my curiosity and ire and left me bemused. It is layered: outrage, heritage and this idea "what we value enough to copy." 

It is not new, this tale. In fact it's mangled roots began at the turn of the 20th century. It is every day, and the future, transformed by tourists, the global economy and the value of authenticity. It is the how and why culture is preserved by Native Americans —and purveyors of our nation’s history in this century. And in the world of the Internet, this story can be informed by comments of others.

I enter the story with stops at roadside booths in Arizona and Nevada. I stop to appreciate authentic Native American jewelry. My purchase power is nearly non existent. While cruising the tables,  I was thinking “How authentic.”  That puzzling idea seeped in as the experience as my vacation progresses and my joy of craft and art and flea-markets was transformed into “damn this America” again. There is no end to the disappointment.

For me, the West was an open book. The only pages written thus far were not from reliable sources. Tonto was the only Indian known to me. The embodiment of 'Indian' from childhood games modeled upon Wild West movies. I had so many pages of understanding to fill. 

The first real Native Americans I would see were entrepreneurs. Booths, gathered flea market style, abundant. The crafted-work, seen among the booths, is similar, yet distinctly different.

With questions I learned from ample answers. The stones are named after the area it was mined. Some are stones are rare as some areas are now barren.  In Bisbee, the seasonal rain wash turquoise into the roadside basins Bisbee, We must go there. I learn the bevel side is up. I learn advances in technology are embraced by the current generation because of economics. I am shown how strung, cut and polished gem stones crafted into jewelry can be done making clasps no longer essential. Most importantly, I sensed that the business of making and marketing jewelry is a family affair. And I cannot distinguish 'antique' from 'made yesterday' Indian Jewelry. I find an Antique Indian Jeweler at the Boulder City Jamboree.

My vaca get-a-way unearths a visceral delighted in the handiwork of others. But an undercurrent pulls me out of tourist mode. Ample answers come with prideful stories connecting generations by traditions. The economics and livelihood of Native Americans artisan jewelry makers is intrinsically tied to the next generation attending college. Heritage was being stamped upon them by a flat world. The tribes  needed doctors and lawyers more than Indian Chiefs.

One proud native mother expressed her outrage about fakes in a manner that I failed to yet understand, "Jewelry with .925 is not Indian". I decided to buy from her to join in the resistance that lurked now in a distant part of my brain. Her outrage inclined me to purchase from her son for mine, and from her, for me. It was not until vacation destination: the Grand Canyon, a place of mimic and replication that I came to more fully understand her exclamation.

At the Grand Canyon National Park Desert View Watchtower Gift Shop, a sign above strings of silver feathered turquoise necklaces read: Authentic non-Indian jewelry. If I was thinking journalistically rather than touristy, a picture of this sign would be gold for this story. It was a picture I failed to take. I had no idea how it spoke volumes about the latest economic based invasion of Native Americans by replica jewelry Made in China and machine stamped .925. [2]

The watchtower, a mimic of Anasazi Indian watchtowers, is infused with storytelling both figuratively and literally. The design of this national park building completed in 1933 was commissioned and awarded to Mary Colter. This five-story site to see is on a promontory overlooking the Grand Canyon at the eastern end of the south rim.

The architecture informed by archeology, ethno-history and the work of Indian mural artists, including Hopi Fred Kabotie embodies the value of copying, storytelling, and preservation of Native American Culture. Authenticity is reportedly at the core of the architect’s work. The replica design was said to be informed by turn of the century southwestern archeology. On its walls the tradition of storytelling in rock art are copies of rock art rendered by artist Fred Greer. These copies may be the only existing record of the original story painting found at an Abo, New Mexico Archaeological site.

Ms. Colter’s designs were commissioned by Santa Fe Railway and the Fred Harvey Company which launched the Native American souvenir business. This company’s transformation includes becoming the concessionaires of National Parks. The souvenir and concession business began by leveraging the traditions and skills of local artisans. This leveraging spawned tradition based Navajo, Zuni, Hopi and Pueblo family businesses that have now supported several generations of displaced Native Americans. So the ability of this outraged Indian mother to market to tourists, culturally based jewelry and crafts, is directly tied to the business that is now the target of her rage. In civilizing the southwest, trinkets were mass produced by artisans supplied sheet silver and pre-cut turquoise by the Harvey Company.

This blog, in all its hyper-parts, evolved because of I sensed a disturbing undercurrent of injustice for which I had no context. The outrage of the Indian mother could not be shaken so I needed to understand it. Give it a place to quiet in better knowing. I googled to learn more than the culture center disclosed. I determined that the act of selling imports as Souvenir is not out of character for the legacy company that ran the concessions. And that the new company continues to have unfettered access to 5 million visitors a year to profit from tourism.

I come away with a strong belief that Indian Crafted souvenirs from our National Parks should be authentic not imported reproductions. I share this story to amplify how economically based transformations without connection to values and tradition fail all of us.

1) The Grand Canyon is the most visited natural wonder on the planet. 5 million visitors a year with up to 30,000 visitors per day in peak season. 

2) Sterling Silver objects are stamped with either the word "Sterling" or ".925" which refers to 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper.

Postscript: Within this vacation there was another connection with Native American culture at the AMERIND MUSEUM, the ‘Traditions in Clay’ Exhibit. It depicted a history of pottery making. It also displayed outcomes of ‘a competition’ involving copying traditional works as a means of connecting to ones heritage

This story does not end here if you make a different purchase decision or support any legislation that may come in to play to make our collective treatment of Native Americans less egregious.

3 comments:

AdeleHouston said...

This reflective blog-journal helped me learn something about myself. My only stated vacation goal was to see the canyon. The real hope was to get some distance from the daily bread chat - voices in my head. The result was some numbness and the percolation my core values. Discovery and authenticity were central to my vacation choices.

It started out in bone form with this intro: So was it good, risky, challenging, liberating, informing - a spontaneous gathering of family that will flow with several miles of highway into a planned, rehearsed investment of celebration of family? It is too early to tell the full impact of confused bewildered conversation and it’s unraveling but today’s blog is one outcome.

Chris Gray said...

Never saw the Grand Canyon, but the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is quite impressive. I’m sure no one sees the irony of Made in China trinkets in the Trading Post below Little Big Horn. While my visits to Yellowstone were undeniably vacations, the vacations were more for my sister and her husband. I was along for the ride and to help watch the child, on the second trip. My trip to Custer Township was more of a vision quest.

If I remember my Hesse at all correctly, you are now something like a twelfth degree Magister Ludi, Master of the Glass Bead Game. All the knowledge of the world is inscribed on the beads and the beauty of the construct, the inter-relationships created by the rearranging of all that knowledge, is the standard by which the game is judged.

So it is with hypertext and you have learned it well. I remember my friend Kathy Fay explaining how she was using it to create software to teach Japanese back in the mid-‘80s, so she didn’t even have external links and had to create all the other data internally.

I can see that is a tremendously powerful way of making one’s points. Not that my overall agreement with your sense of outrage would be in any doubt. Learning it still seems a far off consideration, though life has offered me other big surprises in regards to learning along the way.

As for turquoise jewelry, the only piece I ever owned I gave away and it was no trinket. John Baringer from the Exit Experimental Theatre Co. gave it to me when he went to live in Tucson. I suppose he thought he was passing a mantle to me, to represent native culture by authentically copying it. Unfortunately, I felt unworthy of such a charge and such a pure gift and passed it on to someone I, correctly it seems, judged as worthy. Daria Marmaluk is still devoted to doing world music programs for children in a big swath of the country. As her husband is a Chilean Indian, as I understand it, a fair amount of that music is undoubtedly from native culture.

I did, once in my hitch-hiking travels, happen upon a treasure trove of probably mass produced, ersatz Navaho sand painting which I gave out as gifts. I have seen them once in a while at friends’ or relatives places over the years. If they were authentic, the artists certainly did not benefit from my discovery. I have no recollection of finding them, other than there were many and I was far from here.

I always used to call my vacations on the streets of New Haven, a “Holiday in Cambodia”. Of course, I was a Jello Biafra fan. As I said to the woman at our reunion (who said, “Oh, what a great time that was!”) “Oh, yeah, it was great having Martin Luther King killed two months before our graduation and, then, Bobby Kennedy killed a month later. Yeah, that was a really great time!”

Mr. Popularity, that’s me.

AdeleHouston said...

Ms Houston,
We here at Xanterra take our responsibility to represent the products we sell, very seriously. As the single largest buyer of Native American Jewelry and crafts we play an important roll in supporting the individual artists by showcasing their goods in these historic venues within the National Parks we manage. Our collection comes from many sources; the individual crafts person, credible traders, generations owned businesses run by and staffed by Native Americans. Each store has a dedicated area that features only Native American jewelry and crafts. We also have a mission to offer our guests memorable items to remind them of their visit to each park. With visitors coming from all over the world, that assortment of product broadly represents a wide range of gifts, souvenirs, apparel, food items, books, music, and, costume jewelry. And yes, within _those_ departments, goods are sourced locally, within the United States and overseas. I believe the jewelry you refer to in your blog is, specifically, costume jewelry that is actually signed – NON-NATIVE, AMERICAN MADE. We have developed these signs to educate the guest, that we offer jewelry that is “southwest” designed and inspired but that is not Native made. This, in no way, reflects a trend or desire to diminish the importance and beauty of the ages old Native traditions. We have the opportunity to teach our visitor the difference, give them a chance to learn more about the timeless crafts we offer and create a clear-cut separation from one to the other. (the Xanterra company)