Viewing Native American Postcards

I am both a scholar and a collector of postcards; I decided to combine the two and have completed a paper discussing how Kiowa, Comanche and Naisha (Plains Apache) people & culture have been presented on postcards. I discussed some of this research at a meeting of the Plains Anthropological Society in 2010. I have submitted the paper to the journal for possible review & publication. A new postcard project may explore postcards of the American Indian Exposition, a combination carnival and indigenous cultural celebration. I have recently acquired many cards from the 1930s & 1940s and have a regional historical journal in mind....a good project for the fall.

Black Kettle, Cheyenne

A Postcrosser in Colorado very kindly exchanged 2 cards commemorating the life and experiences of Black Kettle. In 1864 members of the Colorado militia attacked a camp of Cheyenne and Arapaho located along the Sand Creek in Colorado killing 160 native people, mostly women and children. The location was declared a National Historic Site in 2007.
Sadly Black Kettle, the camp's Cheyenne headman would be killed in another military attack on his camp in Nov 1868, led by George Custer (who would be killed when he attacked a Lakota camp in 1876). Black Kettle and more than 150 native people died along the Washita River in western Oklahoma.

Canadian First Nations Stamps!

I recently received 2 Canadian First Nations postcards and the senders were extra kind to add wonderful First Nations stamps as well.
This one was a thank you from a gal who is coming to visit Chicago...I sent some cards from here to share with her traveling companions. Summer is pow wow season and these grass dancers wear very colorful regalia!

while the stamps celebrate Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680), a young Mohawk & Algonkian girl who survived smallpox and found sanctuary with other Catholics. She has recently been named a saint by the Church and is the patroness of the environment. Another stamp celebrates the life of Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row, also called Hendrick Tejonihokarawa (1660-1735), a pro-English sachem or leader of the Mohawk against the French. He was later baptized and became a Protestant preacher.

This card was sent as a US/Canada tag and is my first look at the Kejimkujik Natl Park & Historic Site, located in Nova Scotia. The petroglyphs, or rock art, was made by the Mi'kmaw people and is thought to represent a legendary bird who grants magical power to hunters.

The stamps include Tecumseh, a member of the Shawnee nation who had been driven into the Northwest Territory, now Indiana. During the War of 1812 between the US and England he rallied native people to support the British in the hopes of stopping American domination of land and indigenous culture. He was killed in Canada in 1813 and his community was sent to Kansas and later moved to Oklahoma.

Plymouth

Native American postcards end up all over the globe; this card was received in trade from Germany and features a recreation event that can be seen at Plymouth Plantation, a living history museum that tells of an early English colony in the US. In addition to exploring English colonialism the plantation also shows life ways for the Wampanoag people who hunted, fished and grew garden crops. An interpreter demonstrates the making of a dug out canoe in which the middle of a log is burned out.

Wampanoag people were adversely affected by the English; there was conflict over land and resources plus native people died from disease. Many were captured and sold into slavery for the plantations in the Caribbean. Tribal members retained a small amount of their lands and today have state recognition; enrollment has increased and they continue to assert their identity and treaty rights.

more fun tags

I added my name to a US/Canada tag on Postcrossing and received a First Nations Cree man from the province of Alberta. Funny, the sender grew up just a few miles from where I live now...she comes home each year and so one day I may actually meet her in person!

There are many groups of Cree people; those in Alberta lived on the northern plains. Historically they would have hunted and traded with Metis (native people mixed with French).


Another tag features late prehistoric Puebloan pottery (1100-1300AD) in a form referred to as a Stirrup canteen

This postcrosser offered some interesting comments on Chief Moses, discusses in an earlier post.

a clash of cultures

I am fortunate to receive cards from Central and South America from time to time! This card was sent from Brazil by a Postcrosser in an exchange; I will share her other cards with my students but this one was for me. The text is all in Portuguese but I can get the general impression: the arrival of Europeans in 1500.

Desembarque de Pedro Alvares Cabral em Porto Seguro em 1500
Oslo de Oscar Pereira da Silva (1867-1939)

like other contact situations, Native people in Brazil were affected by European diseases, were enslaved, killed if they resisted, and their lands taken for the extraction of natural resources. They continue to press for their rights to land, protection, medical care and the continuity of cultural traditions.

Tags!

I have begun to explore the tag forum on Postcrossing....users post their name and in some cases wishes, then another user tags them and sends something nice. Here are 2 cards that came a few weeks ago but have waited patiently to be listed:

 This super lovely heron was painted by a Canadian Fist Nation artist: Paul Windsor, Haisla, Heiltsuk. He is just 32, lives in Vancouver and is an illustrator of books as well. Such a pretty card.

Heline, a Canadian who now lives down in Austin Texas, sent me this lovely photo of a Ute woman and child in a cradleboard taken in 1900. Utes lived a tough life in the Basin, interacting with southwestern, southern plains and mountain tribes.