"Son, you are an Indian. I want you to show other races what an Indian can do." - Hiram Thorpe to Jim Thorpe, 1904 |
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RELATED PROGRAMMING
 Native American Arts Festival
September 26
11 am to 3pm
On September 26, Stamford Museum & Nature Center will present a Native American Arts festival. The festival will feature performances from The Allegany River Indian Dancers, showcasing the traditional songs and dances of the Iroquois. They educate as well as entertain by sharing with the public details about their costumes, languages and music.
Members: Adults: $5, Children $2
Non-Members: Adults: $10, Children: $5 ; All children 3 and under: Free.
Family PLUS and above member levels: Free |
Baseball's League of Nations: A Salute to
Native American Baseball Players
Did you know that in Alaska in the early 1900s Native Americans could only appear on the field as clowns when non-natives were playing? Or that Apaches, including Geronimo, played baseball during their internment in Fort Sill? This summer, SM&NC joins forces with the Iroquois Indian Museum, in Howes Cave, New York, to explore the epic struggles of native players to be accepted on the diamond, and to showcase those who reached prominence in the game, such as Hall of Famer Charles Albert "Chief" Bender, or the legendary Jim Thorpe.
 Of particular interest is the period between the end of the "Indian Wars" and the early 1930s, when the government's Indian Boarding Schools were in full swing. The schools were meant to be benevolent, but their goal of "killing the Indian while saving the man" caused untold suffering to their pupils. As Jeffrey Powers-Beck, author of The American Indian Integration of Baseball, has shown, excelling at sports at these schools gave native youngsters an opportunity not only to show their skills, but to beat non-Indians at their own game. For Native Americans, playing baseball at the government boarding schools was both an act of assimilation and of cultural resistance.
The exhibition presents images and biographical sketches of many players, and focuses on the Native American boarding school experience; baseball in Native communities; Native American barnstorming teams; Native players in the Major and Minor leagues; Native American Women players; and Native American stereotyping in sports. Also included are objects loaned by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum; the Seneca - Iroquois National Museum; the Tonawanda Reservation Historical Society; and numerous individuals and the families of former players.
Baseball's League of Nations is made possible, in part, by The Connecticut Humanities Council. The exhibition is supported by media sponsor 96.7 The Coast.
Dynamic Traditions
Americans have collected Native American objects since they first came into contact with the nation's first inhabitants. An important factor was the attraction of owning exotic things, seen as curiosities. Native Americans also produced objects that non-natives found useful, such as baskets, boxes and bowls. Towards the end of the 19th century, there was a more urgent collecting thrust.
Native Americans were seen as destined to being fully absorbed by the dominant non-Native culture, if not to complete physical extinction. Not only individuals, but cultural organizations, including universities and Museums, hastened to collect "before it was too late."
This Manifest-Destiny-inspired scenario was, of course, flawed. Although many Native American nations dwindled and some have indeed disappeared, many endured, survived as distinct peoples, and are thriving.
Today, there are over four million people of Native American ancestry in the United States and while collecting is no longer a matter of "salvaging," interest in the material culture of the First Americans is at an all time high. |
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