A Long History with Tourism

1. A Long History with Tourism TRMT 396 Lecture #1

2. A Staged History • In-Situ Control • Pre-contact • In-Situ Exposure • explorers & anthropologists • Ex-Situ Exhibitionism & Exploitation • In-Situ Exhibitionism & Exploitation • In-Situ Quasi-Empowerment • Ex-Situ Quasi-Empowerment Weaver, 2010

3. A Dark Exploitation? • Anthropology and tourism coincide – links to empire, social Darwinism, widespread media, etc. • Dichotomy created • Primitive - modern • Native Hawaiians as “Ideal Natives” ie. a non-threatening, soft primitivism (Desmond, 1999) • FORMULA:Hula=beautiful women=native=hawaii • Burlesque-like environment of Musa Isle Village (Seminole) and other attractions (Desmond, 1999)

4. Or Solidarity and Resistance in Difference? • Perhaps a space to articulate selves & resist assimilation • “What better way …to maintain a separate collective identity than by commodifying cultural difference” (Nesper, 2003) • Playing indian • Enabled cultural resurgence • Economic move when other venues denied/decline e.g. logging & fishing • Lac du Flambeau (bowl) to Cowichan (opera) examples

5. Responding to Collectors • Desire for a souvenir of the encounter – authenticity important (Dilworth, 2003) • Evasion & Resistance OR production & mediation (Erikson, 2003) • History of mediating tradition for Euro-American tastes • Shifting production (size, style) and re-introduction of goods no longer in common use (Haida example)

6. The Makah Example (19th century to now) • Curios/carving/baskets made for tourist consumption • Young Doctor’s house as longhouse, store, roller rink, museum, etc. • Assertion of guardianship of their own past Erikson, 2003

7. The Southwest Example • The “Chief” train from Chicago to LA • Aboriginal people as “promotional tools” • Fred Harvey’s hotels and “Indian Detours” – lavish buses and “Harvey Girl”/Courier guides • Pueblo & Navajo vendors at train station, along highways and under the portico of the Governors Palace • Revival of some pottery/weaving traditions in response Fried, 2010; Weaver , 2010

8. The B.C. Coast & Pacific Northwest • Carving & basket making for curios by 1850 • Ethnographic trade in full swing by 1870’s • Fl0od tide of collectors 1880-1920 (then market crash) • Design specifically for sale • Engage in tours and shows : • Kwakwaka'wakw @ Chicago World’s Fair (1893) • Quatsino @ St. Louis World’s Fair (1904) • Bella Coola tour of Germany (1885-86)

9. Diversifying Economy on the North Coast • Tlingit perform for steamboat cruise tourists & sell baskets on boardwalks of Sitka • Inside passage initially known as the ‘Totem-pole” route • Alaska Steamship ad 1906 “No home is complete now-a-days without a neat and artistically arranged Indian basket corner” Raibmon, 2005

10. Picking, Performing & Producing • Migratory farm work in the hops fields and fruit orchards • Tourist trade developed to visit the workers’ camps – trains up from Seattle • Multiple responses • Access to events • Production of curios & baskets • Guided (fishing/hunting) • Posed for photos • Organized performances Raibmon, 2005

11. Selling the Parks & their Lodges • Banff Indian Days • Pikani (Blackfeet) as official hosts for Great Northern hotels • Havasupai guides for horse packing trips into Grand Canyon

12. Additional Sources • Dilworth, L. (2003). “Handmade by an American Indian” Souvenirs and the Cultural Economy of the Southwest. In H. Rothman (ed)The Culture of Tourism, the Tourism of Culture. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. • Keller, R. & Turek, M. (1998). American Indians & National Parks. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press. • Knight, R. (1996). Indians at Work. Vancouver, BC: New Star. • Raibmon, P. (2006). Authentic Indians: Episodes of Encounter from the late Nineteenth Century Northwest Coast. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.