A Victim of Its Own Success: The Story of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Fair, 1910-13

Autor/in	Clough, Josh
Titel	A Victim of Its Own Success: The Story of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Fair, 1910-13
Quelle	In: American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 30 (2006) 2, S.35-61 (27 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0161-6463
Schlagwörter	American Indians; Federal Indian Relationship; Exhibits; American Indian History; Administrators; Handicrafts; Animal Husbandry; Competition; Food; Montana; Oklahoma + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? American Indian; Indianer; Handwerk; Tierhaltung; Wettkampf; Lebensmittel
Abstract	The Indian fair is that rare example of a government program for Indians gone terribly right. Implemented by the Office of Indian Affairs on reservations in the early 1900s, Indian fairs allowed Native people to exhibit their crops, livestock, and domestic handiwork in competition for prizes much the same way whites did at their numerous county and state fairs. From a single government-sponsored Indian fair on the Crow Reservation in Montana in 1905, Native fairs spread rapidly across the country. Little more than a decade later, fifty-eight reservations and agencies could boast of holding one or more of them on a yearly basis. The Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma held their first fair in Weatherford, Oklahoma in October of 1910. The popularity of the three-day event prompted its continuation for the next three years, and it was held, alternately, at Weatherford and Watonga, Oklahoma. The event attracted between 2,000 and 2,500 Indians annually and at least as many Anglo spectators. Under Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert G. Valentine's pro-Indian fair administration, the future of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Fair seemed promising, but a change in commissioners in 1913 along with the growing disillusionment of local Cheyenne-Arapaho agents toward the fair led to its closure after the 1913 event. In this article, the author discusses the history of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Fair from 1910 to 1913. (Contains 2 tables, 8 figures and 102 notes.) (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	American Indian Studies Center at UCLA. 3220 Campbell Hall, Box 951548, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1548. Tel: 310-825-7315; Fax: 310-206-7060; e-mail: sales@aisc.ucla.edu; Web site: http://www.books.aisc.ucla.edu/aicrj.html
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10