OCR Text |
Show though geometric designs were increasingly replaced with the floral patterns which many Indian groups adopted in the early twentieth century. Some of these were obviously derived from china and chintz patterns. Gradually cotton thread and commercially tanned leather replaced sinew and soft, native-tanned skins (Fig. 21). Some of the early twentieth-century articles were sloppily constructed and resemble other poignantly poor tourist trinkets made throughout the West during the unhappy early reservation period. Purses, hatbands, ration-ticket bags, and lapel ornaments replaced the magnificent beaded clothing, equestrian equipment, blanket strips, and paint, strike-a-light, and "medicine" bags of the nineteenth century (Fig. 18). Two rasps, one made in the late nineteenth century and the other in the twentieth evidently to be sold as a tourist trinket, reflect the changing character of Ute culture (Fig. 20). The simple lines and faint natural ochre coloration of one contrast with the lurid colors and alien shape of the other. By the early twentieth century, most Indian peoples of Utah had completely abandoned their traditional clothing for everyday wear. The men often dressed in an extreme version of Anglo cowboy garb. Shawls, tall-crowned stetsons, and cowboy boots were the most popular merchandise in reservation stores (Fig. 5).16 Years of reservation life with sometimes unjust or dishonest agents, the resentment of Anglos who wanted Indian land for farming and mining, and the loss of an independent and traditional lifeway seemed to strip many Indians of their heritage. By the mid-twentieth century many Utes wished to ignore their history. As one observer noted, "The Utes have what might be termed a short historical memory. There seems to be a great deal of resistance to the re-telling of past events in the life of the Ute. The reasons for this are not altogether clear, but there seems to be evidence that there has been an attempt to forget the past."17 Fortunately, Indian people are once again discovering their identity and their past. This phenomenon probably springs from the pan-Indianism of the 1960s and the mythicization and popularization of Indian culture among all Americans, as well as from deep and enduring loyalties and traditions. For many years, caricatures of Indians have appeared in American popular culture and commercial art (Figs. 22 and 23). However, again in the 1960s, Indian material culture enjoyed an enormous surge in popularity and began to appear in art as well as natural-history museums. People living in a mechanized and plastic society find the objects of daily and ceremonial Indian life beautiful and appealing. Too often they are placed in a context which isolates them from their source. Properly understood, these are evocative and haunting objects which speak to us of our human history. 18 Fig. 19 Water jar. Ute. Willow (Salix exigua), pitch, textile, horsehair. Coiled, pitch-lined, braided horsehair rugs. Late 1800s. L: 30.0 cm. D: 25.0 cm. Collection of Utah Museum of Natural History. Denim obtained from worn Levi Strauss trousers was also used to make girths and mend clothing and other utensils. Fig. 20 Rasps (left to right). Rasp. Northern Utah. Collected at Ft. Duchesne, Utah, in the early 1900s. Howcat Uncapuike. Wood, commercial paints. Early 1900s (?). L: 58.5 cm. W: 6.0 cm. Collection of Utah Museum of Natural History. Rasp. Northern Ute. Collected at Ouray, Utah, in the early 1900s. Wallace Wisiup. Wood, pigment. Late 1800s (?) L: 71.0 cm. W: 7.0 cm. Collection of Utah Museum of Natural History. |