11/06/04 - 11:20 AM - 12 PM - Plains Tipis, Kitsch, and the Fashioning of American Identity

11/06/04 - 11:20 AM - 12 PM
Adrianne
Santina, University of North Texas
Plains
Tipis, Kitsch, and the Fashioning of American
Identity

This talk could have as easily been about
Chief Wahoo, Kitsch, and the Fashioning of American Identity, and if you were
an Indians supporter you should have been embarrassed during this session. I do
not support the racially insensitive iconography of Cleveland's baseball team
and I am ashamed of all people who are less sensitive. The presenter documented
the representation of the native American dwelling the tipi in Anglo American
media - from symbol of threatening murderous heathens, in the frontier days, to
nostalgic kitsch icon after the conquest and assimilation of our native people.
During the golden age of the automobile, tipi styled Wigwam Motels spring up
across the country, and even today there is a market for toy tipis, tipi lamps,
and other "indianish" kitsch, just as there is a market for
Wahoo-branded sports bric-a-brac.

It was pretty obvious there's a connection
between all these trashed symbols of these long suffering people, so it was
safe to assume the audience shared shame for ever brandishing an
"Indians" hat or Jacket, or shouting wahoo at Jacob's field. Equally
obvious conclusions - reject all disrespectful, racially insulting kitsch, including
Chief Wahoo. And send a message to the owners of the Indians... grow up, get
out of your tipis, and get real to the politically correct and culturally more
enlightened times in which we live, and the immense need for more socially
enlightened leadership and consciousness for the future - let Chief Wahoo lay
in rest and come up with a new name for our baseball team... perhaps then your
curse will be lifted.

Until then - Go Red Socks!