Family Portraits: Virginia Indians at the Turn of the 20th Century

Exhibition of Photographs presented by Sweet Briar College

August 23, 2007 through January 13, 2008

Revisions Of Photo Labels: How and Why

The original labels were written decades ago by mid-20th Century museum curators, before new scholarship and, most importantly, prior to the new dialogues between native peoples and anthropologists. The following examples illustrate the importance of feedback and guidance from Virginian Tribes, along with incorporating data from recent historical and archaeological research.

Example One: Young Men at Hampton Institute (View Image)

Original Label

INDIANS AT HAMPTON INSTITUTE (HAMPTON NORMAL SCHOOL) (AFTER)
Taken March 20th 1880, about fifteen months after their arrival at Hampton, VA
Back Row, l. to r.: SAY-ED-DA: (White Breat), Mandan; U-HAH-KE-UM-PA: (Carries Flying), Blackfeet Sioux; E-CORRUPT-TA-HA: (Man Who Looks Around), Mandan KA-RU-NACH: (Sioux Boy), Arickaree
Second Row, l. to. r.: TIS-CAHF-UH: (Laughing Face), Arickaree PA-MA-NI: (One Who Hoots When He Walks), Unkpapa Sioux A-HU-KA: (White Wold), Arckaree In Front: ARI-HOTCH-KISH: (Long Arm), Gros Ventre

Edited Label

Young Men at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute
Seated, left to right: Arihotchkish (Gros Ventre), Frank Pamani (Dakota, Crow Creek), Ahuka (Arikara).
Standing, left to right: Tiscaufuh (Arikara), Sayeda (Mandan), Uhahkeumpa (Dakota, Standing Rock), Ecorrupttaha (Mandan), Henry Karunch (Arikara/Sioux)
Hampton, Virginia, March 20, 1880

Image Attribution: Courtesy of the Valentine Richmond History Center, p.73.10.1

 

The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (today Hampton University) was founded after the Civil War to teach former slaves. Later, in 1878, Native American students were brought to the school to be “re-educated.” Much of this instruction was geared at erasing traditional beliefs and customs. The original label title hints at these aims: “after” (indicating that the photograph illustrated assimilated Indians who are now dressed in European clothes); the use of hyphens in the native names (suggesting that they are exotic and unpronounceable, rather than traditional indigenous names); and, furthermore, the indigenous, correct names are replaced by English translations (which would be similar to an exhibition that listed the following below a Whistler painting, “Ja-am-es A. Whi-ist-ler [a individual from the Bible who blows air and makes noise]”.

In sum, the label is written from the perspective of a ‘white’ audience who would be unfamiliar with native names and view the men as acculurated into 19th Century American society.

Example Two: Pamunkey Indians Participating in the Yorktown Centennial (View Image)

Original Label

PAMUNKEY INDIANS ACTING THE INCIDENT OF
POCAHONTAS SAVING THE LIFE OF JOHN SMITH
Powhatan Confederacy, Pamunkey Tribe
Yorktown Centennial, 1881

Edited Label

Pamunkey Indians Celebrating the Yorktown Centennial
Standing left to right: unidentified man, unidentified man, Theodora O. Dennis Cook (wife of George Major Cook), Theophilis Dennis, Paul Miles, Dick Allmond, unidentified man, Major Cook, unidentified man.
Seated, left to right: George Major Cook (Chief for 27 years), Howard Lee Allmond,  Albert Page, John Dennis, Charles Bradley
Yorktown Centennial, c.1881
Pamunkey Tribe

Image attribution: Courtesy of the Valentine Richmond History Center, Cook Collection

 

This is a very complex image and, subsequently, label. The event itself was presumably hosted by the state of Virginia as part of its celebration of the Yorktown Centennial. The photo does not record whether the Pamunkey Indians were willing participants and whether they chose the subject of their skit. The original label presumes that the “incident” actually occurred and that Pocahontas interceded on the behalf of the British captain to save him from death. Each point is subject to debate: whether Pocahontas who was about 10 years old at the time of “the rescue,” participated in any discussions between Captain Smith and her father, Powhatan, the powerful leader of the paramount chiefdom. Moreover, anyone who is not Pamunkey could not know whether the Pamunkey chose to depict this incident over all others from their rich oral historical traditions. And finally, elements of their costumes are both anachronistic (for c. 1607) and not appropriate for Chesapeake communities. Rather, this event appears to be produced and staged for the benefit of the audience, not the participants. In an ironic twist of events, the function that this skit served for the native peoples may have been to assert their Indian heritage. An identity called into question by racist bureaucrats who eliminated the category of "Indian" from birth certificates at the beginning of the 20th Century. Accordingly, the revised label focuses on their participation at the centennial celebration. More significant, as a result of the symposium organized alongside the original exhibition (in 1993), descendants of the Cook family identified several individuals in the photograph. Their names are included in the revised label.

Example Three: The Rappahannock Indian Tribe, Sub-Label

The exhibition features photographs of six of the eight Virginian Indian Tribes. In addition to the individual labels with each photograph, we have placed sub-labels to describe the history of each tribe. An example of the original sub-label and edited version is featured below.

Original Label

The Rappahannock Indian Tribe arrived in their present day location of Essex, and King & Queen counties after a series of negotiations.  After 1649, the Rappahannock were forced inland near present day Tappahannock, and in 1683, the Rappahannock Indians received 3,474-acres of land.  The tribe, however, was threatened by Iroquoian war parties, so William Byrd negotiated a settlement with the Iroquois and the Tappahannock town was relocated to their current location.  The Rappahannock Indian Baptist Church was established in 1964 on 140.5 acres of land, and the goal of the tribe is to preserve their culture while informing the public on the contributions that the tribe has made and continues to make to Virginia and the nation.

Edited Label

The Rappahannock Indian Tribe’s original territory was the lower Rappahannock River, where John Smith mapped at least 14 Rappahannock towns.  English settlement of the Rappahannock River Valley began illegally in the 1640s. In 1683, the Rappahannock received 3,474 acres of land in present-day Indian Neck, where their descendents live today. A year later, the Virginia Colony forcibly removed tribal members to the town of Portobago to use them as a shield protecting the English from Iroquoian war parties. By 1706, the tribe had been removed from Portobago by the Essex County militia, and they returned to their current location of Caroline, Essex and King and Queen Counties within their ancestral territory. The Rappahannock Indian Tribe incorporated in 1921, and was officially recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia on March 25, 1983.

 

The important differences include:

  • writing the label from the perspective off the original landholders, not the European invaders.
  • pointing out the illegal land-grab by the English in the 17th Century
  • distinguishing between the existence of the tribe (which pre-dates any contact with Europeans) and the “official recognition” in 1983.