Hello. I have been observing from afar, uh, the stream and er as I've been
tweaking my presentation and have been enjoying the presentations and very
much engaged with the conversations that are going on. And every time I
heard a new speaker, I thought I would have an image for that, Uh, so as
always, talking to Matt Toro, uh, who I appreciate and am grateful, too,
inviting me to participate here in the conference today. Um, I have been
on many, many new journeys looking at exploiting the imagery related to
Native American communities and the Grand Canyon and feel like there's a
book there because there's so much to be done and seeing I, you know,
And so we'll we'll be looking at a few of the more well known images and
artists, but there's a lot more, so this is really just skimming the
surface
So again, I do want to thank Matt Toro for organizing a dynamic conference
on the Grand Canyon and drawing us all together to reflect on the
hundredth anniversary of the site as a national park and a hundred
fiftieth anniversary of John Wesley Powell's expedition on the Colorado
River through the Grand Canyon. I would also like to acknowledge that my
fellow presenters are making interesting and significant observation
throughout the conference about the Grand Canyon and consider the address
of individuals and practice is related to the Grand Canyon. Ask crucial
points of intersection to the representation of indigenous communities. It
is good to be here with you. A CZ was mentioned. I worked here for a few
years, and so I'm happy to be back, uh, before we get started. I do want
to lay out objectives for myself with this presentation, um, and those are
to address the impact of historic ideologies on contemporary societies, to
encourage a critical consciousness about the portrayal of indigenous
Americans in history, media and art and the detriment on contemporary
societies, and to ensure the respectful inclusion and accuracy of
indigenous peoples and dialogues history, art in policy making
as we mentioned, I manage the school transporter studies Simon Borough map
collection between twenty fourteen and twenty seventeen, and my rules and
duties included collection, management, fund development, project
development research and curating exhibitions. Simon Borough began
collecting maps and books in nineteen eighty four. He owned factories in
the United States and Mexico, and motivated by a desire to better
understand the borderlands, Borough began to collect maps and books in
over twenty years for accumulated mohr than three hundred maps and two
hundred books, which were formally donated to the School of Transporter
Studies in August twenty twelve. Working with the Simon Borough Collection
was an opportunity to explore historic photography, maps and atlases in
relation to colonialism or the systematic process of displacement and
oppression of indigenous peoples of the Americas, as well as the
collections relationship to contemporary transporter communities of the
Southwestern United States. And earlier, when I was introduced, its Latino
or Latina Letty next communities that I also study, not land. Uh,
eventually my role as the sissy s collection manager intersected with my
work is an art historian and my study of colonial ethnographic Print
Culture of the Americas produced in relation to the European and United
States colonial projects. Most of the maps I show from the collection
today fall into the category of diagrams that generalized the area of the
Grand Canyon. However, what they do provide is a framework of development
, the tools of Empire Nation building and visual text that narrates
history. The School of Transporter map collection highlights a different
ways. The Western Hemisphere has been conceptualized and transformed
throughout history, extending from between the sixteenth and twentieth
century. The collection tells a story stretching back to the period of
Europe's first contact and culminates with the westward expansion of the
United States. The early maps in this collection are from global producers
and document and represent the European colonial enterprise, however, the
majority. The maps in the collection are from nineteenth century US agents
and focus on the developments of United States and Mexico border region.
And that coincides with the period we're looking at with the beginning of
the
exploration of the Grand Canyon and eventually the mapping. Although many
of the individual maps and books are found elsewhere within the SS
collection, they come together as it is distinct hole. Collectively, the
bro collection of maps tells us about photography, exploration, land
claims as well as a changing social landscape of colonial colonized lands.
Power dynamics established through processes and systems of colonialism
and implications of colonial traumas and social upheaval on contemporary
communities and ultimately, about the resilience of indigenous communities
in the Americas.
This is just a more detailed examination of the map itself. The page I
present here is an example of how maps and ethnographic illustrations
really referring more to the earlier example within Mac, the practice and
atlases, as well as lend itself to an understanding of how historic images
like this can impact on temporary ideologies and policies. The language
and imagery incorporated into European print culture about the America
such as this reveals and perpetuates the ongoing nature of the European
Colonial project of claiming the rich resources of the Americas for
Europeans, while legitimating any and all methods to do so.
America. America Stepped on. Al is one of the six maps included in the
National Illustrated Atlas of France, which was first published in
eighteen forty five. And many of the maps and the Simon Borough collection
circulated through atlases. And I would argue that this is true for most
historic maps of European time. From the sixteenth seventeenth eighteenth
century, they were circulated through atlases. Historically, these
publications offer information about place is identified within the maps,
including the area's geopolitical, social, religious and economic
characteristics, much like the Internet might Today, atlases came into
high volume production in Europe in the sixteenth century as a direct
result of the exploration and colonisation of the Americas. There was a
great curiosity about the New World and its inhabitants that created a
broad market for maps and atlases focused on the Americas. And these types
of images and publications are one of the primary methods disseminating
information to mainstream audiences, who in turn used them as references
and tools for education. So maps are important. Right? Maps are in. These
atlases and maps were part of this circulation and educational process. I
assert that this type of information and formats for circulation in terms
of atlases have become part of the fund of Knowledge that we continue to
operate from today in terms of indigenous communities of the Americas
Detail. So the map shows us that today's US Southwest was once part of the
Spanish Empire and eventually part of Mexico, which includes the Grand
Canyon, uh, the illustrations at a company. This map reflect now long
tradition of representing indigenous America's into just Americans and
indicate a codified visual language entrenched in the European colonial
project in the Americas. The colorful scene represents romanticised images
of Mesoamerica and its indigenous communities throughout North and Central
America. Elaborately, Lester of border work show cultural, natural trade
related items associated distinctly with the Americas. In the background,
a train runs through dramatic mountain scenery, which alludes to the
civilising agents of modernity and technology that Europe offers the
Americas. On the left, three men who occupied diverse ranks of society
stand together. At the bottom centre of the sheet. A female figure
reclines surrounded by food and animals. The abundance of fruits and
vegetables suggest the abundance of resource is Europeans only dreamed of
as a set sail in the sixteenth century and had become dependent on by the
nineteenth century. Her placement marks her as the focal point of the
sheet and, more importantly, a key to reading the whole scene. The one
shoulder togas she wears continues the European preference for classes
sizing indigenous people. Her exposed breasts reveals the European
attitude towards the Americas in the sense of the new land for fertile,
making them desirable, inviting and, as a consequence, plundered without
consent. Progress also symbolizes a lack of modesty, which Europeans
associate with barbarism like that of a shirtless male counterparts. The
alignment of the female figure with the dog further suggests a lack of
reason due to assumed animalistic tendencies. Furthermore, her an activity
as she lounges. I'm sorry not only conveys laziness or lack of development
, but also alludes to a sexually charged availability. These types of
visual depictions perpetuate invented misunderstandings about indigenous
Americans and recirculate xenophobic representations of otherness through
print material that further distorts just figures and destroys. Although I
do not have the luxury of unpacking the extensive history of Colonial
graphic illustrations here, I bring in this example to introduce you to
this press practice of uttering indigenous communities through image for
the purpose of colonialism, often packaged as progress, modernism and
manifest destiny.
Again. Here is just a detail of the map.
I'd like to return Teo and Lopate myself a historian and looking at this
quote by hop bomb on Ranger. And it guides me in my approach to image and
in my discussions of a significance of images, uh, and it reads history
that becomes the fund of knowledge or ideology of nation state. Our
movement is not what we has is not what has actually been preserved and
popular memory. But what has been selected, written, pictured popular eyes
and institutionalised by those whose function it is to do so. All
historians, whatever their objectives, are engaged in this process,
inasmuch as they contribute consciously or not, to the creation,
dismantling and restructuring of images of the past which belong to the
public sphere of man as a political being.
And I bring this image to you as an even earlier example, right from the
sixteenth century of what I just showed you from the nineteenth century.
The first image. And so I go off the off the written text here to start
just trying to address the numerous points that I would like to talk to
you about before my time runs out. But the image I so to you was produced
three hundred years after this image. So the point of this perpetuation of
a codified language that is informing how indigenous people are
represented and the ideologies that they communicate about them. Hopefully
it's evident to you in the span of three hundred years, and I would argue
this visual language and forms the representation of indigenous peoples
beyond and through today. Right, so that these ideas of, for instance, you
can see in the middle of the two figures, possibly you can tell there is a
scene of some barbecuing going on, and there happens to be a leg or two
cooking suggesting cannibalism. And this is not the only practice we see
of this type of visual imagery. Here's another sixteenth century image
where you can see the hanging tree. And to your right, you can see the
table where the leg is being cut up and somebody ni ng on an arm. Hey, so
you know the these images I bring to you Because they are what informs the
representation of indigenous communities during the colonial project of
the US even because they fulfill the same purpose, which is to legitimate
right westward expansion
on some, some essential questions that come up for me as I was preparing
for this talk and in terms of trying to figure out what images to talk
about, um, our how did the Grand Canyon bestow a sense of national
identity? How was the grand can? How is the Grand Canyon been used by the
United States to express values and beliefs over time? How has the Grand
Canyon contributed to US culture? And how does the Grand Canyon evoke US
culture? And within these questions, I'm asking myself where indigenous
Americans
Ah, and I bring this map, which is very difficult to read but important
map it er is producing eighteen fifty for it relates to the efforts. After
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which was based on faulty maps, the
district yell Map write us was using the twelfth edition. Mexico was using
the seventh edition. They're trying to establish a new boundary between
the United States and Mexico after the Mexican US war and because of the
faulty nature of the map. Unfortunately, most of the maps in the same
borough collection are faulty, and we can talk more about that. But, uh,
the point is that they had to go back and they had to walk. What is today
? The boundary? The US Mexico boundary. And it took a number of years, and
they were both U. S and Mexico officials involved. And many times. And
we're talking about the production of maps, and we're talking about the
Grand Canyon expeditions and the Explorers. We're talking about national
projects, We're talking about national agents. And so therefore we're
talking about national history. So this matters, it matters what we're
including, what we're not including. It matters what we're saying what
we're not saying on maps and atlases with image with text. This is our
history, and in this map in particular, I'm trying to point pinpoint,
there's text and I think you can see.
Really what it says is the region's uninhabited Faron open for development.
Yet we know fourteen tribes have been in constant and continuous
existence in Arizona. Where did they go? Or were they simply discounted,
erased through omission? And this is a significant This is a national
document. This map was produced through a national project, and so we talk
about the revision of history. It's not something we're doing today. It's
something that's happened. Historically, we've heard the phrase history is
written by the victors, so we have to understand the history is more
complex than what we are taught and K through twelve education.
But I asked myself, How do we teach ourselves history, especially for
talking about Arizona history, and that's our focus here is well on DH. I
have spent much time investigating on actually have a side project where I
actually did a grant funded a similarly I R. Grant funded project, where I
pulled out the history of Mexican descent communities in terms of their
contributions to development of Arizona, which has been written out of
history. If you go to state Web sites such as the one I'm bringing up to
you here, this is how we're telling Arizona history. This is how
indigenous communities air represented and or not on DH. Here you have the
twelfth century reference to indigenous peoples, and it isn't until we get
down to eighteen eighty six with Geronimo who were killing that we
mentioned them again. And so what type of history are we teaching our
children? Ah, and my point is just that it is lacking diversity and
lacking the the indigenous communities and their contributions,
you can go to numerous site. The state official site that tells the
history of Arizona begins with statehood begins with statehood, as if
nothing of relevance happened before. And I do remember hearing a few
folks of the earlier today talk about Yes. There were indigenous peoples
in the canyons on, and they were also likely mapping. And yet are we
talking about that? How we included that,
uh, when we talk about the Grand Canyon pioneers again, this is history.
If you know, And a lot of this you khun lot of this, I pull up straight
from the Internet, and I used the Internet as the contemporary archive for
the people. This is what people do when they want to learn about something.
When they want to know about something, they go to the Internet. And so
this is the history that they're being told in terms of the Grand Canyon.
Uh, but we have to remember, right. This is just a brief list of the
communities indigenous communities that are associated with the Grand
Canyon on the Grand Canyon Web page does do an effort to represent these
groups. Uh, but again, is it indigenous communities talking for themselves
, or are we talking for them on? We have to be considerate of stereotypes
, right? When we're thinking about history and representation There are
stereotypes that have been constructed, and the first images that I
brought to you are related to the nature of stereotypes such as the noble
savage or the Vanishing Indian. And the Vanishing Indian really gets
solidified in the eighteen thirties with the Indian Removal Act right. And
so policy, ideology, imagery or all leaked in the telling of history in
the telling of the role of indigenous peoples. Uh, and you know, I could
go on much more depth about thie stereotypes and how problematic they are
and how much of them might be inventions.
But due to lack of time, I cannot. I also wanted to look at what what
happened at the time of the establishment of the Grand Canyon, and so was
looking at Roosevelt's statement. Who says to the good Indians here, I
want to say a word of welcome as if they weren't here before
but I appreciate that the National Park Service is talking about the
national parks telling the story of the Americas, and that's what I'm here
to also reiterate. But the point being is that indigenous peoples have
been left out and or when they're included, often in very derogatory
manners. I know someone's going to be talking about the PAL expedition.
None of that would have happened without the indigenous communities
helping and working with him. And yet when we look at the representation
of these great explorers such as Ives, it's either a study of the
indigenous communities or heroic representation of exploration alone,
without them right there, there, there, there to study and observe. But
they're never part of the historical record that we value in terms of the
establishment of the canyon and exploration and the survival that all of
that would not have happened without indigenous presence guides,
informants and just looking at an image like this. When you look at Ives
work, he does this type of specimen representation scientific right, where
the indigenous person is completely devoid of a background of place, as if
they don't really even belong to the canyon. And yet when you see images
of IVs or the Kohl brothers or Powell in the canyon there on the river,
there's landscape all around, their very much entrenched in the space. And
so I would ask you, What do you think it means to remove the indigenous
communities from that space, both literally, metaphorically, visually.
And I could just quickly show you a number of representations.
And what I will ask you is, where are the indigenous peoples in these
images? Right? And and I I would love to get into more of it. We do have
one example at the Tower house that you probably see where you have
indigenous people making art, so it's not that they're not there. It's not
that they're not producing their own material culture. Sometimes it's in a
type of zoo or entertainment like style, which we could also talk about
what that perpetuates in terms of stereotypes and oppression. Um, but what
I'm going to do here is just leave you, lastly, with this image.
Which kind of encapsulate SW what I'm talking about. Our history typically
described the discovery and colonisation of the Americas through the lens
of European and American explorers such as Christopher Columbus and John
Wesley Powell. And, um, it's the experience of the indigenous people of
the continent. Look what I have discovered. A cartoon from two thousand
for by Eric Garcia presents an alternative perspective to this narrative
In his image here, the artist flips the role of assume relational power
between discovers and discovered conquerors and conquered. And I would add
explorers. This version or counter memory revises, reframes and refocuses
this story by viewing the experience of the lens of the indigenous
communities of the Americas who are otherwise not typically acknowledges
active agents in history.
Eric Garcia as I D'oh sets out to counter false histories, extreme
viewpoints and stereotypes by restructuring images as visual text that
critiques the system that generates these positions and provides a more
inclusive understanding of who we are. Thank you.
Okay. I finished early. They were flashing five minutes twice.
I got a couple extra minutes yet. Any questions for Theresa?
Test test.
Um, you know anything about how indigenous Peoples did what we call
mapping.
You give us some thoughts or something, points of interest. I've read a
little bit, but only just a little. And it's definitely not with the
Europeans did. I have really struggled finding materials. I mean, this is
a much bigger project. I'm really excited about researching and really
getting to archive and original sites, right. Hopefully at the Grand
Canyon, they have their own collections and perhaps even there we'll find
something. But what I can refer to is mess American mapping traditions,
which is very different, because when we talk about Western representation
versus indigenous, we are talking about completely different ways of
knowing and being and representing, and so you will often have more
abstract representations.
References to places you know, through simple elements such as, you know,
mounds. We do have a sense of the stories and traditions, right? Oral
history. And I believe a lot of that mapping right is through oral history
, the passing down of history and information, which is a very long
tradition within indigenous communities. But there's also pave paintings
and cave drawings and things of that nature petro cliffs. And so I think
we can start to see a very symbolic approach to visualization, right? How
do we visualize our ideas? I think it's really what we're talking about,
and they would be doing it more symbolically and through metaphor,
yes.
Not particularly now. Would you like to share something about it?
The Zuni mapping project he was asking about.
Zoonie artists have put together a collection of paintings that are
metaphorical representation of the tradition. And we didn't exhibition of
that work with Northern Arizona. Uh, three years. I'll be good to see you.
Yes, yes. Um, so can you hear me? OK, as someone who has been very
interested in pre Columbian, especially colonial history for a while,
obviously, there's stuff like the black legend. And I was curious as you
were talking about the portrayal of amour Indians in the sixteenth and
seventeenth century maps. Do you see similar attitude or or a similar
attempt to paint them in a corner? Do you see that? Applied by your bio
the Anglo Americans to the Spanish and then eventually Hispanics as well?
Later on, when they're becomes more interaction with them. Thank you. Um,
I do see right. A relationship with contemporary practices. Ideologies on
DH, all the way leading back to representations in atlases and these early
images. And so I can no in relation to these kind of colonial power
structure dynamics. Then we can also, in terms of a contemporary impact,
we can talk about the lynching of Mexicans, right? When the U. S Mexico
border did shift and people being feeling threatened by loss of of Landon
Nation that actually belong to the people that were being lynched. So a
misunderstanding of even place or history even then, at the moment, right
, even though they were there and saw the border shift. Suddenly the idea
of place and belonging shifted to on. So that goes hand in hand with the
Colonial project with mapping and claiming way claim it. We own it. It's
ours, right? And so we can also like innit? Two statements were hearing
today about immigrants being violence, lazy, right, thes same images of
cannibalism come up. These are not new ideas, they're entrenched and and
we don't even understand how deep they run. But it's because it's been
very much a part of our history, our history. It's all of our history on
DH. I feel that the more we understand, perhaps the better we can operate
and perhaps diversify and just create a more holistic, diverse, realistic
representation of what history is inclusive of all those that participated
and I actually bring to you The John Wesley Map. John Wesley Powell map is
a very significant map. It's in this and the Simon bro map collection, um
, and its relation to what you were saying, right, the Zoonie mappers
trying to today contemporary eyes and kind of reach back and talk to
mapping. Today there's a website dedicated to this map by indigenous
people who threw scholarship through research, underlined why this is so
problematic
not to undermine the next talk that's coming up with about Powell. But
this map in particular, I think, makes very clear. One of things I didn't
get to say is, you know, most of the maps that are produced around about
the New world there. Photographers had never seen the Americas, had never
been to the Americas. There was a lot of estimation, if not invention and
what that could be also said of this map. How in the nineteenth century
was this individual able to do such a study that he could lay, claim to
understand and know all the language groups right across the country in
the nineteenth century? Ask yourself, Would we accept that type of a study
today? I don't think we would. And yet this becomes palace and a
significant national figure, right in terms of ethnographic study and
language study. He's still relevant today. Too many students, and yet
we're about were the foundation of this practice is on faulty maps.
One more. Thank you. No, we'll take one more.
This is a comment rather than a question. But there are many
Indian tribes that consider themselves having arrived at this level on
earth, having come from levels below what we consider the surface. There
are three tribes that considered the Grand Canyon the source of their
arrival the Hopi, Zoonie and the wallop I, who currently actually lived in
the Grand Canyon.
And I would suggest in this much as they consider this holy ground a
sacred place, that we consider that when when we determine what is enough
of bear's ears or the size of the Grand Canyon or other such places
considered sacred, holy Special
by other people when we determine what we're thinking about doing to them
this place.