They sat, one by one, at the damp Florida outpost of Fort Marion, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in St. Augustine – occupying, in something of a cruel twist, the oldest European masonry fort on a continent that had previously been only theirs. It was the summer of 1877, and more than 70 chiefs and warriors – Arapaho, Comanche, Cheyenne, Kiowa – had been forced by the US government to abandon the vastness of their beloved Great Plains for the confines of a crumbling military installation on a coastline they never knew existed.
They were leaders-turned-prisoners, pawns in the US encroachment upon native land and the ‘civilization’ efforts of earnest officers. And they endured a further, rare indignity: they were fitted with tight caps over their heads, given only straws in their nostrils to breathe, then coated with plaster – the subjects of ‘life masks’ meant to advance ‘Indianology.’
Now, more than 140 years later, those life masks serve as a stark reminder of a dark time in American history. They’re no longer on display at the Smithsonian, as they once were; instead, they’re in storage both there and at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, which houses a duplicate collection. The masks evoke a range of emotion from those who view them, and such sensitive items beg the question: What, really, is best to do with them?
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
14 comments:
The old western movies use to say the only good "Injian" is a dead "Injian" and folks were OK with that. Now a football team named Redskins causes apoplectic convultions. In the mean time, they get their revenge on the white man at their casinos 😁
It is sad what the illegal immigrants did to the indians.
Use them to make Halloween masks?
it is sad, now that spellcheck is available everywhere 1:12 refuses to use it
3:31......ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS???
Are you stupid or just a liberal goof???
What LAWS did the settlers break? What border did they sneak across?
Look up "illegal" before you use it in a sentence.
Can you imagine how frightening a mask made from Nancy Polsi's face would be!
You missed the point there Sparky.
5:42 Because the indians did not build a wall, it was not their land? Why did the white illegal immigrants off to pay for parts of NYC if was not the indian's land? You are dumber than a tomato plant.
632
Thank you
Spot on
Ewwww!
A tomato plant knows the Indians themselves didn't believe the land belonged to them, or anyone. That concept was kind of foreign to them.
It was the white man who TOOK the land, in the same way territory was acquired everywhere during that time period. Right or wrong, that is history. (heck, the British tried to do it to US in 1812). A technologically and militarily superior culture invaded and destroyed. But, at the time, there were no laws against doing that (how could there be?), so "illegal" immigrants is a BS term. Invaders. Conquerors, for sure. But they were not "illegal" in any way. Applying today's morals and laws to events four hundred years ago is a liberal, and, of course, completely wrong method of interpreting/analyzing history.
Further, a tomato also knows that the Indians didn't actually understand what the white man was doing with those beads and what was going to happen. Because land "ownership" didn't mean anything to them.
I suppose they didn't teach any of that in your school, especially the ethical comparisons part, huh?
Thank you Imclain, for making that straight. I look forward to meeting you someday, as we seem to share like thoughts and morals.
Always good to read your input.
Thanks, Steve.
As Truman once said, and is one of my favorites quotes,
"I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's Hell."
Bury them in a national cemetary with honors.
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