A Canadian Family

Caughnawaga Entertainers – The “Wild West”, Vaudeville And Hollywood Years

There’s a great book  at the Chateauguay Library called “Kahnawake: A Mohawk look at Canada“  by Johnny Beauvais (ISBN 0-1234-567-8, 1985) which gives much insight into how the significance of the Chief Poking Fire Museum in Caughnawaga, and the place of Kahnawake in the entertainment industry (among many other subjects).

In his  “Show Biz” chapter, Beauvais explains that as the Fur Trade declined in the mid-19th century many natives of Caughnawaga began to earn income by sharing some of their Iroquois traditions such as  handicrafts, lacrosse, dance and music. Beginning in the early 1880s with the wildly popular Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show, the European and American public were entranced with the American Wild West and – of course – Wild West Indians.

On a personal note I have a family memory about that. My husband is Italian and grew up  in Milan in the 40s/50s.  During his childhood, his Italian nonno would often regale him with stories about having seen the Buffalo Bill Cody Show and “real live indians”. He was very proud of having seen them in the flesh. When Italian children pictured Canada, they picture red-coated mounties, Eskimos and igloos and the type of indians that they had seen in the Cody’s shows.

Returning to the main topic, it’s important to note that although Caughnawaga had a truly rich indigenous culture to share, the entertainers soon realized that what the paying  public wanted was their image of the Indian, which was actually the culture of the Sioux, so Mohawk natives had to set aside their own traditions. This is why many pictures of the time – and the look of the Chief Poking Fire Museum – do not accurately reflect Iroquois culture. It was a commercial decision and not some ignorance of their own culture. Read more »

March 6, 2011 Posted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault | . | Caughnawaga, Indians, Iroquois, Kahnawake, Mohawk, sideshows | Leave a Comment