Jessica Crabtree

From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

“Whether the noble Indian is shedding a tear for a 1960s’ environmental public service commercial or being saved by the great white hope Captain John Smith in the recent Disney movie Pocahontas, hints of self-pity and romanticism continue to haunt American Indians in film. While Hollywood no longer portrays American Indians as painted and uncivilized savages, waving tomahawks and scalping the innocent European settlers, contemporary movies maintain the stoic `Indian’ image smothered with sentimentality…”

Read the entire article from Cultural Survival

Booming Out: Mohawk Ironworkers Build New York – Smithsonian Exhibition surveys six generations of Mohawk men and women who helped build New York City

The documentary To Brooklyn and Back tells the little-known stories of the artisans who played an important role in developing the infrastructure of the world’s most famous skyline. Hundreds of Mohawks left the reservations beginning in the early 1900s looking for work in the growing metropolis; taking a leap in the dark, some came with their families, establishing neighborhoods that still bear their name. Kahnawake Mohawk filmmaker Reaghan Tarbell traces her own family history in one of these communities.

PBS Documentary “To Brooklyn and Back: A Mohawk Journey”

Indian Country Today: Documentary Traces Brooklyn’s Mohawk Ironworkers

Image: Katja Esson – Skydancer

Skydancer: A Film by Katja Esson

Beginning with the St. Lawrence Bridge near the Canada border, built in the 1880s, Mohawk emigres first established a reputation in construction. As more Kahnawake crews joined the burgeoning steelworking industry, employers were impressed with their determined work ethic and remarkable coordination and balance – and they quickly became renowned as some of the country’s finest metal builders. The Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the World Trade Centers, and even the San Francisco State Bridge are all on the impressive list of projects to which they have contributed substantial effort.

The Straight Dope: Why do so many Native Americans work on skyscrapers”

Today, metalworking and construction are almost a family business among Mohawks – they work all over the nation wherever skyscrapers and steel frames go up; many still live in the New York boroughs where their ancestors first “boomed out.”

David Noble: The Mohawk Ironworker Series

From Language Among the Skywalkers by Mushkeg Media

One of my favorite horse portraits. From Wallcoo.net

If you liked this page on Le Brun’s Expressions, then you will probably be interested in the caricature studies of French painter and draftsman Louis-Leopold Boilly.

“Thirty-six Faces of Expression”

Image: World Historical Comics

You can see the color version here, but personally I prefer the black and white reproduction (I believe the print was made by Dore, aptly enough). ArtMight.com: 36 Expressions

Boilly (1761-1845) was rough contemporary of Jacques-Louis David. He was a gifted portraitist and a specialist in genre painting of the French bourgeoisie.

“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” – Ansel Adams

The first time I saw a glimpse of Disney-Touchstone’s 2004 Hidalgo, the thing that stopped me in my tracks was the gorgeous paint pony that gives the film its name. Since I’m hard to displease with a movie about horses – and since, as I later learned, the film has a strong Native theme – I made it a point to see the whole thing.

Hidalgo is a quasi-historical production about Frank Hopkins, a Wild West rider who takes his mustang on a treacherous race through the Arabian desert. At face value, it’s fun and attractive and more of a family flick than a plausible historical epic. But once you’ve seen it (and the epilogue explaining that the whole thing was a true story) your first thought is to find out more about this amazing guy who used his outstanding feats on horseback as a catalyst for one of the greatest efforts of wild mustang preservation.

Aside from the mustang outreach, the film’s other attraction was its roots in Plains Indian culture. Hopkins isn’t just a cowboy; he’s a born-and raised Lakota struggling to come to terms with his mixed white heritage, serving as an army scout and finding himself involved in the fateful events at Wounded Knee. By movie’s end he is able to reconcile his purpose in life by embracing his Indian heritage and working to preserve the horse lifestyle.

It’s obvious to any objective viewer that the story line is a little far-fetched, slightly on the feel-good side of reality. The reinvented cowboy figure sanctified by his Indian heritage, making it more politically correct for a modern audience; damsels in distress (an Arabian princess, no less); a journey of self-discovery and redemption, and the impossible victory of the underdog in a typical Disney-ish fashion.

Add to this the faux pas of having a half-Lakota portrayed by a blond Nordic (you probably already know my feelings about Indians played by non-Indians), and some really deplorable geography (Damascus is nowhere near the sea, and a 3,000 mile race would take a rider far out of the range of the film’s setting). But that’s my more abrasive approach. You’d really have to see it to get that it really works. It’s good in a genuine, almost-but-not-really-believable sort of way.

The Hopkins Controversy

But back to my investigation. Unbeknownst to me, the movie had already stirred up a long-standing, long-winded debate about this marvelous legend of a man, Frank Hopkins. “Camp A” lauded Hopkins’s accomplishments as a champion endurance racer, and his landmark efforts of preserving the mustang and traditional Lakota knowledge of horsemanship. “Camp B” called him a hopeless huckster, and Hidalgo merely the cheap and devious sequel to his colossal fraud. Some of these even purport that he may never have ridden a horse in his life, and the whole legend was the pipe dream of a thwarted wannabe cowboy. Oddly enough, this time, the cry of stretched or embellished facts was not aimed directly at Hollywood.

I was interested in what first provoked such a vociferous debate. It seems that if Hopkins were half the man he was claimed to be – and did half the things he was claimed to have had accomplished – he should literally be the most famous man on earth. Excuse my ignorance but I had never heard of him before I saw the movie. Apparently, the historical record is none too familiar with him either. A quick read of his biography and you can easily sympathize with Hidalgo’s detractors:

“As well as spurring his mustang to victory in (to be exact) 452 endurance races around the globe, Frank Hopkins also has an impressive list of other achievements. He claimed to be the most famous dispatch rider in the West, an associate of Buffalo Bill Cody and one of the “cowboys” from the Congress of Rough Riders of the World performing in Buffalo Bill’s internationally famed Wild West Show. He says he was Chief Crazy Horse’s protégé, put on a two-hour equestrian performance before Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle and helped famed plainsman Buffalo Jones capture and tame the first buffalo.
 
Hopkins also said he served with the Pinkerton detective agency, was a secret agent of the US government during World War I, a guide in the Grand Canyon for big game hunters including novelist Zane Grey, and once charged up San Juan hill with Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. All this, of course, was in addition to mentoring Billy the Kid.”
 
“Hidalgo: A Film or Flimflam?” by Peter Harrigan, Arab News

Please give me a break. Either he suffered from borderline personality disorder, senility, or the world’s worst midlife crisis – or someone was seriously messing with this man’s memoirs.

I am not about to get embroiled in the convoluted debate over whether Hopkins was the world’s greatest endurance racer, or which episodes of his exploits are plausible and which are merely spin; there’s far too much literature on the subject for me to add more (and almost nothing about the man is not in question, starting with his date of birth!) But the material points here are 1) what’s the best evidence for and against the legend of Frank Hopkins, and 2) what to make of Hidalgo the movie?

Supporters vs. skeptics (continue reading…)

What do you get when you cross a deer, a rabbit, a kangaroo, and – well, something with a pair of long fangs?

This fantastic-sounding chimeric creature is a small mammal that most of us probably wouldn’t recognize: the musk deer. And you’d almost have to see it to believe that it really exists.

There are several species of musk deer in the Moschidae family, which used to be widely distributed in prehistoric times but today are found only in parts of Asia. Their name is a bit of a misnomer as they are not actually deer (who belong to the neighboring Cervidae family, and can be distinguished for instance by their horns). While these unusual animals may lack the jackalope’s signature antlers, their weird combination of features may make them the closest living thing to its mythical cousin.

Left: The taller Siberian musk deer.

Musk deer are shy herbivores who inhabit the remote woodlands of Asia’s high terrain. The males are highly valued for the potent scent they produce, a commodity that can bring enormous market value and has led to aggressive hunting and trapping, especially in China.

Interestingly, the musk deer resembles the oldest living species of deer, the Muntjac or “Barking Deer” of Eurasia. Muntjacs have small antlers in addition to tusk-like teeth. It is believed that these two species are remnants from a prehistoric population ancestral to both Moschids and Cervids.

So what of the infamous Jackalope?

Jackalopes – the cunning, antlered hare whose lore has been the bane of many a green tourist – is not just a specialty of the West. Similar “hybrid” creatures exist in the fables of countries around the world, most especially in Alpine regions. Like the winged Wolpertingers, Rasselbocks, and Skvaders of Germany and Scandinavia, they are an elusive but prized catch and a favorite folk spoof.

One peculiarity of jackalope lore is the tale that its milk is aphrodisiac. This is strangely reminiscent of the musk of its real-life counterpart, the musk deer, that has led to its near extinction.

I am not sure if there were any Moschids indigenous to America’s West in prehistoric times – or if the “jackalope” is merely an import of European settlers – but it is interesting to note the overlap of habitats between the musk deer, muntjacs and the jackalope’s Eurasian cousins. Could it possibly hint to a stored cultural memory of a time when strange, small bounding mammals with horns and tusks were not quite so scarce?

Ultimate Ungulate: Moschids (Musk Deer)

Wikipedia: Musk deer, Muntjac and Jackalope

Museum of Hoaxes: Jackalope

Images:
Wikimedia Commons
World Wildlife Foundation/HW Schuldei/Leipzig Zoo
BorealForest.org
BlueSkyBirds.co.uk “Mutjacs”