Family Inheritance - Indians from the Circus Sarrasani (1929!)

[syredronning]

The following scans were made from original photographs that were sold in Germany 1929 when real Sioux Indians were visiting Germany with the Circus Sarrasani and my grandfather saw them in Loerrach.

I tried to find more links in the net but these seem to be rather rare and I intend to add the pictures to Wiki entries about Sarrasani (though I'm not sure whether I could get into copyright troubles with them).

Preview:




My grandfather was a big fan of the USA and native Americans - like most Germans, thanks to Karl May and his awesome and completely invented Wild West stories. When he was prisoner of war in WWII and shipped around half the world and back, he'd totally have stayed in the US but my grandmother didn't want to emigrate (what a pity :)









One of the Indians signed one of the cards; the other was obviously written by my grandfather - ah, he was such a Wild West fan, I grew up on Wild West posters and art and Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp penny dreadfuls (I read 800 of them in 1980 *G* - addiction, your name is Syredronning...)



I'll send these postcards to eldritchhobbit who does real research and documentaries and writes books about Native Americans, especially Sioux, and I hope she'll make good use of them. I thought about keeping the one my grandfather signed (maybe maybe). OTOH, these cards almost got thrown away several times just in my lifetime, so it's a good thought they'd go "home" to people who do something with them instead of keeping them in a drawer.

This link here goes to a Karl-May-Event in 1928, but it's German with no great pictures:
http://karlmay.agerth.de/wiki/index.php/Indianerehrung_1928

Comments

[anruiukimi.livejournal.com]

Fantastic! These are wonderful resources. I find the whole evolution of Native American professions over the last hundred plus years (after the wars basically ended) very interesting. Fifty or so years of performers, now it seems that many of the tribes depend on casinos for income. It's quite a progression (one that eldritchhobbit can probably tell me all about in great detail, NA Studies was not my focus in uni.)

Thanks for scanning these!

[syredronning.livejournal.com]

You're welcome :))

[emiime.livejournal.com]

If they are from Pine Ridge, then they are Lakota (Oglala) Sioux. The Pine Ridge reservation is currently among the poorest parts of the US, with an unemployment rate of about 85%. Nearly 100% of the population there lives below the federal poverty line. Alcoholism and drug use and child mortality are rampant.

Sorry, I didn't mean to even go that far in my description of the lives of the ancestors of the people in your photos, but if you're interested in that, I've witnessed it first hand and can tell you a bit about it. A lot of the regal traditions are dying out. Even the language is dying out. Their history is really a very sad one.

[syredronning.livejournal.com]

Sad to hear that Pine Ridge is such a sad place to be (eldrichhobbit notes the same down in the comments), thanks for writing a bit about it.

I might get back to you with questions, but right now I don't have the focus on it. Thanks for the offer! :))

[stoplookingup.livejournal.com]

These are so cool! My father grew up in Berlin before the war and always told me what a craze the Karl May books were. The spectacle of real live native Americans must have drawn crowds.

[syredronning.livejournal.com]

I guess so. Germans are quite crazy about Karl May - at least I and almost all of my friends were. Not sure how the youngest generation rates here... it's a rather long-winded writing style at times (best to skip the scenery description and jump right to the adventure :)

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I'm still amazed by the history that links Loerrach and Pine Ridge! These pictures are a treasure. I'm so honored that you thought of me - but please, please do keep any that you want to keep (like the one your grandfather signed). It's an absolutely thrill for me to see them and have them to share with students/colleagues, but I don't want you to regret not having them. Since you mentioned him, Karl May has come up several times in my work. I love it that now I have a personal connection/story to assign to him, knowing his influence on your grandfather and you!

Speaking of the "Wild West," here's one of the pictures I recently took in Scenic, right before entering Pine Ridge (which is a terribly sad place):

[syredronning.livejournal.com]

I'll definitely send you most of them, just not sure about the one of my grandfather, yes. (Though this is also the only one with the date on it, which would be important for keeping them in context.)

Funny picture.

I'm quite unhappy to hear that Pine Ridge is such a sad place :/

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

It is. There was an excellent documentary made recently called Standing Silent Nation that captures some of this. I'm hoping ours (which is still in post-production) does the subject justice, as well.

Fortunately, things aren't quite so dire in other parts of Native America. Although by U.S. law Natives still have a separate and unequal status in many ways, yet some communities are managing to survive and do well -- and even find innovative new ways to harness 21st-century technology to promote the survival of their culture. For example, you can now access and take free online classes in the Cherokee language from anywhere in the world!

[illariy.livejournal.com]

In a circus?! OMG, what. That makes me rather sad to hear and I wonder about the motivations of the Indians, how voluntary their participation was and what they thought of those who came to look at them.

Very interesting family history, though. Cool that your grandfather was sort of fannish about the Wild West, too!

When he was prisoner of war in WWII and shipped around half the world and back, he'd totally have stayed in the US but my grandmother didn't want to emigrate (what a pity :)

Oh, what a fascinating RL AU! :D

[syredronning.livejournal.com]

From what I could find, it wasn't circus as in freak show, but more of "people from around the world" - considering the German fascination with Indians, I got the impression they had a good time here. (Even if it's strange by nowadays standards.)

RL AU, he, I never thought about it like that before!

[illariy.livejournal.com]

So, more emphasis on "travelling" rather than "circus"/"show"? IDK, it just pinges my buttons. Especially with what I've heard and seen of reactions to meeting indigenous people. And well, I wouldn't just want to know if they had a good time here but also what they thought of people here &ndash kind of like reverse zoo-gazing. ;-) The admittedly South American Indians I've heard talk on the subject had some quite interesting observations on European/German lifestyle.

Oh, you never did? Interesting! I've got some possibilities like that in my family history, too, and I always credited growing up like that with my AU fascination but it can't just be that if you didn't have that thought before now. ;-)