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Auden Granger

18 February 2016

Professor Frank Kelderman

Global Indigenous Literature

The Construction of the Touring Show in Maungwudaus’ “Account of the Chippewa Indians

Who Have Been Traveling Among the Whites”

“Hiram,” disability and queer theory writer Eli Clare rhetorically asks a faded image of a

freak show performer, “did you ever stop mid-performance, stop up there on your dime museum

platform and stare back,... gawking at the gawkers, entertained by your own audience?” (97).

While Clare can only guess at Hiram Davis’ stare, Maungwudaus shamelessly returns the

normativized anthropological gaze of European spectators in his pamphlet “Account of the

Chippewa Indians Who Have Been Traveling Among the Whites.” Like the freak show Clare

describes in “Freaks and Queers,” Maungwudaus’ tour relies upon and plays into cultural

stereotypes, but in many ways it also subverts those stereotypes, utilizing the position created by

the touring show to create political connections and circulate a self-determined narrative.

The success of the travelling tour relies upon racist constructions of Native people as an

exotified “other.” In relying upon cultural stereotypes, tours like this one reinforce narratives that

portray Native people as “noble savages” and anthropological curiosities. In constructing an

“other,” they also reinforce and build an understanding of the self, often unexamined because

assumed to be the norm. The suggestion that Ojibwe cultural traditions, practices, clothes,

beliefs, behaviors, and art are nothing more than spectacle is accompanied by a ghost image- one

that suggests that as a result, European traditions and practices are not only unspectacular, but

natural, civilized, and beyond reproach or examination.

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However, Maungwudaus’ account also creates an image of “gawk[ing] at the gawkers.”

He uses emotionless, anthropological phrases in description of his experiences in Europe,

phrases undoubtedly similar to those used to describe Ojibwe culture and people. He also uses

descriptions pulled directly from his experiences rather than European norms. For instance, he

describes the Queen’s guards as looking “fierce and savage like our American dogs when

carrying black squirrels in their mouths” because of their beards (4), and the manner of holding

silverware employed by British women as leaving the last two fingers “sticking out like our fish-

spears” (5). Maungwudaus even phrases his account in the style of a first journey into a strange

land, subverting the European genre of exploration into European-unknown but Native-occupied

territory. It is also notable that his descriptions of European behavior and appearance is based

almost entirely in comparison to animals, as in the case of the Queen’s guards as well as English

officers with “the voice of a bull-frog” (5) and English ladies who eat “like ravens when feasting

on venison” (5). This dehumanizing, anthropological description, along with the other tools

Maungwudaus employs, challenge the idea that European traditions and methods are

unequivocal and returns the gaze of European audiences.

Maungwudaus also used the positions afforded to him by the context of a European

touring show to connect with various European political figures. His status as a Christian person

and his use of English language, grammar, and social behavior put him in a position of

believability and authority for European audiences. This is emphasized by Maungwudaus’

inclusion of the testimony of George Catlin, which focuses on Maungwudaus and his sons’

Christian values, such as sobriety, “perfectly complaisant and respectful [conduct],” and good

disposition (12). It is also emphasized by the address given by Joseph John Gurney, which

emphasizes the role of Christianity in Ojibwe lives and the Ojibwe future that lies in Christianity.

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He states to Maungwudaus his belief that “[the Bible] will be soon translated into your language,

that you may be able to read it and teach it to your children” (13). The position achievable

through European tour and interaction with European political figures as well as through an

embrace of certain European- primarily Christian- traditions enabled Maungwudaus to advocate

for the needs of the Ojibwe people at the time.

Maungwudaus’ “Account of the Chippewa Indians Who Have Been Traveling Among

the Whites” is in many ways an example of self-determination of ideas in a manner within the

concept of rhetorical sovereignty. He uses the resources and positions available to him, and

develops a position of authority for European audiences. However, even though Maungwudaus’

narrative is autobiographical, it is still determined in many ways by its audience, as it is framed

in a manner that allows it to be consumed by a European audience content primarily with

exotification and the cultural stereotypes of indigeneity.