Fast Cash

EvilGentleman: 22nd Aug 2006 - 14:04 GMT

So that's where the statue of grandpa wound up...

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 22nd Aug 2006 - 14:29 GMT

EvilG: I've got an ethics question. I was just in Denver and I bought a silver ring from a nice native lady who was working in (owned?) a store which carried tons of native american art. So, was I supporting the People or taking advantage of their cheap labor? Also, last year we were staying at a hotel close to the Grand Canyon. At night, a group of dancers and musicians came to entertain the guests during dinner. I found it fascinating and beautiful and was grateful to have seen it. My husband was horrified. He likened it to Jewish children being made to dance for nazis. What do you think?

EvilGentleman: 22nd Aug 2006 - 16:24 GMT

The art, if authentic, should be supported by buying it. I personally feel the best way to buy native art is to go to an Indian reservation and buy it directly from the artist, wherever possible. This way, the middleman is removed, so the artist can ask much more than what he would get from an art dealer, yet you will still pay less than what you would pay in a store. I have seen small (less than a kilogram) Inuit carvings that were sold to the community co-op in Coral Harbour, Nunavut for $50, and when I later go visit an art gallery in Winnipeg, the exact same carving now has a $400 or $500 price tag on it.

Then again, most musicians only get about a dollar or so from the sale a CD that costs less than two dollars to produce, even with a 16-page insert. The rest of the 15 to 20 dollars is going elsewhere, so it would seem logical to not buy the CD, so as to prevent the exploitation of the musician, but if you do that, the musician gets nothing.

As far as art and music go, I would imagine the internet will eventually replace the middlemen and dealers, and the market will become a lot more fair, although fraud will probably also become more common.

As to the dinner shows of native performing arts, I would point out that the Jewish children who had to dance for the Nazis were not getting paid, but the native performers you saw were doing their jobs. They probably have ISP, phone, electrical and grocery bills to handle, same as you.

Depending on the type of place you were in, the experience could have been seen as a rare opportunity to have a cultural experience with native performers, wherein you can appreciate the beauty of the dances and feel the music in your soul, or perhaps what you saw was tacky tourist trap kitsch that was demeaning to the workers. You can usually tell if it is demeaning by looking into the eyes of the performers. If their eyes seemed to be smiling genuine smiles, then embrace the memories. If they seemed to be just smiling for appearances, then they may have felt the job was demeaning. But then again, they may just find the job boring, or they may have been worried about the argument they had with their spouse that morning, or which resort in Jamaica should they vacation at, or why their little sister has moved to Flagstaff and won't call home, or any of a million other things that keep human brains busy.

My hometown had a cheesy tourist trap that had been running since the 1930's, where the native dancers appear in the clothing and headdresses of the plains Sioux, even though this is as far removed from Mohawk culture as bagpipes are from Bosnian culture. And this attraction was native-owned, but the owners knew that if they did not dress the performers like Sioux, the customers would complain that things were not "Indian" enough. I have a picture of my great-uncle in a Sioux chieftan's outfit, from back when he worked there as a young man. Jobs were scarce in those days, and he was proud to have an honest paying job. Truth be told, we always found it to be hilarious how tourists would spend money to see this, but the laws of supply and demand tell us that someone will wind up making money off of this, so why not us? The place shut down for a few years, and then re-opened a few years ago. I have no clue if the shows are more historically accurate or not now.

My great-great-grandfather was a medicine man who spent much of the late 1800's travelling by train throughout New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania selling Indian medicines to the white man. He used the money he made to build the house that is our family home today.

For a true experience of exploitation and a guilt trip, see the remarks I made here at www.citynoise.org/article/3443#26590, regarding my experiences in Tijuana, Mexico.

Peter: 22nd Aug 2006 - 16:29 GMT

eg: i like it when you comment, at length and with eloquence, on topics such as this. i dont think it could have been better said.

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 22nd Aug 2006 - 16:58 GMT

Thank you Evil G for your insight. I would love to visit a reservation and meet the artists who make the art. I make jewelry and paint pottery and I like to see the people who are taking home the sweat of my brow (and I like to take their money to pay my cable bill so I can make jewelry in front of the TV). So not much difference there, I think.

I think that the problem with the dancing at the hotel was that it was during dinner. We found it demeaning to the dancers, to have us poking elk in our faces and chewing while they danced their intricate and meaningful steps (pass the ketchup). Other entertainment included cowboy poets, which I missed, alas.

I wonder what was in our great-great-grandfathers medicine? By the way, my great-great-grandmother was a Romany gypsy and the first of her family to live in a house.

EvilGentleman: 22nd Aug 2006 - 18:21 GMT

Thank you, Peter and Catherine, for your kind words. Me try-um me best to speak-um good words for big understand-um of our way. ;-)

Catherine, do not feel as though you have demeaned the spirit world by eating while the dances were being performed, since dances done for show are just entertainment, nothing more. I am quite sure that when the dancers wish to do a truly spiritual and meaningful dance, they can find a place for their dance that is more spiritual than indoors in a hotel dining room.