“Buffalo Dance” Statue Lewis & Clark Exposition, 1905 OrHi 28088

On the 1905 fair grounds, the most prominent presence of Native Americans was inanimate—the bronze statue of Sacagawea that would later stand in Portland’s Washington Park. The Indian exhibit in the Government Building, put together by the U.S. commissioner of Indian affairs, was largely devoted to the training programs at government-run schools like Chemawa in Salem and to products manufactured by students in manual arts classes such as the blacksmith work from Warm Springs or the buggy harness, tools, and wagon from Chemawa. “This is the first exhibition of Indian work made on the Pacific Coast where the general public have had the opportunity of examining the character of the training given people in the Government Indian schools,” said the official program.

A century had wrought a drastic change, transforming the everyday inhabitants of western Oregon into an exotic group of “others” and a “problem” whom the fair organizers treated as a topic of formal discussion at a Conference on Indian Affairs and a Pacific Coast Institute that brought together staff from the various Indian schools. The papers and discussion at the Institute concerned practical issues of school administration and curriculum. Portland housewives might have been happy to learn from the Institute that Indian girls could be trained as “neat and capable housekeepers” for upper-class families.

© Carl Abbott, 2004

Themes: People and the Environment,Social Relations,Arts,Place and Space

Regions: Portland Metropolitan Area

Date: 1905

Author: Carl Abbott

Summary:
The most prominent Native American presence at the Exposition was inanimate—the bronze statue of Sacagawea that would later stand in Portland’s Washington Park.