Part 1: Native America: Wounded Knee
Massacre, Oscar Howe (1960)
American Massacre
On December 29th, 1890, 150 American
Indians (Sioux) were killed during a massacre at ‘Wounded Knee’, Pine Ridge
Indian reservation, South Dakota. The Massacre was a result of the American
Government aiming to halt the Sioux ghost dance movement, in which was
practiced to ask the gods to rid the land of white man and create a new world.
A video, "The
Last of the Sioux" chronicles the history of the Sioux, and acts as a
microcosm for the horrifying effects of Westward Expansion.
Trager and
Howe: Depicting a Tragedy
Oscar Howe’s
painting (above) portrays the massacre in a deliberately gruesome and poignant
way. The image depicts the 7th Calvary slaughtering the Sioux. The Calvary
are depicted as having ‘the high ground’, which helps bolster Howe’s depiction
of the American Government as powerful, dominating and superior. The Sioux on
the other hand are represented as a tribe who cannot stand up against the
forceful Westward expansion, and so are portrayed as 'romantic victims' of manifest destiny, rather than 'reactionary savages' (Nittle).
Howe’s image can be seen to be influenced by
George Trager’s photograph of Wounded Knee (left), in which similarly shows a
pit of dead Sioux. Oscar Howe was an Indian himself, and depicted Native American
traditions ‘through a modern aesthetic style of painting’. The painting was
bought from Howe, and was given as a gift to President Eisenhower. It then
resided in the ‘Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home’, to
which it was removed for its graphic depictions.
Part
2: The American West: Chimney Rock, Colorado. James L. Amos/National Geographic
(1989)
American
Landscape:
James L. Amos captured this image in Colorado during 1989. The
image depicts the ‘Chimney Rock’ surrounded by Lightning and vast open plains.
The National Geographic webpage introduces the image:
‘Iconic Chimney Rock, also known as Jackson Butte after pioneering
photographer William Henry Jackson, stands alone as a horizontal lightning flash
splits the threatening sky.’
The term ‘threatening’ in this piece begins describe the
sublime in the image. As the photograph opens out, the land begins to reach for
the skies with the ‘Chimney Rock’ personifying the humans reaching out to God and the heavens. Furthermore the lightning could represent the power and/or wrath
of God in the West.
Example of
American Exceptionalism
The photograph, among others, features in the National Geographic’s:
‘Greatest Photographs of the American West: Capturing 125 Years of Majesty,
Spirit, and Adventure’. National Geographic, now a global non-profit
organisation, was originally founded in Washington D.C. This may lead one to
consider whether these images that capture American ‘Majesty, Spirit and
Adventure’ represent American power and dominance in terms of its
magnificent landscape, in an attempt to reinforce American exceptionalism.
Bibliography
Part 1:
History.com Staff, “Wounded Knee”, A+E Networks,
History.com,2009.
<http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/wounded-knee>
accessed 10 February 2017
=“Last of the Sioux” Video History.com =
http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/wounded-knee/videos/the-last-of-the-sioux
South Dakota State
University: Website for a university https://www.sdstate.edu/oscar-howe-biography
Zimny, Michael, “Oscar Howe's Wounded Knee Massacre, a
Rarely Seen Masterpiece”, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, South Dakota,
2015. <http://www.sdpb.org/blogs/arts-and-culture/oscar-howes-wounded-knee-massacre-a-rarely-seen-masterpiece/>
accessed 10 February 2017
Part 2:
National Geographic: website for the non-profit nature organisation
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/greatest-photos-from-the-american-west/
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