“Isleta Girl with food stuffs”
The photo on the left was made about 1890 by Charles F. Lummis. The image on the right was painted from the photo and is an outdoor mural in the veranda of El Alisal, the Lummis home and historic site in Northeast Los Angeles. The fact that the photo was selected to be a mural at his home suggests that the photo had a special meaning for Lummis. Could it be that the girl was one of 15 Los Cautivos, or Captives that Lummis helped free from the Albuquerque Indian Boarding School?
This story is a result of the research for the documentary film Los Cautivos: The First Battle Over Native American Education, which is in development.
Charles Lummis was a well-known author, journalist, anthropologist and magazine publisher active during the end of the 19th Century. During the 1890’s he lived at the Indian Pueblo of Isleta in New Mexico Territory. At that time the Federal Government embarked upon a policy of mandatory Indian Education, forcing Native children to be schooled in the white man’s ways. The goal was to eliminate Native culture in one generation. As Commissioner of Indian Affairs wrote in his 1890 Report, “The American Indian is to become the Indian American.[1]” Eliminating the need for tribal lands, allotments or adherence to treaties obligations.
America’s perception of Native people could be summed up by the terms the Commissioner of Indian Affairs frequently used to describe them, “heathen, savage, uncivilized.” Mark Twain’s depiction of Injun Joe in his classic Tom Sawyer was a characterization deeply embedded in the Nation’s psyche.
Living with the Pueblos, Lummis saw first hand the suffering of his friends who lost all contact with their children for years on end. He opposed the forced education of children and at the request of the Pueblo Council acted on their behalf on a number of occasions. Many of his articles for popular eastern magazines and newspapers dealt with Native people and culture. One of his goals as a writer, was to counter the bigoted misperception easterners had of Native Americans, especially the Pueblos.
Like Lummis’s articles, was the photograph above used to challenge the common perception of Indians? In the photo, a young woman stands at a doorway next to what maybe described as a granary. In the 1890s, about 45% of Americans were farmers[2]. Idealized images of country girls were popular images for artists and illustrators. Lummis’s choice of subject would be a familiar motif. The corn in the photo tells the viewer that the Pueblos are sedentary, not nomadic. The building in the background conveys the same message. The adobe building may not be a wooden or a brick structure common in the east, but it is solid and not temporary. The girl herself is pretty, calmly contemplating her corn and is modestly dressed. Her moccasins and blanket maybe unusual, but not so different from the folk dress of European immigrants. The young woman is far from being a wild and “uncivilized heathen.”
During the 1890’s the Albuquerque Indian Boarding School held 15 children from Isleta for three years without any contact with tribe or family. These children were called Los Cautivos, or The Captives. The Pueblo resisted this policy and in 1890 first enlisted Lummis to personally intervene with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Thomas Jefferson Morgan. Morgan was touring the Pueblos of New Mexico and the Pueblo gambled that a personal contact would help their cause. This was an interesting strategy on the part of the Indians. The Wounded Knee Massacre happened in 1890, and Hopi Indians were being thrown in jail for refusing to send their children to the government schools. Perhaps the Pueblo of Isleta wished to avoid government reprisal for their resistance. Or, maybe they felt a well-known white man could get more serious consideration than an Indian.
In 1892, after three years of struggling to get access to their children, the Pueblo again asked Lummis for help. At the request of the Pueblo, Lummis filed a lawsuit against the Albuquerque Indian Boarding School for the return of Los Cautivos. Lummis wisely pointed out that under the Treaty of Guadalupe that ceded the Southwest to the United States, the Pueblos of the Rio Grande were promised US citizenship. Fearing a precedent setting case, the government settled out of court and the 15 children were returned to their families. Was this girl one of the 15 Los Cautivos, or Captives as they were called?
At the end of the 19th Century, Lummis moved back to California, and built a house in Northeast Los Angeles. His home, now a state historic site, was named El Alisal for the large sycamore tree than was in the patio. Around this spreading tree, Lummis hosted many parties or “noises.” The ‘noises’ were frequented by the social, political and artistic elite of the day, and were the closest thing to an art salon in Southern California. Trips by eastern tourists to Los Angeles were considered incomplete if it did not include an invitation to one of Lummis’s “noises.” Western artists who attended included the likes of Fredric Remington, Charlie Russell, Carl Oscar Borg, Ed Borien and Maynard Dixon. Did one of these famous artists paint this mural? Did a number of them work on it together? Comparing the El Alisal guest book with Lummis’s diaries might provide answers.
Lummis was also a photographer who took hundreds of photographs of the people of the Southwest. What led him to choose this photograph to be recreated as a mural? Could it be that the girl was one of the 15 Los Cautivos Lummis helped rescue from the Albuquerque Indian Boarding School? I hope to discover the answer as I continue research for the documentary Los Cautivos: The First Battle Over Native American Education.
For more information on Los Cautivos you can go to:
www.loscautivosmovie.com
or follow us on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/CaptivesofIsletaPueblo
[1] Thomas Jefferson Morgan, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1890. Page VI.