Crafting an Indigenous Nation: Kiowa Expressive Culture in the Progressive Era by Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote (original) (raw)

After 1875, Kiowas in southwestern Oklahoma faced rapid culture change precipitated by the collapse of the Plains horse and buffalo culture, the influx of Indian Office personnel and missionaries who imposed assimilationist policies, the nefarious Jerome Commission and forced allotment, and attacks on dancing, ceremonies, and Native healers. In Crafting an Indigenous Nation, Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote examines her people's expressive culture-art, music, dance, and performance-to demonstrate how Kiowas navigated and shaped individual, intra-and intertribal identities during the Progressive Era and the early twentieth century. In the intertribal arena of fairs, powwows, and expositions, Kiowas formed a distinctive tribal identity observable in war dancing, beadwork, "Indian flat style" paintings, silverwork, and other mediums. Utilizing archival materials, anthropological field notes, and stories about her grandparents, Tone-Pah-Hote aptly describes Kiowa survival and assertion of tribal identity during this challenging era.