Wrapped in an Enigma

In all honesty, though the Wrapped in Tradition exhibit was fascinating and colorful, it was portrayed more as a history exhibit and was lacking in its assertions. That is not to say that I didn’t like the historical set-up; I found it fascinating. However, the statement that the blankets held designs to represent the people seemed a little far-fetched. In looking at the blankets I could see some sunsets, trees and mountains. Here and there were less stylistic images and more bold, such as the “Indian head” and hatchets, and even a loosely based representation of Frank Hopkins (the cowboy). The collector spoke of the people selecting designs for themselves and their tribe, similar to the way that plaids are connected to clans. However the idea was muddied and convoluted by the telling of blanket makers who labeled their wares as coming from certain tribes that they had no link to so that who really knows the truth of it now? There were basic shapes and flourishing designs, but I didn’t think it had anything to say about the people who wore them. I, in fact, believe that the collector missed the whole ironic idea of the blankets.

It is not the Native American who made the blanket, but the blanket that made the native American. The story told by the exhibit is that these people gave up their own hand-made and hunted hides in favor of the woven blankets that the invaders brought with them. The American industrialists them realized a great market for their wares and capitalized on the love of color that the native peoples had. It seems that this is the only aspect that the Native Americans were able to contribute to the design of the blankets. After that is was pure advertisement and marketing. Is it fair to say that Americans wear sneakers and therefore sneakers are an American style? Perhaps we wear them because that is what advertising tells us that we must do. Did we really design the Air-Jordan because it was a symbol of our lives? Certainty not. Really, in my opinion, the blanket manufacturers just made the blankets in whatever design pleased them and then convinced the natives that they needed them (of course they needed blackest but does it really have to be as gaudy as a peacock?). It seems to me that, in the end, the blankets came to define the native Americans. In having these things marketed especially to them and their need for the blankets caused them to take up an image that eventually represented the natives on first sight. If I see a roughly woven blanked with banded colors and arrowheads today I am bound to think of it as “Indian” or “Western.” And it just seems to ironic that it is not even anything that they made themselves. The westerners actually created the image for them. It’s almost like finding out that Roman columns were actually shipped to Rome from Persia or Disney Land.