In works of silver and wool, the Navajos have established a unique
brand of American craft. And when their artisans were integrated
into the American economy during the late nineteenth century, they
became part of a complex cultural and economic framework in which
their handmade crafts conveyed meanings beyond simple adornment.
As Anglo tourists discovered these crafts, the Navajo weavings
and jewelry gained appeal from the romanticized notion that their
producers were part of a primitive group whose traditions were
destined to vanish. Erika Bsumek now explores the complex links
between Indian identity and the emergence of tourism in the
Southwest to reveal how production, distribution, and consumption
became interdependent concepts shaped by the forces of consumerism,
race relations, and federal policy.
Bsumek unravels the layers of meaning that surround the branding
of "Indian made." When Navajo artisans produced their goods,
collaborating traders, tourist industry personnel, and even
ethnologists created a vision of Navajo culture that had little to
do with Navajos themselves. And as Anglos consumed Navajo crafts,
they also consumed the romantic notion of Navajos as "primitives"
perpetuated by the marketplace. These processes of production and
consumption reinforced each other, creating a symbiotic
relationship and influencing both mutual Anglo-Navajo perceptions
and the ways in which Navajos participated in the modern
marketplace.
Examining varied sites of production-artisans' workshops,
museums, trading posts, Bsumek shows how the market economy
perpetuated "Navaho" stereotypes and cultural assumptions. She
takes readers into the hogans where men worked silver and women
wove rugs and into the outlets where middlemen dictated what buyers
wanted and where Navajos influenced inventory. Exploring this
process over seven decades, she describes how artisans' increasing
use of modern tools created controversy about authenticity and how
the meaning of the "Indian made" label was even challenged in
court.
Ultimately, Bsumek shows that the sale of Indian-made goods
cannot be explained solely through supply and demand. It must also
reckon with the multiple images and narratives that grew up around
the goods themselves, integrating consumer culture, tourism, and
history to open new perspectives on our understanding of American
Indian material culture.
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