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Inventing Sacagawea: Public Women and the Transformative Potential of Epideictic Rhetoric

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 73; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10570310802635013

1745-1027

Cindy Koenig Richards,

Academic Freedom and Politics

Abstract The 1905 commemoration of Sacagawea at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon was a form of epideictic rhetoric that promoted identification with an alternative vision of community. Through epideictic in praise of the "invented great" Sacagawea, disfranchised women reinforced some public precepts but challenged others in order to expand the number and type of people considered members of the community. This analysis of the 1905 commemoration illustrates the capacity of epideictic to engage speakers and audiences in the process of imagining and actualizing alternative public norms. Keywords: Epideictic RhetoricInvented GreatPacific NorthwestSacagaweaWoman's Rights Notes In her introductory remarks at the dedication of Sacajawea, Susan B. Anthony described the occasion as "the first time in history that a statue has been erected in the memory of a woman who accomplished patriotic deeds" (Oregon Journal 1; Oregonian 1; Telegram 1). On the platform during the dedication were local and national dignitaries, including Portland mayor Harry Lane, Centennial Exposition board member T. J. Bell, former National American Woman Suffrage Association president Susan B. Anthony, Oregon Equal Suffrage Association president Abigail Scott Duniway, and Sacajawea Statue Association president Eva Emery Dye. The spelling "Sacajawea" comes from early edited editions of the Lewis and Clark Expedition journals, and it was the spelling most commonly used at the time of the Centennial Exposition. I utilize this spelling when I refer to the statue entitled Sacajawea that was unveiled at the Centennial Exposition and when I quote directly from texts that use this spelling. Today the accepted spelling is Sacagawea, which is believed to mean "Bird Woman" and is of Hidatsa origin; I use this spelling elsewhere in the essay. Murphy's analysis of the use of epideictic by George W. Bush to dominate public interpretation of the events of September 11, 2001, well illustrates a relationship between epideictic and social construction. Yet the use of epideictic by a twenty-first-century US president to suppress public debate and dissent offers insights that differ from those we may gain by examining a case in which disenfranchised women used epideictic to challenge norms of the predominant culture. Other examples of invented greats, Painter suggests, include Jesus, Joan of Arc, Betsy Ross, and Sojourner Truth. Painter goes on to observe, "It is no accident that in each case, other people writing well after the fact made up what we see as most meaningful" about these figures (285). Speaking about her research for The Conquest, Dye recalled that she "hunted up every fact [she] could find about Sacajawea" (qtd. in Powers 71). Dye was known for her extensive use of primary documents and for her ability to derive personalities from the fragmented historical record and infuse past events with liveliness. Regional historians, who praised her commitment to meticulous research and factually accurate representations of the past, recognized Dye's work as an integral part of the growing movement to historicize the US West, and they invited her to join the board of the Oregon Historical Society (Browne 77–99; Curtis 1). In particular, scholars engaged in efforts to recover records of the Lewis and Clark Expedition recognized Dye as a leading public historian of that landmark journey (Browne 84). Reuben Gold Thwaites, who at the turn of the twentieth century was commissioned by the American Philosophical Society to edit a new edition of the original Lewis and Clark Expedition journals, relied on Dye for a number of significant sources. While researching The Conquest in 1901, Dye discovered the missing journal of Sergeant John Ordaway, a detailed record of the Lewis and Clark Expedition that had been missing since 1814, and she directed Thwaites to its location. Although Thwaites failed to fully credit Dye for her part in the recovery of the journal, in the introduction to his edited collection Thwaites did acknowledge Dye for general contributions. In addition to recovering and studying written records of the expedition that were produced by white male members of the Corps of Discovery, Dye interviewed American Indian people about interactions between tribal members and the Corps (Dye Papers; "Eva Emery Dye Interviews an Old Indian Woman"; "Se-Cho-Wa. Mrs. Dye Interviewing Pe-Tom-Ya"). The Conquest adopted the chronologies and events of the Lewis and Clark Expedition that appear in the original journals of the trip; however, Dye's historical novel spoke of Sacagawea in a tone that differed notably from the tone of the original journals. Whereas Dye praises Sacagawea as a heroic member of the Corps and calls her an Indian princess, "the men of the Corps of Discovery most often define Sacagawea as a savage squaw" (Kessler 33). Nevertheless, as Kessler observes, the original journals note many instances in which Sacagawea helped the expedition, and "at times they also seem to question her status as an ignoble savage, allowing enough room for subsequent writers to interpret Sacagawea as the noble Indian princess" (64). The publicity packet distributed by the Sacajawea Statue Association included a 16-page booklet entitled "Dux Femina Facti"; a copy of a Chicago Inter-Ocean article entitled "Heroine's Long-Delayed Reward"; a copy of the poem "Sacajawea (The Bird-Woman)" by Bert Huffman; a souvenir pin depicting Sacagawea; and a letter, addressed "To the Literary Editor," that described the mission of the Statue Association. Sarah A. Evans, a member of the Statue Association's executive board, noted that this publicity packet was "sent to about 500 of the prominent newspapers all over the U.S." A similar packet, which included a typewritten letter soliciting women's participation and financial support, was sent to "every town of Oregon." Additionally, the Statue Association mailed the booklet "Dux Femina Facti" and a circular letter inviting women to become members of the Sacajawea Statue Association to more than 4,000 addresses (Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition Records). It is instructive to note that the Greek word epideictic may be translated as "fit for display." Thus, epideictic performances that provide both spoken and visual representations appear to engage two powerful, rhetorical modes of "displaying" a praiseworthy or blameworthy object. See Telegram 1. The celebration "included a parade from downtown Portland to the dedication site [that] included hundreds of members, bands, and floats showing Sacajawea, the Boston Tea party, and Washington crossing the Delaware." At its unveiling, Sacajawea was draped with "a huge American flag" which was eventually "swept aside from the beautiful bronze statue." The front page of the Oregon Journal on July 6, 1905, described the parade and dedication ceremony in similar terms and characterized the unveiling of Sacajawea as "profoundly patriotic." For similar accounts of the event, see Oregonian 1; Browne 100–24; Edwards 237–40. The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) scheduled its 1905 national convention to coincide with the dedication of Sacajawea at the Lewis and Clark Expedition Centennial Exposition. Prominent NAWSA officers Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Anna Howard Shaw joined Oregon suffragists Abigail Scott Duniway and Eva Emery Dye on the platform at the dedication ceremony, with Anthony delivering an encomium to Sacagawea and Shaw offering the benediction. In addition, Shaw devoted a significant portion of her "President's Address" at the NAWSA Convention to offering pointed praise for Sacagawea. See Harper 117–50. The phrase with which Dye began her speech, "Dux femina facti," is a quotation of Virgil's Aeneid, Book 1, Line 364. In her essay, Pillow explains that she uses the term "squaw" in context and in quotes "to highlight the construction of American Indian women, including Sacajawea, not as women, but as racialized, sexualized, inhuman objects. Avoiding this term," she suggests, "would not erase the discursive and pragmatic effects of its usage and there is no other term that captures the misogyny and racism embedded in its historical meaning" (17–18). Zaeske suggests that free white women in the nineteenth-century United States enacted a similar form of "stewardship" when they insisted on speaking for slave women, thus accentuating the dependence of slave women and the contrasting independence of free women (161). The inclusion of American Indians at the 1905 dedication of Sacajawea differed from the treatment of American Indians by other early twentieth-century efforts to honor the Shoshone woman, and from other exhibits and events at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. When the Federated Women's Clubs of eastern North Dakota, for instance, initiated a campaign in 1905 to erect a statue of Sacagawea, Kessler notes, "natives took no part in the monument drive" (90–91). At the Centennial Exposition, living American Indians were part of a number of exhibits that were intended by Anglo-American organizers to demonstrate that "acculturation uplifted Indians from a hopeless fate" and to emphasize the superiority of US civilization (Blee 18). On February 2, 1905, Kate C. McBeth, a fairgoer and a Christian missionary to the Nez Perce, sent to Eva Emery Dye a letter that described the Exposition's treatment of American Indians as demeaning for all involved ("Letter to Dye"). On February 6 Dye sent a letter to Exposition Executive Board member Henry Goode, reiterating McBeth's concerns and requesting authorization to accord American Indians "a place of honor" at the dedication of Sacajawea (Dye, "Letter to Goode, February 6, 1905"). Later, Dye informed Goode of her intention to bring a Shoshone man to the Exposition as the guest of herself and the Sacajawea Statue Association (Dye, "Letter to Goode, June 30, 1905"). Additional informationNotes on contributorsCindy Koenig RichardsCindy Koenig Richards is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Media Studies at Willamette University. She wishes to thank Angela G. Ray, Brandon Inabinet, and Bonnie J. Dow for insightful responses to earlier versions of this essay.