probably even a happy or at least hopeful one. But still, for what occasion were they made? The truth is, we will never know. However, thinking about the moccasin Mary Janes in relation to the unadorned moccasins with sets of pinholes, the Carlisle Indian School photographs and the photograph of the little boy wearing a medicine necklace, is deeply suggestive. Perhaps the pair of moccasin Mary Janes was made for a young girl’s first day of school or to accompany her mother or grandmother to Christian worship services on Sundays. Christian missionaries started work- ing among the Western Apaches in the 1890s. They built small chapels and, later, schools. The U.S. government also established schools, and by the 1910s, there were several on- and off-reservation day and boarding schools that Western Apache children were being sent to. It is also quite possible that the moccasin Mary Janes were made for a young girl to attend a traditional Apache ceremony, such as her big sister’s puberty ceremony. To this day, Apache four-day puberty ceremonies not only bring spiritual blessings and strength to a girl enter- ing womanhood, but to her entire community. Whatever the occasion for which a young girl wore this footwear, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the mother who made them likely did so with personal knowledge of the startling death tolls devastating her reservation and the growing presence of non-Apaches impinging upon her world – and, what is certain, the world in which her daughter would grow up. It is quite possible that an Apache woman
made the beautiful moccasin Mary Janes to equip her daughter for a changing world by ensuring that she was grounded in her Apache identity and that she would grow up with her cultural moorings intact. And that she did this with one of the best means at her disposal – her art. Much as countless other gifted American Indian women – who had fully mastered their art and were able to see the advantages of pushing its aesthetic boundaries – have always done. X
White Mountain Apache boy sitting on his mother’s lap, 1919. White Mountain Apache Reservation, Ariz. This little boy is wearing a medicine necklace to protect him from disease. The photograph was taken in 1919, the year that the White Mountain Apache reservation was stricken by influenza, one of the deadliest viruses in history. The influenza first struck the reservation in 1918. NMAI P02201
Cecile R. Ganteaume joined the National Museum of the American Indian when it was established as part of the Smithsonian. Before that, she worked for the Museum’s fore- runner institution, the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. She is curator, most recently, of the exhibition Circle of Dance and also the curator of the exhibition, Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian (both on view in New York) and the editor of the publication of the same title. She is a recipient of a 2011 Secretary of the Smithsonian’s Excellence in Research Award.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 31
PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, PHOTO BY EDWARD H. DAVIS
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