Indigenous Knowledge in the Production of Post-Frontier American Culture

Abstract

This paper looks at the interaction of indigenous and Euro-American actors in creating a post-Frontier American popular culture around the turn of the 20 th century. A number of aspects characterize this particular historical period: newly emerging media technology (especially photography and film); rapid industrialization and the invention of leisure time; the end of the so-called “Indian Wars” and the opening up of the vast American interior for touristic exploration; new arenas of cultural representation such as rodeos, fairs, and exhibitions, and a shift in American politics towards a more or less forced integration of the diverse American populace under the umbrella of American patriotism. This paper argues from a media anthropological point of view that indigenous actors played a crucial role in bringing about the new creative forms which marked this era and subsequently evolved into what we now call “global media culture.”