Crafting an Indigenous Nation: Kiowa Expressive Culture in the Progressive Era

by Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote

In this in-depth interdisciplinary study, Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote reveals how Kiowa people drew on the tribe's rich history of expressive culture to assert its identity at a time of profound challenge. Examining traditional forms such as beadwork, metalwork, painting, and dance, Tone-Pah-Hote argues that their creation and exchange were as significant to the expression of Indigenous identity and sovereignty as formal political engagement and policymaking. These cultural forms, she argues, were sites of contestation as well as affirmation, as Kiowa people used them to confront external pressures, express national identity, and wrestle with changing gender roles and representations.

Combatting a tendency to view Indigenous cultural production primarily in terms of resistance to settler-colonialism, Tone-Pah-Hote expands existing work on Kiowa culture by focusing on acts of creation and material objects that mattered as much for the nation's internal and familial relationships as for relations with those outside the tribe. In the end, she finds that during a time of political struggle and cultural dislocation at the turn of the twentieth century, the community's performative and expressive acts had much to do with the persistence, survival, and adaptation of the Kiowa nation.

142 pages, Hardcover

First published February 18, 2019

Reviews

[David Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote set the bar higher for Indigenous art historians with this book. 'Crafting an Indigenous Nation' is a superb example of community-based scholarship, in which the voices of the artists, as historical figures, informs the reader's understanding of the work highlighted in this discourse on Kiowa tribal history. Turning her eye on Indian pageants, silver work, dance, and beading, Tone-Pah-Hote uses the concept of "expressive culture" to demonstrate that, not only is Indigenous culture living and dynamic, as opposed to frozen in the past, but also a source of agency that enables Kiowa to adapt to the pressures of colonization, the reservation system, and the assimilation policy. More than survivance, Kiowa expressive culture is a form of healing and resistance. In spite of what white critics of modern Indigenous art may think, the Kiowa did not relinquish their identity as a result of adopting modern media. On the contrary, in an infinitely nuanced way, the Kiowa reaffirmed their peoplehood, which is grounded in the land and reinforced through kinship. Jenny is, or rather was, a part of this family history. I think most readers will agree after reading this wonderful book that we lost a unique and powerful Indigenous voice when we lost Jenny. However, thankfully, her legacy lives on in the pages of this book, which I hope will inspire another generation of Indigenous art historians to pick where 'Crafting an Indigenous Nation' leaves off.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book as it took a deep and thoughtful look at a very specific place and time. By foregrounding Native voices and material culture this book centers voices that have been historically and systematically marginalized. In fact it is the marginalization, and the ways crafts and culture can push back against it, that underscores many of the chapters. One of the themes that I enjoyed in this book was the way that crafting and culture opened up avenues for self expression and self-determination under the noses of settler authority. I particularly liked reading this in conjunction with Phillips' "Staging Indigeneity" as both look at how Native peoples navigated agency and representation within the narrow spaces that the settler hegemony offered them. Overall this was an interesting read, however as is often the case with academic books, it is very specific and if you are not keenly interested in either the place or the time, it may not be the optimal use of 'free reading' time.