{"id":3771,"date":"2019-09-17T00:11:20","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T05:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=3771"},"modified":"2019-12-15T16:49:10","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T22:49:10","slug":"the-vanishing-indian-ideology-in-19th-century-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/09\/17\/the-vanishing-indian-ideology-in-19th-century-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Vanishing Indian” Ideology in 19th Century Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading the melancholy words of an 1841 poem entitled \u201cThe American Indians,\u201d I can practically hear the final F major chord of Edward MacDowell\u2019s \u201cIndian Idyl\u201d fading gently into the background. The two works could easily be based on each other. In her poem, Emeline Smith describes Native Americans as \u201cpassing away like a dream,\u201d a sentiment echoed perfectly in the soft closing passage of \u201cIndian Idyl\u201d.1<\/sup><\/a>
\nAs Daniel Blim discusses in his paper, MacDowell\u2019s work evokes a wistful nostalgia that reflects a white American vision of a cohesive Native American culture confined to the past. According to Blim, this is just one instance of the \u201cvanishing Indian\u201d ideology, an assertion that is supported by the presence of the exact same sentiments in Smith\u2019s poetry.2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Smith, Emeline S. 1841. The American Indians. The Ladies’ Companion, a Monthly Magazine; Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts (1834-1843). 02, https:\/\/search.proquest.com\/americanperiodicals\/docview\/137132400\/6BB11667D9D44544PQ\/1?accountid=351\u00a0(accessed September 15, 2019).<\/p><\/div>\n

Emeline Smith, writing her poem as an entry in the monthly issue of <\/span>A Lady\u2019s Companion<\/span><\/i>, is blatant in her perpetuation of the \u201cvanishing Indian\u201d trope. She refers to Native Americans as \u201cdoom\u2019d,\u201d \u201cpassing away like a dream,\u201d and even \u201chastening on to decay,\u201d clearly displaying the same attitude we discussed MacDowell as guilty of during class.3<\/sup><\/a> Smith treats Native American life and culture as a relic of the past. What MacDowell does artistically in his <\/span>New England Idyls<\/span><\/i>, Smith does verbally in her poem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as the cover art of the collection presents an image of Native Americans that reduces them to a part of the landscape, Smith couples nearly every reference of Native Americans to a description of nature.4<\/sup><\/a> She views Native American existence as merely a fading memory that is now incorporated into the natural landscape of white America.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

Lanman, Charles. “Farmyard.” 1838. Naxos of America. https:\/\/stolaf.naxosmusiclibrary.com\/catalogue\/item.asp?cid=8.559010<\/p><\/div>\n

Furthermore, the title of Smith\u2019s poem, \u201cThe American Indians,\u201d implies that the subject will have something to do with Native American life or culture. What follows the title, however, contains little more Native American identity than superficial references to \u201cchieftains,\u201d \u201cwarriors,\u201d and \u201crelics\u201d. Even in her remembrance of Native Americans, the only details Smith describes are a warrior\u2019s shout and the \u201clow music\u201d of an echo of Native American life that lingers in the hills.5<\/sup><\/a> These two auditory remnants simultaneously represent a distant memory of a powerful culture and a dwindling present existence – exactly what we hear in MacDowell\u2019s music as well. The lively opening passage<\/a> (a \u201cwarrior\u2019s shout\u201d) reflects a dramatized view of Native American life, while the way each phrase subsides into nothingness (\u201clow music\u201d) marks this life as something of the past.6<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

What struck me most about Smith\u2019s poem was how evident the \u201cvanishing Indian\u201d perspective was in a seemingly ordinary piece of poetry. If it took me only a few searches and clicks to stumble upon such a blatant example of the \u201cvanishing Indian\u201d ideology, then surely this is some indication of how pervasive the concept is. From music to poetry, representations of Native Americans as a vanishing race are ubiquitous.<\/span><\/p>\n

1 Emeline\u00a0Smith,\u00a0The American Indians<\/em>, (New York, The Ladies’ Companion<\/em>, 1841), 220.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

2 Daniel Blim, “MacDowell’s Vanishing Indians”, (Vancouver, 2016), 3.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

3 Smith, The American Indians<\/em>, 220.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

4 Blim, “MacDowell’s Vanishing Indians”, 10.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

5 Smith, The American Indians<\/em>, 220.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

6 Blim, <\/a>“MacDowell’s Vanishing Indians”, 9.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

Blim, Daniel. \u201cMacDowell\u2019s Vanishing Indians.\u201d Vancouver, 2016.<\/p>\n

Smith, Emeline S. 1841. The American Indians<\/em>. The Ladies’ Companion, a Monthly Magazine; Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts<\/em><\/span> (1834-1843).<\/span><\/i> 02, https:\/\/search.proquest.com\/americanperiodicals\/docview\/137132400\/6BB11667D9D44544PQ\/1?accountid=351\u00a0(accessed September 15, 2019).<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading the melancholy words of an 1841 poem entitled \u201cThe American Indians,\u201d I can practically hear the final F major chord of Edward MacDowell\u2019s \u201cIndian Idyl\u201d fading gently into the background. The two works could easily be based on each … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3320,"featured_media":3774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/09\/New-England-Idyls-Cover-Art.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-YP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3771"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4923,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3771\/revisions\/4923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}