Discovering and Defining Salvage Tourism

Staging Indigeneity (Phillips) KEY Economic Impacts/Casinos Construction of an ideal past Countering immigration/migrants Introduction: Discovering and Defining Salvage Tourism “Instead it demonstrates the geographic and chronological reach of these productions and their popularity around the country.” (19) “In this book, I argue that these three productions epitomize what I call ‘salvage tourism’ through the way they use Savage tourism combines the theoretical framework of American Indian history to help rescue regional economics. salvage ethnography with the practices and yearnings of heritage tourism, meaning the experiences of travelling to places and taking part in activities that aim to represent the stories and the people of the past.” (20) “Salvage tourism builds on ideas of a nostalgic past through the nation-building practices of tourism and the creation of distinctly American identity—one that can only really be achieved with Indians. The merging of these literal and figurative productions, in turn, allowed tourists to find sanctuary, safety, and security in the performance of a remembe past. By performing the act and by witnessing these performances of the past, tourists partake in what we might consid historical communion. These collective acts reiterate and reify a national identity that is grounded in Indigenous history Tourism, nostalgia, and authenticity converge in the creation of salvage tourism, which is about more than the salvation the evaporating environment or culturally based productions. It becomes necessary in order to salvage the tourists themselves.” (20) “As tourists turned to nature, they also turned to American Indians as a way to solve their identity crisis. Alan Trachtenberg argues that the Anglo-American fascination with American Indians from the 1880s through the 1930s wa reaction to the waves of immigrants who ‘posed a threat to nationality’, while American Indians were evidence of ‘national distinctiveness and proof of nationality’ … American identity has long been tied up in its proximity to Indians and Indianness, and these ideas of national identity are connected to the public commemoration of pageantry … Many included scenes of idyllic Indian life before the coming of the white man, only to have the Indians exit early in the production in order to demonstrate how ‘inevitable progress, not white conquest, brought about the end of Indian civilization.” (24) “Tourism productions also offered an opportunity to experience a distinct moment in time before modernity made it impossible to revisit a particular place … By saving snapshots of what they consider to be expressions of Indianness in its purest for, salvage tourism underpins the notion that Indian cultures and Indian people are static and unchanging; when they inevitably change, they are no longer considered Indian.” (25) “The creation and, more importantly, the continued production of these dramas epitomize salvage tourism through the of American Indian history in order to salvage regional economics through tourism by creating a sense of tradition in a particular place. The tension between creation and preservation is critical: one is tied to knowledge production and the other is advertised as a product for consumption. As local economies faltered, American Indians, Indian history and images of Indians became the most promising and potentially profitable regional tourist endeavors.” (26) Chapter 1: Days of the Old West Are Lived Again “Oregon’s Indians, though, were rarely part of these civic celebrations. If they were included, it was usually as oppositional figures to American progress and expansion. Oregon’s racially charged history of Asian and African American exclusion and wars with native nations was not exactly fodder for public celebrations.” (47) “The rise of civic celebrations in Oregon was emblematic of early 20th century endeavours across the country, which were partially due to the proliferation of the automobile and the ‘See America First’ campaign … tourism became ‘a form of geographical consumption that centered on the sights and scenes of the American nation’ around the turn of the century.” (57) Chapter 2: It’s a Part of Us “The Round-Up and Happy Canyon stand as a tangible and, perhaps most importantly, live depiction of the Wild West more than a century after their respective inceptions. This chapter highlights the contemporary application of salvage tourism at Happy Canyon alongside the growth and development of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, largely driven by revenue from the Wildhorse Resort and Casino.” (64) “In Pendleton, salvage tourism is no longer driven by the fear of a vanishing people or a seemingly vanishing identity— indeed, the opposite is true. Happy Canyon is a proud demonstration of the strength of Pendleton’s history, of the story told by its native and non-native residents. Happy Canyon continues to thrive, demonstrating that the power of salvage tourism may lie in faith as well as fear. Pendleton no longer needs to prove itself as a personification of the West, due i large part to the enduring and endearing legacy of the Round-Up and Happy Canyon, which are still main economic factors in the region.” (66) “The juxtaposition of indigeneity and modernity extends to natives and the economy. The American system of capitalis has wrongly placed Indigenous people, in the words of David Arnold, as the ‘unwitting victims of American progress’ … These problematic demarcations assume that, as with cultural markers of indigeneity, there is no room for change in ho Indigenous people engage in local economies.” (74) Chapter 4: We are telling our story “Rather, in a nod to the previous chapter, these suggestions happened as the BIA was moving toward the policy now known at Termination, which would sever the relationship between native nations and the federal government, dismantling both reservations and tribal sovereignty.” (122) “More than half a million tourists streamed into Cherokee in just the first five seasons, creating what Thompson calls ‘a pop culture phenomenon.’ The heyday for tourism in Cherokee spanned the few decades after World War II … The growth of additional tourist venues reveals the surge in and diversification of regional economic and tourist-driven development, all of which serve as competition for the tourists who had previously had few options for this type of entertainment and may have turned to Unto These Hills out of habit or lack of other possibilities.” (128) “Concentrating on how the Eastern Band has fought to resist Hunter’s focus on salvage tourism allows us to see how tourism-- from turn-of-the-century endeavorsUnto to These Hills and Harrah’s-- has moved from something imposed upon the Eastern Band to something intrinsically tied to its sovereignty … tribal gaming helps drive economic growth, and the Eastern Band can diversify its own economic interests and tourism practices. The casino, then, has effectively altered the function of the drama.” (145) Chapter 5/6: No Longer a Wooden Indian from the History Books, The Great Pretenders “Instead, these moments in history-- and the historical persons involved--were repackaged and repurposed as touristcentered tributes to an imagined American identity.” (152) “This chapter [6] follows the drama from its inception into the 21st century in order to understand why -- and how—the drama functions within a contemporary tourist environment.” (174) “The drama reflects contested notions of Native resistance, removal, and remembrance, at once tragic and unfortunate preordained and unavoidable. These strategies of remaking and reenacting, as Marita Sturken argues, record and rena history within new frameworks.” (187) “None of these productions, regardless of their economic impact, it without fault. But it is striking to see how these three productions have wrestled with history both on and off the stage since their respective inceptions.” (195) Conclusion “But despite the differences among them, these three productions are manifestations of a critical component of the hist performances of indigeneity. None came to life as a means of preserving Indian history of Indigenous performance and for the local and regional Indians whose histories formed the basis of each production. Rather, as shown throughout th book, the concept of salvage tourism is the threat that binds these three together. Salvage tourism functioned in unique ways in each production, each region, and each time period examined herein. In all three instances, Indianness becam most promising and potentially profitable factor.” (199) “This book has examined how these three productions, individually and collectively, have functioned within distinct regional tourist economies in distinct areas.” (200) “The fact that some of these pageants and drama still exist and, in some cases, are still wildy successful forces the discussion to move from the past to the present. Despite their many differences, one constant remains. These product Through it all, these three productions encapsulate are a lens for the past and the present, the historic and the dramatic. the role of native history in grappling with ideas of identity, nationhood, and belonging.” (200)