Lilawaste Lake Country Refuge-To-Be?
- Title:
- Lilawaste Lake Country Refuge-To-Be?
- Alternate Title:
- Lilawaste Lake Country Refuge-To-Be?
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Iktomi Witkotkoka (pseud. for Ivan Drift)
- Date:
- 1937
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2534.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2534_01Adj.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1920 - 1939
- Subject:
- Bias
Ethnocentrism
Politics & Government
Slavery/Race
Unusual Graphics/Text - Measurement:
- 39 x 74 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- At first view, this detailed map shows an idyllic future home for its native American residents and visitors: "A Typical 'Akota Indian Refuge;" "A Peerless Wild Life Retreat;" "Eventually a Safe Full Bit of Free Happy Nature." There will be athletics, sports, music, arts, of every sort, along with a zoo, aviary, aquarium, schools, fish hatchery, wild bird farm, ice boats, medicine herb plant reserve, and nursery for native trees. Separate breeding retreats and sanctuaries are shown for bear, caribou, moose, wall-eye, muskie, great northern pike, and trumpeter swans. There will be "Freedom for all - resident & visitor - indian, white!" presided over by "Indian self-rule management."
The title of the map, however, includes a significant question mark: "Lilawaste Lake Country Refuge-to-Be?" The mapmaker's aspiration for native Americans to live with dignity and freedom in their native lands is tempered by palpable fear for his vision. A prominent legend on the map highlights "Potential Aboriginal Innovations as Special Novelty Attractions!" "Indian Life & Culture" is to be presented "in genuine & near-genuine aboriginal detail per tribe & all transition stages for direct & indirect infinite benefit to indians, nature & world . . . . & for visitors: amusement research interest imitation." Among these are a number of "sham battles" to take place at various locations in the refuge at various times of the year, including one with "very realistic 'scalping' etc."
Around the border of the map are two legends, pleas for help in making the dream come true. The inner one reads "You who are aimless - you who desire useful outlet or pastime - Anyone - what will you do? - or give of finances, influence, property, stuff. . . . Suggestion to help make this all possible - To save a Race from Oblivion! - To save America from eternal total Disgrace - to save your Country from itself - And profit you & The Future! You destroyed us - & it! Help us Restore ourselves - & You!" The outer legend surrounding the map, in a different font, sounds somewhat the same note: "Your Opportunity ~ and/or ~ Our Last Chance. Your Foresight ~ Our Hope! Your Honor ~ Our Very Existence. Your Debt ~ Our Duty. or Your Failure or Indifference ~ Our Doom!"
The map benefits from an understanding of the unusual book from which it came and the author-mapmaker himself. The book is entitled "America Needs Indians!," published in Denver in 1937. The author listed on the cover and the copyright is "Iktomi;" the title page carries the name "Iktomi Hcale;" and the book begins by reproducing a letter to the John Collier, then Commissioner of Indian Affairs, signed by "Iktomi Lila Sica." The map is signed "Iktomi Witkotkoka." In Lakota Sioux mythology, Iktomi is a trouble-making trickster who can take any form and who schemes to create chaos and humiliation. Iktomi Hcale is "The Real Iktomi;" Iktomi Lila Sica is "The Really Bad Iktomi;" and Iktomi Witkotkoka is "The Foolish Iktomi."
There is said to be "incontrovertible evidence" that the pseudonymous author-mapmaker was "Ivan Drift, a mysterious figure and insider to Indian politics during the Collier years at the BIA." Cook-Lynn 1993, 116. See generally Wagoner 2013, 171-75. Drift was probably not a native American, although he may have been married to one. In any case, he had "a certain level of mastery over the Lakota language," and "almost second nature" knowledge of complex tribal cultural and religious practices. Ibid. 173.
Drift's book is an adventure. "The theme, writing style and illustrations" are "analogous to the asymmetrical webs spun by spiders that had ingested LSD." The thoughts are stream of consciousness, with multiple changes in typeface and size (often on the same page), unexpected insertions, a number of provocative illustrations in the style of the map, and frequent puns. (Indian Affairs Commissioner John Collier is attacked in a chapter entitled "Junk Codliver's Nude Eel." Iktomi 1937, 161-188.) In short, "a quirky book of devastating satire, imminent lunacy, and egocentrism." Wagoner 171-172.
The ambivalence of Drift's map is an accurate reflection of the book. He describes his work as "strenuous criticism and strong praise crisscrossing vigorously from opposite extremes. . . . In places I criticize the Indian severely - elsewhere, and bitterly, the white." Iktomi 2. He identifies and shows a kinship with the Indians while at the same time being "disappointed" with them as "argumentative and disorganized people who must ultimately change." While he was savaging government officials for their ignorance and indolence in implementing Indian policy, he was at the same time "trying to become a bureaucrat himself" as superintendent at Pine Ridge. Wagoner 179.
In the end, Drift's uncertainty proved well founded. "Iktomi was prescient in his views that the Wildlife Refuge, once created, would be used only as a place for outsiders to come on hunting trips." Ibid. 177.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Source:
- Iktomi Hicata (pseud. for Ivan Drift). 1937. America Needs Indians! Denver: Bradford-Robinson.
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.