This thesis examines the concepts of primary and secondary markets utilized by artists and collectors of Native American art at the turn of the 20th century. This time period was coined by art historian Elizabeth Hutchinson as “the Indian Craze.” It describes the time period in which large quantities of Native American material culture was collected by anthropologists, museums, and private collectors, who feared the Indigenous artists and their cultures would certainly perish.
Missouri collector Harry L. George systematically collected material culture from a variety of Indigenous cultures around the United States. However, for the scope of this project, my research investigates how George acquired Lakota material culture from primary markets (curio catalogs and directly from artists) and secondary markets (other collectors and dealers). My personal interest in Lakota material culture, paired with what I feel is a gap in the literature, adds to this case study. As I demonstrate, Lakota materials were discussed and described in a unique manner that resonated with collectors because of the Lakota peoples complicated history with the United States government and their romanticized image within popular culture. Lakota artists were able to mediate this imagined expectation by promoting their material culture in a way that worked to their advantage.
My study is supported by archival research, visual analysis, and textual examination. Utilizing archived correspondences between George and other collectors, curio-dealers, and Lakota artists, I explore how artists and collectors mediated their and other people’s identities in order to drive market demands for Indigenous material culture. I argue the George collection gives scholars important access to understanding the understudied networks for collecting Indigenous material culture during the Indian Craze
