From The Archives: Chief Poking Fire Museum
Chief Poking Fire Museum, circa early 1960s. Tomaquag Museum Archives
Hello, Archivist Anthony Belz here and welcome to the third installment of the Tomaquag Museum’s Belongings Blog, From the Archives series, in which I will share some of the interesting items found in the Tomaquag Museum’s archival collections. This installment features a small color Instamatic photograph that was found while searching for archival images for an unrelated project and immediately caught my eye.
What really stands out in this small, square photograph are the decorations on the exterior of the building, which even for the faded appearance of the photograph manages to capture the interesting collage of Indigenous themed imagery. If you take a closer look at the individual Indigenous images on the exterior of the museum you can see what is now considered stereotypical imagery. At the time this museum existed in the mid 20th century, many Indigenous people and communities would adopt imagery such as this because it was widely accepted by the majority of non-Indigenous people as being instantly identifiable as Indigenous. However, the collage on the exterior of the building is a good example of how imagery does not necessarily accurately reflect the people or even the region where they are being used.
Stereotypical images such as these had become commonplace among some Indigenous communities at the time in an effort to just to be seen and acknowledged by non-Indigenous people. These use of stereotypical imagery were often dictated by popular culture such as television and movies because at the time there were few images of Indigenous people in the context of their own lives that were culturally accurate. These images became not only the reason stereotypes are considered as being "authentic" to non-Indigenous people but are a primary justification for the stereotypical sport mascots we see today. #NotYourMascot #ChangetheName
By using a magnifying glass, a closer look reveals a sign above the entrance. “Chief Poking Fire Museum.” So then, where is this located? Does it even still exist? With a simple online search I found that the museum, which is no longer in operation, was located in Caughnawaga, within what was Chief Poking Fire’s Indian Village on the Kahnawake Mohawk (Kahnawáˀkye) First Nations Indian Reserve just south of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The Kahnawake Mohawk are part of both the Seven Nations of Canada (Tsiata Nihononhwentsiá:ke) and the Iroquois Six Nations Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) who historically occupied a vast geographic territory, from the Saint Lawrence River valley in eastern Ontario to southern Quebec, and parts of what is now Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania and even as far south as New Jersey.
The Kahnawáˀkye are known as the “Keepers of the Eastern Door” in the Haudenosaunee. The Kahnawáˀkye people have a very complicated history which was greatly affected by colonialism and is quite impossible to discuss here.
If you would like to read more about the history of the Kahnawáˀkye people and the Chief Poking Fire Museum in Southern Quebec, please click on the links below:
Kahnawake Language and Cultural Center
A Canadian Family, First Nations, French Canadians and Acadians-Chief Poking Fire Museum
Archival images such as those featured in this blog post facilitate conversations about Indigenous traditional lifeways, art, representation/stereotypes and pervasive historical and cultural misconceptions in modern society, as well as equity and sovereignty issues. Archival materials also aid greatly in research, exhibit development, publications, films and other collaborative projects.
If you would like to support the care of archival documents, photographs, maps & more at the Tomaquag Museum please Donate Now. If you have any ideas for what you would like to see as part of this blog series, please comment below. Thank you for reading and we hope to see you at the museum in the future!
Anthony M. Belz, Archivist/Collections Manager
This project is made possible in part by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this (publication, program, exhibition, website, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.”