From July 10-14 at Mixed Blood Theatre, Turtle Theater Collective is presenting the regional premiere of a play by Larissa FastHorse: What Would Crazy Horse Do?
…What Would Crazy Horse Do? is set on a South Dakota reservation in the very recent past. A pair of young adults discover a surprising connection, via their late grandfather, to people who want to revive the KKK: Instead of “white supremacy,” they emphasize language about racial “purity” and “unity” [Jay Gabler, “Crazy But True: Turtle Theater Tells the Tale of a Powwow at a KKK Meetup,” City Pages, 2019.07.10].
KKK flyer for July 31, 1926, “Klonklave” in Sioux City, Iowa, featuring an “Indian Pow-Wow”; image posted by The Lilly Awards, 2015.03.12.
The play was inspired by an actual flier I saw in the State Museum of South Dakota for a big Ku Klux Klan gathering in 1926. The entertainment for the night was a Klan sponsored pow wow. My mind was blown. I tried to find someone who was related to the event, but couldn’t find anyone who would admit it. So, I imagined who the descendants of those original participants were and built the story around them [Larissa FastHorse, interview, “Larissa FastHorse on Her Riveting New Play, What Would Crazy Horse Do?” The Lilly Awards, 2015.03.12].
Type casting Natives makes sense, but in a stunning twist of .. I don’t know if it’s irony or not:
“She also requests that production companies have at least one other indigenous artist working on her show and at least one other work of indigenous art in the building.”
This is pure racism. Maybe that’s fitting and intentional, but I thought I would point that out.
Donald Pay
2019-07-11 10:55
The Klan revival, led by Hiram Evans in the early 1920s to the 1930s, was centered in the Midwest, not the South. It was anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic, as much as anti-black. It projected a less violent image, moderating its approach to be more acceptable, even if extremely intolerant of immigrants, particularly those who were not white and Protestant. By the time of Evans’ KlonKlave in Sioux City, Klan membership was on a downward slide in its stronghold areas of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan due to various scandals and leadership disputes.
One way to boost interest and regain membership was to hold these spectacles in various cities across the country, including a big parade in Washington, D.C. I question whether the Klan was trying to be more inclusive, but Indians might have felt some affinity to the anti-immigrant plank of the Klan platform.
Roger Cornelius
2019-07-11 12:03
Play writes, actors, directors, producers, et al. often make quirky demands when their movies and plays are in production, am I to assume that when these contributors to a play or movie don’t include Indian art or artisans they are being racists. John Dale’s racist claim is nothing more then bait.
Roger Cornelius
2019-07-11 12:15
Debbo sent me the reviews and information about this play last night, I hadn’t heard of it before and am intrigued with the concept.
Not having seen this play I can’t offer a legitimate critique.
There are reports of the KKK operating in the Blacks Hills in the 1920’s, I believe they primarily operated out of Sturgis.
Even today there are reports of a fringe KKK group in the Black Hills that insert their propaganda in the big box stores.
Anyway, one of the elements of the play was how Crazy Horse learned not to be angry, he didn’t want any of his warriors to be angry because he saw it as a weakness.
Porter Lansing
2019-07-11 12:49
Racism exists only from the bottom up. White people can’t be discriminated against by groups with less standing than themselves. What Dale exhibits classicly is false, white, male victimhood.–Colorado had a Republican KKK member as Governor from 1925-1927. Clarence Joseph Morley
jerry
2019-07-11 13:43
I saw some old pictures of the Klan in a parade in downtown Rapid City during the 1920’s. We should always remember that the Klan was not just against black folks, they hated Catholics and Jews with equal vigor as they still do.
Most of the hate comes from jealousy and the fact that these white folks were always at the bottom rung of the white folks ladder. The rich and powerful kept them on that bottom rung and told them the reason they were there was because the Jews took their money and the Catholics took their jobs. Jews were Jews then, but Catholics were Irish and Italian, both hated by the white elite and those whites who were a rung or two up on the same ladder. Always the blame game of jealousy and envy and now, it’s women in the mix as well who are getting blamed for not staying barefoot and pregnant and taking jobs.
Debbo
2019-07-11 15:15
When I saw the article on this play I thought you DFP folks would be interested. 😊
I think it’s great when folks like Ms. FastHorse get a modicum of power and use it to give others a chance, rather than hoard it for themselves. Of course, as Porter alluded, that kind of inclusive thinking is anathema to racist white males like Dale.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to the play, but I will be watching for reviews and I’ll share them.
chris
2019-07-11 17:20
Is the midwestern iowa tradition of intentionally mis-spelling small businesses with a “k” instead of a “C” historically inspired by a sinister motive instead of a fetish for cuteness?
Curt
2019-07-12 01:12
Sorry, if you want to watch the 1st place Twins battle their closest Central Division challenger in person this mid-July weekend, you will need to travel east about 1000 miles on I-90 to Cleveland.
My Grandfather and aunt told me of the cross burning events held on Spirit Mound during the Clay County KKK movement of the 1920’s. They could see the fires from the family homestead a couple of miles away.
Thinking about Don’s last line… American Indians had good reason to be anti-immigrant: they really had suffered an invasion of immigrants who stole their land, women, and way of life. Ron Branstner comes to Aberdeen and plays on old white fears of immigrants bringing disease and forcing their religion on locals, but Indians actually experienced that!
Dana Hanna
2019-07-12 11:57
About 20 years ago, soon after I moved to South Dakota, I visited Mount Rushmore. There was a federal Parks guy, in uniform, young, blonde and white, who was giving a lecture to visitors on Borglum, the sculptor. I had read about Borglum’s prior pre-Rushmore work in which he took up and worked on a project to do a Rushmore-type sculpture to honor the heroes of the Slavemasters’ Rebellion (also known as the Civil War). That project was backed and to a large degree sponsored and paid for by many KKK members and supporters. I asked the young National Parks employee whether it was true that Borglum was involved with and a supporter of the KKK. He informed us that Borglum was not himself involved with the KKK but that just knew people who were involved in some vague way with the Klan. This federal employee then informed us that in any case, after WWI, the KKK was not the racist bunch of white supremacists (I would say terrorists) that it was after the Civil War. Instead, he said, after WWI the KKK was mainly a group that ” supported family values.” As God is my witness, that is what he said. I set the government white boy straight, that the KKK that was resurrected after WWI was not just anti-black, it was also anti-Jew, and anti -foreign immigrants, all in the name of keeping America pure, white, and Christian. Does that ring any bells for anybody? . . . I for one would like to see this play.
Thank you for ringing our bells, Mr. Hanna. “Family Values” as the new shiny wrapper for old ugly racism—that sounds very familiar.
I hate to speak for our Native friends, but perhaps there’s a theatre company in Pine Ridge… or maybe a high school theatre crew in Kyle or Mission… who’d like to go on the road presenting an anthology of FastHorse’s work around the state.
mike from iowa
2019-07-12 13:22
who’d like to go on the road presenting an anthology of FastHorse’s work around the state.
That would take grant money and we all know who gets granted the grant monies intended for Native projects. And it is not usually the Natives.
Type casting Natives makes sense, but in a stunning twist of .. I don’t know if it’s irony or not:
“She also requests that production companies have at least one other indigenous artist working on her show and at least one other work of indigenous art in the building.”
This is pure racism. Maybe that’s fitting and intentional, but I thought I would point that out.
The Klan revival, led by Hiram Evans in the early 1920s to the 1930s, was centered in the Midwest, not the South. It was anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic, as much as anti-black. It projected a less violent image, moderating its approach to be more acceptable, even if extremely intolerant of immigrants, particularly those who were not white and Protestant. By the time of Evans’ KlonKlave in Sioux City, Klan membership was on a downward slide in its stronghold areas of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan due to various scandals and leadership disputes.
One way to boost interest and regain membership was to hold these spectacles in various cities across the country, including a big parade in Washington, D.C. I question whether the Klan was trying to be more inclusive, but Indians might have felt some affinity to the anti-immigrant plank of the Klan platform.
Play writes, actors, directors, producers, et al. often make quirky demands when their movies and plays are in production, am I to assume that when these contributors to a play or movie don’t include Indian art or artisans they are being racists. John Dale’s racist claim is nothing more then bait.
Debbo sent me the reviews and information about this play last night, I hadn’t heard of it before and am intrigued with the concept.
Not having seen this play I can’t offer a legitimate critique.
There are reports of the KKK operating in the Blacks Hills in the 1920’s, I believe they primarily operated out of Sturgis.
Even today there are reports of a fringe KKK group in the Black Hills that insert their propaganda in the big box stores.
Anyway, one of the elements of the play was how Crazy Horse learned not to be angry, he didn’t want any of his warriors to be angry because he saw it as a weakness.
Racism exists only from the bottom up. White people can’t be discriminated against by groups with less standing than themselves. What Dale exhibits classicly is false, white, male victimhood.–Colorado had a Republican KKK member as Governor from 1925-1927. Clarence Joseph Morley
I saw some old pictures of the Klan in a parade in downtown Rapid City during the 1920’s. We should always remember that the Klan was not just against black folks, they hated Catholics and Jews with equal vigor as they still do.
Most of the hate comes from jealousy and the fact that these white folks were always at the bottom rung of the white folks ladder. The rich and powerful kept them on that bottom rung and told them the reason they were there was because the Jews took their money and the Catholics took their jobs. Jews were Jews then, but Catholics were Irish and Italian, both hated by the white elite and those whites who were a rung or two up on the same ladder. Always the blame game of jealousy and envy and now, it’s women in the mix as well who are getting blamed for not staying barefoot and pregnant and taking jobs.
When I saw the article on this play I thought you DFP folks would be interested. 😊
I think it’s great when folks like Ms. FastHorse get a modicum of power and use it to give others a chance, rather than hoard it for themselves. Of course, as Porter alluded, that kind of inclusive thinking is anathema to racist white males like Dale.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to the play, but I will be watching for reviews and I’ll share them.
Is the midwestern iowa tradition of intentionally mis-spelling small businesses with a “k” instead of a “C” historically inspired by a sinister motive instead of a fetish for cuteness?
Sorry, if you want to watch the 1st place Twins battle their closest Central Division challenger in person this mid-July weekend, you will need to travel east about 1000 miles on I-90 to Cleveland.
My Grandfather and aunt told me of the cross burning events held on Spirit Mound during the Clay County KKK movement of the 1920’s. They could see the fires from the family homestead a couple of miles away.
Thinking about Don’s last line… American Indians had good reason to be anti-immigrant: they really had suffered an invasion of immigrants who stole their land, women, and way of life. Ron Branstner comes to Aberdeen and plays on old white fears of immigrants bringing disease and forcing their religion on locals, but Indians actually experienced that!
About 20 years ago, soon after I moved to South Dakota, I visited Mount Rushmore. There was a federal Parks guy, in uniform, young, blonde and white, who was giving a lecture to visitors on Borglum, the sculptor. I had read about Borglum’s prior pre-Rushmore work in which he took up and worked on a project to do a Rushmore-type sculpture to honor the heroes of the Slavemasters’ Rebellion (also known as the Civil War). That project was backed and to a large degree sponsored and paid for by many KKK members and supporters. I asked the young National Parks employee whether it was true that Borglum was involved with and a supporter of the KKK. He informed us that Borglum was not himself involved with the KKK but that just knew people who were involved in some vague way with the Klan. This federal employee then informed us that in any case, after WWI, the KKK was not the racist bunch of white supremacists (I would say terrorists) that it was after the Civil War. Instead, he said, after WWI the KKK was mainly a group that ” supported family values.” As God is my witness, that is what he said. I set the government white boy straight, that the KKK that was resurrected after WWI was not just anti-black, it was also anti-Jew, and anti -foreign immigrants, all in the name of keeping America pure, white, and Christian. Does that ring any bells for anybody? . . . I for one would like to see this play.
Dana Hanna
Thank you for ringing our bells, Mr. Hanna. “Family Values” as the new shiny wrapper for old ugly racism—that sounds very familiar.
I hate to speak for our Native friends, but perhaps there’s a theatre company in Pine Ridge… or maybe a high school theatre crew in Kyle or Mission… who’d like to go on the road presenting an anthology of FastHorse’s work around the state.
who’d like to go on the road presenting an anthology of FastHorse’s work around the state.
That would take grant money and we all know who gets granted the grant monies intended for Native projects. And it is not usually the Natives.
Oops! Sorry, Curt! Shows how well I can read an MLB schedule.
Spirit Mound? Wow—what an ugly historical tidbit. But I suppose a lot of young people have gone out there for keggers and other unexemplary behavior.