THE EUROPEAN INDIAN FAscINATION

DAVE EAGLES/KTW

Arthur Manuel, former chief of the Neskonlith Indian Band, is among those protesting the expansion of Sun Peaks Resort, which he claims has grown at the expense of his people.

Sep 30 2007
by MARKUS ERMISCH
Staff reporter

Winnetou, noble warrior and great chief of the Apaches, had steely blue eyes and a rather pale complexion.

But the pigmentation problem didn’t hinder the silver-screen hero, as played by French actor Pierre Brice in a number of films in the 1960s and 1970s, from becoming the most popular Indian in German-speaking countries.

Winnetou, of course, is a fictional character. He is the creation of Karl May, a 19th-century writer whose numerous adventure books include a trilogy that chronicles the adventures of the Apache chief and his friend, a white man by the name of Old Shatterhand.

Through the decades, Winnetou’s popularity never waned.

Generations of youngsters read May’s books, and generations of youngsters were glued to the television sets to watch countless reruns of such Winnetou classics as The Treasure in Silver Lake.

Without a doubt, May’s tales of Winnetou are, at least partially, the reason why scores of German-speaking people are fascinated by North America’s natives, their history, culture and way of life.

Indians travelled to Europe during this decade to spread their message. Most zeroed in on Switzerland’s capital of Geneva, seat of the United Nations high commissioner for human rights. From there, they spread their political travels to other parts of Europe. It’s a tradition that continues until today.

Although Schwarzbauer’s aims and motivations, as well as those of a similar minded human-rights crusaders, are distinctly different from those of the weekend Indians, there’s one element common to both: they focus on merely one element of native affairs or native culture, to the exclusion of others.

Whereas the weekend Indians ignore that their romanticized vision bears only scant resemblance to Indian reality, the human-rights crusaders block out the voices of those Indians whose opinions don’t fit a good-versus-evil mould.

Schwarzbauer ignores that Manuel’s methods don’t reflect how chiefs of the Shuswap First Nations, such as Kamloops Indian Band head Shane Gottfriedson, want to go about achieving similar aims. Gottfriedson may generally agree with Manuel’s goal, but as he told KTW a week ago, he disagrees with Manuel’s methods.

Schwarzbauer, judging from reports published in Austrian papers, didn’t mention that Manuel and his followers are a minority whose views are not reflected by a majority of the chiefs and councils in the Thompson region.

And because of that deliberate oversight, Schwarzbauer, like the weekend Indians, is helping to perpetuate a distorted image of the North American Indian. That distorted image may not have blue eyes, but, like Winnetou, it iThey help explain why every summer, thousands from that part of Europe flock to the Black Hills in South Dakota, a holy place to many Indians of the Great Plains, or to the Custer Battlefield in North Dakota, where chief Sitting Bull’s coalition of Indian bands annihilated the 7th U.S. Cavalry.

And, without a doubt, May’s romanticized portrayal of Winnetou persuaded many to join one of the numerous Indianer Klubs to become, if just for the weekend, an Indian who is living the simple life in complete harmony with nature.

In Germany alone, these clubs, according to the Canadian consular service in that county, have more than 100,000 members.

But there is another, more political, variant of the German-speaking world’s interest in North American natives, one that Peter Schwarzbauer insists has nothing to do with May’s fictional noble savage.

In fact, Schwarzbauer and the organization he leads — the Vienna-based Working Circle Indians of North America — explicitly distance themselves from those who imitate the culture of North America’s natives.

Schwarzbauer visited Sun Peaks this month to support former Neskonlith chief Arthur Manuel’s long-standing protest against the resort.

During that visit, Schwarzbauer spoke of the “need for indigenous culture,” but recoiled when asked whether he, or members of his group, incorporate that culture in their own lives.

No, he said, his group has absolutely nothing in common with the hobby Indians, and its members strictly avoid incorporating Indian culture into their own lives.

That point is important to him and, to reinforce it, Schwarzbauer pointed to his group’s website, which states “our aim is to replace the clichés [about North American natives] predominating in central Europe with factual information about existing social and political conditions.”

But where, then, does the interest in the affairs of North Americans originate, and what motivated Schwarzbauer to take leave from his work as an instructor at Vienna’s Institute of Forest Sector Policy and Economics, dip deep into his own pocket and fly to Canada when plane fares are at their highest?

There are several reasons, he said.

First, there’s the obvious connection between Austria’s national ski team using Sun Peaks Resort as its annual training camp and Manuel’s claim that Sun Peaks is inflicting injustice on his people.

Manuel himself has travelled to Austria several times, most recently this summer for a widely covered anti-Sun Peaks media event in Vienna.

Second, there’s the desire to help indigenous people without a statehood to achieve self-determination.

This desire, according to Schwarzbauer, is mirrored by numerous groups in Switzerland, Germany and France.

Munich-based Action Group Indians and Human Rights, for example, have similar aims.

Its website shows an undated photo of two of its members in front of a Christmas tree decorated with signs that read “Stop Sun Peaks” and “Support Shuswap”.

The group erected the tree in front of the Canadian consulate in Munich to protest Sun Peaks Resort’s continuing development.

“In all European countries there are groups like us,” Schwarzbauer said.

“Canada has a bad reputation internationally about the rights of indigenous people.”

The politically motivated interest in Indians can be traced back to the 1970s, when the Indian movement for self-determination started gathering strength, Schwarzbauer said.

Many Indians travelled to Europe to spread their message.

Most zeroed in on Switzerland’s capital of Geneva, seat of the United Nations high commissioner for human rights.

From there, they spread their political travels to other parts of Europe.

It’s a tradition that continues today.

Schwarzbauer ignores the fact that Manuel’s methods don’t reflect how chiefs of the Shuswap First Nations, such as Kamloops Indian Band Chief Shane Gottfriedson, want to go about achieving similar aims.

Gottfriedson may generally agree with Manuel’s goal, but as he told KTW this month, he disagrees with Manuel’s methods.

Judging from reports published in Austrian papers, Schwarzbauer didn’t mention that Manuel and his followers are a minority whose views are not reflected by a majority of the chiefs and councils in the Thompson region.

And because of that deliberate oversight, critics might argue that, like the weekend Indians, Schwarzbauer is helping to perpetuate a distorted image of the North American Indian.

That distorted image may not have blue eyes, but, like Winnetou, it is a stereotype.

Link to Report

Contents

October 2007 Reports

Last updated on October 2, 2007