311 Wilson, Pamela.

"Disputable Truths: The American Stranger, Television Documentary and Native American Cultural Politics in the 1950s." Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1996.

CHAPTER FIVE: MISSIONS OF CHARITY: CHRISTIAN RHETORIC AND GESTURES OF ALTRUISM

One of the finest things about being an Indian is that people are always interested in you and your plight. Other groups have difficulties, predicaments, quandaries, problems, or troubles. Traditionally we Indians have had a plight. Vine Deloria, Jr. (1969) 1 CHRISTIAN CALLS TO SERVICE Most of the social benevolence and the altruistic gestures from the American public inspired by The American Stranger, as well as those of humanitarian activists at local levels, can be attributed to a moral imperative in American society rooted squarely in the predominant Judeo-Christian tradition. In particular, most American humanitarianism (and humanism) is a direct outgrowth of the religious and secular social teachings developed from the interpretation of the third cornerstone in the Christian foundational triad of faith, hope and charity, and from the Biblical commandments to love thy neighbor and Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The benevolent public gestures that grew out of such Christian teachings in the context of interclass, intercultural or interracial relations were linked to, and often perpetrated, a type of imperialistic condescension rooted in colonialism and the class/racial privilege of whiteness--a phenomenon I have labeled altruistic imperialism.

312 Since the main religious perspectives that shaped the construction of the NBC documentary were Roman Catholic--particularly the influential on-air insights of Jesuit Father Byrne and the behind-the-scenes influence of Sister Providencia--it is helpful to examine the historically-specific discursive and theological context within which these Catholic clergy of the 1950s were working and which may have guided their political and humanitarian actions. I am interested here in providing a context to help illuminate the discursive construction of the prevalent religiously-informed social doctrines during the late 1950s, in order to understand the ways that Americans during this period might have been influenced by, interpreted and applied such social teachings in their responses to the crisis in hegemony surrounding the question of American Indian termination and the presentation of The American Stranger. American Roman Catholic perspectives and discourses during the 1950s about American Indian communities reflected the intersection of two distinct calls to service--missions (to American Indians, among other tribal and Third World nations) and the poor (areas of economic deprivation in American society). These two moral imperatives intersected in the quest for social justice, especially as they were situated historically in the theological needs that arose during the Depression era of the 1930s and in the international context of the rise of totalitarian states. According to Sister Charles Muckenhirn, there was a new articulation during that period that: The evils structured in our modern institution are our responsibility to change, and to bring into conformity with the teachings of Christ, into harmony with the demand of the common good, that is, into such forms that those living within society have opportunities for happiness not despite the social structure but because of it. 2

313 Muckenhirns general understanding was that the economy had so structured evil that the poor were deprived of an adequate share of goods, since such goods were not fairly distributed. Basically, Muckenhirn explained, this was a Marxist position reinterpreted by the Church in a religious context: Karl Marx had said this a century before and blamed it on our two-class system, but because he repudiated God and grace and encouraged the revolution to destroy the exploiting class he was not heard. When in time we discovered that despite the error of his therapy he had put his finger on an evil that we could remedy, we heard the words that encouraged the remedy [i.e., the proclamations of Popes Leo and Pius XI]. 3 During the 1930s and 1940s, a surge of social action took place among Catholics stimulated by the teachings of Pope Pius XI and the belief that we, modern Christians, were responsible for the genocide of the Jews, the exploitation of the Negro, and the non-education of the really poor in the most forsaken places--responsible, because our gospel called for more concern than we gave. 4 The major ideals of justice, freedom, responsibility and commitment with a focus on reciprocity were considered to be the guiding forces of Catholic social action, and many Catholics viewed Christianity as a therapy for the ailing social order, since our society in its present form is not the best we could attain, [but] rather has structured evils we must eliminate. 5 For these reasons, much Catholic social action was directed toward fighting urban poverty and providing health and educational opportunities to communities lacking in such privileges. The conceptual relationship between many Catholics and the American Indians was one based upon a model of mission work, grounded in a heritage of European colonialism worldwide, but particularly in the extension of the 19th century

314 European empires into Africa and Asia. In Christianity and Colonialism, written during the early 1960s, Robert Delavignette discussed the position of Christianity in relationship to colonial imperialism, noting that the two impulses of conquering and evangelizing (i.e., spreading the Christian faith) had been frequently intertwined in the history of European colonialism: Christianity has thus been directly or indirectly carried along by, and implicated in, colonialism, he explained, and colonialism was often justified by the desire to spread a national ideal or propagate a culture that was itself rooted in religion or morality. Colonial officers and missionaries often worked hand-in-hand, especially in the 19th century European colonies in Asia and Africa; indeed, John Power has noted that a missionary worked side by side with his fellow European civil servants and government officers, and where he could, if necessary, find a certain shelter under the wing of a tolerant if not enthusiastic empire. 6 That both cultural and religious assimilation had been a goal of most European missionary work was undeniable. Yet Delavignette also pointed out the existence of a long tradition of mission work, codified in a 1659 apostolic formula by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, that was based upon a policy of respect for the native cultures and knowledges, and that advocated an associative or partnership relationship rather than one of dominance and subordination. As the apostolic formula read: Do not take our countries to them, but the faith, that faith which does not repulse or offend the rites and customs of a country, providing that they are not detestable, but on the contrary desires that they should be preserved and protected. . . . 7

315 However, Delavignette observed that the missionarys own cultural and political ideology could frequently not be detached from his faith, enabling the propagation of the colonial ideology as well: Among these attachments, there are few that are stronger or more insidious than patriotism. Here, patronage or apostolic colonialism was to appear again in many forms. The missionary was tempted to think that his native country had been commissioned by God to preach the gospel and to extend the Kingdom of Christ overseas while enlarging the frontiers of its own territorial empire. 8 Delavignette noted that evangelism and commerce went hand-in-hand historically in the missions of Protestant Churches as well, and charted the rise of Protestant ecumenical mission work starting in the 1920s with the formation of such interdenominational groups as the International Missionary Council and the World Council of Churches. 9 Mandates for social action among Catholics have often been based upon papal encyclicals, or proclamations, which clarified the roles Catholic clergy and lay people were to play in their relationships with the social World. The Popes during the first half of the twentieth century were known as the missionary Popes (including Benedict XV, Pius XI and Pius XII), and together they developed a systematic policy for Catholic mission work in four major encyclicals. Pope Benedict XV in 1919 had proclaimed missionary work to be the duty of the whole Christian world, to be carried out through prayers, supplying personnel, and the sending of material supplies to Catholic missions. During the 1920s, Pope Pius XI declared mission a sacred duty demanded by the love of God and charity toward ones neighbor, and emphasized the need for missionaries to win the hearts of their subjects by practicing a practical charity. In the

316 early 1950s, Pope Pius XII emphasized the participation of lay people (i.e., non-clergy) in the mission work of the church, particularly through social and public health work. He declared that charity alone was not enough--that social justice must also be attained. 10 Papal missionary encyclicals of the twentieth century have dealt with such themes as anti-racism (urging the creation of a native clergy), social justice, and respect for human dignity. 11 However, during the intense period of decolonization in the second quarter of the century, and especially after 1945, the Church struggled with the question of how to best deal with the political issues that were arising with the emergence of new nation-states when natives rejected their status as colonized peoples as well as their submission to the power and culture of their colonizers. Frequently, the Church and its doctrine became the target of decolonizing efforts as well, despite the protestations of its agents that it was politically neutral. Declarations during this time affirmed the Churchs recognition of the legitimacy of the colonial peoples aspirations to independence, opposing totalitarianism and defending the rights of oppressed minorities and the free exercise of political rights by every citizen. However, at the same time the Church pointed to the dangers of [native] nationalism, especially false or blind nationalism that encouraged peoples and races to rise up against one another. 12 In a 1954 Christmas message, Pope Pius XII had decried native nationalism as a source of infinite evils [which] can never be too strongly rejected; his theological directive was that the search for intertribal unity must transcend the interests of separate tribal states. 13 Also in 1954, the (Protestant) World

317 Council of Churches also issued rhetoric that strongly distanced itself and its missionaries from any endorsement of native nationalist movements. 14 We can chart a dynamic movement in the mission theology during the 1940s and 1950s away from mere evangelism of faith and towards a definition of mission work as the fulfillment of the practical and material needs of members of the evangelized group. Pope John XXIII (1959) would declare that charity must be concretely manifested by contributions to the material needs of a community to show tangible evidence of a Christian conscience truly alive. There was also a movement away from the conception of mission work as exclusively a clerical activity to one which called (as did Pope Pius XIIs 1957 Encyclical) for a general mobilization of all Church members in the Christian world in the service of missions. Thirdly, by the late 1950s one begins to notice a blurring of the distinctions in both the Catholic and Protestant churches between what had previously been very distinct domains of foreign and domestic mission work (the latter generally having been considered pastoral social work rather than mission work). 15 This would lead to something of a collapse between the two distinct calls to service outlined above, which distinguished the conditions of domestic poverty from those of (dare I say?) post-evangelistic mission work (in an exotic locale). Finally, there are the seeds in the late 1950s of a shift from a politically neutral mission stance to a paradigm that, two decades later, would become known as liberation theology and actively advocate for political as well as social justice on the part of oppressed peoples. All of these shifts that were taking place during the 1950s ushered in a new paradigm for mission work that involved less proselytizing and more development involving both political and altruistic

318 action. By 1970, Power explains, most missionaries were working not to establish churches but to help bring to maturity young churches in newly-independent nations, nations that wanted to mold their own political and cultural destinies. He also notes the explosion during the 1950s and 1960s of highly-organized philanthropic agencies of international scope--not just kind-hearted private citizens--which produced radical changes in the functions of the Church. 16 These, then, were some of the religious discourses and organizational dynamics that provided much of the ideological motivation for the unexpectedly large public response to the broadcast of The American Stranger in November of 1958. Other non-Catholic denominations had well-established service arms (notably the American Friends Service Committee) that were very influential in terms of providing material assistance, volunteer labor and/or political advocacy to domestic American Indian communities as well as globally. Also, such ideological positions regarding altruism and development had been secularized--after all, this was the era in which the Peace Corps was first established and in which applied anthropology took off as a viable profession. The existence of the sorts of philanthropic agencies of which Powers spoke--such as CARE and Save the Children, and so on, many of which were ecumenical or secular in nature--just underscores the liberal humanistic ideology that undergirded the social benevolence of the era.

INDIVIDUAL GESTURES OF HUMANITARIAN ACTION

319 The documentary text of The American Stranger itself was steeped in Christian rhetoric, and even the title was excerpted from a Biblical quote, read by Charles Van Doren in closing, the implications being that the American Indian was a stranger among the American people, asking Oh, spare me a little that I may recover my strength. This might be read abstractly as a request for more freedom, but was most directly interpreted as a request for charity or direct aid by contemporary television viewers. Given the progression of images of poverty (the hovels at Heart Butte and on Hill 57) and the predominance of images of children (the Vielle family of Heart Butte, the Heart Butte schoolchildren, Menominee children, Hill 57 children, Blackfeet polio victims, Blackfeet ranch children), it seems apparent that at least one major strategy of the documentarys design was to tap into the emotionally-loaded, nurturing vein of the humanistic American public in order to elicit both sympathetic concern and concrete humanitarian action from viewers. The scenes of poverty and destitution portrayed in the documentary, especially on the Blackfeet Reservation and Hill 57, were apparently very shocking to mainstream television viewers who were particularly moved by the arresting depictions of Native American children in substandard living conditions. Most viewers expressed that they were appalled, indignant, ashamed. Why didn't they know how their government was treating the American Indians? How could they help? "What can a housewife of very modest circumstances do to help cure this ill?," a Connecticut viewer wrote to the Blackfeet tribe. 17 Many viewers wrote wanting to know how they might best be of service to the needs of the Indian people.

320 The numerous letters written by viewers who were aroused by the television documentary share a common underlying rhetoric of Christian responsibility, and a construction of the Judeo-Christian ethics underlying the foundations of American democracy. Also, in many cases, the writers engaged in imperialist discourses of paternalistic condescension toward the subjects of their altruism: We just finished watching your program Kaleidoscope. And a wonderful eye opening one it was. My husband and I enjoyed and appreciate your daring to revile the cheating of these Indians. I believe the Christian people of America should Let The Government know They will not sit by and let this happen any longer. Please keep up your fine programing and truth finding. 18 Many viewers engaged in rhetoric which equated Christian values with the American way: The White Men have probably by now succeeded in killing their Spirit; are they now going for all out murder? Are there no more Christian, humane, or downright decent politicians left west of the Mississippi any more?. . . We bring foreigners over here and give them jobs, we send millions overseas for relief, and yet, our own little Indian children can cry from cold and hunger and no one listens. Is this the Christian, American way? [italics added] Aside from the lying, cheating, legalized robbery associated with this ruthless scheme, against a helpless people, by a "Christian?" "Democratic?" Government, what comes after Termination? Is this what any minority group may expect? And we criticize Soviet Russia? [italics added] 19 Some letter-writers noted that the Indian Affairs situation as portrayed in the documentary had caused them to question the assumed connection between Christian ethics and the operations of the U.S. government. For example: We take pride in our nation for its fairness, decency, Christian spirit and democracy. If the report on this Sunday afternoon is true then we are in reality the opposite of all of those ideals. [italics added] 20

321 Such questioning carried the implication that the federal governments record of treatment of its indigenous peoples might have profoundly undermined the social and political ideals upon which the nations foundations were supposedly based. In contrast to those viewers who responded politically to the appeals of the television show--writing to politicians, legislators and federal bureaucrats in attempts to challenge political structures and policies--the viewers who responded to humanitarian appeals were more likely to respond to those who represented the institutions of altruism, most notably representatives of the Church (as it intersected with the Indian community in its missions). Church groups and other associations of a religious nature were also significant sources of humanitarian action. Christian rhetoric runs deeply throughout the viewer responses to program--sparked and encouraged, one imagines, by the prominent positioning of the Catholic priest in the film and the use of openly Christian rhetoric to frame, and even name, the documentary. Those viewers moved to humanitarian action, most of whom were women, often wrote to ask where and how they could ship relief goods, such as clothing and foods. Male viewers were more likely to send cash donations. The question of where to direct their altruistic impulse was one of personal choice. Many of the television viewers who wrote to one of the principals of the broadcast singled out one particular person as the one they expected to be most receptive to their personal vision of altruism. Many wrote directly to tribal leaders such as Wetzel and McKay to find out the mechanisms of social welfare and charitable distribution, while others (perhaps not so bold in intercultural communication) contacted McCormick and

322 Metcalf--perceived as easily accessible, sympathetic and avuncular white spokesmen for liberal humanism by middle-class white viewers. McCormick and Metcalf were frequent first contacts of viewers with humanitarian impulses, who wrote to find out how to contact other people portrayed in the film or just to ask for advice from their trusted journalist or Congressman. For example, McCormick received many letters such as the following: I have just watched your film on the Blackfeet people of [Montana]. I would like to contact one of the leaders of these people (one who really has the welfare of his people at heart). I would like to help at least one needy family with small children or an expectant mother who would not mind using clothing which my own children or friends of mind have outgrown. 21 I have just seen your wonderfully informative program, Kaleidoscope, on the American Indian. My compliments to you for some excellent reporting! Please send me the address of someone at " Hill 57," so that I can forward some winter clothing for an eight-year old boy. I would also appreciate the address of Dr. Byrne and the physical therapist. With God's blessings and the season's greetings. [italics added]
22

This is probably one of many letters you will read and then disregard. I hope not. Isn't it a shame how some people in our own United States just live from day to day and go unnoticed by the most of us? I am, of course, referring to your program of the Indians seen on Kaleidoscope yesterday. I was particularly interested in the Black-feet Indians of Montana. Could you supply me with information as to whom and where I can send clothing to these people? I won't be able to send much, but I will try getting some from neighbors and relatives. Thank you for reading my letter. [italics added] 23 Other readers wrote: I saw the film on the Indians and was greatly impressed and shocked. I knew that things were not good on that front, but there are so many demands on our time and money that we are inclined to believe that things are not as bad as rumored. Would you do a favor for me? Would you please send me the address of the priest in the Blackfoot film? We

323 are not wealthy by a long shot, but I should feel much better if I can send him a few dollars now and then. Would it do any good to write to the Bureau of Indian Affairs? [italics added] 24 The documentary film about the plight of the "American Indian" was enlightening and aroused much interest. As an ordinary citizen I cannot cope with the government but perhaps I can help the children of the tribe that have only the food received in school. May I have information as to where to send warm clothing? Perhaps, because I have 1/32 Cherokee blood prompts my solicitude. [italics added] 25 I am hoping that you can supply me with the address of the Tribal Council of the Blackfeet Indians. You see, I saw your The American Stranger several weeks ago (beautiful coverage) and was sickened to learn that our Government has not improved in its treatment of the Indians. How much I, as just an unimportant average citizen, can do--I don't know. But I'm certainly going to try. My employers are active members of Bnai Birth Council on Citizenship and Civic Affairs. They have agreed to present the problems of the Blackfeet to the Council but they must have a letter from the Tribal Council of Blackfeet presenting their problems and stating what they want done by Bnai Birth. That is my reason for requesting the address. I have a letter to the Blackfeet ready to go as soon as I receive a reply from you. Are you interested to know that your program moved at least one person to action? [italics added] 26 The two figures to whom the majority of altruistic viewers addressed their correspondence were Father Cornelius Byrne, the Jesuit priest at St. Ignatius Mission on the Flathead Reservation, and Iliff McKay of the Blackfeet Tribe. These were two of the films principal figures who were positioned on reservations, and were perceived by viewers as being appropriate contacts and mediators who would see that donations were distributed appropriately. Interestingly, some viewers confused the tribes, and expressed concerns to McKay about the Flathead, or to Byrne about the Blackfeet. In addition to these two visible television spokespersons, viewers also

324 addressed letters with donations and queries to the Blackfeet field office of the BIA--the very agency which was under intense criticism. Many viewers wrote to NBC seeking the address of Father Byrne. Apparently Father Byrnes rhetoric and/or manner endeared him to many viewers, especially those of the Catholic faith, who used him as their conduit into Christian benevolence. Some letters to Byrne were expressions of admiration at his courage for taking a position at odds with that of the federal government (Byrne had a long history as a feisty and rebellious, and generally outspoken, advocate for Indian rights in the face of what he viewed as federal oppression): Good Father: I saw you on Mr. McCormicks television program concerning the shameful conditions under which American Indians are forced to exist, and I wish to compliment (and praise) your devout and courageous defense of these noble people. May our Father in heaven guide and direct your unselfish and humane fight on behalf of those Indian people so unfairly treated by our Federal Government. 27 Some writers sent one-time contributions of money or clothing to Byrne as a momentary result of seeing the television documentary and feeling moved to some sort of action: Please look for large insured box with winter sweaters, a coat, etc. to be shared with the neediest Indians there. We saw Kaleidoscope last Sunday--my heart did ache for them. Born in Montana but havent been home to Great Falls for 2 years --only wish there was something we could do financially but have two of our own. Much love and God bless you for your wonderful work. 28 However, many writers established an ongoing relationship with Byrne over the next several months and years, most of them in positions of benevolent giving to support the work of the St. Ignatius mission. It is important to note that not all humanitarian donors were wealthy or affluent. Their motivations for wanting to help the Indians were

325 varied, and sometimes included receiving prayers for themselves from the priest. For example, a California woman wrote to Byrne a number of times with offers of benevolence: Dear Reverend Father, I wonder just what you need at your mission? I saw the sad plight of the Indians on a TV show last Sunday and would like to collect clothing for them if I can and if that is what you need. Do you need Catholic literature of any kind? I may be getting some and I could let you have it if you need it. I am poor and ill but will be glad to do whatever I can for you if my health permits. 29 The same woman wrote again, this time with more urgency, and with an agenda for altruistic giving that seemed to establish a hierarchy of neediness among potential recipients of her gifts: Dear Reverend Father, Please respond to this immediately. I have some lovely rosaries, medals with chain, statues, placques [sic], etc. . . would you like them for the Indians for Christmas gifts? I want them to go only to the poorest Indians! As they were sent to me for Missions and I have to make sure they go where real poverty is! Do reply at once or I wont have time to get them to you by Christmas . . . and do make sure you really need them more than other Missionaries! I have a conscience and scrupples [sic]. . . but Id be most happy to make some Indian people have a joyous Christmas. . . . I am a shut-in so a prayer for me will be appreciated.[italics added] 30 Her next letter: My husband is mailing the package to you today. . .Now, there are a few clothes in it. . . later I hope somehow to get you better things! In the middle of the box, well protected by the clothing, are the presents for the Indians for Christmas! . . . God love you! I will send what I can when I can . . . money is kind of a big obstacle . . . but God provided today . . . we can hope and pray that He will provide whenever it is needed to mail something to you! We are quite poor. . . . 31 Another concerned viewer expressed to Father Byrne a desire to help in some way, despite her own financial situation:

326 I witnessed Mr. Robert McCormicks television showing of what the Indians are going through. We are not wealthy people but I would like to do something for maybe one family who have children. I thought you could tell me what would be needed most, baby things or warm clothing. I felt so sorry for those poor souls . . . . I have sent you a box of baby clothes for an Indian baby and am enclosing with this letter $5.00 to be used as you see fit. 32 Many others took it upon themselves to send clothing. Note the tone of paternalistic chivalry with which some of these benefactors writing to Byrne expressed their view of Indians as a once-noble people now reduced to a state of dependence upon the goodness of the Church and State acting in pseudo-parental roles: After viewing the Kaleidoscope program via TV last Sunday, I decided, provided you feel it is the right thing to do, to send a box of clothing and a few small trinkets which might help to brighten the holidays for the female members of the Blackfeet tribe . . . . I do not know just what your ideas and wishes are concerning the type of articles you believe your charges should have. Perhaps some of them would prove too frivolous, or too glamorous--I shouldnt think so. No matter how poverty-stricken, surely some little possession of an ornamental nature must bring a great deal of happiness into a life so drab. I know Indians in their former ideal way of life had a great love of and wore many beautiful pieces of jewelry. But you will be the judge of that and in case these things do not prove suitable, please give them to some other organization, perhaps in the town. [italics added] 33 An occasional letter to Byrne touched upon his political points as well as on the nurturing side of his Christian mission efforts: Enclosed is a check for your work. I am on retirement and not able to give as much as I would like for your real Christian work which is most needed to take the blot off our Democracy, which our neglect and broken promises to the First Americans has brought about. 34 Frequently, those who wrote to Byrne were determined to send humanitarian relief rather than becoming involved in political action, despite Byrnes efforts to

327 arouse their political consciousness. A Kentucky man established a correspondence with Byrne: I am writing about the television program that I saw you on. . . . In my brief travels out West I did not get to see the pathetic conditions that the once-famous American Indian is in. It is indeed a condition that is difficult to remedy; that being the Federal Governments position on the American Indians. The reason I am writing this is that maybe in some small way I can be of help to you in your plight to help the American Indian. I do not know just what services I can render, but I am sure that I can send you a small contribution to help you with your work. 35 Byrne replied to this letter with an extended political explanation outlining a preliminary approach to Indian self-determination: I deeply appreciate [your] letter. As you so well wrote, It is indeed a condition that is difficult to remedy as regards the American Indian of today. Part of the problem, if not the major one, in dealing with the Indians, comes from a mistaken idea that non-Indians, including the Federal Government, are the logical ones to chart the Indians future place not to say his present place within our multi-diversified democratic way of life within these United States of America. But this is a false criterion, and I believe, at the bottom of most of the problems which up to the present defy a solution. Byrne continued: The real ones to solve the Indians problems are the Indians themselves. It is true that they need considerable assistance from the Federal Government to bring to fruition their hopes and their aspirations but the final decisions should be their own. Too long has the government planned for the Indians. The days when that was proper have long ago passed away. Today, the Government officials should sit down with the Indian leaders and with them work out a constructive program of rehabilitation progressive integration to meet the conditions which now prevail. But there should be no forcing the Indian into a mold. The choice of adaptation to their present needs and benefit should be theirs not ours, the white man. Ending on a note of encouragement, Byrne said: Of course you can be of real service, Mr. Zinner. Whatever you decide to send us, and I speak in the name of the Indians, will be of help. I shall

328 promise to keep you informed as to our progress. May the good God be with you. 36 In response to this abstract political treatise, Mr. Zinner of Kentucky responded in terms of immediate and practical material needs: I was very glad to hear from you. The Indians do have a difficult problem, I agree. I want to write just a small note and ask you this: would there be any need among the Indians for clothing? By this, I chiefly mean mens clothing. Occasionally we have several pieces of clothing I am sure you could use or would be of some help to you. 37 The following summer, Byrne received another letter from Zinner: This is to inform you of a few happenings that will be of interest to you. First, I would like to say this--I am mailing a package to you which contains clothing that I hope will be distributed among the needy Indians. Second, I feel very sure that I will have an opportunity to visit with you sometime during the week of July 12. I do not know exactly when I will be there, but it will be around the week of July 12. I hope that these clothes will be of some use to the Indians that need them. I will be looking forward to seeing you sometime during the week I mentioned. May the good Lord send Blessings on your work with the Indians. 38 In correspondence to Byrne from a Connecticut couple, we are able to see the ecumenical nature of the Christian gesture of benevolence, as well as the paternalistic tone of altruistic imperialism that pervades many of these letters: The NBC Kaleidoscope program, The American Stranger, made a deep impression. Through the good offices of NBC we obtained your name and address. Mrs. Bender would like to gather clothing for some of your wards and she would like to know if it would be best to send such things to you from time to time for distribution. We realize this might well be an extra burden on you, and if so, possibly you could send us the name and address of someone or some family who might care to have things. For the present may I ask that you use the enclosed check for candy or sweets for the children this holiday season--for what is a holiday without sweets. Neither Mrs. Bender nor I are of the Roman Catholic faith, but we have the greatest admiration for the Jesuits and their work all over the world. [italics added] 39

329 I am sending you a box of clothing which I hope will help in a small way. I would like to point out that all articles are washed and cleaned before sending. But all articles will not be ironed as it would seem pointless because of all the wrinkles they will receive before arriving. All articles will be marked for size so it will be easy for your group to give away. . . . I think Mr. Bender told you that we belong to the Episcopal Church and believe very strongly in helping those in need. So if we can help in this small way we are happy. 40 Similarly, many of the letters establish a discourse of proprietary ownership or possession of the Indians by Byrne and other agents of altruistic imperialism: Since I saw The American Stranger on television last fall, I have wanted to help your Indian people. Here is a little money for you to use for them as you see fit. Perhaps I can send more later...to you or to the school. Would the school mind if I sent some second-hand clothing?[italics added] 41 Byrnes responses to some of the gifts indicate a proprietary feeling of paternalism on his part as well: Many thanks for the overcoat which arrived yesterday. We have had some pretty cold weather so far this year. . . . Thank you for your kindness towards our Indians, Mr. Lefler. God bless you and your loved ones. [italics added] 42 It was very kind of you to remember our Indians with your gift of $10.00. As for clothing, we would most happily welcome it. As a matter of fact, we have a social group set-up managed by our Indian women. These women handle the clothing distribution to the satisfaction of all. This work is also a valuable training field in acquainting the Indians with their own needs and the proper handling of them. . . . [italics added] 43 Many of the relationships with Byrne extended for months and even years, as the benefactors continued to send shipments of clothing and trinkets for the Indians at the mission, especially during the winter and holiday seasons. Some of the initial letters in response to Byrnes appearance on The American Stranger were not written for several months after the program, demonstrating the lasting effect the broadcast

330 had upon the consciences and memories of its viewers. One woman wrote, I was looking at television sometime the latter part of November 1958 (before I had a heart attack which put me in bed three and a half months off and on). This is why I couldnt write to you sooner or I most certainly would have wrote to you before this. Her letter continued: I saw how our wonderful American Indians are treated by our own kind. As I have two daughters who have children and pretty nice clothes. I also have some shoes never worn I bought as they are far too long for me. I would like very much to send some things on to you. But I do want to know your correct address and can I help you a bit in any way. Can I send some rosaries and holy pictures to you for our friends the Indians. I am enclosing $5.00 for you just say a prayer for me and Ill appreciate it more than words can express. A prompt reply will be appreciated so I can send some things on to you. 44 A second letter from the same writer continued: I must apologize for not answering your May 4 letter sooner. I have two married daughters. . . [and 7 grandchildren]. . . . I have been trying to get some clothes and etc. from Ethel Ann my daughter but she has been giving them to Mt. Carmel Guild. So now she promises me she will give me some soon. I have sent you a box but I have one almost ready to go off to you and another half filled. . . . I insured my package to you to make sure you received it. . . . 45 In general, Byrne seemed touched by the outpouring of support from around the nation which he received on behalf of the Salish-Kootenai Indians of the St. Ignatius area as a result of having appeared on the broadcast. In one letter to a concerned viewer he expressed some of his feelings: On behalf of our Indians, myself and our other missionaries, I wish to express my gratefulness for your letter and donation for our Indian People. It has always been difficult for me to understand the changing policy of the Indian Department in their guardian obligations on behalf of the Indians. Just when there seems to be a flicker of hope they seem to be in a haste to quench it before it turns into a flame and warms and brightens the lives of the official wards. Mr. Robert McCormick and the

331 National Broadcasting Company are to be highly congratulated for bringing the condition, helpless and in many cases despairing, of the Indians. 46 Ironically, it appears that Father Byrne never saw the documentary that initiated the flood of public support he received. In a letter to Robert McCormick, he said: Because I have not as yet heard and seen your TV Broadcast . . . I have hesitated to write you about it. However, so many letters of approval have reached me that I feel compelled to thank you for the opportunity you afforded me to speak for our Indians embracing a scope of listeners far beyond my deserts or possibilities. For this I thank you and your co-workers . . . as well as the NBC who made it possible for you to offer your services. . . .God bless you and NBC. Stick to your guns! As far as I am concerned, "The fight has just begun!" 47 National pro-Indian interest groups such as the NCAI and the AAIA also reported surges in financial contributions. Many such checks were sent to NBC or even (ironically) to the field offices of the BIA to be forwarded to the "needy Indians." Many concerned viewers contacted the Blackfeet Tribe directly; their letters provide a fascinating insight into the construction of Indianness in the public imagination as a combination of proud-though-fallen nobility, mythological ancestors of the American nation, and needy members of the lower classes suffering a distinctive plight. Individually and collectively, the letters from concerned viewers to the Blackfeet Tribe construct a social subjectivity of middle-to-working class whiteness and an accompanying sense of morally-outraged impotence in their perceived lack of power to effect any changes in the larger social system within which the historical inequalities based upon race, class and imperialism were being maintained and allowed to continue to flourish. The altruistic gestures by most of these citizens--a few dollars here, a box of clothing there--were merely guilt-assuaging band-aids to salve

332 the superficial pains of what were perceived to be much deeper and unfathomable social structural problems. Interestingly, many of those who wrote to the Tribe, or to Byrne, appear to place themselves on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale, and many of those who sent contributions noted that they were a difficult sacrifice, more meager than they would like to have given. A woman writing to The True Blackfeet Indian Charity Organization implicitly expressed her skepticism about many of the so-called charities claiming to help Indian people: Watching TV Sunday evening I saw the Blackfeet Indians will be in need of many things--money, clothing and etc. I am a true American and so are they. It really touches my heart to see how those little children and elders are in need--my husband is just a working man, but I want to share in my own little way with those who need. I shall start out with a cash gift and clothing from us; then will collect all the clothing and cash I can from our neighbors. Charity begins at home and I would rather help your people than to give to foreign aid. Please let me know if I am on the right track and have contacted the right people, for I don't want to give to the wrong charity organization. I want all to go to the real Indian charity. No other or wrong organization. What I will give will hurt and I will have to do without something myself to give, which I am happy to do. When one gives that way its really from the heart. If our people throughout the country feel as I do the Indians will get lots of help from individuals like myself. Please let me know if you will accept clothing. I will pay the express there for whatever I shall send. Please let me hear at an early date. Thanking you in advance. P.S. If you should like to use this letter in any way for advertising for help In your reservation or otherwise you are welcome to do so. [italics added] 48 Iliff McKays files reflect a massive response from the public to the Blackfeet Tribe evoked by the conditions portrayed on The American Stranger. As Tribal Secretary, McKay himself responded to each of the letters, and like the case of Father Byrne, this

333 often resulted in long-term relationships by mail. McKay received a number of letters from people merely wanting to establish a relationship with him or with a tribal member; some were seeking intercultural friendships, some wanted advice or information. Many of those writing to McKay used various indicators of social status to try to establish a sense of solidarity between themselves and Indian people. Of those seeking to help out in some way, many sent small cash donations (ranging from a dollar or two up to $20 or so) to the Tribe. Most of these were enclosed in letters such as the following: I am distressed by the plight of your people as reported on television today by Robert McCormick, and would like to do what I can to help. Will you suggest where I can get further information. . . . Do you have an organization which collects clothing, foodstuffs, etc.? I am enclosing a token check for your relief fund or whatever other purpose you wish to assign it. I would like to do whatever else I can. Please make suggestions. 49 Much like Byrne, McKay often replied to such letters with an attempt to inform the viewers about the political and social situation faced by theTribe, and emphasized the need to use the media to make the American public aware of, and involved in, the politics of Indian Affairs. For example, he replied to the above correspondent: Thank you very much for the check, [which] will be deposited in the welfare fund of the Tribe. But more than that, thank you for the interest in the affairs of the Blackfeet. We who live here have realized for years that our condition is growing progressively worse and that without the assistance of a sympathetic American public and National Administration, we will have little to look forward to. . . . Our greatest problem has been getting our case before the American Public in order that they may judge for themselves whether or not conditions on Indian reservations should be allowed to continue. It is hard to describe some of those conditions to anyone who has not actually come into contact with them. But I think Mr. McCormick did a creditable job.

334 Another viewer sent a $20 check for the children of the Tribe, to which McKay replied: I feel certain that with the interest of people like yourself, the new year will bring a change in the policies of the Federal government affecting Indian affairs and ultimately, the improvement of conditions among our people. Still others expressed indignation in sympathy with Americas native people:How our government can give away so much of our money to other countries and let our own people suffer is more than I can understand. 50 For many of these concerned citizens, their letter to McKay was a second step, after first writing or calling McCormick, Metcalf or a pro-Indian organization to find out how to get in touch with the Blackfeet Tribe. In fact, some of the contributors had originally sent their donations to the Blackfeet Agency--the local offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs--but found their checks returned by them: Under federal regulations we have no way of handling the money through government channels. One writer who enclosed a check for $3 said he was moved by the telecast, had called the AAIA offices in New York and was referred to McKay, writing, Trusting that more beneficial legislation will be forthcoming and that things will get better for your tribe. McKay replied, Certainly they must. 51 Some viewers took it upon themselves to ship boxes of used clothing for the needy Blackfeet, especially the children. We want to help you by sending food and clothing, said one Pennsylvania woman. 52 Yet many viewers wrote to the Tribe wanting to send donations of some kind but wanted to be sure of what might be needed or welcomed. Many of these expressed some consciousness about, and

335 sensitivity to, the cultural and class politics involved in such altruistic giving, and took pains to distance themselves from the social pretensions of charity--or took pains to avoid any gestures that might be insulting: I saw the TV program. . . and I really want to help in my poor way. . . . I have this thought in mind. I discard lots of clothes in good condition and wondered if I could send them to these people. Occasionally I could send a box of new items. . . . If this idea is not in line with your peoples needs or not correct please tell me. Anything you suggest within reason, I would be glad to do because I truly want to help. One thing is a consolation--our Government might not be good, but our God is. [italics added] 53 I hardly know how to begin except to say I have learned of your needy circumstances with winter approaching for warm clothing for children and adults alike, and I want to know if in my small way I can collect clothing, canned food in fact anything suitable I can get if you would please accept these things on our behalf. I dont know how much I can collect but you can believe me it will be all I can get. Please don't think of this as charity; it is something I will be most humble and proud to do, because I sincerely believe you and your people deserve it, and much, much more. . . . I want to do what I can, and will be very happy if you will say "yes" it is alright. My husband is in agreement with me and is urging me to start collecting from my friends but I wanted to write and ask you first; I don't want to offend anyone. I will be anxiously awaiting your reply. Please sir, dont fail me. I will be very proud to hear from you. [italics added] 54 It was extremely distressing to view over television recently the trials and tribulations confronting your great tribe. I sincerely hope you will not consider me presumptuous when asking if you would be interested in receiving from time to time packages of used personal clothing. [italics added] 55 Other viewers suggested interesting and creative ways they might be able to help: Im sorry this check is so small and the need is so large. If it does any good it will be because of your fine management . . . . Id like to send you some wool (in skeins, spun) if you can use it to knit sweaters and so forth. McKay encouraged the gift,

336 offering to give the wool to the Blackfeet Sewing Club. Another woman had a similar idea: Writing to find out if I could do something to help. I would like to know if I could do some sewing for the children in the hospital? For instance, I could make diapers or nightgowns for the babies at my own expense. My friends give me quite a few things in clothing. . . . Would you please let me know if you would let me do this for your people? 56 Another housewife of modest circumstances penned the following letter to McKay, offering to hand-knit mittens for the Blackfeet children: Yesterday on our TV I watched a program Kaleidoscope with the theme for the day The American Stranger on the status of the American Indian today. . . . Much of it was from your reservation, I believe. This report was shocking and I for one am much ashamed for the way our government has done with you. I honestly believe that not many of us really have any idea of what is happening. No doubt more such programs would help but it needs more than that. What can a housewife of very modest circumstances do to help cure this ill? [italics added] 57 McKays reply again reinforced the altruistic gesture while simultaneously trying to provide an understanding of the enormity of the political and social structural problems: You have probably already done more than most people for Indians simply by interesting yourself in our affairs. We have a real problem. Because of the peculiarity of government on Indian reservations, most of our affairs are dependent upon the views of members of Congress and the national administration. As many of those people are from the eastern states and do not have occasion to come into contact with Indians, the awareness of our situation is limited. The fact that there are only about 400,000 Indians in the U.S. does not help to bring these deplorable conditions to the publics attention.

337 Some viewers were politicized by the television show, and in addition to their gestures of altruism, wrote to the Tribe expressing their outrage and shame upon being reminded about the policies that their racially-defined white American nation had been implementing in its dealings with American Indians for several centuries. I seen a television show last night. It told of your tribes financial distress. I must admit I was quite disgusted and ashamed of my race. Im not the sort of person who is carried away by situations. While Ive never written to a congressman or other government official Im sure doing it now. I intend to write to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and my congressman and let them know what I think of their handling of Indians. Before I rant and rage any more let me tell you the reason for my writing you. While my husband and I are far from wealthy I do have some warm winter clothes for children. They are in good condition and at least a couple of kids would be warm. [Signed, ] One disgusted white American 58 This particular viewer, upon receiving a response from McKay, sent several shipments of used clothing, shoes ( I hope someone has big feet . . .) and toys over the next several months, including an electric train set. In a subsequent letter, she thanked McKay for his correspondence, apologizing for her vituperative remarks: Thank you for taking time out to answer my letter. I was quite steamed up when I wrote you. Really Im not a fanatic. Other viewers made efforts to establish personal relationships through which they might be able to make a difference in the lives of a Blackfeet family to whom they might relate. Many of the donations were also considered as Christmas gifts, due to the season in which the documentary was aired; traditions of benevolence during the December holiday season have been prevalent throughout American culture, and especially among those celebrating religious holidays:

338 You were referred to me by Mr. Robert McCormick. . . . I watched the picture on television which he made about the Blackfeet People. I realize that some of them are cold and hungry this winter and I would like to help a family if they would let me. My paternal grandfather was French-Indian so I feel a sort of kinship to these people. I have some warm clothing which my children have outgrown and some baby clothes and several maternity dresses size 16. I am a Catholic. Would you please tell me how to reach someone who could use these items. Also you might let me know what is the greatest necessity needed and anything in food and medicine. I am not well to do but I want to share what I have. I will be getting a box ready and perhaps if you let me know in time it can go out for Christmas. McKay replied with a little dig at the federal government, which celebrated his peoples historical resistance to the assimilationist tactics of the BIA, while ironically acknowledging the success of the assimilationist strategies by Catholic missionaries: I am also a Roman Catholic. In fact, recent surveys show that 90% of our tribe are Catholic. This, in spite of the fact that in the late 1890's and early 1900's, the [BIA] assigned Methodist missionaries to the Blackfeet reservation to Christianize the people. 59 McKays ability to engage his correspondents in lengthy relationships with him, personally, as well as with theTribe, was probably related to his personal style of self-expression. A fluent and articulate speaker and writer, McKay managed to bridge the cultural gaps between his reservation society and the varied social worlds within which his many correspondents were positioned by playing up the similarities between himself and them, by the sincere appreciation he conveyed to the donors for their thoughtfulness, and by his gentle and patient pedagogy as he tried to explain to them the social and political position of his tribe in the larger structure of American society. However rooted their gestures may have been in an ideology of imperial

339 benevolence and altruism, McKay never invoked any criticism of them even when they opened themselves up to it.

COLLECTIVE RELIEF EFFORTS In addition to individual instances of humanitarian action by scattered social agents, there were also concerted efforts to focus the altruistic impulses of entire communities on the socioeconomic problems facing Americas Indian reservations. This means that some viewers, aroused by the broadcast, took it upon themselves not only to make a donation or write a letter expressing a political conviction but also to organize and publicize a second-level wave of action in response to the broadcast. Women across the nation organized local church, school and community food and clothing drives in their own communities, using word of mouth and localized media to launch local-to-local relief efforts to benefit the Montana Indians portrayed on the television broadcast. Sometimes, this happened on a small scale. For example, a Kentucky woman began corresponding with McKay, offering outgrown childrens shoes and a small cash contribution for the Tribe. She noted that she had shared her perceptions from The American Stranger with the women of her church, who now also wanted to know how they could help. McKay replied, The needs of our people are great, particularly those of our children. Many of them lack warm clothing, he declared, adding some insights about the federal boarding schools that still existed on the reservation, but more than that, the families and the means to provide it. Anything you care to send will be distributed among the children. McKay received a subsequent letter to let him

340 know that boxes had been mailed, and indicating that more would be forthcoming: The women in my church guild met Tuesday, were quite interested in your letter, and I have high hopes that clothing contributions will send more boxes your way. 60 Similarly, McKay received numerous letters from local clubs (mostly womens clubs and church groups) informing him that boxes of clothing for the needy Indians were on their way. McCormick and Metcalf, in particular, also received much correspondence from local groups wanting to help in some way, but unsure about what the best way to go about it might be. For example, McCormick received these letters: I just got done viewing your program, NBC Kaleidoscope, pertaining to the Indians. It really makes a person ashamed of ones self to see what we so-called humanitarian, civilized, Christians have done to the original American. As International Relations Chairman of our local Woman's Club, I am writing to ask if you could possibly put me in Contact with one of the very intelligent & educated young men with whom we attended the Council Meeting in regard to help for the needy of the Blackfeet tribe. I feel possibly, we could at least gather up some toys & clothing for these unfortunate people, if it would be acceptable to them, but it is also necessary for me to have information at hand to present to my club. You may feel that American Indians are not International & therefore ignore my request, but believe me I am sincere when I say "Charity starts at home" & at present we do have an International project, but I feel my sister club women would be glad to take on another project in the Confines of our own United States. So please, Mr. McCormick, if you can't comply with my request, at least let me know you received my letter. More power to you, keep opening the eyes of the lack-a-dasical American Public with more programs like today's. 61 Other viewers wrote:

341 It was with a great deal of interest that I viewed your recent television presentation which dealt with the American Indian and his problems. As a result of having seen it, the Social Education and Action Committee of the First Presbyterian Church of Alameda will present in February a program touching upon the national Indian situation and, more specifically, the local situation, and how our church can be of assistance to these people. As Chairman of this Committee, I wish to ask if you have any recommendations as to how this problem should be dealt with locally. What can be done by a Committee such as ours to assist in bringing about adequate living conditions and proper administration of the Indians' rightful assets? We will appreciate any suggestions, recommendations and advice that you may care to give us. 62 I was one of the many interested listeners to your program last night, and was moved to ask if you can give us an address to send clothing so that it might be distributed especially to the school children (Indian). I am the president of a ladies church group and we do things like that, we would be happy to be of service. Awaiting your reply. 63 After viewing The American Stranger, a Sunday School teacher at a Baptist Church in Dallas wrote to McCormick: We feel that as a department we would like to tell all the other fourteen-year-olds in the Southern Baptist Church the way in which we could help the American Indian. . . . We feel that a person of a group with information could get this underway in the Southern Baptist Church as a missionary project and could really help . . . start a good campaign. Our kids are all fired up because six of them are of Indian descent. 64 Congressman Metcalf received similar letters, such as these: A few weeks ago you appeared on TV in a program about the hardships of the Montana Indians. My Sunday School classes wish to have a clothing campaign here for the Indian children, and we are wondering where to take these things when collected. We wish to have it completed and given to them by Xmas. Would you please let me know as soon as possible where these things should be delivered. 65 I listened to you with great interest on the recent program The American Stranger on NBC. As a result, on behalf of the Womens Society of First Methodist Church of New Haven, Connecticut, I have been asked to write you for information. We contribute financially to mission work among Indians and it is of great importance to us to know we are using our funds wisely, and in a moral fashion. 66

342 In addition to the numerous donations of funds and clothing by various local church groups and womens clubs across the country, the archival records indicate at least three major efforts to launch large-scale community-wide relief drives in their localities to benefit the Blackfeet Tribe. These are cases in which the reception of The American Stranger went beyond sparking an individual reaction by a viewer--rather, it ignited a second wave of community activism that engaged people in altruistic gestures who had not actually seen the television show themselves. These three efforts, all in the cultural corridor of what might be called the middle American heartland (Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois), utilized different strategies but all involved an motivated female leader, energized by the television documentary, who used all the resources at her disposal to raise contributions for the Blackfeet Tribe. After watching the NBC documentary, an Ohio elementary schoolteacher, Margaret Boop, wrote to both Metcalf and McKay with a proposition, which she explained in this letter to Metcalf: I saw the story of the Blackfeet Indians on television yesterday. I was, to say the least, upset by what was shown. I have an idea for a small "drop in the bucket." Will you please inform me of its feasibility? If it is feasible I would like to know the proper procedure. Each year my pupils give me gifts at Christmas. It has always been a guilty pleasure to me. I have 3 small boys and need none of the gifts. Seeing my children well-provided for and having the privilege of teaching is quite enough. My class and I decided that they would give me canned meat, milk and vegetables. We in turn would like to send them to the Indians. With 5000 jobless I'm sure it won't go far but perhaps it would feed a few boys and girls. We wish we could do more. If you think letters to the President would help we will do that. My class and I are truly concerned that real Americans could be so shamefully treated. 67

343 Boop wrote to McKay, asking him which type of donation he would prefer (canned meats, milk and vegetables or clothing): We truly hope this idea is workable. If it isnt is there any way we can help? We will even write President Eisenhower if it would help. McKay replied: A letter to President Eisenhower certainly wouldnt do any harm. Our greatest problem has always been making people aware of conditions on Indian reservations. Not that it is our intention to ask for charity, but we believe real understanding can come from knowledge. Our most urgent immediate need is for clothing for school children. There are too many children who go to school inadequately clothed because they too know that they must have knowledge of this great country and the world; but most of all because they know that in school they will find friendship and a warm meal. On these childrens behalf, we will be glad to accept anything you may wish to send. In a Christmas card the next month, Boop wrote: Dear Mr. McKay, I started 130 lbs of clothing on its way to you this afternoon. Some of the clothing may not be usable but the whole school joined in. Some of our children are in need also and I didnt have the heart to turn down any gift. I hope you will understand. I am still concerned about the situation of your people. I hope my letter will do some good. I will pray too. Somehow I know this injustice cant continue. The card was signed: The Boops--Bud, Margaret, Mike, Clayton and Buddie. Another project spearheaded by a schoolteacher was Operation: Blackfoot, a community relief drive held in Gages Lake, Illinois which attempted to engage community members both politically and altruistically. McKay was initially contacted by Mrs. Donald Martin a few weeks after the broadcast of The American Stranger: As a result of the television program presented on November 16--NBC Kaleidoscope--about the Blackfoot Tribe, our school is conducting a program entitled OPERATION: BLACKFOOT. We hope to collect

344 several hundred cans of food and send them to you to be distributed at Christmas time to the needy members of the tribe. We are hoping that the coverage we receive in our local paper will prompt other groups to conduct similar program. In the newspaper story I would like to present some facts about the situation as it exists at the present time--that is: how many people are living on the reservation, your exact location in Montana, the amount of money needed to see you through the winter, the reasons given by the government as to why they can't help you and any other facts that you think are pertinent to the situation. I am a teacher and I am most interested in the Indian situation. Since traveling in the southwest last Summer I have been most upset at some of the deplorable situations that we found in some Indian localities. I hope that I can stir up a small storm in the community and truly hope enough small storms will create a "tornado" of help in Washington. It's high time we started doing something for our own Americans. Please answer promptly in the enclosed envelope. There's not much time until Christmas and we want to get our program under way. McKay responded with a geography lesson about the location, topography and climate of the Blackfeet reservation, along with the following demographic and socioeconomic assessment which included many truths of the Blackfeet situation, from McKays perspective: There are approximately 4900 members of our tribe living on the reservation. It is estimated that this figure represents 980 families or 5 members to a family. At least 800 of these families require some assistance during the winter months as there is no employment available for them. They lack the skills to go elsewhere in quest of work. Also, the nation-wide recession has not helped any. This has resulted in less families leaving the reservation this year in search of work than there have ever been. I would not try to estimate the needs of our people for the winter months. It surely is much more than the $50,000.00 we were able to spend last year. With this much money we were able to only provide those in need of assistance with an average of $1.15 per week per individual in each

345 family. A family of five was allowed $7.50 per week and a family of ten $11.25 per week. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, a bureau of the Department of the Interior, say they are not able to help us because we "have resources of our own." Further, they say we should audit our Tribal records and show we are entirely without funds. Our immediate need, of course, is to alleviate the suffering from cold and improve the diet of our people. Many of our children go to school inadequately clothed in order that they may get a warm meal through the hot-lunch program. They know they must have an education, but their pride and the pride of their parents probably would not permit them to go to school with no overshoes, holes in their shoes, and worn clothing if it were not for the fact that they know at least they will be fed. McKay continued: Our greatest need is for a development program which will allow us to develop our land before we are forced to lose it. We cherish the land as little else. Before they were Christianized, the land played a prominent part in the religion of our people. Many still cling to this religion although they practice other faiths. But the Federal government seems to feel we do not need land. They seem to think that as long as we have land we have an asset and should either convert this asset to cash or starve. This line of thinking must be changed if we are to develop as a race and as individuals. Otherwise we must be committed to that group of ghostly, unthinking shapes which drift on the fringes of society who are never quite released but never quite belong. In early January, Martin wrote again to McKay with good news: Im so thrilled to be able to tell you that 603 pounds of food left us today for your people in Browning. Our OPERATION: BLACKFOOT project was most successful. Our schoolchildren brought many, many cans of food and placed them under our school Christmas tree for our Indian friends. One fourth grade class decided to send the mittens from their Christmas mitten tree. Martin explained that their efforts ran into trouble as they tried to find ways to transport the food:Railway express was much too expensive as was Northwest Orient Airlines. Freight was out because of the unheated cars. Most sources of transportation did not come so far north. Finally . . . we found that the Greyhound Bus Lines came right

346 through Browning. Their prices were right, too! The American Junior Red Cross offered to share expenses . . . [for] eleven boxes altogether. [Watching] the food being put on board was the culmination of the many happy hours I spent working on the project. In another letter, she added: We received wonderful publicity in the local paper and in the Chicago Tribune. We were also asked to speak of the project over the local radio station. I sincerely hope that the publicity received will prompt other groups to conduct similar programs. McKay replied: The food arrived promptly and in good condition. It was given to Earl Old Person, a councilman from the Starr School district on the reservation. This district is made up almost entirely of full-blooded Blackfeet Indian people. Earl took the food into the homes personally, and reported to me that it was most gratefully received. The mittens which Mrs. Hamlins class sent were sent to the Heart Butte district. . . .Your students will be glad to know that some of the little kids they saw on the TV program received the mittens. They were particularly timely. We have just had a three weeks spell of thirty below zero weather. I know you and your fellow workers will be heartened to know that during this cold spell, many little childrens hands were almost as warm as your hearts as a result of your generous gifts. But no warmth could be as great as that in my heart. To me nothing is as frank nor as fine as the generosity of children . . . a generosity without guile or ulterior motive. And you and your fellow workers are to be congratulated for the guiding of this near-divine virtue. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you. 68 The following winter, the schoolchildren of Gages Lake, Illinois participated in an encore project to gather clothing for the children of the Blackfeet Reservation. The third major secondary drive to publicize the needs of members of the Blackfeet Tribe was spearheaded by a resourceful York, Pennsylvania woman named Lois Kressler who originally initiated a correspondence with McKay shortly after the

347 broadcast. She began what appears to be a joint political and humanitarian effort on behalf of the Blackfeet as well as taking on the entire issue of termination with her legislators. The following excerpts of one of her letters to McKay indicate her strong feelings on the issues, along with her advice to the Tribe: I plan to send a box of warm clothing, blankets and other sundry articles this week. Another lady and I have been trying desperately, without success, to have clothing shipped to your tribe without charge. We can get the articles, but neither of us can afford the freight charges. Therefore I am sending my box and whatever it costs, under $25.00, the remainder will be sent you in cash for food and/or clothing, blankets or whatever else your needy people deserve. I have written our states U.S. senator who appears interested in our problem. However the Senate does not convene until January, so again, time elapses for action. This letter was signed by 17 persons. Mr. McKay, I am quite unfamiliar with the thoughts and mannerisms of the Blackfeet tribe. Do they believe in their tribal council? My purpose in asking that is--millions of us do not want to see your tribe face termination. We understand various members own untold valuable acres of oil and natural gas-rich land. Whatever in the world is done with this land, DO NOT SELL IT!!! Your people would get a mere pittance of its actual worth when if it were leased to a reputable oil or natural gas industry and a goodly percentage of the profits obtained from the resources, your tribe would be worth millions! A good attorney or perhaps your minister could help in this matter. Please do not sell your valuable land and acquiesce into disaster. We must fight, and pray.

348 We cannot sit back and not make a move to better you peoples lives! Could we not write the government requesting a similar rehabilitation program for your tribe [to that of the Navajo]?. . . Mr. McKay, I am only one person trying desperately to help your people. I have had a college education, a business education, have worked in an attorneys office for 8 years and a research and development office for 2 years to which I return in January after having a baby daughter this past September, our first child. My husband is a poorly-paid bus driver. However, we are warm and have enough to eat and [are] fortunate in our own small way. Then, we understand that some of your Indians are well-to-do. Would it not be possible for your Council to set up a United Indian Fund for which you might solicit funds and use this money to help your less fortunate or buy more food or cattle to raise. I cannot do much by myself, Mr. McKay, money-wise. I hope you can accomplish my first suggestion about the land leasing and in turn, help your people to riches. May God be with you and yours. [P.S.] . . . We firmly believe with your Councils intelligent leadership, the Blackfeet Indians can pull themselves out of their slump, to keep fighting for a rehabilitation program for your people from our government. Dont be afraid to fight !!! Happy holidays to all of you! 69 Energized and full of benevolent policy-fighting spirit as a result of the television show and her correspondence with McKay, Kressler apparently wrote a Letter to the Editor in her local newspaper, the York Gazette and Daily, urging other members of the York community to join her efforts to send aid to the Blackfeet Tribe as well as to fight the politics of the termination efforts. As a direct result of her letter,

349 McKays records indicate many contributions from the York area (a number of them specifically crediting Kresslers letter). In addition to numerous small cash contributions, one of the most touching was a letter written in a childs careful handwriting which read, We are going to share our Christmas dinner with some little Black-Feet, signed by the five children of the Thompson family of Goose Hollow Farm, to which McKay replied: Dear Mrs. Thompson, I am enclosing a receipt for the contribution made by the children. This letter is really to them, but I address it to you because I want you to know how much we appreciate their wonderful gesture. Such true charity certainly reflects a home filled with love and the stability which I wish for my people. I know that because of your act, the lights at Christmas time will seem a little brighter for each of you; and with your spirit, the years ahead will bring only real happiness. 70 Another York woman wrote to McKay: We are sending you a few things to bring joy to the Indian families and hope we have health to continue to send them clothing. We my family love the Indian people, and we hope in a small way to keep in touch with them. Please have some Indian people write to us. Hope to see you all personally some day. 71 The attention drawn to Montana Indians also sparked interest in some communities in tackling their own local problems, as exemplified by a letter to McCormick from a California viewer: As a result of having seen [your program], the Social Education and Action Committee of the First Presbyterian Church of Alameda will present in February a program touching upon the national Indian situation and, more specifically, the local situation, and how our church can be of assistance to these people. As Chairman of this Committee, I wish to ask if you have any recommendations as to how this problem should be dealt with locally. 72

350 In summary, we are able to see the patterns of benevolent giving within the Christian paradigm of charitable social concern which emerged as a result of the pleas for service imbedded in the text of The American Stranger. The public response to these pleas followed long traditions of altruistic--and often imperialistic and condescending--involvement in both Christian and secular charities within American culture, although the most interesting observation to me is the understanding that the majority of the individual contributions of cash or goods came not from the affluent upper and upper-middle classes, but rather from members of the lower-middle and working classes. Part of this difference may be in self-presentation, since the phenomenon of attempting to establish a sense of class solidarity with the Indian people, minimizing anything smacking of condescending patronage, was obviously a factor. Yet other less measurable social indicators of the letter writers (impressionistic factors such as handwriting vs. typing, language style, and other expressions of class consciousness such as having problems paying postage) seem to reinforce a gross difference in the class and educational backgrounds (i.e., the cultural and economic capital) of those writing to send $3 or $5 or a box of to an Indian tribe as opposed to many of those who had written political letters to legislators, for example. This presents a complicated model of the economy of altruism in American society, in which altruism is not simply a top-down gesture but somehow involves a redistribution of goods and wealth at the lower levels as well, reflecting an ideology of charity that transcends the simple disposal of excess wealth.

TELEVISION AND THE SPECTACLE OF SUFFERING

351 Suffering is one of the existential grounds of human experience; it is a defining quality, a limiting experience in human conditions. It is also a master subject of our mediatized times. Images of victims of natural disasters, political conflict, forced migration, famine, substance abuse, the HIV pandemic, chronic illnesses of dozens of kinds, crime, domestic abuse, and the deep privations of destitution are everywhere. Video cameras take us into the intimate details of pain and misfortune. (Arthur Kleinman and Joan Kleinman, 1996) 73

Inspired by the writings of Clifford Orwin on Compassion and the Globalization of the Spectacle of Suffering, conservative cultural critic George Will has recently commented upon the moral dilemma wrought by the televisual trope of turning the cameras gaze upon the distress of fellow human beings. As an illustration predating televisions obsession with such imagery, he reminds us of Charles Dickens character Mrs. Jellyby of Bleak House: Mrs. Jellyby was the ditzy do-gooder who practices telescopic philanthropy. Her children were neglected and Londons poor went unnoticed outside her window because her gaze was fixed on the suffering natives of Borrioboola-Gha. She had, Dickens wrote, handsome eyes but they could see nothing nearer than Africa. 74 Television, both Will and Orwin agree, has enabled people sharing Mrs. Jellybys compassionate disposition to more clearly visualize the objects of their compassionate imaginations: Television pictures of real victims are pegs on which to hang our imagination (says Will, quoting Orwin). Medical anthropologists Joan and Arthur Kleinman have also recently addressed the growing significance of appropriated images of human suffering, especially in the visual language of television news. They argue that such images are

352 used strategically to appeal to audiences both emotionally and morally, and discuss their potential to mobilize popular sentiment and collective action. The Kleinmans contend that the commercialization of images of suffering--on the nightly news, for example--implicates such visual discourses in processes of global marketing and business competition: This globalization of suffering is one of the more troubling signs of the cultural transformations of the current era: troubling because experience is being used as a commodity, and through this cultural representation of suffering, experience is being remade, thinned out, and distorted. 75 If we consider the impact of The American Stranger in historical terms, perhaps the novelty of such documentary images of suffering brought into Americas living rooms was a contributing factor in the surge of humanitarian interest evoked by the broadcast. Today, four decades later, Will and Orwin claim, we have been bombarded with so many such images that we have developed an insensitivity to them: They can be turned off, or tuned out by people for whom television, always on and rarely noticed, is akin to audible wallpaper. . . . Television has a large menu of sufferers to choose from, and viewers can choose which to feel compassion for, until compassion exhaustion sets in. There is, as Orwin says, an interchangeableness of the sufferers that prevents powerful affective links between the viewers and the viewed and prevents television from developing permanent constituencies for any suffering group. . . . Orwin warns that the new abundance of televised suffering may desensitize rather than sensitize viewers, who become voyeurs of the global village. 76 This insight, which reflects todays cynical media consciousness as well as the cumulative effects of half a decade of television on our social consciousness, serves to reinforce the need to understand the social and political actions that occurred in response to The American Stranger squarely within their sociohistorical contexts

353 rather than evaluating them by todays standards. The imaging of poverty, and particularly children in poverty, was already conventionalized when the NBC camera began rolling to film the scenes at Heart Butte and on Hill 57. The television documentary followed in the tradition established by print journalism (e.g., Life magazine) and the Depression-era photojournalistic impulses represented by the documentary photography projects of rural America carried out by the federal Farm Security Administration under the supervision of Roy Stryker, best known for the renderings by such photographic artists as Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans, and Russell Lee. As an early television show to draw upon this trope that spectacularized poverty--a trope that would dominate television documentaries during its golden age in the next decade, especially during the New Frontier and Great Society periods of national social concern--The American Stranger worked textually to evoke the compassion and humanistic sympathies of its viewers in its portrayal of selected images of Indian poverty, on and off the reservations. That the spectacularization of suffering can elicit humanitarian compassion and philanthropic aid is unquestionable, yet the implications of the relationship textually constructed between altruistic viewer and spectacularized, suffering subject remain troublesome and embedded in class-based condescension and patronage. Will quotes Orwin as commenting: Our humanitarian impulses may fire, but they will also tend to sputter. On the one hand, we wish that we could help; on the other, we are only too likely to feel ourselves absolved by the fact of this very wish. Will himself asserts that Humanitarian intervention is noble precisely because it is not urgent--not closely

354 connected to vital national interests. So there is a mixture of high moral content and low practical content to humanitarian commitments. . . . 77 Cultural representations of suffering, the Kleinmans assert, are authorized by the institutions of a moral community, yet local cultural and social differences make the received cultural meaning of such representations necessarily partial and ideologically and ethically complex. Describing a photojournalists Pulitzer Prize-winning image of a starving Sudanese child--an analogy having direct relevance to an analysis of The American Stranger--as a classic instance of the use of moral sentiment to mobilize support for social action and as a photograph that created political testimony and drove people to act, they explore its political and moral assumptions: There is, for example, the unstated idea that this group of unnamed Africans cannot protect their own. They must be protected, as well as represented, by others. The image of the subaltern conjures up an almost neocolonial ideology of failure, inadequacy, passivity, fatalism, and inevitability. Something must be done, and it must be done soon, but from outside the local setting. The authorization of action through an appeal for foreign aid, even foreign intervention, begins with an evocation of indigenous absence, an erasure of local voices and acts. 78 These are some of the very implications the images presented by The American Stranger. The concept of altruism is deeply imbedded in an ideology of cultural dominance that constructs the society of the victims as ineffective and infantilized.

355 The spectacle of suffering evoked by The American Stranger evidently elicited a range of responses which constructed an equally diverse range of relationships between the altruistic viewer and the spectacularized, suffering subject. While the specter of paternalistic race/culture relations loomed large throughout almost all of the relationships--the objectification of your people (whether they were missionary Byrnes Indians or tribal leader McKays Indians) as a darker and more different , though intriguing, category of humanity--the axis of social class difference constructed a variable range of intercultural relationships between white viewer and Indian subject. While the relationships between working-class white viewers and the suffering Blackfeet subjects were constructed by the viewers as less different economically, thus producing an idealistic rhetoric of attempted socioeconomic solidarity and gestures at intercultural friendships (a rhetoric reinforced by McKays responses), such gestures to erase the cultural lines invariably ignored the deep historic and cultural experiences which generated the political issues at the heart of the termination debate. Most of those who tried to help the Indians failed to understand that these deep, structural cultural and political issues could not be assuaged even with trainloads full of used clothing and $3 checks.

356 NOTES TO CHAPTER FIVE

1. Vine Deloria, Jr. Custer Died for Your Sins: An American Indian Manifesto (New York: Macmillan, 1969) 1. 2. Sister M. Charles Muckenhirn, C. S. C., The Changing Sister (Notre Dame, Indiana: Fides Publishers, 1965) 23. She also cites William Feree, S.M., The Act of Social Justice (Dayton, Ohio: Marianist Publications, 1951) on this issue. 3. Muckenhirn, 23. 4. Muckenhirn, 37. See also OBrien. 5. Muckenhirn, 40-41. 6. John Power, S.A., Mission Theology Today (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1971) 4. 7. Robert Delavignette, Christianity and Colonialism (translated by J. R. Foster, New York: Hawthorn, 1964) 59. 8. Delavignette, 71. 9. Delavignette, 104-108. 10. Rene Pierre Millot, Missions in the World Today (translated by J. Holland Smith, New York: Hawthorn, 1961) 13-23. 11. Delavignette, 90-96. 12. Delavignette, 97; Millot, 125-126. 13. Delavignette, 100. 14. Delavignette, 104-108. 15. Gene Hillman, The Church as Mission (New York: Herder and Herder, 1965). 16. Power, 5. 17. Letter to Head of Council, Black-Feet Indian Reservation, dated 17 November 1958 from Evelyn Brown of Bantam, Connecticut. McKay Papers. 18. Letter to McCormick dated 16 November 1958 from Mrs. Isaac McDonough of

357 Tulsa, Oklahoma. McCormick Papers. 19. Letter to McCormick dated 19 November 1958 from Leonard R. Matthews of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. McCormick Papers. 20. Letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs dated 16 November 1958 from Rev. Glenn Toler of Kansas City, Missouri. McCormick Papers. 21. Letter to McCormick dated 16 November 1958 from Mrs. Yvonne Latta of Wyandotte, Michigan. McCormick Papers. 22. Letter to McCormick dated 16 November 1958 from Helen M. (Mrs. N.J.) Mirabile of East Hartford, Connecticut. McCormick Papers. 23. Letter to McCormick dated 17 November 1958 from Mrs. Eugene Merx of Temperance, Michigan. McCormick Papers. 24. Letter to McCormick dated 27 November 1958 from Cecil W. Perry of Riverside, Illinois. McCormick Papers. 25. Letter to McCormick dated 20 November 1958 from Margaret C. (Mrs. Frank F.) Barker of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. McCormick Papers. 26. Letter to McCormick dated 30 November 1959 from Stella Egbert of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. McCormick Papers. 27. Letter to Byrne dated December 1958 from Richard McColley of Zenith, Washington. Byrne Papers. 28. Letter to Byrne dated 19 November 1958 from Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Small of Knoxville, Tennessee. Byrne papers. 29. Letter to Byrne dated 18 November 1958 from Mrs. Richard Saling of Santa Barbara, California. Byrne Papers. 30. Letter to Byrne dated 1 December 1958 from Margaret M. (Mrs. Richard) Saling of Santa Barbara, California. Byrne Papers. 31. Letter to Byrne dated 11 December 1958 from Mrs. Richard Saling of Santa Barbara, California. Byrne Papers. 32. Excerpts from letters to Byrne dated 10 December 1958 and 20 January 1959 from Mary R. Fair of Framingham, Massachusetts. Byrne Papers. 33. Excerpts from letters to Byrne dated 19 November 1958 and 14 December 1958

358 from Clara Marie Hill of Los Angeles, California. Byrne Papers. 34. Letter to Byrne dated 7 May 1958 [1959?] from George Latta Barrus, Real Estate Broker, of Rochester, New York. Byrne Papers. 35. Letter to Byrne dated 30 November 1958 from Gilbert P. Zinner of Louisville, Kentucky. Byrne Papers. 36. Letter to Gilbert Zinner dated 5 December 1958 from Father Cornelius Byrne. Byrne Papers. 37. Letter to Byrne dated 15 December 1958 from Gilbert P. Zinner of Louisville, Kentucky. Byrne Papers. 38. Letter to Byrne dated 26 June, 1959 from Gil Zinner of Louisville, Kentucky. Byrne Papers. Zinner wrote back on July 19, saying he could not make the trip due to auto problems in Choteau, Montana. A reply from Byrne, dated July 25, is also in the files. 39. Letter to Byrne dated 15 December 1958 from William Bender of Greenwich, Connecticut. Byrne Papers. 40. Letter to Byrne (undated) from Mrs. William Bender of Greenwich, Connecticut. Byrne Papers. 41. Letter to Byrne dated 24 June 1959 from Dorothy (Mrs. James) Skuse of Sarasota, Florida. Byrne Papers. 42. Letter to Mr. C.L. Lefler of Elmhurst, New York, dated 30 January 1959 from Byrne. Byrne Papers. 43. Letter to Dorothy Skuse of Sarasota, Florida dated 10 July 1959 from Byrne. Byrne Papers. 44. Letter to Byrne dated 25 April 1959 from Mrs. Michael Mahoney of River Edge, New Jersey. Byrne Papers. 45. Letter to Byrne dated 8 July 1959 from Mrs. Michael Mahoney of River Edge, New Jersey. Byrne Papers. A reply from Byrne, dated 13 July 1959, reads: The box of clothing . . . came by the morning mail. . . . It will be of real help to us in our needs for the Indians. The five dollars will some in handy in other ways. A handwritten notation on this letter indicates that a second box from Mrs. Mahoney arrived 22 September 1959. 46. Letter to Mrs. Thompson Lawrence of Santa Barbara, California dated 29

359 December 1958 from Byrne. Byrne Papers. 47. Letter to McCormick dated 17 December 1958 from C. E. Byrne, S. J., Jesuit fathers, St. Ignatius, Montana. McCormick Papers. 48. Letter to the Head of the Real Indian Charity, The True Blackfeet Indian Charity Organization, State of Montana, dated 17 November 1958 from Loretta Jackson of St. Louis, Missouri. McKay Papers. 49. Letter to Blackfeet Council dated 16 November 1958 from Richard Belcher of Haworth, New Jersey. Reply from McKay dated 20 November 1958. McKay Papers. 50. Letter to McKay dated 16 December 1958 from Kathleen McCarty of Yucaipa, California. Reply from McKay dated 5 January 1958. Also, undated letter to McKay from Mrs. James King of Pampa, Texas. McKay Papers. 51. Letter dated 24 November 1958 from Howard F. Johnson, Superintendent, Blackfeet Agency. Letter to McKay dated 28 November 1958 from Herman Wolfe, Mount Vernon, New York. Reply from McKay dated 6 December 1958. McKay Papers. 52. Letter to McKay (undated) from Mrs. Charles B. Taylor of York, Pennsylvania. McKay Papers. 53. Letter to Wetzel dated 18 November 1958 from Mrs. Alex Gill of Glen Burnie, Maryland. McKay Papers. 54. Letter to McKay and Wetzel of the Blackfeet Tribe dated 16 November 1958 from Mrs. Norma O Meara of Chester, Pennsylvania. Reply from McKay dated 22 November 1958. McKay Papers. 55. Letter to Wetzel dated 8 December 1958 from John Calkins of New York, New York. McKay Papers. 56. Letter to McKay regarding wool dated 11 October 1959 from Thelma Frank of Topeka, Kansas; McKay reply dated 21 October 1959. Letter to Blackfeet Tribe from Mrs. John Rightmayer of Reading, Pennsylvania; McKay reply dated 24 November 1958. McKay Papers. 57. Letter to Head of Council, Black-feet Indian reservation, dated 17 November 1958 from Evelyn Brown of Bantam, Connecticut. Reply from McKay dated 21 November 1958. McKay Papers. 58. Letter to Blackfeet Tribe dated 17 November 1958 from Gladys Hirsch of East

360 Meadow, Long Island, New York. Reply from McKay dated 24 November 1958. Subsequent letters dated 1 December, 4 December, and 3 January. McKay Papers. 59. Letter to McKay dated 9 December 1958 from Yvonne (Mrs. Eddie) Latta of Wyandotte, Michigan. McKays reply dated 19 December 1958. McKay Papers. 60. Letter to McKay dated 2 January 1959 from Lois Blake of Warsaw, Kentucky. McKay reply dated 6 January 1959, with a subsequent exchange including a 15 January letter from Blake and a 21 February letter from McKay. McKay Papers. 61. Letter to McCormick dated 16 November 1958 from Mrs. Anton Riminger of New Jersey. McCormick Papers. 62. Letter to McCormick dated 25 November 1958 from Lewis F. Brandom, Chairman Social Education and Action Committee, Alameda, California. McCormick Papers. 63. Letter to McCormick dated 16 November 1958 from Mrs. Ray Hoover of Hopatcong, New Jersey. McCormick Papers. 64. Letter to McCormick dated 9 December 1958 from Frank Edwards of Dallas, Texas. McCormick Papers. 65. Letter to Metcalf (no date) from Mrs. Gerald Stalcup of Ennis, Montana. Metcalf Papers 225/3. 66. Letter to Metcalf postmarked 25 November 1958 from Mrs. Paul Beem, Secretary for Christian Social Relations, First Methodist Church, New Haven, Connecticut. Metcalf Papers 225/3. 67. Letter to Metcalf dated 17 November 1958 from Mrs. Margaret Boop and Fourth and Fifth Grade of Eber School, Washington Courthouse, Ohio. Metcalf Papers 225/3. Subsequent letter to President, Blackfoot Tribal Council, dated 17 November 1958. McKay reply dated 24 November 1958. McKay Papers. 68. Letter to McKay dated 1 December 1958 from Mrs. Donald Martin of Gages Lake, Illinois. McKay reply dated 6 December 1958. Letters from Martin dated 7 January and 15 February 1959; McKay reply dated 21 February 1959. Another letter from McKay, dated 28 March 1959, indicated he sent class a doll as a token of my appreciation. Subsequent letter from Martin dated 30 November 1959. McKay Papers. 69. Letter to McKay dated 1 December 1958 from Mrs. Lois P. Kressler of York, Pennsylvania; McKay reply dated 19 December 1958. McKay Papers. 70. Letter to McKay dated 4 December 1958 from Mr. and Mrs. Norman Downs, letter

361 from H. W. Homan, both of York, Pennsylvania, and letter from the Thompson family of Spring Grove, Pennsylvania; McKay reply dated 19 December 1958. McKay Papers. 71. Letter to McKay (undated) from Mrs. Anna Custis of York, Pennsylvania. McKay Papers. 72. Letter dated 25 November 1958 from Lewis F. Brandom of Alameda, California. McCormick Papers. 73. Arthur Kleinman and Joan Kleinman, The Appeal of Experience; The Dismay of Images: Cultural Appropriations of Suffering in Our Times, Daedalus (Winter 1996) 1. 74. George F. Will, The Viewers and the Viewed, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (19 November 1995) B-3. Will refers to a not-yet-published essay in The National Interest quarterly by Clifford Orwin entitled Compassion and the Globalization of the Spectacle of Suffering. 75. Kleinman and Kleinman, 1-2. 76. Will, B-3. 77. Will, B-3. 78. Kleinman and Kleinman, 4-7.