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“In the early 1920s, a secret file scandalized white women reformers in the United States. It was known as the Secret Dance File, its contents too shocking (and titillating) to print or even send in the mail. As historian Margaret D. Jacobs writes, the salacious file became the centerpiece of a heated debate about whether or not Pueblo people should perform their traditional dances—a fight that illuminated the goals and tactics of the white women reformers who thought they should control Native Americans’ lives.
The file contained frank descriptions of Pueblo dances that depicted and parodied sexual acts. For years it was passed from hand to hand. The file became a source of fascination, gossip, and even legend among employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). But it was more than a shocking read; the file informed actual BIA policy. In 1921, Charles Burke, the commissioner of Indian affairs, signed Circular 1655. The document was designed to be read by Burke’s colleagues. It made a case for banning ceremonial dances on the grounds that they were immoral and performed only for pleasure.
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Changes in white society seemed to fuel reformers’ worries, writes Jacobs: “As changing sexual mores in white American society became a topic of great controversy in the 1910s and 1920s, moral reformers suddenly discovered rampant sexual immorality among the Pueblos.” For Jacobs, the concern about Native women’s sexual expression covered up a deeper worry about white women’s relationships to sexuality.”
– JStor Daily, Why White Women Tried to Ban Native American Dances.
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Download the 18″x24″ poster (.pdf), Indian Country 52 #11 – Fear the Dancing (New Women).
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country. Follow the series: Indian Country 52
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