Royal Hotel, 53 Princes Street
Annosothkah, or Chief Sampson Green, councilman of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte in what is currently Ontario, Canada, was welcomed to Edinburgh with a reception here in April 1887. He was touring Britain, lecturing on his nation and customs in order to raise money for the restoration of the church there (apparently they needed to raise about £600). The Edinburgh Evening News reported that he spoke "in admirable English. He described the religious customs of the tribe, and referred, also, to their social economy, observing that in all things the chief was the prominent personage.” To learn more about the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, their history and their contemporary experiences, you can visit their website: https://mbq-tmt.org/
Music Hall, Assembly Rooms, George Street
In February 1845, a group of Baxoje performers from what is currently Iowa visited the Assembly Rooms as part of their larger tour of Britain under the management of George Catlin, an American painter and traveller. While Catlin lectured about their culture, the “distinguished Warriors, women and children” would perform their "various War (and other) Dances, Songs, Games &c.” (The Scotsman, 5 Feb. 1845.) These performances were hugely successful throughout Britain, sometimes with thousands of people attending in one evening. Even at the time, though, people expressed their misgivings about the objectification of this group who, traveling under the auspices of Arthur Rankin, presaged the later "Human Zoos." There is plenty of evidence in Catlin's journals that they, in turn, despaired of many of the sights they witnessed, particularly those that revealed the conditions in which the poor lived and the perceived indifference of the wealthy.
Hall, Queen's Street
George Copway, a writer and missionary from the Mississauga Ojibwa First Nation in what is currently Ontario, Canada, lectured here in October and November 1850. Born in 1818, Copway attended mission school before working as an interpreter and school teacher. After training as a missionary, he travelled extensively on lecture tours in Canada, the United States and Europe throughout the 1840s. However, by 1851, he was no longer in favour among missionary societies or intellectual circles and support for his causes had evaporated. Little is known about his life from 1851 until his death in 1867.He held a deep affinity for Scotland and for Edinburgh in particular, writing in his book about his European travels that in “Edinburgh, there are warm hearts to be found for me and my race.” He described it as “the city of palaces, and there are a great many things to admire in this city. It is situated in a romantic and abrupt country - high, naked hills - grim-visaged, hard-browed, and frowning with dignity. And amidst this country so full of hills and so full of valleys is this city situated.” Want to know more about the Mississaugas, their history, and their nation today? Watch the video link.
Princes Street Railway Station
For three stops on this tour, you’ll be following in the footsteps of a contingent of the 114th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, who arrived in Edinburgh for a visit in December 1916. Made up of approximately 165 First Nations soldiers, mainly Iroquois, the troop had spent three days in Glasgow before catching the train to Edinburgh, arriving at Princes Street train station. As Private Joe Beauvais remarked, “It’s quite good to be here, and I’m sure we’re quite overjoyed at the fuss you are making of us.” (Dundee People’s Journal, 16 Dec. 1916.)Read more on the visit and its significance in this piece by ‘Beyond the Spectacle’ project associate, Dr. Yvonne McEwen: https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/chief-clear-sky-and-his-men-made-ultimate-sacrifice-at-the-somme-1-4286126
The Mound
In December 1916, a number of First Nation soldiers visited Edinburgh with the 114th Battalion. After arriving at Princes Street Station from Glasgow, they marched “along Princes Street at a swinging pace” before turning “off at the Mound and proceed[ing] up the slope on the way to the castle." While the soldiers enjoyed their visit to the city, they also made sure to educate the British public about contemporary First Nations. The newspaper articles covering the tour were full of stereotypes, which Chief Clear Sky, one of the leaders, was keen to dispel. Talking to the Dundee People’s Journal, he remarked, “‘You’re not going to ask me whether I’m a trapper or a hunter, are you? ‘Kase I ain’t either. What gets me is folks fancying we Indians must all be trappers and hunters. These days are all pretty well shot up now. I’ve done a whole bunch of things to earn a living. Last thing I did was getting around in vaudeville.’” Shortly after the visit, the 114th was sent to the Front, although some soldiers continued their connections with Scotland. Lieutenant John Stacey, for example, wrote a letter to the Lord Provost of Glasgow in July 1917 to update him on the 114th’s efforts in France and Chief Clear Sky returned to Scotland several times in the following years.Learn more about the story of James Moses (Delaware Nation), one of officers of the 114th who eventually joined the RAF, from his great nephew here: https://57-630sqnassoc.org/draft/
Assembly Hall, the Mound
The prolific Mohawk entertainer, Os-Ke-Non-Ton, gave a lecture here on December 2, 1930: "wearing the full ceremonial dress of a chief of his tribe, [he] stood throughout his recital on the clerks' table instead of on the platform floor, and in addition to singing, in the Indian language, war songs, love songs, and invocations, explained the various parts of the traditional Indian dress, and concluded his lecture by showing how to get fire by rubbing sticks together." (The Scotsman, Dec 3, 1930) Os-Ke-Non-Ton was one of many performers since the mid-1900s to have made their living through such performances of "Indianness," but he is perhaps one of the most deeply entangled in colonial images of the "Indian" since for much of the early 20th century he regularly performed in the annual staging at the Royal Albert Hall of Samuel Coleridge Taylor's operatic interpretation of Hiawatha. Yes, that's the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's highly stylised and appropriative epic of the "vanishing Indian" set to music by Britain's first black composer, and performed almost entirely by a cast of non-Native dancers and singers in redface at the Heart of Empire...You can see part of a performance he gave in England through the video link.
Edinburgh Castle
The spectacle was an important part of the 114th Battalion’s tour of Edinburgh in December 1916 (for more on their tour, see the stops at Princes Street Station and the Mound). As The Scotsman reported, “from the highest roof of Edinburgh Castle on Saturday afternoon, four Indian chiefs, head feathers streaming in the east wind, their head-covered garments of yellow and red and blue withstanding the rain laden blast, looked round on the Scottish capital and its environs.” The company explored the Castle, including the Banqueting Hall, before Chief Clear Sky, who had worked as a vaudeville performer before the war, gave a performance. As one of the officers remarked, the soldiers were grateful for the “hospitality and goodwill that had been shown to them.”
Scottish Storytelling Centre
Throughout its history, the Scottish Storytelling Centre has hosted a number of Indigenous performers and activists and in October 2019 it featured many in its International Storytelling Festival. These included:- Chief RoseAnne Archibald (Taykwa Tagamou)- Joseph Naytowhow (Cree)- LeAndra Nephin (Omaha)- Louise Profeit-LeBlanc (Na-Cho Nyäk Dun)- Margaret Grenier (Gitxsan and Cree) and her company, Dancers of Damelahamid. Watch a brief clip of one of their recent performances in the video link!Want to learn more about the Storytelling Centre and their events featuring Indigenous North American artists? Check out their website for information on current programmes: https://www.scottishstorytellingcentre.com/events/
Greyfriar's Kirkyard
In 1768, two Narragansett brothers, John and Tobias Shattock, traveled to Britain to plead their peoples' case in a land dispute. Leaving New York in early January, they landed first at Greenock and transferred to Edinburgh, arriving on April 15, 1768, under the charge of Edinburgh merchant Mr Alexander Moubray, who lodged them next door to his house. Arrangements were made to sail to London on the 18th. After storm delays, the brothers waited at Leith Harbour on April 21st when John began to show signs of smallpox. In quick succession, Tobias also started displaying symptoms. They were brought physicians and nurses, and Moubray's wife is said to have tended to them as if they were her own. Tragically, on May 6th at 4 a.m., Tobias passed away. The church community had come together around the two young men, and Tobias was given a Christian burial in Greyfriar's Kirkyard. Although this burial alongside Scotland's Protestant martyrs was intended as an honour, as Moubray communicated to Wheelock, Tobias's family back in Narragansett did not find out for several months and then only through newspaper notices.
