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Like another late 19th-century Indian visionary, the Ghost Dance leader, Wovoka, William Faw Faw was taken ill, and in his feverish state had a vision. He saw "two young men come to him dressed as they do for the ceremony." As one of the young men talked a cedar tree grew beside him. Recovering from his illness he began to spread the message of his vision, urging his fellow tribal adherents to return to the old ways and disassociate themselves from the corrupting influences of Americans. Faw-Faw messianic ceremony included the replanting of a cedar tree previously taken by the roots, the presence of ceremonial bison skulls in a lodge upon yellow, red and green cloths, the smoking of tobacco and offerings to the tree (c.f. Wooley and Waters 1988, pp.36-46). One of the youngest adherents to Faw Faw's cult must have been the wearer of this child's vest -- the only one yet known, the front of which is spot stitched with striking star and lunar symbols placed upon dark blue trade cloth. These symbols accord in no little degree to the general concepts of Oto-Missouri traditional spirituality, but the curious beaded image centered on the back of the vest does not, and can only be explained as a unique piece of Faw Faw iconography, not appearing anywhere else in the ethnography on the cult. A visionary angel-like figure with wings outspread emerges from a beaded buffalo head. The wings are beaded red, white and blue - an odd variant of American Flag symbology. While this iconography cannot be interpreted with exactitude, it is obviously concerned with the resurrection of Indian spiritual value (the buffalo) and power (the flag symbology). The angel-like figure seems derived from Christianity and its blue (symbol of the virgin), yellow and white (symbol of purity) may be associated with a proper code of ritual behaviour. The Oklahoma Faw Faw movement was short lived and flourished mainly between 1891-95; few pieces of such regalia exist in public institutions. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
Exhibition HistoryMuseum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, MA, December 6, 1994 - May 2, 1995.
"The Flag in American Indian Art," New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ, August 30, 1997 - January 18, 1998; High Museum of Art, Atlanta GA. February 21, 1998 - June 13, 1998; Historical Society of Saginaw County, (Castle Museum), Saginaw, MI. August 1, 1998 - September 27, 1998; Houston Museum of Natural Science. October 1998 - March 1999; Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE. July 3, 1999 - August 29, 1999; Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Mashantucket, CT. October 1999 - December 1999.
ProvenanceForrest Fenn, Santa Fe, New Mexico
BibliographyHerbst, Toby and Joel Kopp. The Flag in American Indian Art. Cooperstown, NY: New York State Historical Association, 1993. p. 94, pl. 90-91.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.111.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 121.
Culture
Otoe-Missouria
Vest
Date1891-1895
DimensionsOverall: 13 1/2 × 14 1/2 in. (34.3 × 36.8 cm)
Object numberT0087
Credit LineGift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextAt the end of the 19th century, William Faw-Faw (Waw-No-She), was an Otoe-Missouria who began a special form of the drum dance. Originally introduced to the Oto-Missouri at Red Rock by the Potawatomi, it offered spiritual opposition to the land Allotment Act passed by Congress in 1887. This act determined that individual tribal members be given standard allotments of collectively owned tribal land. This not only opening up surplus lands to settlement by non-Natives, but also indirectly encouraged further sales of privately owned allotments to non-Indians, threatening much of the land base of Native culture.Like another late 19th-century Indian visionary, the Ghost Dance leader, Wovoka, William Faw Faw was taken ill, and in his feverish state had a vision. He saw "two young men come to him dressed as they do for the ceremony." As one of the young men talked a cedar tree grew beside him. Recovering from his illness he began to spread the message of his vision, urging his fellow tribal adherents to return to the old ways and disassociate themselves from the corrupting influences of Americans. Faw-Faw messianic ceremony included the replanting of a cedar tree previously taken by the roots, the presence of ceremonial bison skulls in a lodge upon yellow, red and green cloths, the smoking of tobacco and offerings to the tree (c.f. Wooley and Waters 1988, pp.36-46). One of the youngest adherents to Faw Faw's cult must have been the wearer of this child's vest -- the only one yet known, the front of which is spot stitched with striking star and lunar symbols placed upon dark blue trade cloth. These symbols accord in no little degree to the general concepts of Oto-Missouri traditional spirituality, but the curious beaded image centered on the back of the vest does not, and can only be explained as a unique piece of Faw Faw iconography, not appearing anywhere else in the ethnography on the cult. A visionary angel-like figure with wings outspread emerges from a beaded buffalo head. The wings are beaded red, white and blue - an odd variant of American Flag symbology. While this iconography cannot be interpreted with exactitude, it is obviously concerned with the resurrection of Indian spiritual value (the buffalo) and power (the flag symbology). The angel-like figure seems derived from Christianity and its blue (symbol of the virgin), yellow and white (symbol of purity) may be associated with a proper code of ritual behaviour. The Oklahoma Faw Faw movement was short lived and flourished mainly between 1891-95; few pieces of such regalia exist in public institutions. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
Exhibition HistoryMuseum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, MA, December 6, 1994 - May 2, 1995.
"The Flag in American Indian Art," New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ, August 30, 1997 - January 18, 1998; High Museum of Art, Atlanta GA. February 21, 1998 - June 13, 1998; Historical Society of Saginaw County, (Castle Museum), Saginaw, MI. August 1, 1998 - September 27, 1998; Houston Museum of Natural Science. October 1998 - March 1999; Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE. July 3, 1999 - August 29, 1999; Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Mashantucket, CT. October 1999 - December 1999.
ProvenanceForrest Fenn, Santa Fe, New Mexico
BibliographyHerbst, Toby and Joel Kopp. The Flag in American Indian Art. Cooperstown, NY: New York State Historical Association, 1993. p. 94, pl. 90-91.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.111.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 121.
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