By Jimmy Lee Beason II, Osage Nation
To the Hualapai Native community around the year 1903, Santa Claus was not a jolly old fat guy bearing gifts, but possibly an evil spirit – a Quiqete. At the Truxton Canyon Training School (a so-called Indian boarding school) built in Arizona, Hualapai children and their families were told by White American administrators that Santa Claus would be approaching and finally reveal himself to everyone on Christmas day. The Hualapai had never heard of this Santa Claus nor knew much about Christmas as a concept. Hualapai children along with thousands of other Native children only knew about the Christmas holiday during their process of forced assimilation at these “schools” of cultural eradication.
During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, America vehemently pushed the rhetoric of “civilizing” Indigenous people. Native people were forced to live on square plots of land and had to rely on the government for rations and could no longer hunt. Native children were taken from their families and sent to so-called boarding schools to become “civilized” – that is think, act, and speak like White people. This meant learning about holidays such as Columbus Day, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and, of course, Christmas.
It was through these “patriotic” celebrations that Native children would learn to associate themselves with America’s traditions instead of their own by going to church and singing Christmas carols. Hualapai children, as well as their families, were subjected to all the Christmas trappings which included a visit from Santa. After the children performed their Christmas program at Truxton in front of an audience that included a rare visit from their family members, jingling bells announced the bearded one’s arrival. On cue, he appeared in the auditorium with a bag full of gifts. Instead of cheers, Santa was met with crying, fear, and evasion. Hualapai children ran to their mothers crying. Adults yelled at the red robed demon shouting, Quiqete! Others simply ran out of the building. It was soon found out that the jolly ol’ ghoul was actually a schoolteacher wearing pillows under his suit. According to accounts, the parents and children relaxed a little and enjoyed the rest of the evening.
However, I can’t help but think the Hualapai were right in calling Santa a Quiqete. Although this factual account is tragically humorous, the underlying reasons for it taking place to begin with are quite nefarious. Christmas and Santa Claus were deliberately introduced to Native children to siphon them away from their own traditional teachings and stories so they could become Americanized. Santa Claus, or at least the idea of Santa, was presented as a representative of the American colonial system – a system that committed acts of genocide against Native people for the sole purpose of either annihilating them or forcing them to assimilate. How many Native children were abused at the hands of a schoolteacher dressed up as “Santa”? To them, perhaps he was indeed a bad spirit.
The introduction of Christmas as a colonial concept was highly instrumental in converting Native people to Christianity. Through Christmas, Natives were taught to “worship” and praise Jesus. In fact, one of the earliest Christmas carols was written in Huron by a Jesuit priest in 1643. The carol was rewritten in English for a Canadian choir in the 1920’s. It told the Christmas story about the birth of Jesus by substituting cultural aspects of Native people from the eastern woodlands. Instead of a manger, it is broken bark. A baby Jesus is swaddled in rabbit fur. Rather than shepherds there are hunters. “Chiefs” gave gifts of fox and beaver furs. This remixed Native version of the Christmas story was used as a rhetorical device to better sell Christianity to possible Huron converts and encourage them to abandon their own spirituality which is something we still contend with today. For many of us in the Native community who are on a path of decolonization, it can be challenging to avoid the candy cane trap.
Even so, I will say that this is not meant to disparage the genuine feeling of goodness associated with this holiday that many people feel, including myself. I have many fond memories associated with this time from my childhood that even my decolonized self cannot deny. But when I look back, it wasn’t so much Christmas itself that I felt good about. It was the family all coming together laughing and joking. Perhaps for us as Native people, we can acknowledge the solstice as we done for thousands of years before by coming together simply as family and sharing a meal.
Sources:
Adams, David W. Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience 1875 – 1928. 1995
National Park Service. Schoolhouse at Truxton Canyon Training School. https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66/schoolhouse_truxton_canyon_training_school_valentine.html
