Negotiating the

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the cultural aspects of exchange involving the Kiowa and Comanche tribes of western Indian Territory between 1867 and 1910, otherwise known as the reservation and allotment periods. The circulation of Indian goods-broadly defined to include horses, cattle, and tourist arts-throughout the periods contributed to the tribes' subsistence. The production and exchange of goods preserved pre-reservation exchange practices, reinforced Kiowa and Comanche social values and demonstrated Native non-compliance with the assimilationist goals that underpinned reservation and allotment policies. External discourses in the domains of anthropology, federal Indian policy and an emerging tourism reflected an American ambivalence that contributed to the momentum of the circulation of horses and curios. The essence of that ambivalence was reflected in government efforts to destroy tribal cultures, the rigorous anthropological study and preservation of tribal cultures and materials, and the popular consumption of Indian culture defined as a constructed artificially generalized identity. Official, scholarly and public domains interacted with the tribal communities, fueled the production and circulation of goods and yet failed to subvert internally constructed identities.