i've got your reality right here
Thanks to the beautiful and fierce Ms. Adrienne Carey Hurley for making me aware of this atrocity in my backyard (there was an article last year in the SF Weekly in which the bar's owner claims to have thrown the teeth in the trash rather than deal with the controversy). I'm ashamed to say I've been here and had no idea:
Eddie Rickenbacker's is a bar in San Francisco's Financial District. While the bar has received good reviews, even by supposedly progressive newspapers, it is home to one of the most offensive and racially insensitive displays one can find in the city. Along with displays of guns used in the wars of extermination against the Native American population, there are what is claimed to be the teeth of Monasetah. A sign above the teeth claims that they were "knocked out of her mouth in a jealous pique" by General George Armstrong Custer.
It has been claimed that, following the Battle of Washita, Custer invited officers "desiring to avail themselves of the services of a captured squaw to come to the squaw Round Up Corral, and select one." Custer took first choice, Monasetah, and lived with her during the winter and spring of 1868 and 1869. The display has been around for years with little complaint. If the display is real, than it could be in violation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. If it is not real and is merely intended to add atmosphere, it shows acceptance by the bar's owners and patrons of a form of racism and misogyny that would never be allowed if the remains were claimed to be a person from any other ethnic group. The bar's owner, when questioned about why he has a Native woman's teeth on display, replied that concern for cultural sensitivity was "not living in reality."
Eddie Rickenbacker's is a bar in San Francisco's Financial District. While the bar has received good reviews, even by supposedly progressive newspapers, it is home to one of the most offensive and racially insensitive displays one can find in the city. Along with displays of guns used in the wars of extermination against the Native American population, there are what is claimed to be the teeth of Monasetah. A sign above the teeth claims that they were "knocked out of her mouth in a jealous pique" by General George Armstrong Custer.It has been claimed that, following the Battle of Washita, Custer invited officers "desiring to avail themselves of the services of a captured squaw to come to the squaw Round Up Corral, and select one." Custer took first choice, Monasetah, and lived with her during the winter and spring of 1868 and 1869. The display has been around for years with little complaint. If the display is real, than it could be in violation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. If it is not real and is merely intended to add atmosphere, it shows acceptance by the bar's owners and patrons of a form of racism and misogyny that would never be allowed if the remains were claimed to be a person from any other ethnic group. The bar's owner, when questioned about why he has a Native woman's teeth on display, replied that concern for cultural sensitivity was "not living in reality."



2 Comments:
I did not know about this bar or this display. Disgusting, racist, sexist, misogynistic. What happens in someone's mind to convince him that something like this is okay? Is there no common sense?
thanks for getting the article, carla.
and thanks for spreading the story.
i'm reading almanac of the dead by leslie marmon silko right now. it's too good.
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