The Cutest Indian Baby in All of... Yosemite

Yosemite postcard, ca. 1910s-1920s.

Today I'd like to share a special post about baby shows at Yosemite National Park during the first half of the 20th Century. In this guest post by Mary Klann (exclusive for Beyond Buckskin), we learn how Baby Contests in the past were used simultaneously as assimilation and preservation techniques. On the one hand, the US government issued campaigns to ensure children were being raised 'properly' according to popular American concepts of hygiene. On the other hand, Native mothers used these events as opportunities to continue artistic practices and perpetuate cultural ideas associated with valuing children in the community.

Interestingly, the cradleboard would take center stage as an item that could disqualify a baby in one contest, or send him home with a big first place prize in another.