Editorial of December 20, 2021

Celebrate the Hunter

On March 18, 1898, “The Freeman’s Journal” reported a four-week effort to move a 31-ton granite boulder from the western edge of the village to the “Cooper Grounds” to mark the site of Otsego Hall, the original Cooper homestead that was destroyed by fire in 1852. This is now known as Cooper Park. On May 28 of that same year, the Journal recorded that a replica of John Quincy Adams Ward’s masterpiece, “The Indian Hunter,” was mounted upon the boulder, writing that “it typifies the literary achievements of the greatest writer of purely American romance, James Fenimore Cooper.”

Cooper, the first novelist to treat the American wilderness as something to be cherished and protected rather than conquered and plundered, was also arguably the first to advance a positive, albeit limited, characterization of Native Americans by imparting upon his native characters a dignity and humanity that remained largely unrecognized in literature or popular culture until decades later. The choice of The Indian Hunter to represent the village’s most noted figure serves as an illustration that by the end of the century, in Cooperstown and throughout much of the country, attitudes about native populations were progressing.

One could consider, as well, the creation of The Indian Hunter a leading indicator that attitudes toward indigenous people were changing within a decade of Cooper’s death, as the public became more aware of brutal government policy toward native tribes and the implementation and acceleration of the reservation system. In its description of the statue, the Metropolitan Museum opined that Ward “imagined an Arcadian hunting scene, a stark contrast to the reservation system by then established to confine Indigenous peoples to U.S. government-specified tracts of land.” The Indian Hunter was an act of defiance against both earlier negative perceptions and actual government policy.

The Indian Hunter, modeled in 1860, cast in bronze in 1866, and exhibited in the 1867 Paris Universal Exposition, was so popular with audiences at home and abroad that, in 1869, a larger-than-life cast was installed in New York’s Central Park, the first sculpture by an American artist to be placed in the then 11-year-old park. Sixteen-inch casts of the statue, of which there are 15 known, are a revered part of the collections of such notable institutions as New York’s Metropolitan Museum, the Denver Art Museum and the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth; another sold at auction in Scottsdale, Arizona last April for just under $60,000.00. The four larger-than-lifesize examples remain in New York’s Central Park, Cooperstown’s Lakefront Park, Buffalo and on the artist’s grave in Urbana, Ohio.

On April 18 of this year, the New York State Board of Regents unanimously approved new rules that will ban the use of Native American culture used by schools—including names, logos and mascots. A silhouette of The Indian Hunter is the mascot of the Cooperstown schools. Failure to comply would lead to a loss of state funding. While the rule does not become effective until after the 2024-2025 school year, schools that currently have Native American logos or mascots are required to commit to making a change by the end of this academic year.

The intent of the rule cannot be questioned; the vast majority of uses of Native American references—particularly when assigned to sports teams—are decidedly offensive. The Cooperstown Central School District rightly recognized this 10 years ago, when it abandoned the use of “Redskins” in 2013. However, in many cases blanket intent unintentionally exorcizes innocent victims, and we believe The Indian Hunter, ripe in dignity and devoid of offense, is a case in point.

There is a short clause in the new rules that offers a possible reprieve, stating that “tribal nations may bless the use of a specific native name, logo, or mascot provided the school submits an agreement in writing within five days of the effective date of this act.”

On behalf of The Indian Hunter, as it sits voiceless in solemn dignity at the epicenter of Leatherstocking Country, we urge the Cooperstown School Board to seek this blessing.