Playing with Race: "The Wolfpack Squaws"
Members of State's Mates, as the "Wolfpack Squaws," danced in a fictionalized interpretation of native dances in the 1963 variety show.
The act was only one of many, as can be seen in this picture of all the variety show participants. However, the Native American act clearly garnered the highest number of participants.
The woman on the left in this photograph is in the process of dressing for the Native American act in the variety show. Her costume conforms to stereotypical Hollywood Indian garb.
As part of an attempt to elevate variety shows from their standard annual fare, members of State’s Mates introduced aspects of exoticism from perceived foreign cultures. These could include a French-themed can-can dance, but the most popular (and most documented) exotic “talents” by far were those that played with race. For example, many State’s Mates members performed in the 1963 variety show in a group performance as “The Wolfpack Squaws.”
In this, State’s Mates portrayed a highly stereotyped, “Hollywood” version of Native American women, apparently performing some kind of native dance. The early 1960’s were saturated in Westerns, which perpetuated certain stereotypes of Native American people. It was logical for State’s Mates to continue in these stereotypes, since significant Native American characters were rarely portrayed in film by actual Native Americans. Moreover, by 1960, modern-day Native Americans had by and large been erased from white consciousness in America, as the “termination” movement encouraged Native Americans to assimilate into white culture. The result was a de-emphasizing of modern Native American culture in white society. Thus, the main images that State’s Mates could rely on for a portrayal of Native American culture were supplied by Hollywood. Their costumes followed the “Hollywood Indian” dress of the 1940’s and 1950’s, including a faux buckskin dress and headband. As “Wolfpack Squaws,” members of State’s Mates, while affirming their married status, used a term that demeaned Native American women and erased tribal distinctions.
Accuracy was not their intent, however—this particular act was meant to reenact a fictionalized, exotic past. It can be assumed that State’s Mates did not take into account any contemporary Native American experiences, nor did they attempt to set the act in the present day. State’s Mates were engaging in a playful inversion by dressing as Native American women, but the only reality their portrayal had any basis in existed in Hollywood.
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