sep 24, 1894 - "Buffalo Dance" on the Kinetoscope

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Invented by Thomas Edison alongside his collaborator William Dickson in 1891, the kinetoscope was a precursor to the film projector that could play short motion pictures. Built into boxes equipped with a peephole of sorts, kinetoscopes allowed eager viewers to peer in and watch short scenes. Kinetoscope parlors provided an early motion picture viewing experience, with spaces lined with kinetoscopes showing different (extremely brief) scenes. When the kinetoscope was first unveiled in New York, a motion picture that played was called “Buffalo Dance”. Through this brief snapshot of their dance, the Indigenous performers (sources conflict on whether the dancers depicted were Laguna Pueblo or Sioux) have been immortalized as some of the first subjects ever put to screen. The fascination with and othering of Indigenous people and traditions would persist into the silent film era and beyond as Hollywood began a long-lasting trend of shaping (often inaccurate) stereotypes and stories around Indigenous people and culture.

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