Anna Minthorn Wannassay
Anna Minthorn Wannassay | |
|---|---|
 Anna Minthorn, as photographed by Lee Morehouse, in a 1905 publication | |
| Born | January 6, 1886 Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon, U.S. |
| Died | May 30, 1972 (age 86) Oregon, U.S. |
| Other names | Anna Cash Cash, Annie Kashkash, Anna Minthorne, Anna Wannassay |
| Occupation(s) | Educator, missionary, cultural advisor, community leader |
Anna E. Cash Cash Minthorn Wannassay (January 6, 1886 – May 30, 1972) was a Cayuse community leader. In 1916 she advised on the script of a "Wild West" pageant called the Happy Canyon Show, an annual western-themed pageant still running as of 2025.
Early life and education
Minthorn was raised on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon, the daughter of Philip Cash Cash Minthorn and Lizzie Jackson Minthorn. Her grandfather Yellowhawk was a tribal leader.[1] She attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania between 1899 and 1906; her brother Wilford Minthorn also attended Carlisle.[2] She graduated in 1906,[3] in the same class as Alaskan educator Kathryn Dyakanoff Seller.[4] Photographs of Minthorn as a young woman wearing traditional regalia, taken by Lee Morehouse, were widely reprinted in American newspapers and magazines,[5] and appeared in souvenir books.[6][7]
Career
Minthorn was recommended for an assistant matron position at the Pottawatomie School in Kansas in 1907.[8] In 1909, she was described as a Christian mission worker in Oregon. In 1916, she helped Roy Raley to revise his script of the Happy Canyon Show, a Wild West-style pageant. Her input added "tribal scenes" to the historical narrative.[9][10] She was also active in the pageant's annual beauty contest, into her last years.[11]
Wannassay was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation,[12][13] and is remembered as an advocate for healthcare services on the reservation.[14][15] She was a charter member of the Oregon Trail Women's Club, and an active member of the Tutuilla Presbyterian Church.[16][17] In 1966 she received the Outstanding Indian Award from the Westward Ho! Parade organization.[14]
Personal life and legacy
Minthorn lost her hearing in one ear after a fever and tuberculosis in 1906.[16][18] She married Jason Charles Wannassay. They had five children and lived in Pendleton, Oregon. Their son Everett died in childhood. She died in 1972, at the age of 86.[17] The Happy Canyon Show, "the longest-running outdoor pageant and wild west show in the United States", used the script Wannassay helped to craft until 2001, and still uses some of the sections suggested by Wannassay.[19][20] A house she once lived in was demolished in 2016; a marker on the site tells her family's story.[14]
References
- ^ "About Yellowhawk". Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center. Archived from the original on 2025-05-05. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
- ^ "Minthorn, Anna". Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center. Archived from the original on 2025-05-19. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
- ^ Lorenz, Lulu R. (1906-11-18). "Umatilla Belle is Quite Wealthy; Kash Kash s Highly Educated and Taking Post Graduate Course in East". The Oregon Daily Journal. p. 45. Retrieved 2025-07-24 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Graduating Class of 1906" Archived 2025-06-14 at the Wayback Machine (photograph with caption), Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center.
- ^ Morehouse, Lee (June 1905). "Anna Kash Kash". Pacific Monthly. 13 (6): frontispiece – via Hathi Trust.
- ^ "Kash Kash the Umatilla Belle; One of Many Notable Pictures in Second Volume of Souvenir Books". The Oregon Daily Journal. 1907-03-17. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-07-24 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Andrus, Bill (2006-03-26). "Peoples of the Plateau: The Indian Photographs of Lee Moorhouse, 1898-1915". East Oregonian. p. 13. Retrieved 2025-07-24 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ J. R. Wise Forwards Anna Minthorne for Assistant Matron Position Archived 2025-06-14 at the Wayback Machine (May 4-7, 1907), Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center.
- ^ Bales, Michael (2010-09-07). "Wannassay helped Night Show get it right". East Oregonian. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
- ^ Phillips, Katrina (2021-01-29). Staging Indigeneity: Salvage Tourism and the Performance of Native American History. UNC Press Books. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-4696-6232-9.
- ^ "American Indian Beauty Contest Tomorrow". East Oregonian. 1970-09-17. p. 15. Retrieved 2025-07-24 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ United States Congress Senate Committee on Appropriations (1953). Civil Functions, Department of the Army Appropriations, 1954. Hearings Before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, First Session, on H.R. 5376, Making Appropriations for Civil Functions Administered by the Department of the Army for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1954. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 1304.
- ^ Karson, Jennifer (2014-10-06). Wiyaxayxt / Wiyaakaa'awn / As Days Go By: Our History, Our Land, Our People -- The Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla. University of Washington Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-295-80591-7.
- ^ a b c "House of History". Confederated Umatilla Journal: 16–17. August 4, 2016 – via Issuu.
- ^ Rupp, Virgil (1978-12-09). "Health Center Comes of Age". East Oregonian. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-07-24 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Waggoner, Rebeca Fletcher (2016). Happy Canyon: A History of the World's Most Unique Indian Pageant & Wild West Show. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 40–43. ISBN 978-1-4671-3677-8.
- ^ a b Searcey, Mildred (1972-09-12). "Anna Wannassay: Citizen, friend; Her memory lingers on in pageant". East Oregonian. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-07-24 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Indian Girl Has Consumption". East Oregonian. 1906-06-21. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-07-24 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Hansell, "Senate Resolution 201" Archived 2025-07-13 at the Wayback Machine, 78th Oregon Legislative Assembly Session (February 15, 2016).
- ^ "2025 Happy Canyon Princesses". Archived from the original on 2025-05-19. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
External links
- Lee Morehouse, "Anna Kash Kash" (photograph), in the collection of the University of Oregon; also this photograph (same model and photographer, different regalia).
- W. S. Bowman, "Photograph of a Cayuse Woman" (1899), in the collection of the Autry Museum of the American West