Stories from the High Desert

For thousands of generations, the High Desert has been home to Indigenous people. When newcomers arrived, they disrupted Indigenous people’s ways of life and relationships in significant ways, and yet, Native people resisted these forces and remain here today.What is today the Western United States has been a meeting place where people from all over the world converged.

Across the region, Indigenous people formed distinct nations with deep social and economic ties. As people of North American, Latin American, Asian, European and African origin and descent came into contact, they faced conflict, adapted to one another and forged new relationships and practices. This all took place within the context of settler colonialism--the laws, policies, and on-the-ground practices that systematically placed power and resources in the hands of white (especially male) settlers, enabling them to seize control of land and natural resources.

The Spirit of the West is an immersive exhibition that moves through space and time. Each gallery depicts a moment in the history of the High Desert, highlighting those who have long called this place home and the many groups of people who arrived over the course of the nineteenth century.

As you take a closer look at the objects in the Spirit of the West exhibition, you’ll see evidence of the many groups of people who came together in the High Desert amidst the policies and practices of settler colonialism. You’ll notice the ways that people of North American, Latin American, Asian, European and African origin and descent maintained and adapted their cultural practices and material goods in this place. 

This exhibition is rich in objects that illuminate the history of the High Desert. Objects can tell us many things about the people who made, purchased, traded, loved and handed down these items. We can learn about large-scale, even global, relationships by considering raw materials, supply chains and trade networks. We can learn about technological innovation and cultural values as expressed through changes in design. We can learn about interpersonal relationships by considering the people who made, gifted and cherished particular items. Objects can hold powerful memories and offer connections to those who have come before us. 

We can learn about the lived experiences of people in the past by seeking to understand the objects that made up their daily lives. 

Some of the Chinese men who came to the High Desert sought to make it rich and return home, while others hoped that someday their families would be able to join them in this new land. Full of grief and longing, some of the women who remained in China expressed their emotions through songs, such as this one:

Right after we were wed, Husband, you set out on a journey.How was I to tell you how I felt?Wandering around a foreign country, when will you ever come home?I beg of you, after you depart, to come back soon,Our separation will be only a flash of time;I only wish that you would have good fortune,In three years you would be home again.Also, I beg of you that your heart won’t change,That you keep your heart and mind on taking care of your family;Each month or month and a half send a letter home,In two or three years my wish is to welcome you home.

By the time that some men had saved enough money for their loved ones to join them in the United States, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act made this nearly impossible. Fueled by white workers’ racism and xenophobic beliefs -- a fear that Chinese workers were “stealing” jobs that white men believed themselves entitled to -- the federal government passed a law that prohibited Chinese workers from immigrating to the United States. It made it much more difficult for anyone of Chinese descent to enter the country. Setting a precedent for racially based immigration laws, it increased gatekeeping and surveillance and reinforced racist perceptions of Chinese people as outsiders. 

Hitting an all-time low, immigration officials admitted just ten Chinese immigrants into the country in 1887. Chinese Americans, meanwhile, protested and resisted. They challenged the law and sought ways around it.

In Silver City, Idaho in 1885, Chinese-owned stores, like Hi Loy, provided a place to purchase goods from China as well as offered comradery for those who found themselves far from home. These stores, which in larger cities clustered together to form Chinatowns, also emerged from racists laws and practices that excluded Chinese people from renting homes and commercial spaces in other parts of town. They were at once spaces of shared identity and community and the product of racism and exclusion.

This lantern, on display in a fictional Hi Loy, in fact hung in Baker City, Oregon’s Chinatown. It was a small section of town that existed for over seventy years and housed Chinese workers, miners and business owners. By the 1940s, many of Baker City’s Chinese American residents had moved on. The last remaining building in Chinatown was torn down in the 1970s.

A lantern, such as this one, tells many stories — of racial segregation and exclusion, of culture and community and of missing home and newfound homes. Like all of the objects that make up our daily lives, its history is rich and multilayered. 

Recommended Resources:

Erika Lee, At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943

Erika Lee, America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States

Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans

Gordon Chang, Him Mark Lai, Judy Yung, Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present

Douglas Lee, “Chinese Americans in Oregon,” Oregon Encyclopedia