It’s bad enough the white man nearly wiped out all the Native Americans, but as this 1962 souvenir from Scottsdale, Arizona painfully illustrates, we also had to shamelessly exploit the hell out of their suffering for a few bucks.
This 4″ card comes with a polished “gem” glued to it. As the copy below informs us, the gem is supposed to be the metaphoric tear of a grieving Apache “squaw.” It’s a little difficult to make out, but the tiny drawing at the bottom of the card in the top photo depicts a dead Apache warrior on the ground in front of a two-braided Apache woman, arms outstretched, wailing.
Allee Willis
Selling tears for profit… Had I not spent the last four decades in the entertainment business I may have thought that this was just some insensitive thing that the maker of this souvenir came up with. But the entertainment conglomerates have made a science out of this practice so I’m well familiar with unheeded tears turning to stone…