The Capitol Dome

DR. C. JOSEPH GENETIN-PILAWA is a history professor at George Mason University. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University and taught at Illinois College before going to George Mason. He is a member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA), and has received fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution and the Kluge Center of the Library of Congress. In 2011, Genetin-Pilawa received a Capitol Fellowship that yielded much of the research for this article, includ- ing finding many of Leta Myers Smart's letters in the Architect of the Capitol's archive. Genetin-Pilawa notes, "Being a USCHS [Capitol] Fellow was a great opportu- nity! e research I did at the Architect of the Capitol's archive has informed my project greatly. Also, I was able to use my time to explore other archival collections in the capital and write successful fellowship applications for work at the Smithsonian and Library of Congress." Genetin-Pilawa's publications include: Crooked Paths to Allotment: e Fight over Federal Indian Policy af- ter the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2012); Beyond "Two Worlds": Critical Conversations on Language and Power in Native North America, Tribal Worlds series, co-edited with James Buss (State Uni- versity of New York Press, 2014); "Ely Parker and the Paradox of Reconstruction Politics in Indian Country," e World the Civil War Made (University of North Carolina Press, forthcoming 2015); "Ely Parker and the Contentious Peace Policy," Western Historical Quarterly (Summer 2010); "Ely S. Parker," in Milestone Documents of American Leaders: Exploring the Primary Sources of No- table Americans, edited by Paul Finkelman (Salem Press, 2009); "'[A]ll intent on seeing the white woman mar- ried to the red man': e Parker/Sackett Affair and the Public Spectacle of Intermarriage," Journal of Women's History (June 2008); and "e Politics of Assimilation in the Great Lakes, 1880-1910," Northwest Ohio Quar- terly (Spring 2001). For more information on the Capitol Fellowship pro- gram, please visit www.uschs.org. Applications for 2016 Fellowships must be postmarked by March 15, 2016. Be on the lookout for other Capitol Fellows, who may speak at USCHS lectures or whose work may appear in these pages. THE CAPITOL DOME 8 1. Leta Myers Smart to David Lynn, Architect of the Capitol, Nov. 1, 1953, File: 19/2 STATUES: CAPITOL & GROUNDS, Folder: Rescue Group, Subfolder: Indian Protests, Curator's Office, Architect of the Capitol, Washington, D.C. (hereafter AOC). 2. Leta Myers Smart, "e Last Rescue," Harper's 219 (October 1959):92; Leta Myers Smart to David Lynn, A rchitect of the Capitol, Nov. 3, 1952, File: 19/2 STATUES: CAPITOL & GROUNDS, Folder: Rescue Group, Subfolder: Indian Protests, AOC. 3. Vivien Green Fryd, Art and Empire: e Politics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815-1860 (1992; reprint ed., Ath- ens, OH, 2001), p. 3. 4. Ibid., p. 40. ere is a significant literature on the art and architecture of Washington D.C., much of it focusing on the Capitol itself; however, Fryd's book is the only study that focuses specifically on Indian imagery. See also Charles E. Fairman, Art and Artists of the Capitol of the United States of America (Washington, DC,1927); Ellwood Parry, e Images of the Indian and the Black Man in American Art, 1590-1900 (New York, 1974); Angela Miller, e Empire of the Eye: Land- scape Representation and American Cultural Politics, 1825-1875 (Ithaca, NY, 1993); Donald Kennon, ed., e United States Capitol: Designing and Decorating a National Icon (Athens, OH, 2000); William Dickinson, Dean Herrin, and Donald Kennon, eds., Montgomery C. Meigs and the Building of the Nation's Capital (Athen, OH, 2001); Donald Kennon and omas Somma, eds., American Pantheon: Sculptural and Artistic Decoration of the United States Capitol (Athens, OH, 2004); Cynthia Field, Isabelle Gournay, and omas Somma, eds., Paris on the Potomac: e French Influence on the Architec- ture and Art of Washington, D.C. (Athens, OH, 2007). 5. Register of Debates, Senate, 24th Cong., 1st sess., Apr. 28, 1836, p. 1316. 6. Fryd, Art and Empire, pp. 91-94. 7. Handwritten note attributing the quote to "e Story of the Capitol" by Feeley (Congressional Record 1844)," File: 19/2 STATUES: CAPITOL & GROUNDS, Folder: Discovery Group–Description, AOC. NOTES

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