Reginald Laubin

Reginald Laubin was an American dancer, choreographer, lecturer, and author known for performing and promoting Plains-style Native American dance and ritual interpretations across North America and Europe. He and his wife, Catherine Laubin, led touring performances, lectures, and museum programs that sought to present a staged vision of Sioux and broader Plains Indians culture for predominantly Euro-American and European audiences. Laubin's career intersected with institutions such as museums, universities, and fairs during a period of shifting attitudes toward Native American representation in the twentieth century.

Early life and background

Reginald Laubin was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1903 and grew up amid the cultural currents of the Midwestern United States, where contact with Plains histories and frontier narratives was prominent. He was influenced by popular interest in figures like Buffalo Bill and the exhibition culture of venues such as the World's Columbian Exposition and later Century of Progress presentations, as well as by scholarly institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and the Field Museum of Natural History. Laubin traveled in youth to regions associated with Sioux Nation territories, the Omaha people homelands, and sites linked to events such as the Battle of the Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee Massacre memory, drawing on these locations in shaping his future programs.

Career and performances

Laubin launched a performance career in the 1920s and 1930s, staging exhibitions at venues including the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, regional state fairs, the American Museum of Natural History, and touring circuits that reached theaters and auditoriums in cities like New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Boston. He collaborated with partners associated with entities such as the National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, New York World's Fair, and regional museums including the Seattle Art Museum and the Denver Art Museum. Laubin's performances appeared alongside curated exhibitions featuring artifacts from collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Field Museum, and the Oklahoma Historical Society. He performed at events that included appearances at Carnegie Hall, university lecture series at institutions like Columbia University, University of Chicago, and University of California, Berkeley, and for civic audiences organized by groups such as the Lions Club, Rotary International, and historical societies in St. Louis and Cleveland.

Approach to Native American culture and authenticity

Laubin presented choreographies and lectures that claimed fidelity to Plains dance forms associated with groups such as the Lakota people, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Crow Nation, drawing on artifacts, visual records, and ethnographic writings by figures like Franz Boas, James Mooney, and George Bird Grinnell. Critics and many Indigenous scholars have debated Laubin's representations in relation to performers such as Black Elk and traditional practitioners documented by the Bureau of American Ethnology and in archives held by Library of Congress and the American Philosophical Society. His methods intersected with contemporaneous authenticity debates involving collectors and interpreters like Gertrude Käsebier, Edward S. Curtis, and institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology. Museums and Native activists later questioned staged reconstructions promoted by non-Indigenous presenters, pointing to ongoing discussions involving the American Indian Movement, Native American Rights Fund, and scholars in Indigenous studies at universities including Harvard University and University of New Mexico.

Publications and film appearances

Laubin authored books and pamphlets describing Plains dances, regalia, and ritual contexts, contributing materials to museum education programs and to catalogs for exhibitions at places like the National Museum of the American Indian and regional centers. His writings engaged with earlier printed sources such as the works of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and ethnographies housed at the Bureau of Ethnology. Laubin and his wife appeared in documentary and educational films distributed to schools and cultural institutions, sometimes screened at film venues associated with the Museum of Modern Art or regional public television stations linked to networks like PBS and National Educational Television. His film and publicity materials circulated alongside visual media by photographers and filmmakers such as Edward S. Curtis, Martha Graham's company (for dance context), and documentary producers tied to the Works Progress Administration and postwar cultural programs.

Personal life and later years

Reginald Laubin married Catherine Laubin (née Catherine O'Grady), who partnered with him in choreography, lecturing, and touring; she was often co-credited in performances, writings, and educational outreach to institutions like the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Santa Fe Opera. The Laubins settled for periods in the American Southwest, including Santa Fe, New Mexico, connecting with regional collectors, galleries such as the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, and academic programs at the University of New Mexico. In later decades, as debates about cultural appropriation and Indigenous sovereignty intensified with events involving the American Indian Movement and legal developments like cases considered by the United States Supreme Court, Laubin's work was reassessed by curators, historians, and Indigenous communities. He died in 1996 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, leaving archival materials dispersed among museums, historical societies, and university collections including the Newberry Library and local repositories.

Category:American dancers Category:People from Kansas City, Missouri Category:1903 births Category:1996 deaths