Cigar Store Indian 1935 - 1942

Einar Heiberg’s watercolor and graphite depiction of a cigar store Indian presents a figure laden with symbolic weight. The feathered headdress, deeply resonant with Native American identity, is here repurposed— commercialized for a tobacco advertisement. Consider the image of the ‘noble savage,’ prevalent in European and American art. Recall, for instance, Renaissance depictions of exotic figures adorning paintings, and then reflect on how these symbols have been transformed into stereotypes. The feathers, a once-revered emblem of leadership and spirituality, become mere decoration. This transformation speaks volumes about cultural appropriation. It reflects a psychological tension: a simultaneous fascination with and exploitation of the ‘other.’ The image becomes a vessel, laden with both admiration and deeply ingrained prejudice. The figure stands as a potent reminder of how symbols are detached from their original contexts, manipulated, and assigned new, often distorted meanings. The cigar store Indian is not just a commercial icon; it is a palimpsest, layered with the evolving, cyclical narratives of power, identity, and cultural memory.