Wednesday, November 28, 2012

The Indian Village



The Indian Village lasted for 16 years at Disneyland, inhabiting a few different locations during its tenure. Shot #1 is from January 1964.

These two young ladies from August 1966 are exploring the teepees that are part of the Indian Village exhibit.



Zooming into the signage, we learn that this is the Chief's Council Tepee.



This particular closeup shows the guidebook that she is carrying. Vintage Disneyana Geeks pay attention!



These July 1967 images show the totem poles again...



as well as a stuffed bison/buffalo.



It would be interesting to see how the Indian Village would have done in present times. It seems that today's generation mainly associates Indians/Native Americans with casinos instead of the early history of our country. Edu-tainment was a specialty of Walt's; whether he could have overcome the labor disputes between the Indians (one of the main reasons for this area's termination in 1971) and kept this area fun and informative remains to be seen. It would still be a huge improvement over its bland replacement, Critter Country.

See more vintage Disneyland Indian Village photos on my Indian Village web page.

4 comments:

Joey said...

Guests were even breaking rules in the 1960s.

"Ah, this stupid fence is in the way of where I need to be. I'll just climb over it and that will be good. Why would they put this stupid fence here, anyway?"

K. Martinez said...

No love for Toontown West Dave?

Daveland said...

It's peaceful...love the trees, love the shade, and I also like some of the food at The Hungry Bear. I'll leave it at that, though!

K. Martinez said...

I love the trees too, but it was really peaceful (pre-Splash). I used to go there to escape the crowds.

On the Indian Village subject, I always thought they should've imported something like Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (DLP) to the Thunder Ranch area.