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Pennsylvania Battle Re-enactors Up in Arms Over Fighting Ban
Anew rule in Pennsylvania that will require re-enactors of a 1763 battle to lay down their weapons is drawing fire from a local historical society, the latest skirmish in the re-enactment world, which has been diminishing as hobbyists get older and sensitivities about restaging historical events have grown.
The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission said last month that it will no longer permit re-enactments on the 23 sites it owns in the state that involve the exchange of fire from weapons, the taking of casualties and hand-to-hand combat, “or any other form of simulated warfare or violence between opposing forces.” The commission said it made the change to align with National Park Service policy.
The announcement opened a new front in a dispute with the Bushy Run Battlefield Heritage Society, which said it would have to cancel a battlefield re-enactment it has put on every August for the past 40 years as part of a commemoration of a battle between British troops and Native Americans that took place during Pontiac’s Rebellion, just after the French and Indian War. At a community meeting on Sunday at Bushy Run Park 25 miles east of Pittsburgh, community members and local lawmakers also decried the new rule.
“This is not just a pretend weekend,” said Rob Malley, a board member of the local group, which touts the educational value of the event. “If this all stands, we have to reinvent ourselves.”
The National Park Service has long had a policy barring so-called force-on-force re-enactments on federal land. Annual re-enactments of the Battle of Gettysburg that feature people in historically accurate uniforms firing antique muskets and cannons have taken place for decades on private property.
In September, several groups canceled re-enactments in New York after the state banned weapons, including rifles that fire black powder, from public parks and other areas. Last May, dozens of people in Maine protested Civil War re-enactors carrying Confederate flags in a Memorial Day parade.
Mary Koik, a spokeswoman for the American Battlefield Trust, which tries to preserve historic battlefields from being lost to development, said the shift away from simulated combat on federal land started in the early 1960s after people portraying Confederate and Union soldiers were injured at Gettysburg.
“At least two people were hospitalized,” she said. “There was an about-face on policy.”
Veteran re-enactors say their ranks are dwindling and getting grayer, leaving fewer volunteers to face off on the battlefield. The Gettysburg re-enactment at Daniel Lady Farm, which is privately owned, once drew 16,000 re-enactors but will likely have 1,500 this year, said Kirk Davis, president of the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association.
Mr. Davis said he has been donning Civil War-era regalia for 35 years. He started off in the infantry, but at 65 years old, he now portrays a physician in a camp. “It’s now moving more to a living history process,” he said.
In Montana, Jim Real Bird, a Crow Nation member, produces a re-enactment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn every June on his family’s property near the spot where Sitting Bull once camped. The battle features around 100 people, including Crow members portraying warriors who rout non-Indians playing cavalry soldiers, and he said it is important to tell the story from the Indian perspective.
“This is a native story. This is not like a Hollywood production,” Mr. Real Bird said. He said he insists on hiring local youth who can ride bareback and carry a rifle, which he said isn’t easy to do, to make the show more authentic.
The Bushy Run battle re-enactment outside Pittsburgh is the centerpiece of the multiday event, which is also the local historical society’s biggest fundraiser, said Mr. Malley, the board member. About 1,500 spectators typically watch as a total of 100 people portraying British soldiers and members of tribes, such as the Shawnee and Delaware, square off, he said.
Mr. Malley said the state commission had separately asked the historical society to stop the Bushy Run re-enactment last Augustbecause nontribal members portrayed Indians. The group refused the request, he said, because it came shortly before the planned event. He said his group is willing to consult with tribes as required by the commission.
Howard Pollman, a spokesman for the state commission, said it is working on guidelines that would require members of federally recognized tribes to portray tribal figures in re-enactments at its historic sites. A draft he provided says that appropriate roles for nontribal people include captives or adopted people, traders or “someone who is specifically married to an American Indian person in the 18th century.”
Mr. Pollman said the commission, which contracts with the Bushy Run group to operate the historic site, had been in conversations over the past six months with the local group about updating events. In a statement, the commission said the historical society can still participate in discussions of battles and tactics and historic weapons firing.
The historical society said it consulted with the Seneca Nation about a decade ago and last month had a Zoom meeting with tribal representatives, including from the Shawnee Tribe. Stacey Halfmoon, executive director of culture and historic preservation for the Shawnee Tribe, commended the state commission for aligning its policies with the National Park Service. She said the tribe welcomes any opportunity to consult on how Shawnee history is portrayed in the state.
Anew rule in Pennsylvania that will require re-enactors of a 1763 battle to lay down their weapons is drawing fire from a local historical society, the latest skirmish in the re-enactment world, which has been diminishing as hobbyists get older and sensitivities about restaging historical events have grown.
The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission said last month that it will no longer permit re-enactments on the 23 sites it owns in the state that involve the exchange of fire from weapons, the taking of casualties and hand-to-hand combat, “or any other form of simulated warfare or violence between opposing forces.” The commission said it made the change to align with National Park Service policy.
The announcement opened a new front in a dispute with the Bushy Run Battlefield Heritage Society, which said it would have to cancel a battlefield re-enactment it has put on every August for the past 40 years as part of a commemoration of a battle between British troops and Native Americans that took place during Pontiac’s Rebellion, just after the French and Indian War. At a community meeting on Sunday at Bushy Run Park 25 miles east of Pittsburgh, community members and local lawmakers also decried the new rule.
“This is not just a pretend weekend,” said Rob Malley, a board member of the local group, which touts the educational value of the event. “If this all stands, we have to reinvent ourselves.”
The National Park Service has long had a policy barring so-called force-on-force re-enactments on federal land. Annual re-enactments of the Battle of Gettysburg that feature people in historically accurate uniforms firing antique muskets and cannons have taken place for decades on private property.
In September, several groups canceled re-enactments in New York after the state banned weapons, including rifles that fire black powder, from public parks and other areas. Last May, dozens of people in Maine protested Civil War re-enactors carrying Confederate flags in a Memorial Day parade.
Mary Koik, a spokeswoman for the American Battlefield Trust, which tries to preserve historic battlefields from being lost to development, said the shift away from simulated combat on federal land started in the early 1960s after people portraying Confederate and Union soldiers were injured at Gettysburg.
“At least two people were hospitalized,” she said. “There was an about-face on policy.”
Veteran re-enactors say their ranks are dwindling and getting grayer, leaving fewer volunteers to face off on the battlefield. The Gettysburg re-enactment at Daniel Lady Farm, which is privately owned, once drew 16,000 re-enactors but will likely have 1,500 this year, said Kirk Davis, president of the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association.
Mr. Davis said he has been donning Civil War-era regalia for 35 years. He started off in the infantry, but at 65 years old, he now portrays a physician in a camp. “It’s now moving more to a living history process,” he said.
In Montana, Jim Real Bird, a Crow Nation member, produces a re-enactment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn every June on his family’s property near the spot where Sitting Bull once camped. The battle features around 100 people, including Crow members portraying warriors who rout non-Indians playing cavalry soldiers, and he said it is important to tell the story from the Indian perspective.
“This is a native story. This is not like a Hollywood production,” Mr. Real Bird said. He said he insists on hiring local youth who can ride bareback and carry a rifle, which he said isn’t easy to do, to make the show more authentic.
The Bushy Run battle re-enactment outside Pittsburgh is the centerpiece of the multiday event, which is also the local historical society’s biggest fundraiser, said Mr. Malley, the board member. About 1,500 spectators typically watch as a total of 100 people portraying British soldiers and members of tribes, such as the Shawnee and Delaware, square off, he said.
Mr. Malley said the state commission had separately asked the historical society to stop the Bushy Run re-enactment last Augustbecause nontribal members portrayed Indians. The group refused the request, he said, because it came shortly before the planned event. He said his group is willing to consult with tribes as required by the commission.
Howard Pollman, a spokesman for the state commission, said it is working on guidelines that would require members of federally recognized tribes to portray tribal figures in re-enactments at its historic sites. A draft he provided says that appropriate roles for nontribal people include captives or adopted people, traders or “someone who is specifically married to an American Indian person in the 18th century.”
Mr. Pollman said the commission, which contracts with the Bushy Run group to operate the historic site, had been in conversations over the past six months with the local group about updating events. In a statement, the commission said the historical society can still participate in discussions of battles and tactics and historic weapons firing.
The historical society said it consulted with the Seneca Nation about a decade ago and last month had a Zoom meeting with tribal representatives, including from the Shawnee Tribe. Stacey Halfmoon, executive director of culture and historic preservation for the Shawnee Tribe, commended the state commission for aligning its policies with the National Park Service. She said the tribe welcomes any opportunity to consult on how Shawnee history is portrayed in the state.
