Conclusion

The 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition was a celebration of America's rewarding annexation of "Eskimo" land and offered some spectacles unique to the American "Orient" alongside the more traditional world's fair midway extravaganza. The AYP Expo had the advantage of bringing hundreds of Alaskan "Eskimos" down to Seattle to entertain and "educate" white fairgoers. Amongst the Native Americans on display were their "Eskimo" children, who were treated even more like dolls or chattel than their adult counterparts, as they could be more easily touched, carried, and fetishized as the "Other". In stark contrast to this was the Baby Incubator Exhibit, also on the Pay Streak, which housed rotations of usually white, premature infants in individual, state-of-the-art glass incubators that visitors could ogle at from a safe, respectful distance. The difference between the two displays of children is staggering, as the wellbeing of the "Eskimo" babies was completely ignored for the sake of capitalist gain (the profits not going towards the Native American preformers themselves, of course) and white amusement and self-enlightenment, while the lives and futures of white babies were being saved (all profits were generously used to pay for the medical services) for the same purpose.