The Fairs had a bizarre sociological component that, I think, was rather large. Freak show is probably closer to the truth. Wikipedia talks about some of it but other sources note many other ethnicities were put on display. I think the correct assumption would be that it was against their will. In the 2nd paragraph below they admit it was basically a human zoo. I think it is important to include this macabre and pathetic aspect of these Fairs.
People on display[edit]
Advertisement for human exhibits from the Philippine Islands at the World's Fair, St. Louis, 1904
"Indian girls dressed for a ball game, U.S. Government Indian exhibit."
....
1,102 Filipinos were displayed at the fair, 700 of them Philippine Scouts and Philippine Constabulary, used for controlling conflict among Filipinos and between Filipinos and fair organizers. (!!!!) Displays included the
Apache of the
American Southwest and the
Igorot of the Philippines, both of which peoples were noted as "primitive"...... The people had been trafficked under harsh conditions and many did not survive. Burial plots in two St. Louis cemeteries were prepared
in advance (?!), however traditional burial practices were not allowed.
[50] Some of the people to be exhibited died en route or at the fair; bodies were immediately removed, and funeral rites had to be conducted without the bodies, in front of an oblivious public audience of fair attendees. Organizers choreographed ethnographic displays, having customs which marked special occasions restaged day after day.
[47]
Similarly, members of the Southeast Alaskan
Tlingit tribe accompanied fourteen
totem poles, two Native houses, and a canoe displayed at the Alaska Exhibit.
[51][52] Mary Benson, a noted
Pomo basket weaver whose work is curated at the Smithsonian Institution and
National Museum of the American Indian, attended to demonstrate her basket making skills which are described as astounding.
[53] Athletic events such as a basketball tournament were held to demonstrate the success of the
Indian Boarding Schools and other assimilation programs.
[54] These efforts were confirmed with the
Fort Shaw Indian School girls basketball team who were declared "World Champions" after beating every team who faced them in these denominational games.
[55]
It has been argued that the "overriding purpose of the fair really centered on an effort to promote America's new role as an overseas imperial power", and that "While the juxtaposition of "modern" and "primitive" buttressed assumptions of racial superiority, representations of Native American and Filipino life created an impression of continuity between westward expansion across the continent and the new overseas empire."
[47] Racializing concepts and epithets used domestically were extended to the people of the overseas territories.
[56][47][57]
Ota Benga, a Congolese Pygmy, was featured at the fair. Later he was given the run of the grounds at the
Bronx Zoo in New York, then featured in an exhibit on evolution alongside an
orangutan in 1906, but public protest ended that.
-------
(below) Patagonian Giants on display...they don't look too happy about it.
Dancing Pygmies: