A study of the literary influence of Edward Curtis's multi-volume collections of Native American photographs.

In the years 1900-1930, American photographer Edward S. Curtis realized his life’s work, the monumental twenty-volume book series The North American Indian (1907-1930). Over the years, this work has been both praised and criticized. In this comprehensive and innovative study, Herman Cohen Stuart corrects a number of persistent misconceptions about the way Curtis, for many the most image-defining and influential photographer of American Indians, has represented the indigenous peoples of North America. The author argues that Curtis was keenly aware of the major changes Native Americans faced in the early 20th century. As is demonstrated by a thorough – both quantitative and qualitative – analysis of both Curtis’s texts and photographic artwork, Curtis was deeply conscious of the fact that by, and even before, the turn of the century, Western influences had already made large inroads into Native American life. This book provides a reappraisal of Curtis's position during this complicated and trying period for Native Americans.

Housing a wealth of ethnographic information yet steeped in nostalgia and predicated upon the assumption that Native Americans were a "vanishing race," Curtis's work has been both influential and controversial, and its vision of Native Americans must still be reckoned with today."--BOOK JACKET.

The traditional cultures of the Indians of the Great Plains?Lakotas, Cheyennes, Wichitas, Arikaras, Crows, Osages, Assiniboins, Comanches, Crees, and Mandans, among others?are recalled in stunning detail in this collection of photographs by Edward S. Curtis (1868?1952). Curtis is the best-known photographer of Native Americans because of his monumental work, The North American Indian (1907?1930), which consists of twenty portfolios of large photogravures and twenty volumes of text on more than eighty Indian groups in the West. He took pictures of Plains Indians for over twenty years, and his photographs reflect both prevailing attitudes about Indians and Curtis's own vision of differences among the Native peoples whom he photographed. ø Curtis's photographs have exerted an enduring influence?both positive and negative?on mainstream American culture. They have inspired countless books, articles, and photographic exhibitions, and they continue to appear on posters, postcards, and other souvenirs. Accompanying the remarkable array of images in this book are essays by leading scholars that place the photographs within their proper critical, cultural, and historical contexts. The scholars contributing to this work are Martha H. Kennedy, Martha A. Sandweiss, Mick Gidley, and Duane Niatum.

A selection of Curtis' photographs taken during the thirty five years he spent documenting Native American life.

Reproduces nearly two hundred photographs of Native Americans taken by Edward Sheriff Curtis in the early 1900s, with essays that discuss aspects of life common to all tribes, including spirituality, ceremony, arts, and daily activities.