The Photographs of Edward S Curtis September 23, 2010

Between 1900 and 1930, Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) traveled from Mexico to the Arctic, compiling a vast store of information covering more than Indian tribes, in the form of 40,000 photographs, 10,000 recordings of songs and stories, and several volumes of field notes. The published result, The North American Indian (1907), spanned 20 volumes of illustrated text, accompanied by 20 photo portfolios. Curtis worked with his subjects to recreate images of "vanishing" Indian peoples before contact with non-natives. But the people did not disappear, and neither did their customs. Many traditions have been preserved by modern tribes, some of whom use the information captured in Curtis' photos-from building homes to designing pottery or clothing-in their contemporary activities. Should we condemn Curtis as an arrogant artist who tried to make people conform to preconceived notions of how they should look and act? Or should we thank him for his vision and determination? These images, flawed or not, open a window onto Native people and their customs at the start of the 20th century.