Edward S. Curtis Portraits The Many Faces of the Native Americans

by Youngblood, Wayne

• ISBN13: 9780785839743
• ISBN10: 0785839747
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2021-11-09
• Publisher: Chartwell Books

Summary

In 1906, J. P. Morgan commissioned Edward S. Curtis to produce a series of books depicting Native American life. Edward S. Curtis Portraits contains over 250 of the project’s beautiful and haunting portraits.

“In Mr. Curtis we have both an artist and a trained observer, whose pictures are pictures, not merely photographs.” —President Theodore Roosevelt

Talented photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis set out on the project with the goal of becoming a successful portrait artist, but as he worked taking photographs of the “vanishing Indian,” he discovered a calling as an ethnographer and embarked on a mission to document every aspect of traditional Native American culture before it disappeared forever. He considered the loss of Native American traditions a national tragedy and sacrificed his financial security, marriage, and even his health to pursue his mission.

Curtis’s highly expressive portraits convey the full range of human emotions, attesting to the trust he established with his subjects, and serve as exquisite examples of classic portraiture. From Alaska to Mexico, the photographs in this compact volume feature tribes such as:
 

• The Apache
• The Jicarillas
• The Navaho
• The Papago
• The Qahatika
• The Mohave
• The Yuma
• The Maricopa
• The Walapai
• The Havasupai
• The Yavapai
• And many more

Though Curtis has been criticized for idealizing the people he photographed with props and staged shots, his deep respect for them and earnest attempt to understand them is apparent in his work. Today, these portraits allow us a precious glimpse into Native American life as it existed before complete colonial expansion in the United States.

Author Biography

Wayne Youngblood grew up near the banks of the Rio Grande in New Mexico. He is a history lover who spent several years studying the pony express and the Oregon and Mormon trails while living in Nebraska. He is a writer/editor for a publication that caters to record collectors, has written books on subjects ranging from stamp collecting to colonial American history and lives in the wilds of central Wisconsin with his wife.

Table of Contents

Introduction
I The Apache. The Jicarillas. The Navaho.
II The Pima. The Papago. The Qahatika. The Mohave. The Yuma. The Maricopa. The Walapai. The Havasupai. The Apache-Mohave, or Yavapai
III The Teton Sioux. The Yanktonai. The Assiniboin.
IV The Apsaroke, or Crows. The Hidatsa.
V The Mandan. The Arikara. The Atsina.
VI The Piegan. The Cheyenne. The Arapaho.
VII The Yakima. The Klickitat. The Salishan tribes of the interior. The Kutenai.
VIII The Nez Perces. Wallawalla. The Umatilla. The Cayuse. The Chinookan tribes.
IX The Salishan tribes of the coast. The Chimakum and the Quilliute. The Willapa.
X The Kwakiutl.
XI The Nootka. The Haida.
XII The Hopi.
XIII The Hupa. The Yurok. The Karok. The Wiyot. The Tolowa and Tututni. The Shasta. The Achomawi. The Klamath.
XIV The Kato. The Wailaki. The Yuki. The Pomo. The Wintun. The Maidu. The Miwok. The Yokuts.
XV The Southern California Shoshoneans. The Diegueños. The Plateau Shoshoneans. The Washo.
XVI The Tiwa. The Keres.
XVII The Tewa. The Zuñi.
XVIII The Chipewyan. The Western Woods Cree. The Sarsi.
XIX The Indians of Oklahoma. The Wichita. The Southern Cheyenne. The Oto. The Comanche. The Peyote Cult.
XX The Alaskan Eskimo. The Nunivak. The Eskimo of Hooper Bay. The Eskimo of King Island. The Eskimo of Little Diomede Island. The Eskimo of Cape Prince. The Kotzebue Eskimo. The Noatak. The Kobuk. The Selawik.
Index