© 2018 Suzanne L. Kroll All Rights Reserved

SUZANNE L. KROLL

A STUDY OF EDWARD S. CURTIS’S THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN: A NAVAJO TEXTILE PERSPECTIVE

A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron

In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Art

Suzanne L. Kroll December 2018 A STUDY OF EDWARD S. CURTIS’S THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN: A NAVAJO TEXTILE PERSPECTIVE

Suzanne L. Kroll

Thesis

Approved: Accepted:

______Thesis Advisor Interim School Director Dr. Virginia Gunn Janice Troutman

______Faculty Reader Interim Dean of College Dr. Sandra Buckland Dr. Linda Subich

______Faculty Reader Executive Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Teena Jennings-Rentenaar Dr. Chand Midha

______Date

ABSTRACT

Edward S. Curtis photographed Native American culture for his epic 20-volume work, The North American Indian, published from 1907-1930. Curtis’s work features over 2,000 photographs of Native Americans, rich with artifacts of Native American culture. Study of these photographs containing native artifacts reveals new perspectives on Native American life during the time Curtis took his photographs. This research focuses on Navajo weavings, one of the most popular and recognizable artifacts. Curtis wanted to capture a vanishing race of Native Americans, a popular belief of his time.

Analysis of Navajo weavings in these photographs reveals a different viewpoint. Curtis’s beautiful photographs captured a period of transition as the Navajo used their ancient craft of weaving blankets for other Native American cultures to create rugs for a growing

Anglo-American market, preparing their culture for the future.

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DEDICATION

Education was important to my parents, Mary and Ralph Gresser. Both my mother and father were the only children in their families to obtain a collegiate degree.

My mother worked especially hard, working long hours to pay for her degree. Both established life-long relationships and held their alma mater of The Ohio State University in the highest regard throughout their lives. It was their wish for their children to have the experience of higher education. It took me a long time, but the time has arrived.

Their presence has been with me every step of the way!

To the memory of my parents, I dedicate this work.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Projects such as this cannot be completed without the help of others.

Dr. Teena Jennings-Rentenaar served as my advisor, guiding me through my entire master’s journey, and as part of my committee. Her generosity of time and support were endless during this process. Dr. J’s laughter and insights enriched this experience and I am truly appreciative of the confidence and friendship she offered.

I also wish to thank Dr. Sandra Buckland for her contributions as part of my thesis committee. Her objective comments and support were so greatly appreciated.

Conversations with Amy Benson and Diane Orender pointed me in the direction of local collections of Native American craft and eventually to Edward Curtis’s epic work. Their support and input opened doors I wouldn’t have considered during this journey.

Early in my research I had the privilege to talk with Kathy M’Closkey during a phone conversation about her experiences with the Navajo in researching for her book,

Swept under the Rug. Her passion for the Navajo people and their weaving was contagious and I am truly thankful for her great passion.

Jackie Gresser, my cousin, took the time to travel with me to Muskegon,

Michigan to see the Edward Curtis exhibit of his portfolio photographs found in The

North American Indian at the Muskegon Art Museum. The drive was a long one and her company made the trip even more of an adventure filled with fun and good times.

Joyce Suttle has been with me through thick and thin. Her friendship is as a

sister. Joyce traveled to Santa Fe with me, helping me to start conversations with people

I would not have ordinarily had the gumption to start! Her curiosity encouraged me to ask questions that would have not occurred to me without her presence. Thanks, my friend.

The assistance of Dr. Virginia Gunn has been priceless. Her kindness is unparalleled and advise, second to none. I will miss our conversations and treasure the books and other materials she so generously gave to me during her time as my thesis advisor. I was advised by the absolute best. Thank you with all my heart.

My husband, Phil, has been by my side through my entire undergraduate and graduate experience, cheering me on. He comforted me and supported my efforts, keeping me focused during times I wasn’t so sure I would make it. Through the graciousness of God, he is my dear one, now and always.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………….x CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION..…………………………………………………………………….1 II. THE NAVAJO..……………………………………………………………………….6 In Search of the Navajo Perspective………………………………………………7 Foundational Themes of the Navajo……………………………………………..15 Expand and Prosper……………………………………………………...15 Defense and Survival…………………………………………………….17 Adaptability and Incorporation…………………………………………..18 Identity and Continuation………………………………………………..18 Early Reservation Years 1869-1904……………………………………………..19 The Commercialization of Navajo Textiles……………………………………...22 III. EDWARD CURTIS AND THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN…………………….30 Making Ends Meet……………………………………………………………….30 Photographic Beginnings………………………………………………………...33 Journey of a Lifetime…………………………………………………………….35 The North American Indian……………………………………………………...38 Challenges in creating The North American Indian……………………………..42 Rebirth of The North American Indian………………………………………….45

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IV. PHOTOGRAPHY AND NATIVE AMERICANS.………………………………..59 Beginnings of Photography……………………………………………………..59 Native Reaction to Photography…………………………………………………61 Power of Pictures………………………………………………………………...63 A Possible Navajo Perspective on Photography…………………………………66 Curtis’s Photographic Style Versus the Rest…………………………………….70 V. RESEARCH ………………………………………………………………..….…….77 Selecting an Appropriate Research Method.…...………………………………..78 Creating the Research Instrument………………………………..……………....79 The Identification Number……………………………………………….80 List Criteria………………………………………………………………81 Completing the Spreadsheet……………………………………………..81 Evaluating a Textile’s Origins…………………………………………...………83 Determining Navajo Trading Partners………..………………………………….84 Interpreting the Emerging Picture Objectively…………………………………..88 Challenges raised by Curtis’s Decisions…………………………………………88 Research by the Numbers………………………………………………………..89 A Revised Research Approach……………………………………………….….93 Navajo Transitions……………………………………………………………….99 Transitions in Navajo Weaving…….…………………………………………..104 Weaving in Canyon de Chelly………………………………………………….109 Blankets to Rugs………………………………………………………………..111 Transitioning, Not Vanishing…………………………………………………..112 Native American Transitions…………………………………………………...116 VI. CONCLUSION………………………………..…………………………………...121 Suggestions for Future Study………………………………………...…………123 Continuation……..……………………………………………………...………124

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BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………128 APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………….134 APPENDIX A. RAW DATA, LIST A, VOL. I, IV, XII, AND XVI………….135

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

4.1 Edward S. Curtis, “Nature’s Mirror - Navaho”.…………………………74 5.1 Comparison of Navajo and Manufactured Textiles……..…………...... 85 5.2 Indian to Indian Trading System…………………….……….……….….87 5.3 Research by the Numbers Chart….…………………….………………..90 5.4 Edward S. Curtis, “Tobacco Ceremony–Apsaroke”…...………………...94 5.5 Edward S. Curtis, “Heavy Load-Sioux”…………………………………97 5.6 Edward S. Curtis, “Wood Gatherer-Sioux”……………………………...97 5.7 Edward S. Curtis, “Alchise–Apache,” Portfolio …………………….... .98 5.8 Edward S. Curtis, “Alchise–Apache,” Volume I……...….……..……...100 5.9 Edward S. Curtis, “Chief of the Desert-Navaho”…………...... ………..102 5.10 Edward S. Curtis, “Blanket Maker–Navaho”……………..……….…...103 5.11 Edward S. Curtis, “Navaho Flocks”……………….……………..…….108 5.12 Edward S. Curtis, “Jeditoh–Navaho”………….………..….……….….108 5.13 Edward S. Curtis, “Blanket Weaver-Navaho”….…………………...….110 5.14 Edward S. Curtis, “Hastin Yahze–Navaho……..……………..………..113 5.13 Edward S. Curtis, “Navaho Still Life”……………………….…………114

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

During the completion of my coursework for a master’s degree at the University

of Akron, I became interested in the historical significance of the textile fiber wool and I

wanted to find a way to focus on it as part of my thesis research. I found it interesting

that the Navajo people were strongly identified with this fiber for generations. They used

the fiber to create a unique craft, the Navajo rug, making them well known throughout

the United States and the world.

In June 2014, I visited the Navajo Nation to attend a program sponsored by

Navajo Lifeway called Sheep is Life. My purpose was to see what the people and the area were like to determine a possible direction for my thesis research. I knew very little

about the Navajo even though my husband and I had traveled frequently to our camp site

in Arizona about an hour or two south of the Navajo Nation.

Through my experience with Sheep is Life, I became acquainted with three strong and proud Navajos. Each presented a different account of their own Navajo story, providing the seeds that would later determine my thesis topic and influence how I would approach my research.

Edith Simonson, a Navajo weaver, was the instructor of the workshop in Navajo rug weaving which I attended as part of Sheep is Life. Edith began the workshop by

telling us the names of clans of her own personal lineage. She carefully placed a bundle

of weaving tools wrapped in a textile on the table. The tools had belonged to a great

Navajo weaver. Edith explained the privilege of caring for this great weaver as she

aged, carefully untying the bundle as she told us stories about the woman. She was sharing the story of her mother through the well-worn tools she used weaving rugs throughout the twentieth century. Edith continued to tell us stories of Navajo tradition and culture as she taught us how to warp our looms, use a Navajo spindle, and weave.

She told us about the major role women played in the culture of the Navajo. It was a perspective of Native American life that seemed to be rarely heard or discussed outside the borders of the Navajo Nation. Edith was a strong, Navajo woman sharing the experiences of another Navajo woman of the past who raised her and taught her to weave.

The second Navajo influencing the direction of this research was a young Navajo woman named Nonabah Sam. Nonabah was the curator of a small museum called the

Ned Hatathil Museum, located on the Tsaile campus of Dine′ College where the Sheep is

Life program was held. I spoke with Nonabah one day when I had some free time and asked her input on how I might approach researching a thesis involving the Navajo. Her advice was to talk to the Navajo and let them tell their own story. She believed that too much had been written about the Navajo, but not from a Navajo viewpoint. It was important that the Navajo voice be heard above all the rhetoric written in the past.

Nonabah finished our conversation recommending I visit the Santa Fe Indian Market to meet Navajo weavers and talk to them about their art. The market was an annual street market showcasing Native American art from all areas of the United States. Nonabah also suggested I visit the School of American Research while I was in Santa Fe.

I met Sylvanus Paul on my trip to the Santa Fe Indian Market in August 2014.

Sylvanus, a Navajo, worked at the School of American Research [SAR] located in a

Santa Fe neighborhood away from the hustle and bustle of the Indian Market. SAR specializes in assisting students interested in Native American research. Its archives contain a large collection of Pueblo pottery and a substantial collection of Southwest textiles. Sylvanus spent a morning with me in their archives, telling me a story relating to

Navajo textiles.

Sylvanus had selected a chief blanket, carefully placed on a large table. He explained the meaning of its colors and stripes. The chief blanket had been a coveted item woven by the Navajo and used in their trading system before and throughout the nineteenth century to obtain other materials wanted or needed from other indigenous cultures or non-native groups such as the Spanish or Americans. The name, chief blanket, came from the fact that only leaders of other native cultures called chiefs had the means to purchase or trade for the blankets. The chiefs obtained the blankets for themselves and their families, using them as status symbols of wealth. The term “chief” contrasted with the Navajo who had no single leaders or chiefs. Instead they lived as familial clans throughout Navajo Country. Sylvanus told how the Navajo had been great traders, trading as far as California and other parts of the United States.

Sylvanus’s historical account of his people aligned with the Navajo culture I witnessed at Sheep is Life. Sylvanus and Edith both stressed the importance to the

Navajo of remembering the past, presenting stories of their people and culture through the craft of Navajo weaving. Sylvanus’s presentation was kind and respectful of Navajo beliefs concerning the objects owned by Native Americans in the past. Nonabah wished

for a respectful and truthful accounting of Navajo history from their perspective. For

Edith, Nonabah, and Sylvanus, stories of the Navajo past were to be told with great

respect and reverent kindness to honor the Navajo before them.

I returned home and began research on the Navajo and their rugs. During my

research, I discovered an original set of The North American Indian, a twenty-volume set

by Edward S. Curtis published from 1907-1930 in a local house museum in Akron, Ohio,

and had the opportunity to look at the first volume about the Navajo and Apache.

Curtis’s photographs were amazing and unforgettable.

The final piece of the puzzle came together through a YouTube video. Cihuapilli

Rose Amador and Sundust Martinez interviewed Anecita Agustinez, a Navajo weaver, on

Native Voice TV.1 During the conversation, Anecita mentioned that chief blankets could

be found in The North American Indian. As soon as I heard Anecita’s comment, I

decided to search for Navajo weavings within the photographs of The North American

Indian. I had listened to historical narratives of three Navajos about Navajo weaving in

my visits to the Southwest. I wanted to see Native Americans from another time using

their Navajo woven textiles. What could the presence of Navajo weavings in these

photographs tell me about Navajo weaving and its importance to their culture at the turn

of the twentieth century?

NOTES

1Cihuapilli Rose Amador and Sundust Martinez, “Interview with Anecita Agustinez,” Native Voice TV, YouTube posted March 26, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAFSHjd_6tA (accessed January 23, 2016).

CHAPTER II

THE NAVAJO

My summer meetings with the Navajos in 2014 had revealed a strong, vocal

people wanting to tell their own story. It would be important to research Navajo

narratives from a variety of sources to describe the state of the Navajo people during the

approximately 30-year period it took to create and publish the multi-volume set of

photographs found in The North American Indian.

I soon discovered that Navajos’ own narratives were much different than those of

non-Navajos. Non-Navajo narratives produced a documented and analytical perspective

of the Navajo origins. Anthropologists described the Navajo as travelers from the north.

They were considered part of the Athabaskan language culture, closely related to the

Apache. They eventually settled in the Southwest region of the United States in the

fifteenth or sixteenth century, prior to the arrival of the Spanish. The Pueblo, already

established in the region, were credited with teaching the Navajo to weave. The Navajo-

Churro sheep came with the Spanish as Europeans began inhabiting the area around

1540.1

The Navajo recount a different story about their origins through their creation story. They are the Dine′ who live in Dine′ Bike′yah, the Navajo Country. The Dine′

emerged after experiencing four different worlds and were carried by flood waters to the

area between two mountains and the Four Sacred Mountains. The country’s boundaries

were marked by four sacred mountains: the sacred mountain of the East (Blanca Peak or

Sis Naajini) in Colorado; the sacred mountain to the South (Mount Taylor or Tsoodzil) in

New Mexico; the sacred mountain to the West (San Francisco Peaks or Dook′o′oosliid)

in Arizona; and the sacred mountain of the North called (Hesperus Peak or Dibe′ Nitsaa)

in Colorado.2

Changing Woman was the main character of the Navajo creation story. She

created sheep, a symbol of life and wealth. Spider Woman, another important character,

gave the Dine′ their churro sheep when she taught them to weave, first baskets, then textiles. She taught them to weave a “spirit path” in their textile designs so the weavers would not be “imprisoned” in the textile’s beauty.3

The Navajo creation story continues to be important to today’s Navajo culture. I

remembered that Edith believed this creation story. She believed it was confusing to tell

the younger generation two stories of how weaving began and wished that only the

Navajo beliefs were taught. With the abundance of written materials existing about the

Navajo and their weaving, it would be important to separate the true Navajo narratives from the non-Navajo narratives.

In Search of the Navajo Perspective

Historians of Navajo weaving refer to letters and government documents about

Native American affairs prior to 1869, piecing together a Navajo history from the viewpoint of a colonial power. Spain established colonies in the American Southwest

7 beginning in 1598. The Spanish had traveled the globe and established colonies to gain material wealth and power for the Spanish monarchy. The United States government took over the Spanish colonies north of Mexico in 1850 as the population of the United

States grew and moved west of their origins on the east coast of the North American continent. The Navajo, like other Native American groups, were a problem for both ruling colonial powers as they resisted the intrusion onto their land and amongst their people.4

The United States government officially documented the weaving practices of the

Navajo after they were placed on their reservation in 1869. An official report of Navajo weaving by the U. S. government is found in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of

Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-1882.5 The volume, published in 1884, contained a report on Navajo Weavers by Dr. Washington Matthews.

His report described dyes and loom construction with sketches illustrating tools and methods. It also contained information about Navajo weaving of both blankets and sashes. Sketches illustrated some of the patterns found in Navajo blankets. The report compared Navajo weaving to the culture and weaving practices of their Pueblo neighbors.

The narrative of Navajo life and history continued to be limited as their craft of weaving began to become popular around the 1890s. Books and articles about the

Navajo started to appear at the beginning of the twentieth century, all written by Anglo-

Americans from their perspective as collectors of Navajo weaving. Three prominent books provided examples of this type of writing.

The first major publication was written in 1903 by U. S. Hollister and entitled The

Navajo and his Blanket. Hollister’s book describes his experiences on the Navajo reservation, collecting Navajo weavings as he communicated with them through an interpreter.6 He also included colored plates of blankets from his personal collection.

Hollister quoted what he knew about their history from other resources such as the

Bureau of Ethnology.

The second major publication was written by George Wharton James, a book

copyrighted in 1914, entitled Indian Blankets and their Makers. James presented Navajo weaving as a developing art form and seemed to have been considered an authority on

Native American craft by Anglo-American society. The title page within the front cover of the book listed three other books James had written: Indian Basketry (1901), What the

White Race May Learn from the Indian (1917) and The Indians of the Painted Desert

Region (1903). James wrote about where Navajo blankets were made, types of historical weavings, colors and dyes, and their designs. James featured a chapter on the classification of the blanket based on the quality of wool and weave. This was a precursor to today’s classification of rugs by region and design within the Navajo Nation.

James also included information about Pueblo textiles.7 Like Hollister, the weavings

seemed to be of more interest than the people who wove them.

The third major publication written from a collector’s viewpoint was completed

by Charles Avery Amsden in 1934 entitled Navaho Weaving: It’s Technic and History.8

Amsden served as secretary and treasurer of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles,

California, and began researching Navajo textiles in 1929, writing this book about his

findings.9 The book was divided into two parts: The Technic of Navaho Weaving and

The History of Navaho Weaving. Like the other two books, Amsden’s book focused on weaving from his perspective without the perspective of the Navajo who created the weaving. For him, the weavings were important, not the individuals who created them.

Gladys Reichard completed an ethnographic study of Navajo family life and was known for her book Spider Woman: A Story of Navajo Weavers and Chanters, originally published in 1934 by the University of New Mexico Press.10 Reichard lived with the

Navajo, giving a face to the weavers who created these beautiful and coveted textiles.

She provided the world with a narrative of Navajo family life. Reichard’s work became a

turning point in the written documentation of Navajo history.11

Joe Ben Wheat, an anthropologist affiliated with the University of Colorado

Museum starting in 1953, studied and analyzed Navajo and Pueblo weavings extensively in the late-twentieth century.12 Wheat attempted to document the structure of each weaving he found in assorted collections and categorized them by use and date of origin from 1750 to the late-nineteenth century.13 The summary of his work, Blanket Weaving

in the Southwest, was published in 2003 after his death in 1997.14

Dr. Ann Lane Hedlund, Wheat’s colleague since 1973, continued the task of editing Wheat’s work for publication after his death. Dr. Hedlund’s own research

contained observations and discussions with Navajo weavers obtained during field

research between the mid-1970s to the beginnings of the 21st century. Hedlund wrote

Beyond the Loom: Keys to Understanding Early Southwestern Weaving, published in

1990, based on her research with Wheat.15 Her book, Navajo Weaving in the Late

Twentieth Century: Kin, Community, and Collectors, published in 2004, discussed the

modern art of Navajo weaving.16 Hedlund published photographs of weavings created

between 1971 and 1996 as part of her research. She included information about the

weavers who created the weavings as well as her own observations. Hedlund’s research

was noteworthy because she identified Navajo weavers directly to the pieces they

created.

Kate Peck Kent wrote about the history of Navajo weaving in her book Navajo

Weaving: Three Centuries of Change published in 1985.17 Kent discussed historical

influences affecting Navajo weaving markets and described how these influences

impacted Navajo weaving techniques. She divided a history of Navajo weaving into

three periods: The Classic Period: 1650-1865; the Transition Period: 1865-1895; and The

Rug Period: Weaving since 1895.18 Kent noted the ever-changing Navajo aesthetic throughout history stating, “the common thread that ties the old and new together is the technique . . . using traditional processes and tools.”19

Garrick Bailey and his wife, Roberta Glenn Bailey, published a comprehensive

history of the Navajo in 1986 entitled History of the Navajo: The Reservation Years.20

This research, respected by the Navajo, began in 1977 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs

requested historical background for an excavation project.21 As the research evolved, the

Baileys began to work with the School of American Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico,

whose publishing facility eventually published their book in 1986. Chapter One covers

“The Early Navajo,” but most of the work focuses on the period from 1868-1975. The

Baileys focused on the commerce of Navajo weaving, the livestock markets, and the influence of the United States government on the life of the Navajo.

Roseanne Willink and Paul Zolbord interviewed Navajo elders for their interpretations of historical weavings. Their findings were published in 1996 in a book

entitled Weaving a World: Textiles and the Navajo Way of Seeing.22 This approach

presented a more personal Navajo narrative of their own weaving, a definite change from other authors who followed a textile design perspective or collector’s point of view. The

Navajo elders chose to comment on the spiritual significance of the rugs by their

historical creators.

The year 2002 seemed to be a landmark year and turning point for the publication

of research considering Navajo narratives. Kathleen Whitaker published her book entitled Southwest Textiles: Weavings of the Navajo and Pueblo.23 Her research was

based upon the Native American historic textile collection of the Southwest Museum,

Los Angeles, California. Dr. Whitaker had served as chief curator at the museum, later becoming the director of the Indian Arts Research Center at the School of American

Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She presents a history of Pueblo and Navajo weaving traditions, discussing their spiritual basis, interplay, and evolution through the centuries. Whitaker mentioned in her forward the assistance of Joe Ben Wheat, illustrating how each new piece of research builds upon another in the understanding of

Navajo weaving.

Peter Iverson published another history of the Navajo in 2002 entitled Dine′: A

History of the Navajos.24 Iverson had strong ties to the Navajo, beginning in his

childhood years, as his grandfather was a principal for different Indian Service Schools on the reservation in the 1930s and 1940s. In the spring of 1969, Iverson taught higher education within the Navajo Nation at the Navajo Community College. He also collaborated with Monty Roessel, a Navajo photographer, in the creation of this history book. 25

In the forward of his book, Iverson tells the story of the Navajo “from the inside out rather than the outside in . . . portraying Navajos as agents of their own destiny, rather than as victims.” Iverson not only used past scholarship but “new archival research,

Navajo oral and written history, interviews and firsthand observation.” Iverson stressed

four foundational Navajo themes: defense and survival; adaptation and incorporation;

expansion and prosperity; and identity and continuation. These four central foundational

themes created a rich history, reflecting the Navajo perspective.26

Kathy M’Closkey’s book, Swept Under the Rug: A Hidden History of Navajo

Weaving, was published in 2002..27 M’Closkey painted a realistic picture of Navajo

weaving as it evolved from blanket to rug making, focusing on the trading post records and journals of John Lorenzo Hubbell beginning in 1876. Her study described “how wealth accrued to the regional mercantile houses while the Navajos became impoverished.”28 Whitaker, Iverson, and M’Closkey continued the move towards

documentation of Navajo history through the eyes of the Navajo themselves rather than

through collectors and those impressed with the Navajo aesthetic.

Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale’s book, Reclaiming Dine′ History: The Legacies of

Navajo Chief Manuelito and Juanita, appeared in 2007.29 Denetdale was the first Dine′

to receive a PhD in history, making a significant addition to written Navajo history. She

tells the late-nineteenth century story of her ancestors Manuelito and his wife, Juanita.

The research for her book began in March 1998 as Denetdale traveled to Los Angeles,

California, to visit the Southwest Museum for a meeting with Kathleen Whitaker, then

curator of the collection. Denetdale’s objective was to see the dress of her ancestor,

Juanita, that was in their collection.

The story of the dress was first recounted by George Wharton James in his book,

Indian Blankets and their Makers published in 1914. James described the dress as a

treasured object to Juanita who originally showed him her dress. He offered to purchase

it from her and she declined due to its worn condition. Later, about 1902, Juanita

changed her mind and gave the dress to him as they had become “good friends,” according to James. James lost the dress when he loaned it to an Indian fiesta taking place in Los Angeles, but the dress somehow ended up in the collection of the Southwest

Museum.30 Denetdale discussed how James profited from the Navajo as he “went to

great length to procure their valuable things. Once he had appropriated their rugs,

dresses, blankets, pottery, and baskets, he offered them for sale as rare and authentic

Indian objects.”31

Denetdale’s view of James illustrates the dichotomy of the Navajo and non-

Navajo perspectives of Navajo history and treatment. Throughout her book, Denetdale

described the Navajo people under the colonial authority of the United States and presented in detail the roles of women in Navajo society, roles very different than those perceived by Anglo-Americans.

Like Iverson, Denetdale included clan narratives of the Navajo throughout her work. These narratives were shared by elders of her clan as she interviewed them.

Denetdale’s focus was to discover and document the stories passed from generation to generation about Manuelito and Juanita. Denetdale stressed the importance of combining generational Navajo stories with documented history to create an accurate presentation of the Navajo people.”32

Foundational Themes of The Navajo

Both Iverson and Denetdale included passing stories from generation to

generation as the Navajo method of creating continuity from past generations to their descendants. Continuity is part of the four foundational themes Iverson recognized as a quality of the Navajo people. It is important to reflect on Iverson’s four foundational themes in understanding an accurate history of the Navajo. These themes are expand and prosper; defense and survival; adaptability and incorporation; along with identity and continuation.33 Iverson’s four themes are as characteristic of the Navajo people throughout their history as they are to the Navajo today.

Expand and Prosper

Sheep and wool provided the means for the Navajo to expand and prosper. Their sheep, particularly the Navajo-Churro sheep, had been an important means of survival and economic prosperity for centuries. Navajo Lifeway, the Navajo organization which ran Sheep is Life, believes the following:

Diné philosophy, spirituality, and sheep are intertwined like wool in the strongest weaving. Sheep symbolize the Good Life, living in harmony and balance on the land. Before they acquired domesticated sheep on this continent, Diné held the Idea of Sheep in their collective memory for thousands of years. While wild mountain sheep provided meat and the Diné gathered wool from the shedding places, the species of sheep in North America do not have a herd behavior that permits domestication. As a result, the Diné asked their Holy People to send them a sheep that would live with them and with care they would provide a sustainable living.34

The answer to their request came in the form of the Churra sheep. The Spanish

brought Churra sheep to the Southwest as they settled into the area beginning in 1540.

Their wool fiber was considered secondary to the prized Merino wool fiber, however, the

Churra remained an important breed. The Churra’s qualities of hardiness, adaptability

and fecundity made them a perfect breed to provide wool and meat for their colonial citizens. As more Europeans settled the region, the name of the breed changed to

Navajo-Churro. 35

The Navajo-Churro breed seemed to be perfectly matched for the rough terrain

where the Navajo lived. They foraged well, ate less than other breeds, and did not need

to be fed grain. Their fleece did not produce as much lanolin as other types of wool,

making it easy to spin with little or no cleaning. The strong and durable fiber of the

Navajo-Churro allowed the Navajo to become widely known for their weavings of

blankets/rugs, horse cinches, and belts. Expanding flocks of Navajo-Churro sheep

allowed the Navajo to prosper through the fiber of their fleece and fed them with their

meat and milk.36

The Navajo were regarded as great traders. Beginning in the nineteenth century,

the Navajo used their weaving to trade for goods and horses as well as to negotiate the

release of Navajo slaves and as a proposition for peace.37 The Navajo created woven

pieces for trade or sale, consisting of different types of blankets. Most Navajo blankets

were longer than wide, in a variety of design styles and sizes. Navajo blankets, depending

on their size, were used for garments, doorway covers, and equestrian needs.38

The Navajo who created blankets and weavings used a wide variety of patterns.

Two blanket styles, however, became prominent. The moki-style, otherwise known as the Mexican Pelt, had its Mexican origins in the 1750s. The Pelt pattern featured narrow brown and indigo stripes.39 By the early 1800s, the chief-style blanket became coveted

and widely traded throughout the Southwest and the Plains. The blanket design began as

a wide white and dark striped wearing blanket. It evolved into a blanket retaining the

stripes, but included rectangles or diamond shapes, and lastly changed with the addition

of the color red. The chief blanket was a sign of affluence, worn by men and very

popular with women.40 Trade of these textiles allowed the Navajo to expand and prosper.

Defense and Survival

To expand and prosper as well as survive as a people, the Navajo believed “that the people, the animals and the land must be defended.”41 Throughout their history, the

Navajo contended with the Spanish, other native peoples such as the Comanches and the

Utes, as well as with the United States government. According to Denetdale, “cycles of peace and conflict that characterized much of the colonial southwest were directly related to the slave trade, of which Navajo women and children were the primary targets.”42

This was also true as New Mexico became populated with the colonization policies of the

United States beginning in 1846. In addition to the slave trade, Americans wanted access

to natural resources and an open route to California, further antagonizing relations with the Navajo.

Beginning in the summer of 1863, all-out war existed between the Navajo and the

Americans as Colonel Kit Carson and his troops forced the Navajo to surrender by burning trees, crops, and vegetation of the Navajo countryside and destroying as many sheep as they could find. The Navajo defended their people, land, and animals with all their might and lost. Some remained in Navajo Country with their sheep, hidden in the northern reaches of the region. Many Navajo, however, were forced to endure The Long

Walk taking place from 1863-1866. Groups of Navajo, both large and small, marched towards New Mexico led by U. S. troops, losing members of their tribe along the harsh journey. Not knowing where they were going or what would happen to them, the Navajo

17 walk ended at Bosque Redondo Reservation near Fort Sumner, New Mexico, where the

Navajo remained incarcerated until 1868.43

Adaptability and Incorporation

Their time in New Mexico demonstrated the Navajo’s ability to adapt to new circumstances and incorporate these changes into their culture. During their time at

Bosque Redondo, the Navajo were introduced to commercial Germantown yarns, incorporating their use into their weaving. According to Wheat, commercial yarn entered the Southwest as early as 1598. It had very little impact, however, on native weaving until the opening of the Santa Fe Trail in 1826. Most of the wool yarn from 1826 until the 1860s was manufactured in England and brought to the Southwest by Canadian

Traders. While available to native weavers, the yarn was expensive due to the tax on imported yarn. During their internment at Bosque Redondo, the Navajos were issued yarn with much of this yarn coming from English imports.44 In the late 1860s, however, woolen yarn manufactured in the United States, particularly from Germantown,

Pennsylvania, became popular with native weavers.

Identity and Continuation

While other tribes looked at treaties with the United States in a negative light, the

Dine′ celebrated their continuity in an 1868 treaty with the United States government.

This treaty allowed the Navajo to return to a smaller reservation within their original native boundaries.45 The Navajo returned to the land of their Holy People and re- established their identity as they continued weaving and rebuilt their flocks, beginning a new life as they began living under the restrictions of the United States government.

Early Reservation Years 1869-1904

The U. S. government initiated an annuity program for the Navajo in 1869. The government annuity granted each Navajo five-dollars annually to buy basic food supplies and kitchenware. As part of the annuity, the Navajo were able to purchase items needed to continue their weaving. Tow cards to clean wool fleece prior to spinning became available through their annuity allotment. Colorful Germantown yarn was especially popular due to its reasonable price and their ability to purchase it as part of their annuity allotment.46 Washington Matthews noted in his report of Navajo weaving to the Bureau of Ethnology for the Smithsonian Institute in 1881-1882 that “American yarn has lately become very popular among the Navajos, and many fine blankets are now made wholly, or in part, of Germantown wool.”47 The commercial yarn allowed weavers to eliminate the time and labor needed to prepare wool and spin yarn from their own sheep’s wool.

Weaving continued to be a major component of the Navajo lifestyle as they resettled into reservation life in the 1870s. Matthews stated that “with no native tribe in

America, north of the Mexican border, has the art of weaving been carried to greater perfection than among the Navajos.”48 The blankets they personally used, however, were no longer created on their Navajo looms. By the 1880s, the Navajo wove blankets to obtain cash and credit at the trading post and redeemed their credit to purchase trade blankets for their own use.49

The trade blanket industry began as early as the 1780s when Anglo-Americans expanded their culture westward. As Native American tribes were defeated through numerous wars and moved onto reservations by the U. S. government, each Native

American cultural group were given annuity blankets as part of their treaty obligation

between the government and the group. Until their incarceration, the Navajo made

blankets for themselves and to trade, and then continued to weave blankets until 1875.

By the 1880s, the Navajo no longer created their own blankets for their own use but

purchased their manufactured trade blankets through their local trading post on their

reservation.50

The trading posts on the reservation got their start as Navajo flocks of sheep

began to expand. The Navajo began trading their excess wool with a group of itinerant

peddlers called sutlers, who provided the United States Army with food and clothing.

The market became so lucrative, some of the sutlers stopped working with the army and

concentrated solely on the Navajo wool trade. The trading post system evolved through the sutlers, creating “nine posts on the reservation and thirty posts surrounding it by

1889.”51

With the wool market going well and the help of the annuities, the Navajo

economy showed signs of self-sufficiency. The Navajo had been left alone, and their flocks of sheep grew large in the 1870s. In 1878, the government decided to discontinue the annuity program.52

During the 1880s, the Navajo found themselves surrounded by Mormons from the

north wishing to farm and Mexican ranchers to the south with their own growing

livestock herds. More settlers began to inhabit the area with the addition of the Atlantic

and Pacific railroad. The large herds of livestock from the settlers used much of the

water sources available to Navajo flocks. The Navajo had become accustomed to moving

their sheep from pasture to pasture as the sheep finished foraging a pasture area. Now the

Navajo were unable to move their flocks of sheep to other areas due to the overcrowding

by other forms of livestock. Drought and hard winters began to affect the area, causing a reduction in the sheep population. Tensions became high, causing the Navajo to kill cattle that were not their own. The national economy began to collapse in 1893, causing lower prices in wool and livestock markets. The Navajo were starving, and their flocks of sheep were dwindling.53

The Navajo also started to feel the effects of change in Native American policy

from the federal government. The General Allotment Act of 1887, known as the Dawes

Act, attempted to influence Native American cultural groups to leave their way of life and assimilate into American citizens, conforming “to White man’s ways.” Five years later, Congress passed the Appropriations Act of July 13, 1892, requiring compulsory education for all Native Americans. Finally, in 1899, the federal government began to divide the reservation into agencies. These agencies were administrative districts for boarding and/or day schools. They also provided medical facilities with at least one physician and furnished “a farmer or stockman to help develop farms and herds.” These

three actions took time to be enacted. The presence of the federal government began to

loom large in the everyday life of the Navajo. The life of the Navajo changed quickly as

their once isolated pastoral life became invaded. 54

Weather, in addition to the government and settlers, continued to influence the life of the Navajo. The Navajo planted crops for food, using sheep and goats for meat and milk. A good winter run-off of rain and melted snow was needed to water the crop and

provide drinking water for sheep and goat herds. Drought conditions existed between

1893 until the spring of 1895. A few years later, the winters of 1898-1900 lowered the

amount of runoff rain in the spring. After a few years of recovery, the Navajo found

themselves back in dire need once again. This up and down weather of drought and good

run-off between 1892 and 1902 caused the Navajo to suffer a severe decline in livestock.

At the same time, the Navajo population was growing. There were more Navajos and less means to feed them.55

Yet the Navajo continued to weave. With the unsettling situation, the trading

posts began to rise in influence. U. S. Hollister alluded to the rise of the trader influence

in a remark concerning the use of dyes in Navajo weaving. Hollister lamented that

weaving quality was lessened due to the use of poor-quality mineral dyes. He stated,

“We are glad to believe, however, that the worst period in this respect has passed, as

there is a tendency on the part of traders to induce the Navajos to return to the old-time

methods.”56 Kathy M’Closkey also discussed the growing activity of the weaving trade

and its importance during this time along with the rise of the trading post. The Hubbell

trading post, located in Ganado on the Navajo reservation, built an office and blanket

room in 1883, six years before its warehouse and permanent store. According to Hubbell

records, prior to 1900, ninety-four percent of the business accounts were primarily for

textiles.57

The Commercialization of Navajo Textiles

The trading posts began to flourish due to the rising interest of Anglo-Americans

throughout the country for Native American craft. The United States underwent great change after the Civil War ended in 1865 and as the new twentieth century began.

Interest turned to the opportunities found on the western frontier, highlighted by public exhibitions celebrating the country’s history. On May 10, 1876, the Centennial

Exhibition of Philadelphia ran for six months, celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the

founding of the United States.58 The first exhibition of its kind in the country, the

exhibition featured paintings of the Grand Canyon by noted artist, Thomas Moran.59 The

Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago in 1893 in celebration of the discovery of

America by Christopher Columbus. The exposition showcased the best of everything

found within the United States. It highlighted American fascination with their native

peoples, featuring live exhibitions of Native Americans demonstrating their crafts as well

as their lifestyles. The Navajos were among the participants.60

Sweeping the country during this time was the Arts and Crafts Movement. This

movement influenced a change in the American aesthetic, turning away from the large

number of mass-produced items manufactured during the Industrial Revolution beginning

in the early nineteenth century. The guiding principles of the Arts and Crafts Movement

included simple and functional objects, sensitive handcrafting, and a well-integrated

bundling of arts including indigenous design.61 An article published by the Metropolitan

Museum of Art in New York City explained the impact of indigenous craft and design on popular Anglo-American craftsmen of the time. The article stated:

A Native American undercurrent developed during the Arts and Crafts movement, as evidenced by fashionable Indian-style baskets and textiles featured in Arts and Crafts exhibitions and publications. Many collected baskets to display in their Indian corners, which may have inspired Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933) to design a hanging shade in an Indian basket motif (Collection No. 69.150).62

The growing Arts and Crafts Movement encouraged other non-native people to

profit from the creativity of the Navajo. Richard Wetherill, a rancher in the Mesa Verde

Region of Colorado, came into prominence when he discovered the Cliff Palace, an

ancient Pueblo community, in December of 1888. Artifacts from the Cliff Palace were

displayed at the Chicago Exposition in 1893, providing Wetherill with additional

notoriety. After exploring other Pueblo ruins throughout the region, Wetherill

established a trading post on Chaco Canyon in New Mexico to support his family while

allowing himself the time to continue his explorations in 1898.63 Wetherill became one of two directors of The Hyde Exploring Expedition, sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History.64 In the spring of 1899, Richard Wetherill announced he would buy

all the blankets Navajo weavers could produce. The expedition opened a store in New

York City to sell Navajo weavings in the fall of the same year.65

The expansion of the railroad to the Southwest provided an easy mode of

transportation for Americans to come and see for themselves what they had witnessed at

the exhibits. Just as the Navajo were resettling themselves in Navajo Country, the

railroad established the completion of the first transcontinental railway with the Golden

Spike ceremony of 1869 in Utah. The Santa Fe Railroad opened in April 1869 with a line of seven-mile track originating from Topeka, Kansas. As the Santa Fe Railroad extended into the Southwest, it formed a partnership with the Fred Harvey Company in 1876 to provide restaurants along the train route as a service to its customers. Harvey signed his second formal contract with the Santa Fe Railroad in 1889, securing “the right to operate all restaurants and hotels on the Santa Fe line west of the Missouri River.”66

Harvey began building hotels and restaurants along the Santa Fe line and, by

1900, built the Indian Building in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Indian Building was part of a complex containing a railway station, store/museum, and hotel. The building

was designed to promote Native American craft as people traveled the railroad.

According to Charles Amsden, soon after the opening of the Indian Building “Fred

Harvey contracted with J. Lorenzo Hubbell to take his entire output of goods or best

quality blankets.” It was the first major endeavor promoting Indian craft in the

Southwest, providing a major outlet for the Navajo to sell their jewelry and textile

crafts.67

Navajo weaving was fast becoming a widely known commodity. Most tribes

offered handiwork in basketry, beadwork, jewelry, and pottery. U. S. Hollister in his

book written in 1903, The Navajo and his Blanket, refers to the weaving product of the

Navajo:

Indeed, they are unique among Indian products, and may be said to stand aloof from all the others. Made by only one tribe, they have characteristics that no other people try to imitate; and at this time are attracting probably more attention than any other articles of Indian manufacture.68

Life changed rapidly as the Navajo faced the dawn of a new century. This time was also a time of growth and change for Edward S. Curtis. Curtis made his first appearance on the Navajo reservation in the summer of 1904. He had begun his tour of the southwest visiting the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States, Acoma, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, home to a Pueblo tribe. He went on to visit the Hopi, and, finally, the Navajo.

NOTES

1 Marian E. Rodee, “Spider Woman’s Gift: From the Anthropological Perspective,” in Spider Woman’s Gift: Nineteenth-Century Dine Textiles, ed. Shirley Tisdale (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2011), 63-65.

2 Peter Iverson, Dine′: A History of the Navajos (Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 2002), 8-11.

3 Joyce Begay-Foss, “From a Weaver’s Perspective,” in Spider Woman’s Gift: Nineteenth Century Dine Textiles, ed. Shirley Tisdale (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press), 2011, 23.

4 Joe Ben Wheat, Blanket Weaving in the Southwest (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2003), 352.

5 Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1881-1882. Powell, J. W., ed. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1884.

6 U. S. Hollister, The Navajo and His Blanket, Denver: 1903. Reprinted Glorieta, New Mexico: The Rio Grande Press, Inc., 1972.

7 George Wharton James, Indian Blankets and Their Makers (Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co, 1920).

8 Charles Avery Amsden, Navaho Weaving: Its Technic and History (Santa Ana CA: Fine Arts Press in cooperation with the Southwest Museum, 1934). Reprint: University of New Mexico Press: 1949. Reprint: New York: Dover Publications, Inc, 1991.

9 Amsden, Navaho Weaving: Its Technic, 251.

10 Gladys A. Reichard, Spider Woman: A Story of Weavers and Chanters, Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 1934. Reprint 1997, New York: MacMillan, 1977.

11 Jennifer Nez Denetdale, Reclaiming Dine′ History: The Legacies of Navajo Chief Manuelito and Juanita (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2007), 22.

12 Linda Cordell, Forward, xv-xvi, to Joe Ben Wheat, Blanket Weaving in the Southwest. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2003.

13 Joe Ben Wheat studied Navajo textiles in private and museum collections culminating in his work, Blanket Weaving in the Southwest. The book was edited by Ann Lane Hedlund after his death and published in 2003 by the University of Arizona Press. 26

14 Anne Lane Hedland, “Preface,” Joe Ben Wheat, Blanket Weaving in the Southwest (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2003), xx.

15 Ann Lane Hedland, Beyond the Loom: Keys to Understanding Early Southwestern Weaving (Boulder: Johnson Books), 1990.

16 Ann Lane Hedland, Navajo Weaving in the Late Twentieth Century: Kin Community, and Collectors (Tuscon: The University of Arizona Press, 2004).

17 Kate Peck Kent, Navajo Weaving: Three Centuries of Change (Santa Fe: SAR Press, 1985).

18 Ibid., Table of Contents.

19 Ibid., 115.

20 Garrick Bailey and Roberta Glenn Bailey, A History of the Navajos: The Reservation Years (Santa Fe: School of American Research, 1986).

21 Denetdale, Reclaiming Dine History, 27.

22 Roseann S. Willink and Paul G. Zolbrod, Weaving a World: Textiles and the Navajo Way of Seeing (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1996).

23 Kathleen Whitaker, Southwest Textiles: Weavings of the Navajo and Pueblo, (Seattle: University of Washington Press in association with Los Angeles: Southwest Museum, 2002).

24 Peter Iverson, Dine: A History of the Navajos (Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 2002).

25 Ibid., ix.

26 Ibid., 2.

27 Kathy M’Closkey, Swept under the Rug: A Hidden History of Navajo Weaving (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press in cooperation with the University of Arizona Southwest Center, 2002).

28 Ibid., 4-6.

29 Jennifer Nez Denetdale, Reclaiming Dine History: The Legacies of Navajo Chief Manuelito and Juanita (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2007).

30 James, Indian Blankets and Their Makers, 118.

31 Denetdale, Reclaiming Dine′ History, 4.

32 Ibid., 9.

33 Iverson, Dine′: A History, 2-3.

34 Navajo Lifeway, A Short History of Navajo Churro Sheep, November 23 2015, http://navajolifeway.org/a-short-history-on-navajo-churro-sheep/ (accessed February 23, 2018).

35 Navajo-Churro Sheep Association, “Descendants of the Iberian Churra,” http://www.navajo-churrosheep.com/sheep-origin.html (accessed June 8, 2018).

36 Navajo Lifeway, A Short History.

37 Whitaker, Southwest Textiles, 31.

38 Ibid., 120.

39 Ibid., 134.

40 Wheat, Blanket Weaving, 136.

41 Iverson, Dine′: A History, 2.

42 Denetdale, Reclaiming Dine′ History, 11.

43 Iverson, Dine′: A History, 52-57.

44 Wheat, Blanket Weaving, 50-53.

45 Iverson, Dine′: A History, 37.

46 M’Clokey, Swept under the Rug, 142.

47 Washington Matthews, “Navajo Weavers,” in the Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1881-1882, J. W. Powell, ed., 376.

48 Matthews, Annual Report, 375.

49 Robert W. Kapoun, Language of the Robe: American Indian Trade Blanket (Salt Lake City: Gibbs -Smith, 1992), 32-35.

50 Ibid.

51 M’Closkey, Swept under the Rug, 30-31.

52 Ibid., 31-32.

53 Bailey and Bailey, A History of the Navajos, 101-107.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid.

56 Hollister, The Navajo and His Blanket, 108.

57 M’Closkey, Swept Under the Rug, 98.

58 Stephanie Grauman Wolf, “Centennial Exhibition (1876),” The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Rutgers University: 2013, http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/centennial/ (accessed November 20, 2017).

59 Arnold Berke, Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), 59.

60 Ibid., 50.

61 Ibid., 15.

62 Monica Obniski, “The Arts and Crafts Movement in America,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 2008, https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/acam/hd_acam.htm (accessed November 20, 2017).

63 Wetherill Family, Wetherill: A History of Discovery, http://wetherillfamily.com/richard_wetherill.html (accessed November 20, 2017).

64 Chaco Research Archive, http://www.chacoarchive.org/cra/chaco-sites/pueblo- bonito/ (accessed November 20, 2017).

65 Bailey and Bailey, A History of the Navajo, 151.

66 Berke, Mary Coulter, 40.

67 Amsden, Navaho Weaving: Its Technic and History,190.

68 Hollister, The Navajo and His Blanket, 10-11.

CHAPTER III EDWARD S. CURTIS AND THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN

Edward S. Curtis was a well-known portrait photographer based in Seattle,

Washington, when he set foot on the Navajo reservation for the first time in the summer of 1904. His life journey to this point somewhat paralleled the Navajo, as he had experienced rapid change throughout his life. Curtis also began his life with very little, just as the Navajo began reservation life on their return to their homeland in 1868.

Making Ends Meet

The Civil War had a large influence on the development of Edward S. Curtis and his love of photography. His father, Johnson Curtis, served for three years with the

Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army. He returned home a very sick and tired man to his wife, Ellen, and son, Raphael. Johnson never recovered from illnesses brought on during the war, yet their family grew. Edward was born on February 16, 1868 in Cold Springs Township, Jefferson County, Wisconsin.1 Following Edward were

younger siblings Eva and Asahel.

In 1874, the family moved to the backwoods of Minnesota where Johnson

attempted farming, then began running a grocery. He became a part-time itinerant

preacher for the United Brethren Church, leaving Ellen to run the grocery as Johnson

traveled to his churches.2

Edward assisted his father as he traveled from one church to the next, beginning

in 1881. Edward paddled and portaged the canoe around rapids and rocks. He carried

large supply sacks, set-up camp, and cooked over an open fire. Curtis’s love of the out of

doors enabled him to develop his skills as an outdoorsman, preparing him for the arduous

journeys he undertook in creating The North American Indian.

Hard times continued to be a part of the Curtis family way of life. Raphael left by

1881 leaving Edward as the eldest son at home to help his family.3 Edward used his

gardening, hunting, and fishing skills to provide food for his siblings and parents. In

1882, Edward took a job with the railroad at 14 years of age as his father became

increasing ill. His height made him look much older than his years and he became a

supervisor.

During the 1880s, Edward took the lens of a stereopticon Johnson brought back

from the Civil War and created his own camera, combining the lens with two wooden

boxes. Curtis began absorbing all he could about the craft of photography. His knowledge of the craft began as he read a copy of a book by Edward L. Wilson entitled

Wilson’s Photographics: A series of Lessons Accompanied by Notes on All Processes

Which Are Needful in Photography.4 This book of over 300 pages came complete with photoengraving illustrations and information about the use of light in creating a photograph. A few of the titles in the illustration table of contents were Study of light and shade and A Study of Light. Some of the illustrations focused on Rembrandt and his use of light. Wilson also included illustrations of the Portrait Camera, View Camera, and ’76 Stereoscopic Camera.5

The winter of 1886-1887 proved exceptionally difficult as Edward’s father’s

health continued its down-hill spiral. An early frost killed their garden before it got off

the ground. An economic panic in the nation brought the end to Edward’s railroad job.

The family faced its most dire need as it experienced real hunger for the first time.6

Raphael returned home about this time. With the money he had made from his travels, Raphael bought his father’s stake in the grocery.7 With money in hand, the elder

Curtis decided to head west in the fall of 1887 to Washington territory, taking only

Edward with him. Johnson bought farmland on Puget Sound across from the new city of

Seattle and began to build a homestead with Edward’s help. The family followed,

arriving in the last few days of April in 1888. Johnson’s health had begun to fail rapidly

before they arrived. He died on May 2, 1888, leaving Edward to take care of his mother

and two younger siblings.8

Curtis continued to work hard to take care of his family, living off the land rich

with salmon and berries as well as fixing things for hire. This went on until 1890 when

Curtis took a terrible fall from a log, injuring his spine. He was confined to a bed for over a year. Curtis met his neighbor, 16-year-old Clara Phillips, when she came to the cabin to assist in his care. Clara later became his wife.9

With time on his hands, Curtis became a keen, detailed observer of his

environment. He noticed how light changed the color of land throughout the day. He

bought a camera from a traveler, much to the dismay of his mother. By 1891, a mobile

and healed Curtis headed to Seattle, leaving subsistence living behind to create a new

living as a photographer.10

Photographic Beginnings

His gamble paid off. Curtis mortgaged the family farm and bought a stake in a photography studio with a former neighbor, Peter Sanstrom, for $150. He then became partners with Rasmus Rothi, forming Rothi and Curtis Photographers. Clara soon joined him, and they married in 1892. By the time Curtis and Clara welcomed their first child,

Harold in 1893, Curtis had entered a new partnership with Thomas Guptil.11

Guptil and Curtis specialized in portrait photography and “engraved printing plates, which were used to reproduce photos and drawings in local publications.”12 By

1895, Edward S. Curtis was a “Seattle celebrity, his name known around the Pacific

Northwest.”13

Curtis worked constantly to improve his technical skills as a photographer and fine-tuned his technique in creating portrait photographs. Curtis “developed a reputation for finding the true character of his subject.”14 His talent demonstrated an eye for capturing light and shadow as well as how the tilt of the head or change in gaze could illustrate the personality of his subject. Details were important whether in working with the subject or developing the fine, technical skills needed to produce exceptional photographs.

Curtis’s love of the outdoors pulled him and his camera out of his studio as

Seattle proved to be a beautiful backdrop as a photographic subject. Curtis took photographs of the beautiful scenery around the rapidly growing town to provide additional income to his portrait photography business. He began to climb the mountains, taking “dramatic yet meticulous shots of the splendid scenery.”15

Like the Southwest, Seattle was founded on land originally belonging to Native

Americans. Curtis became fascinated with an old Native American woman found

roaming along the shores of Puget Sound in 1895.16 Kickisomolo lived in a two-room

shanty.17 Known as Princess Angeline, this old woman was the last surviving child of

Chief Seattle, the Native American leader whose name identified the growing town

Curtis now called home. She dug clams on the Sound and sold firewood to make a living. Living her life in poverty, Princess Angeline was well-known in Seattle, even meeting President Benjamin Harrison on his visit to Puget Sound in 1891.18 Curtis

convinced the old woman to come to his studio for a portrait session, offering to pay a

dollar for each photograph he took. The studio portrait of Princess Angeline was often

credited as the first Native American portrait Curtis created. He continued to pay her for

everyday photographs taken away from the studio as she searched for clams and mussels.

These everyday photographs, entitled The Clam Digger and The Mussel Gatherer, were

later included as part of The North American Indian.19

Curtis continued to take photographs of Native Americans in the Seattle area.

Curtis, along with his friend, Duncan Invararity, often visited the local Tulahip

reservation to take photographs. According to Invararity, these photographs were the

start of Curtis’s Native American photographic collection.20

As Curtis continued to visit the reservation, he compensated Native Americans for

each picture, just as he had paid Princess Angeline. He worked with them, taking

photographs as they went about their daily life. Curtis realized the importance of

collaboration with the Native Americans he photographed. “We, not you. In other

words, I worked with them and not at them,” were the words of Curtis himself.21 It was

important for him, “to get it down and get it right.”22 This practice continued when

Curtis traveled throughout North America in completing every volume of The North

American Indian.

A large part of Curtis’s business came from selling his Native American photographs. Curtis traveled to visit the Nez Pearce on the Columbia River and further east into Montana. His photographs illustrated Native Americans as the human beings they were, not a character type. He took his time to capture and study the subjects of his photographs. “Good pictures,” Curtis explained, “are not products of chance, but come from long hours of study.” Curtis was not only a well-known photographer of Seattle high society, but became a national award-winning photographer of Native American culture. His photograph, Homeward, of Puget Sound Indians in a canoe, had won a gold medal from the National Photographic Society in 1898.23

By 1897 Curtis had become sole owner of his studio, Edward S. Curtis,

Photographer and Photoengraver, and was considered “the city’s premier society

photographer” throughout the 1890s.24 While his studio work garnered him fame and

money, the photographs he took while hiking on nearby Mt. Rainier seemed to fascinate

him the most.

Journey of a Lifetime

Curtis’s life changed dramatically during an overnight expedition on Mt. Rainer

in the spring of 1898. Curtis ran across a group of lost climbers. He managed to get

them back to his camp and discovered this was no ordinary group of hikers. The group

consisted of Dr. C. Hart Merriam of the U.S. Biological Survey; Gifford Pinchot, Head of

the U. S. Forest Service; and George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream

Magazine, founder of the Audubon Society, and an authority on Native American culture.

Curtis remained with the group, showing them the mountain, and invited them to his

studio so see his landscapes and Native American photographs.25

His new-found friends visited his studio once they were all safely in Seattle. The group noted that Curtis not only took good photographs, he also learned about his subjects. He collected stories of mythology and cultural lore, writing them down,

recording bits and pieces of the Native American’s inner world.

Curtis left an impression. In 1899, Merriam offered Curtis the position of official photographer for a massive exploratory expedition to Alaska. Funded by Edward Henry

Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad, the trip’s passenger list included John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, and John Burroughs, another well-known naturalist of the time.26

The group set sail on May 30, 1899. Curtis, who had no more than a sixth-grade

education at best, would be able to learn from the best minds his age had to offer. He

learned of the wax cylinder recording device that he later used in recording Native

American chants.27 Curtis also became better acquainted with Bird Grinnell, one of the

men he rescued on the Mt. Rainer expedition a year earlier. This started a friendship that

would later encourage the creation of The North American Indian.

Grinnell had already spent time with the Plains native cultures, collecting their

own histories. A graduate of Yale in 1870, Grinnell’s fascination with Native American

groups of the Plains began during a paleontology expedition for the Union and Pacific

Railroad where he took part in a Pawnee bison hunt in 1872.28 He documented the

Pawnee’s stories, allowing them to tell their stories in their own way. In 1889, Grinnell published Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales and, in 1892, Blackfoot Lodge Tales.29

Grinnell was so trusted by the Native Americans of the Plains region that he

knew about the Sun Dance ceremony, soon to be outlawed by the government due to its

paganist origins of worshipping the sun.30 The Sun Dance was “the oldest and most

important religious ceremony to the Piegan, Bloods, and related tribes, resettled on the

Blackfeet reservation.”31 Curtis joined Grinnell in the summer of 1900 to witness the

ceremony and photograph as much of the event as the Native Americans would allow.

He received permission to take portrait photographs of willing people, paying his subjects

a fee. Curtis also photographed scenes around the encampment and participated in some of the activities such as smoking a pipe or experiencing a sweat lodge. Curtis, however, was banned from photographing the Sun Dance ceremony itself.32

Up to this point, Curtis had viewed only bits and pieces of Native American culture remaining in North America. For the first time, Curtis saw the largest gathering of Native Americans in his life and on their own terms. He counted over two-hundred tipis in an encampment about a mile or so in diameter.33 Curtis wrote:

The sight of that great encampment of prairie Indians was unforgettable. Neither house nor fence marred the landscape. The broad, undulating prairie stretching toward the little Rockies, miles to the West, was carpeted with tipis.34

This vision left an enormous impression on Curtis. According to Curtis’s daughter, Florence Curtis Graybill, she remembered, “He often spoke of it afterward. To most people it would have been just a bunch of Indians. To him it was something that soon would never be seen again.”35

The premise that Native American culture “would never be seen again” had

become a popular belief of Anglo Americans. U. S. Hollister in his book, The Navajo

and His Blanket, published in 1903, referred to this in his introduction. Hollister stated,

In the sequence of events it will not be long until they will live only in history; and therefore, realizing that this fate awaits them in the near future, we are collecting and recording all information we can . . .36

Curtis’s time with Grinnell also guided him to a larger calling. According to Grinnell:

The idea dawned on him that here was a wide field as yet unworked. Here was a great country in which still live hundreds of tribes and remnants of tribes, some of which still retain many of their primitive customs and their ancient beliefs. Would it not be worthy work, from the points of view of art and science and history, to represent them all by photography?37

Inspired by his trip with Grinnell, Curtis returned to Seattle in late summer 1900.

He stayed only ten days. Curtis believed “the day was fast arriving when the Indian of old would be no more, his was a vanishing race.”38 He quickly packed up and headed to

the Southwest to visit the Hopi who had been left alone, living in an area untouched by

white farmers. It was Curtis’s first trip to the Southwest and the beginning of a solid

relationship with the Hopi tribe.

The North American Indian

It is not known exactly when Curtis decided to create The North American Indian.

His encounter with Chief Joseph in 1903, however, seemed to be a turning point. In

1877, Chief Joseph led his native people, the Nez Pearce, in an eleven-week period, over

1,700 miles to avoid capture by the U. S. military, only to be forced to surrender 40 miles

from the Canadian border and freedom. He was respected by both Native Americans and

Anglo-Americans as a brave man.39

Chief Joseph and his nephew, Red Thunder, travelled to Seattle in November

1903. The chief was to give a lecture, attempting to persuade others to return their

homeland of the Wallowa Valley in Oregon to his people. It inspired Professor Edmond

S. Meany of the University of Washington to bring Chief Joseph and his nephew to the

studio to have their pictures taken. Curtis spent a great deal of time talking to the chief,

referring to him as “the splendid old chief.”40 Within a year, Chief Joseph passed away.

Curtis stated that the chief “was one of the greatest men that has ever lived.”41

Curtis’s obsession with Native Americans, however, had begun to take a toll on

his marriage and finances. He was a man with a wife, three children, and a business.

Curtis was using his money from the family studio and through lectures to pay for his

Native American work. At times money was so tight, the family nearly starved to

death.42 In 1903, Curtis’s wife, Clara, entered one of her husband’s portraits into a

contest sponsored by the Ladies’ Home Journal to discover the prettiest children in

America. The photograph was of a young Seattle girl from the Curtis archive.43 Out of

the thousands of pictures submitted to the contest, Curtis’s photograph intrigued Walter

Russell, the painter who was to paint the prettiest children. Russell, in turn, gave Curtis’s

name to Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States. Roosevelt wanted

photographs of his children. He invited Curtis to come to Sagamore Hill, his home in

Oyster Bay, New York, in June 1904.44

Curtis and Roosevelt got along famously right from the start. By the end of the

visit, Curtis had taken the family photos, including a portrait of the President himself.

Curtis also showed his Native American photographs to the President in hopes of

garnering assistance with his project.

Prior to this, Curtis did not seem to have had much luck in gaining support for his

project. He had come to the East in 1903 to visit with the Bureau of Ethnology at the

Smithsonian in Washington DC. He also went to New York in search of a book backer,

meeting with Walter Page of Doubleday. Both rejected Curtis and his idea. The

Smithsonian did not think he could complete the project. Page believed too many

photographs of Native Americans were already on the market, making the likelihood of another picture book a failure. Curtis also wanted to do more than just a picture book.

His multi-volume set of quality work would cost as much as a person made in a year.

Page told him only the wealthy and academic institutions could afford his set of books and stated that even this market might not be able to support his work.45

Showing his photographs to Roosevelt and gaining his support became a major

turning point. Roosevelt thought Curtis’s work was “noble” and wrote to Curtis stating

he would “support you in any way I can.”46 Curtis returned to the West. After a quick

visit with his children in July 1904, Curtis finished his summer in the Southwest,

photographing the Navajo through the fall.

In a letter dated October 28, 1904, to his friend, Frederick Webb Hodge of the

Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian, Curtis stated both his passion and concern for

his project. He wondered whether he would “be able to keep at it long enough.” He

knew it would be “enormously expensive” and that it would be “rather difficult to give as

much time to the work as I would like.”47

Curtis continued to showcase his photographs in his studio, selling them to

tourists, and started to exhibit them throughout the Seattle area. In 1905, he set up an

exhibition in Washington DC with the help of Edward Harriman. The success of the

exhibition led to another at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Curtis continued to

meet people of power and wealth, including Louisa Satterlee, the daughter-in-law of J.

Pierpont Morgan.48 He continued to work on his project, visiting the Sioux in the

summer of 1905. By February 1906, Curtis convinced J. Pierpont Morgan, one of the

world’s wealthiest men, to back his project.

Receiving Morgan’s financial backing had not been easy. Curtis met Morgan in

his Wall Street office in New York City on January 24, 1906.49 Morgan originally said

no until Curtis began showing his pictures, shoving them across Morgan’s desk. A

February meeting set the terms of the final product. Curtis was to write all the text and record native languages on Edison cylinders. He was to assist in promotion and sale of the project when not in the field doing research. Twenty volumes would be written with an additional photo portfolio provided with each volume. Both were to be sold as subscriptions, a limited edition of five-hundred sets. Two price points were set, based on the type of paper used for the printed volumes: $3,000 for the set printed on imported

Japanese vellum and $3,850 printed on special Dutch etching stock called Van Gelder.

The University Press in Cambridge became the publisher. Morgan agreed to pay Curtis

$15,000 per year for five years for his field expenses. Morgan was to receive twenty-five copies of the $3,000 set and their matching five-hundred photoengraver portfolios.50

Curtis returned to the Southwest in the spring of 1906. He began working with

the Apache, then met his wife and family in Gallup, New Mexico. Clara and their three

children joined Curtis in Navajo Country as part of their summer vacation. The family

enjoyed the trip to Canyon de Chelly with daughter Florence remembering “They rode a

burro, watched the Indians weave rugs, and explored cliff dwellings . . .” 51 The trip

came to an abrupt halt when a Navajo woman giving birth in the canyon ran into

difficulty. The child had survived the birth, but if it had died, the Curtis family would

have been killed since medicine men thought the “palefaces camped in the grove of

cottonwoods” was the cause. The Curtis family left quickly, never to travel as a family

with Curtis on his project again.52

Curtis headed into the fall of 1906 making plans to publish his first two volumes.

He had hired Frederick Webb Hodge as his editor. Curtis and his three assistants hid

themselves away for three months in a cabin on Puget Sound, preparing material,

working seven days a week, thirteen hours a day, to complete the volumes as quickly as

possible. Theodore Roosevelt had sent his written introduction and he was considering

the title of the series to be The North American Indian. By early 1907, the volumes were

delivered to the east by William Philips, Clara’s cousin, who remained in Boston until the first two volumes were published.53

Challenges in creating The North American Indian

From 1896 through 1930, Curtis photographed over eighty Native American

cultures still living in regions of the United States and Canada, including Alaska,

California, and the Great Basin, Great Plains, New Southwest, Pacific Northwest, and

Plateau Regions.54 The North American Indian began as a celebrated work first published in 1907 with the support of the President of the United States and the financial backing of J. Pierpont Morgan, one of the United States most influential industrialists.

Curtis completed his work by 1930, in obscurity, experiencing debt, ill health, and the loss of his wife.55 The time to finish the work expanded well over a twenty-five-year

period, much longer than Curtis had anticipated.

Curtis took his time in developing relationships with each native culture and his

travels took him and his staff to very remote locations where they experienced difficult

conditions. Each journey included packing supplies and shelter, transporting

photographic and developing equipment, as well as wax cylinder recording equipment.

Stories reveal adventures in canoes and traversing over rough terrain in horse-drawn wagons, searching to discover remote native groups.

Edward’s son, Harold, traveled with his father during his summer breaks from school. He began his summer travels as a boy when his father visited the Native

Americans of Puget Sound near their Seattle home. Harold traveled by wagon for weeks

in the summer of 1907 to visit the Sioux reservation in South Dakota. He journeyed over

prairies and plains marked with buffalo trails, no fences, and only one cabin. When he

arrived at his father’s camp, they lived in sheepherder tents 8’ x 8’, held up by a single

pole with textile flooring sewn to the sides of the tent to keep out rattlesnakes. A separate

studio tent was twelve-foot square with six-foot-high sides. The top of the studio tent could be opened to adjust the light.56

Harold described the main challenge of traveling with his father by wagon was

protecting the photographic equipment. The most fragile pieces of equipment were the

glass plates used in taking each photograph. The safest place to hold the many glass

plates was the wagon. When traveling over rivers, the wheels of the wagon had to be

taken off and placed inside, turning the wagon into a boat.57

As a professional photographer by trade, Curtis by-passed some of the quick and convenient photography equipment used by the public to obtain the quality photographs

he needed for the exclusive audience of The North American Indian. Curtis’s favorite

camera seemed to be a Reversible-Back Premo made of mahogany, brass, and leather, originally introduced in 1897. The camera used a 6-1/2” by 8-1/2” dry plate made of glass. It could be used with or without a tripod. Curtis kept his photographic equipment to a minimum, adding a focusing cloth and film. Each night, exposed plates were developed with working prints made the following day. Prints were made on printing- out-paper or on a blueprint paper known as ferro prussiate exposed to the sun in a printing frame.58

Funds were always at a minimum, even with the backing of Morgan. Curtis had a

family and maintained his photography studio in Seattle. Curtis left home for long periods of time. His son Harold stated “in the summer he was in the field taking pictures and collecting information for The North American Indian, in the winter he was in New

York trying to get it published or traveling the lecture circuit to earn money to keep the work going. As a result, my mother felt abandoned.”59 Clara sued him for divorce and

the marriage ended bitterly in 1919, ruining Curtis’s reputation, and losing his studio to

his wife, placing him in a period of deep emotional depression.60

Respect for this great work fell substantially by the time Curtis published his final

volume in 1930. The Great Depression had begun on October 29, 1929. The entire country suffered as savings disappeared and mass unemployment became the norm. No one noticed he had finished his work. No one cared. Newspapers which had given him

full-page coverage in the past printed not a word. All Curtis heard was deafening

silence.61

Curtis spent the last years of his life in Los Angeles, California, near his daughter

Beth. He dabbled in mining with his son Harold. Curtis even worked for a time for

Cecille B. DeMille of Paramount Pictures, working on location in Montana and the

Dakotas to create the film, The Plainsman. Most of the time, however, he lived his life

quietly. Curtis died October 19, 1952.62 He never knew about the popularity of his

work.

Rebirth of The North American Indian

During the Great Depression, Charles E. Lauriat, a collector of rare books, bought

The North American Indian from the Morgan Library. Lauriat reassembled volumes and

sold individual photographs until his death in 1937. Curtis’s work remained in Lauriat’s

dust-filled basement until the early 1970s. In 1972, Karl Kernberger, a photographer

with a love of the Southwest, heard about the photographs and traveled to Boston to look

at them.63 Recognizing the large treasure, Kernberger worked with investors to purchase

the work and arranged to have a gallery exhibition in Santa Fe. With the rising interest in

Native American culture, the exhibition was a hit.

While the public continued to appreciate the photographs of Curtis, academic research interest in any photographic work created by Curtis waned until the latter half of the twentieth century. As researchers began to look at Curtis’s photographic work academically, questions arose regarding its credibility as an ethnographic work.

In 1980, William Beachum Lee used a motion picture created by Curtis entitled In the Land of the Head Hunters, to analyze “the problem of ‘reality’ as it relates to ethnographic film.” One of the points he stressed in his dissertation, entitled The Nature of Reality Ethnographic Film: A Study based on the work of Edward S. Curtis, is the fine line created by film creativity versus actual documentation.64 This concern haunted the credibility of Curtis’s work: Did his work truly document Native American life?

In 1992, Laura Angela Brayham conducted her research of Curtis’s The North

American Indian, using visual content analysis as her research method. Her thesis,

entitled Art of Ethnography: A critical analysis of Edward S. Curtis’ The North

American Indian, focused on the criteria Curtis selected to photograph his subject. She

stated, “that Curtis appeared to have been guided by aesthetic rather than ethnographic

considerations.” He was documenting a “vanishing race,” the popular belief of non-

native people at the time, making the photographs biased documents. Brayham

concluded that Curtis’s “images do not accurately reflect Native American life,” but

“reflect and perpetuate many of the popularly-held stereotyped view regarding the Native

American people.”65

Curtis amassed a tremendous amount of material to complete his twenty-volume

series and portfolios. In 1998, the library staff of Northwestern University in Chicago

began the process of scanning and digitizing the entire work of The North American

Indian. The entire digitized edition of The North American Indian finally appeared as

part of The Northwestern Library Digital Collection in 2004. The summary stated that

“approximately 5000 pages of narrative text were scanned. They are presented integrated

with the 2226 scans of the photogravure plates, which in the original Curtis work

included 1500 images bound in the volumes and the remainder as loose plates in twenty

accompanying portfolios.”66 The digital edition provides an easier method to view

Curtis’s work for academic research.

Shannon Egan took another step in the evolution of academic research using The

North American Indian in 2007. Egan’s PhD dissertation, An American Art: Edward S.

Curtis and The North American Indian, offered an analysis of the entire series “in

46 relation to governmental policies affecting Native Americans and the development of

American art in the first three decades of the twentieth century.” He argued that the work is not characterized by style or theme, but by Curtis’s politics and “association with progressive leaders, modern artists, and nativist activists.” Egan concluded in his abstract that examination of Curtis’s photographs “provides an account of . . . its place in the development of early twentieth-century American modernism.”67

Egan’s study of Curtis’s work turned from approaching it strictly as an ethnographic and photographic work to a work representing the thoughts and influences of a specific place and time. The validity of Curtis’s work as a piece of ethnographic research may be in question for some. Curtis did emphasize the viewpoint of a

“Vanishing Race” through the style of his photography. Taking the perspective of

Curtis’s work as a reflection of its time, however, leaves the door open for other ways to explore projects in Native American research using his work. This allows The North

American Indian to be analyzed from other perspectives such as the viewpoint of Native

Americans themselves. Egan’s conclusions are important to my own research as he offered alternative ways to interpret Curtis’s photographs.

Linda Kalli Paakspuu published her PhD dissertation in 2014 entitled Rhetorics of

Colonialism in Visual Documentation about the effect of colonial power on the American

Indian and its presentation in portraits and pictorial field studies. Paakspuu identified two points relevant to the use of Curtis’s work as a tool in Native American research. One point was the use of a “collaborative relation between the photographer and subject required by the photographic technology of the period.” When the picture was taken, there was:

. . . interactive communication between photographer and subject . . . a dialogue, an interchange. Thus the image became a meeting ground where cultural processes were intersubjective and where the present interacts with the past. At the centre of these representations is a two-way looking within a dialogical imagination.68

Paakspuu also discussed the effect of colonial powers. As colonial power grew,

the changes this created affected the dialogue in how the subjects presented themselves in

the photographer’s own aesthetic. Paakspuu noted that “as colonial powers exerted

greater repressions, lucrative popular culture industries like the Wild West Shows

constituted an imagined frontier which called for several other perspectival approaches.”

One of these alternative perspectival approaches she mentioned was the multi-volume set of The North American Indian.69

Paakspuu stressed how the technology of the time affected the way the

photographer and his subject collaborated in the process of photography. Curtis

encouraged the cooperation of the Native Americans in a planned format to get the

photograph each agreed to portray. For example, Curtis took portrait photographs, requiring his subject to sit still in front of the camera. This cooperation in turn became a type of permission for him to even take the photograph.

Curtis’s objective in each photograph was to reach “to the very heart of the

subject (s)” to show their life to others.70 The collaboration between Curtis and Native

Americans through his photographs illustrated ideals Native Americans deemed

important enough to photograph through their choice of artifacts and clothing. This

collaboration may not tell a story of everyday life, but it still tells an important story.

Both parties wanted to show the heart of Native American culture.

Two more scholars used The North American Indian as a basis for academic

research in 2016. Marie Teemant, of the University of Arizona, published her Master of

Arts thesis entitled The North American Indian reframed: The photography of Edward S.

Curtis in Context with American art and visual culture. Until the last twenty years,

according to Teemant, most scholarship written about Curtis revolved around his

biography. Teemant’s thesis emphasized Curtis’s photographic work in relation to other

visual depictions of the Native Americans during this time such as paintings, missionary

albums, and the Carlisle School Yearbook. Teemant believed Curtis was “one of many

artists” whose focus of native subjects attempted to understand Native American culture.

This comparison created a more “nuanced understanding of Curtis’s work.”71

Heather Skeens, of Iowa State University, focused on the twelfth volume about

the Hopi people. Her Master of Arts thesis was entitled "Pictures, not merely

photographs: authenticity, performance and the Hopi in Edward S. Curtis's The North

American Indian." Her abstract discussed how scholars have written off Curtis’s work in

the past as “one that distances . . . its indigenous subjects through posed and heavily

manipulated imagery.” Yet Skeens wrote that a close examination conducted during her

research of both the text and photographs “unveils new evidence of indigenous presence

and participation in shared record-making.”72 Skeens continued:

The crisis environment present on the Hopi reservation during Curtis and Myer’s fieldwork underlies readings of cultural survival in several Hopi portraits, and appears in the text of the volume; both often operating beyond cultural salvage and with a progressive, coeval, and sometimes activist voice.73

Historic photographic evidence is being used in other venues to provide further

information about an object and its culture. Historical photographic evidence of Native

American art and clothing continues to provide provenance to objects currently being 49 sold in the art auction market. A Cheyenne beaded tobacco bag gained substantial value during an auction by Cowen Auctions of Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 15, 2015 due to three photographs of it with its owner, Cloud Chief the younger, in 1895. Originally estimated to sell at a value of $8,000-$10,000, the sale price skyrocketed to $72,000 with the documentation of the photographs. The best photograph showed “the men posed for a group shot in a make-do studio setting. In the image, Cloud Chief is seated in the center of the front row with the tobacco bag draped over one knee.”74 It is interesting to note that this photograph was “shot in a make-do studio setting” much like those used by

Curtis in his photographs for The North American Indian. The acceptance of studio-type portraiture continues to open the door for rising credibility of Curtis’s work.

The popularity of The North American Indian continued in 2017. The Muskegon

Museum of Art presented one of the largest presentations of Curtis’s work over the summer of 2017 from May 11-September 10. The Muskegon Library, under the direction of Lulu Miller, had purchased one of the original 222 subscriptions from Curtis at the beginning of his project in June of 1908. When the local art museum opened in

1912, Miller was named as its director, garnering international fame as the second female art museum director in the country. The series was stored throughout the years in their archives.75

This exhibition displayed all 723-portfolio photographs together for the first time.

The photographs filled five rooms, exhibited with great thought and planning. The exhibit is unlikely to be repeated because of its complexity and the enormous amount of effort needed to present such a large body of work. The curator was Ben Mitchell under the guidance of museum director, Judith Hayner.

The exhibition used three major resources as their basis for text explaining the work. The first was a biography of Curtis by Timothy Egan entitled Short Nights of the

Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis published

in 2012.76 Another author quoted frequently in the exhibition was Shamoon Zamir,

associate professor of literature and visual studies at New York University, Abu Dhabi.

His quotes were found in his 2014 publication entitled The Gift of the Face: Portraiture

and Time in Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian.77 Books created by

Christopher Cardozo, an active art dealer specializing in Edward Curtis’s Native

American photography for over forty years, were quoted throughout the exhibition. In

2000, Cardozo published Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and The North American

Indian.78 This pictorial book of Curtis’s photographs contained essays written by

Cardozo and Joseph D. Horse-Capture, a member of the Atsina tribe.

Panel discussions, lectures, and film screenings took place for the public

throughout the exhibition. The museum involved the elders of the nearest Native

American tribe near Muskegon, The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. Their input

was invaluable as they offered a well-rounded viewpoint of the work.79 One of the final

events was the screening of Coming to Light by Anne Makepeace, an Academy Award

finalist for best feature documentary in 2001. I attended the screening with a packed

audience in the museum’s auditorium. Makepeace was there as well as Cardozo with a

group of noted Native Americans who lived nearby. Her film highlighted the importance

of Curtis’s work to Native Americans as she interviewed descendants of the Native

Americans whose photographs were found in The North American Indian. Makepeace

wrote the afterword for Cardozo’s Sacred Legacy. Makepeace commented in this written

piece about her experience:

In all my travels to Indian reservations in Arizona, Montana, Washington, British Columbia, Alberta, and Alaska, Native people have been thrilled to discover Curtis’s photographs, to see their villages, camps, canoes, long houses, hogans, sand paintings, ceremonies, and traditional dress presented to them by their ancestors. For them, the hand of the photographer is invisible. They are seeing their own people revealed, presenting themselves as they had wished to be seen.80

The portfolio photographs displayed throughout the museum touched the lives of

everyone in that room and beyond. Twelve weeks after its opening, this small-town art museum on the shores of Lake Michigan, drew “over 16,000 visitors from 44 states across the U. S., District of Columbia, and from 18 other countries.”81 The impact of

seeing all the faces, one right after the other, was mesmerizing. The photographs brought

early-twentieth century native faces into the twenty-first century.

Curtis caught the true humanity of his Native American subjects in his

photographs. Portrait photography was his craft. Curtis had studied the use of light and

believed in becoming familiar with the nuances of his subject well before he even took

their portrait photograph. For the Navajo and other Native American cultures, however,

the craft of photography was new to them, creating challenges in how photographic

images would affect their culture in ways they would consider appropriate.

NOTES

1 Laurie Lawler, Shadow Catcher: The Life and Work of Edward S. Curtis, (New York: Walker and Company, 1994), 9. 2 Ibid., 15.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid., 16. Lawler states that Wilson’s book was published in 1871. In finding a copy on line, it states it was entered into the Library of Congress in 1881. The date of the preface, written by Wilson, is May 1, 1881 in Philadelphia, viii. The copy I found mentioned nothing about it being a second edition.

5 Edward L. Wilson, Wilson’s Photographics: A Series of Lessons Accompanied by Notes on All Processes which are Needful in The Art of Photography (New York: Edward L. Wilson, 1881), xiii-xiv; located at Forgotten Books, https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/readbook/WilsonsPhotographics_10316197#14, (accessed November 23, 2017).

6 Timothy Egan, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), 9. 7 Lawler, Shadow Catcher, 17.

8 Ibid., 18-19.

9 Egan, Short Nights, 11-12.

10 Ibid., 12.

11 Lawler, Shadow Catcher, 22.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid., 13.

14 Ibid., 7.

15 Ibid, 25.

16 Ibid.

17 Egan, Short Nights, 1.

18 Ibid., 2.

19 Ibid., 18.

20 Ibid., 25.

21 Florence Curtis Graybill and Victor Boesen, Edward Sheriff Curtis: Visions of a Vanishing Race (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1976), 7. Florence Curtis Graybill was the daughter of Edward Curtis. The book contained her and her sibling’s experiences with their father as he created The North American Indian. 22 Ibid., 18-19.

23 Egan, Short Nights, 32-33. The date was not included in Egan’s account. The date was found through an online source. Tijana Radeska, Photographer Edward S. Curtis’ recordings of Native Americna traditions are only existing documentation for over 80 tribes,” Vintage News, July 28, 2017, https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/07/23/photographer-edward-s-curtis-recordings- of-native-american-traditions-are-only-existing-documentation-for-over-80-tribes/ (accessed February 28, 2018).

24 Lawler, Shadow Catcher, 23.

25 Ibid., 28-30.

26 Egan, Short Nights, 34.

27 Ibid., 35.

28 Ibid., 42.

29 David J. Wishart, “Grinnell, George Bird (1849-1938),” Encyclopedia of the Great Plains (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2011), http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.fol.023 (accessed November 25, 2017).

30 Egan, Short Nights, 37.

31 Ibid., 43.

32 Ibid., 48.

33 Ibid., 44.

34 Lawler, Shadow Catcher, 41.

35 Graybill and Boesen, Edward Sheriff Curtis, 12.

36 U. S. Hollister, The Navajo and His Blanket (Denver: 1903; repr., Glorieta, New Mexico: The Rio Grande Press, Inc., 1972), Introduction. 37 Egan, Short Nights, 43.

38 Graybill and Boesen, Edward Sheriff Curtis, 12.

39 Lawler, Shadow Catcher, 47.

40 Ibid.

41 Egan, Short Nights, 69.

42 Harold Curtis, “Introduction by Harold Curtis,” in Graybill and Boeson, Edward Sheriff Curtis, no page number.

43 Ibid., 75.

44 Ibid., 84.

45 Egan, Short Nights, 85-88.

46 Ibid., 86-90.

47 Graybill and Boesen, Edward Sheriff Curtis, 16. 48 Lawler, Shadow Catcher, 51.

49 Egan, Short Nights, 106.

50 Graybill and Boesen, Edward Sheriff Curtis, 20.

51 Ibid., 25.

52 Ibid., 26.

53 Ibid., 26-28.

54 “Browse Tribes by Region, The North American Indian,” Northwestern University Digital Libraries Collection, http://curtis.library.northwestern.edu/curtis/browsetribes.html (accessed February 13, 2016). The number is an approximate counting of the tribes listed in the index.

55 Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian, Vol. 1, page iii. It is noted that “Field Research Conducted under the Patronage of J. Pierpont Morgan.”

56 Harold Curtis, “Introduction by Harold Curtis,” in Graybill and Boeson, Edward Sheriff Curtis, no page number. Harold Curtis was Edward Curtis’s son. 57 Ibid.

58 Jean-Anthony Du Lac, “The Photographer and his Equipment,” in Graybill and Boeson, Edward Sheriff Curtis, no page number.

59 Harold Curtis, “Introduction by Harold Curtis,” in Graybill and Boeson, Edward Sheriff Curtis, no page number.

60 Egan, Short Nights, 252.

61 Ibid., 298.

62 Ibid., 303-313.

63 Lawler, Shadow Catcher, 122.

64 William Beachum Lee, “The Nature of Reality Ethnographic Film: A Study based on the work of Edward S. Curtis,” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1980), abstract, in Proquest Dissertations and Theses, https://search- proquest- com.ezproxy.uakron.edu:2443/dissertations/docview/303010614/abstract/104EC74DF7D 849F2PQ/1?accountid=14471 (accessed January 15, 2018).

65 Angel Laura Brayham, “Art of ethnography: A critical analysis of Edward S. Curtis’ The North American Indian,” (Master of Arts thesis, University of Calgary, Canada, 1992), abstract, in Proquest Dissertations and Theses, https://search-proquest- com.ezproxy.uakron.edu:2443/dissertations/docview/303994375/abstract/10F56581CA5 84CE1PQ/1?accountid=14471 (accessed January 15, 2018).

66 Northwestern University Digital Libraries Collection, “History of the Project, The North American Indian,” http://curtis.library.northwestern.edu/aboutproject.html (accessed February 13, 2016).

67 Shannon Egan, “An American art: Edwards S. Curtis and ‘The North American Indian’, 1907-1930,” (Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, 2007), abstract, in Proquest Dissertations and Theses, https://search-proquest- com.ezproxy.uakron.edu:2443/dissertations/docview/304859112/abstract/20F3BE781D7 54E82PQ/1?accountid=14471 (accessed January 15, 2018).

69 Linda Kalli Paakspuu, “Rhetorics of Colonialism in Visual Documentation,” (Ph.D., University of Toronto, Canada, 2014), abstract, in Proquest Dissertation and Theses, https://search-proquest- com.ezproxy.uakron.edu:2443/dissertations/docview/1637659496/abstract/3FEA690652 A44119PQ/1?accountid=14471 (accessed January 15, 2018). 70 Letter of Edward Curtis to Lulu Miller, April 6, 1908, in the collection of Muskegon Museum of Art for the display at Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian Exhibition, Muskegon, MI.

71 Marie Teemant, “The North American Indian reframed: The photography of Edward S. Curtis in context with American art and visual culture,” (Master of Arts, The University of Arizona, 2016), in Proquest Dissertations and Theses, https://search- proquest- com.ezproxy.uakron.edu:2443/dissertations/docview/1861984848/abstract/CCBD3206C2 0E4A51PQ/1?accountid=14471 (accessed January 15, 2018).

72 Heather Skeens, “Pictures, not merely photographs: Authenticity, performance and the Hopi in Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian,” (Master of Arts thesis, Iowa State University, United States, 2016), in Proquest Dissertations and Theses, https://search-proquest- com.ezproxy.uakron.edu:2443/dissertations/docview/1797592059/abstract/275B77F41A 114567PQ/1?accountid=14471 (accessed January 15, 2018).

73 Ibid. According to Skeens, William E. Myers was Curtis’s primary assistant and fieldworker. She stated that Myers wrote most of the text.

74 Don Johnson, “Cowen’s Auctions, Cincinnati, Ohio: American Indian and Western Art,” Maine Antique Digest, January 2016, 13-c.

75 Native News Online.net: Celebrating Native Voices, “Muskegon Michigan Art Museum Exhibits Complete Edward Curtis North American Indian Collection and Draws Record Visitor Numbers,” August 14, 2017, Native New Online, https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/muskegon-michigan-art-museum-exhibits- complete-edward-curtis-north-american-indian-collection-draws-record-visitor-numbers/ (accessed February 25, 2018).

76 Timothy Egan, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012). 77 Shamoon Zamir, The Gift of the Face: Portraiture and Time in Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014). 78 Christopher Cardozo, Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and The North American Indian (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000). 57

79 Lorna Baldwin, Small Michigan museum holds massive collection of Edward Curtis’ Native American photography, PBS Newshour, August 30, 2017, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/small-michigan-museum-holds-massive-collection- edward-curtis-native-american-photography/ accessed September 23, 2017.

80 Anne Makepeace, Afterword in Christopher Cardozo, Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and The North American Indian (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 183.

81 Native News Online.net, Celebrating Native Voices, “Muskegon Michigan Art Museum exhibits. . .”

CHAPTER IV PHOTOGRAPHY AND NATIVE AMERICANS

When Curtis began taking photographs of Native Americans, cameras and the practice of photography was rapidly becoming a part of American life by the end of the nineteenth century. Prior to taking photographic pictures, Anglo Americans were familiar with creating images of themselves for centuries through portrait paintings and artwork. Photography began in 1839 with the daguerreotype and evolved into a professional craft. By the 1890s, cameras were available to the general population.

Navajos and other Native Americans probably knew of portrait paintings as they interacted with the Spanish and Anglo Americans during their colonization of the North

American continent. Yet their own cultures did not seem as fascinated in creating images of themselves like the Anglo Americans. Native Americans living away from Anglo-

American urban life and adjusting to reservation life had different reactions to photography and the practice of capturing human images.

Beginnings of Photography

Taking photographic images began in 1839 as Jacques Mande Daguerre invented the daguerreotype. The daguerreotype process involved a copper plate with a reflective silver coating in a box with a lens, creating a mirror image. The process required the subject to remain still for a period as the image was reflected onto the plate. The captured image was then processed with chemicals and dried. Daguerreotypes were kept

under glass once completed and bound by a metal frame. The glass kept the image from

rubbing off the silver coating and sealed the image from open air to prevent tarnishing.1

Daguerreotype photography made it to the American western frontier as early as

the 1840s.2 Photography developed along with the American West, giving a sense of

reality to the many paintings, prints, maps, and drawings created by artists as a place for

the American future to unfold.3 Photography evolved from the daguerreotype, beginning

in the 1840s, to the ambrotype on glass with a black backing. The tintype, another wet

plate negative process, followed in the 1850s. This method placed the image on metal,

replacing the fragile glass backing of the ambrotype. The wet-plate negative process

continued to be used into the early 1860s, evolving into the dry plate process.4 The

Kodak camera, introduced in 1888, allowed photographers to take photographs without replacing negatives after each shot. The Kodak camera was smaller in size and loaded with flexible film and a faster exposure time, making it easy to photograph subjects without their knowledge.5 Using flexible film instead of glass or metal in the negative process began a less bulky and non-fragile method of taking pictures. The photographic

image could also be printed on paper, allowing photographs to be easily created and

copied in large quantities.

The first portrait of a Native American was taken of a young Hawaiian chief

Timoteo Ha’alilio in Paris, France, May 30, 1843, using the daguerreotype method.

Ha’alilio was on a diplomatic mission to gain support for an independent Hawaii when he

decided to pose for a formal portrait, commemorating the occasion. When a portrait artist

could not be found, a daguerreotype was made.6

A few weeks after Ha’alilio sat for his daguerreotype in France, daguerreotypes were made of Native American delegates attending a conference in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma to forge alliances with Southwest tribes who had recently been affected by

the government’s Indian removal policy. These early instances of photographing Native

Americans illustrate their ability to understand the photographic process, its collaborative

nature, as well as the use of photographs to serve personal needs.7

Native Reaction to Photography

While Native Americans did demonstrate the ability to understand the

photographic process, some exhibited different and unexpected reactions when asked to

sit for photographs.

Native Americans were sometimes fearful of early photography. Terms in

photography were sometimes analogous to the use of guns. For example, professional

photographers referred to a job as a “photo shoot.” Taking a picture was referred to as a

“shot.” Cameras of the time had a long barrel between the box and the lens, resembling a

type of cannon. At the Chicago Exposition of 1893, a Kwakiutl village was erected,

bringing Native American culture of the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest. The

Kwakiutl people assisting in the project became fearful when a photographer wanted to

take their picture, thinking the camera was a gun.8

Religious beliefs also influenced Native American reaction to cameras and the

photographs they created. Curtis was especially interested in documenting religious

rituals of Native Americans. He believed they were very spiritual people, contrary to the

beliefs of some or all Anglo Americans. Making his work more difficult, Native

Americans were very protective of their religious rites, fearing the divulging of the rites

could cause death. For example, the Apache were thought to have no religion. Curtis

was told by “an ethnologist friend” that Apache religion did not exist because the friend

had “spent considerable time among them and they told me they had no religion.”9

Through persistence and time, Curtis gained the confidence of a well-respected medicine

man named Goshonne′ during his trip to Arizona in the spring of 1906. Goshonne′ told

Curtis of the Apache Creation Story. Curtis then obtained a medicine man’s prayer chart on deerskin complete with an explanation of its symbols. All of this was completed in secret as “no white man, or man of any other color,” was to know how he received the chart.10 This exchange of information came with a great cost. Before Curtis left the

White Mountains, Goshonne′ told Curtis he believed he would die soon because “the sacred rhythms” had been disrupted. Curtis heard about the medicine man’s death upon returning home.11

While some tribes resisted the white man’s documentation of their religious rites,

other tribes saw it as an opportunity to preserve or add to their ceremonial rites. In 1904,

photographer Sumner Matteson documented the Sun Dance of the Plains cultures at their

request because the Native Americans “wanted a record of the activities.”12

This illustrates an evolution taking place in Native American reaction to photography. Curtis had wanted to photograph the Sun Dance in 1900 when he first attended with his friend Bird Grinnell. Curtis could take portrait photographs for a fee but was not allowed to take photographs of the Sun Dance ceremony.

Native Americans sometimes allowed their pictures to be taken to make money.

Geronimo, a well-known Apache Chief, sold copies of his picture for twenty-five cents

and was paid for his autograph in a visit to the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1906, the year

before he posed for a Curtis portrait.13

Power of Pictures

Extant photographs illustrate that not all photographs were made for personal use.

Other motives may have existed for their creation. Such is the case for many nineteenth-

century photographs of Native Americans. When the ambrotype replaced the

daguerreotype, the newer method provided a less expensive means of duplicating the

printed photo, creating the ability to easily copy a photograph.14 As the government,

entrepreneurs, and even anthropologists, as Curtis claimed to be, began taking and publishing Native American photographs, Native Americans lost personal control of the photographs taken of them. Photographers gained control of the meaning of the photograph rather than the meaning that the subject wished it would portray. Even today, people continue to look at the photographs Curtis took with his camera of Native

American subjects and give Curtis the credit in their meaning.

An example of this occurred at the Muskegon exhibition. An entire gallery of the

exhibition at the Muskegon Museum of Art was devoted to illustrating different

perspectives illustrated by Curtis’s work. The question the museum exhibit placed before

its visitors was to consider: “Did Curtis create a sanitized ‘reality’ of the past?” The

gallery was divided into four different sections: The Vanishing Race; Posing the

Primitive, Staging the Spiritual; Making it Pretty, Material Culture; and Romantic Vision,

Enduring Stereotypes. The title of each section described possible viewpoints Curtis may

have conveyed in his photographs. The viewpoints of the Native Americans in the

photographs was not given.

It is important to realize the power of the photographer and his expertise in

creating a photograph with the addition of text explaining the photograph’s meaning,

especially for commercial purposes. Just as it is important for any good research to be

based upon credible sources, the context of any photograph, especially for commercial

purposes, needs to be carefully uncovered.

Researchers also face the challenge of looking past Curtis’s photographic artistry

when using The North American Indian as a primary source in historical research,

making it important to view the photograph in its appropriate context. Martha Sandweiss

in her book, Print the Legend, an historical account of photography and the American

West in the nineteenth century, discussed the importance of using photographs as primary

sources in historical research. She stated that historical photographs should not be taken

at face value, just as written documents are not evaluated solely on their literary meaning.

Sandweiss saw photographs as needing “to be understood as constructions of the human

imagination, as the result of selective attention to a particular subject.” Because

photographs can be a construction of the imagination, it was important to consider how

the photograph was created. She also stressed how the photograph appeared publicly

with the addition of text to the photograph possibly changing the content of the

photograph and imposing a different meaning.15

The points made by Sandweiss were important in the evaluation of the

photographs found in The North American Indian. Curtis’s objective was to document,

through photographs, text, and wax-cylinder audio recordings, the life of Native

Americans on the North American continent. He considered his work to be an ethnology.

Curtis worked hard to get the information correct, stating his purpose was “to give a

broad and comprehensive record of all tribes.”16 Yet his “selective attention” became a

“construction of his imagination” due to the popular notion of Anglo-Americans during

his time that Native Americans were a “vanishing race.” Curtis used his artistry of

portrait and landscape photography to convey this point to his readership of wealthy

Anglo-Americans. Yet, in the case of The North American Indian, the viewpoint of the

Native Americans who posed for Curtis also needs to be considered.

We do not have written documentation of the viewpoints of these Native

Americans. Their actions, however, may speak louder than any words they could have

uttered. Curtis needed and received Native American cooperation in the creation of every

photograph that appeared in The North American Indian.

Two quotes from the Muskegon exhibition highlight the importance of Native

American co-operation. The first quote was by Shamoon Zamir, author of The Gift of the

Face: Portraiture and Time in Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian:

Native Americans photographed by Curtis should be considered, to some degree at least, coauthors of the visual meaning of The North American Indian. Hundreds of Native Americans contributed to the making of the project. 17

The second memorable quote from the exhibition was by Joseph D. Horse

Capture, a Native American from the Atsina tribe. Horse Capture was the Curator of the

National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution from 2013-2016

when he made this quote. He is currently Director of Native American Initiatives for the

Minnesota Historical Society. He stated the significance of the portrait to his family of

his great-great grandfather, Horse Capture:

Horse Capture is with us in all our homes; his presence helps us choose the directions we take in life. Seeing his face not only reminds us of our relatives but also reinforces our commitment, as Indian people, to teach our children the ways of our ancestors. 65

He did a monumental job, and if he didn’t come along and record this, the loss would be a tremendous, incalculable loss. When people start criticizing stereotypes, I look at my great-great-grandfather. He [Curtis] can’t stage that, you can’t stage the eyes and the determination. These were powerful people, and he recorded them.

If there weren’t Indians, in our strength and beauty, there would be no Curtis. His images provide confidence, and without that base of confidence we could never achieve what we have, many of us. I know I couldn’t.18

A Possible Navajo Perspective on Photography

In 1873-74, the Navajo sent a delegation to Washington DC. Jennifer Denetdale

discussed the implications of this journey through her ancestor, Juanita, the only woman

traveling with the delegation. Juanita was the favorite wife of Manuelito, a respected

Navajo leader. A photograph of the delegation recorded Manuelito and Juanita sitting in the middle of the posed group of fellow Navajo delegates with William Arny, the Navajo

Indian Agent. Some of the men were given bows to indicate they were warriors; yet the

Navajo had been defeated militarily just a few years before. Denetdale stated that the group photograph “implies control, supervision, command, rule test, defeat, arrest” because of the unequal relationship of the people photographed.19

Another key photograph features Juanita seated with Arny next to a Navajo woven textile of the American Flag. This photograph illustrates that the Navajo understood the power of photography and wanted to send a message to others.

According to Denetdale, the textile was woven by Juanita and created to attract the attention of federal officials. The Navajo knew they were subjects of the government and the government officials “had some say about the Navajo future.”20 The flag

demonstrated their willingness to work with the United States government for the welfare

of the Navajo people. 66

This flag photograph also indicates the importance of weaving to the survival of the Navajo. It was created in 1874 just as the railroad made its beginnings into the

Southwest. Arny saw the value of Navajo weaving and featured it in exhibitions at train stops as the delegation headed east. He used Juanita as an example of Navajo weavers, introducing her as one of the creators of Navajo textiles. Denetdale suggests that “For the white spectators, Juanita epitomized Navajo weavers. As the maker of woven textiles, she must have conjured up visions of the primitive American past.”21 Americans during this time had become pre-occupied with discovering the past as they settled throughout the North American continent at the end of the nineteenth century. This was evident as both the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876 and Chicago’s Columbian Exhibition in 1893 took place to honor significant historical landmarks. The Philadelphia Exhibition marked the one-hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The

Columbian Exhibition commemorated the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America

by Christopher Columbus in 1492.

I believe the photograph of Juanita with Arny had Navajo input. This early photograph clearly records assimilation of Native American culture into a dominant white American culture with the woven flag. It was also the beginning of the Navajo

showcasing their craft to an outside audience far beyond the Southwest prior to the

railroad and the Indian craft promotions of the Harvey Company. The Navajo were

working to survive, and they believed in trade. They had traded their woven craft for

centuries. Now they were living under laws in which they had no say. The Native

American tribe-to-tribe trading system was in rapid decline as other tribes were also

acclimating to life on their own reservations. The one market in which the Navajo had

left to trade was with the Anglo-American culture outside of their reservation. It was not

their choice to trade under these new conditions, but they made use of the circumstances

they were given. The delegation was doing what it could to help the Navajo people

survive. They were attempting to adapt and incorporate the features of a dominant culture, attempting to expand and prosper, while retaining their identity and the continuity of their culture, using their craft to accomplish their goals.

The Navajo were familiar with photography during the time Curtis worked on

their reservation, but they had also created pictures themselves for centuries not only in

their weavings but also through sand paintings. The Navajo created these paintings for

sacred and private purposes. The creation of sand paintings illustrated the Navajo’s

belief in the power of pictures. Over 500 sand painting patterns existed to cure illnesses,

bestow blessings, and provide protection from evil. Each painting took countless hours

to prepare under the supervision of medicine men called “singers.” Sand paintings were

temporary due to their religious nature. They were not created with brush or pen, but

with powders carefully placed by hand into sacred patterns containing stylized plants,

people, and animals as well as other natural objects. Powders were created using colored

sand, corn pollen, charcoal, and powdered flowers. Each painting represented the home

of the holy spirits and was accompanied with its own ritual. Once the holy spirits living

within left the painting and began residing in the human needing the help of the spirit’s

power, the painting was swept away in the opposite direction from which it was

created.22

While sand paintings reflected the spiritual life of the Navajo, Navajo weaving

developed as a visual art of expression, illustrating how weavers envisioned their world.

Each weaver wove what was seen whether it be a realistic image of a horse or an abstract

image such as stepped-looking rectangles to depict the tassel of a corn plant.

Rosann Willink and Paul Zolbord documented comments made by Navajo elders

as they viewed over 200 historical rugs, most dated within the last quarter of the

nineteenth century, as part of their research for their book published in 1996, Weaving a

World: Textiles and the Navajo Way of Seeing.23 The elders’ comments went far beyond

the analysis of warp, weft, and dyes into a world of how the Navajo interpret their own

craft. The rugs illustrated how the Navajo witnessed the earth, sky, and the holy people.

Others depicted pain experienced during the Bosque Redondo and Long Walk.24 While

patterned designs on a rug may seem symmetrical to non-Navajos, the Navajo saw traces

of asymmetry found in nature within rugs such as the brightness of the morning

compared to the fading light of evening.25 These old rugs conveyed a story from Navajo

weavers to their descendants 100 years later.

It is hard to determine exactly what the Navajo believed as they allowed Curtis to

take their portraits and other pictures throughout the reservation. They were a visual

people as demonstrated through their weavings and sand paintings, depicting the world

around them, using their craft to provide a connection between their holy people,

themselves, and their descendants.

Willink and Zolbord observed this as they worked with Navajo elders in their

research published in 1996. The elders did not analyze the details of the weavings they

were asked to interpret. They looked at each weaving synthetically or holistically in

relation to the past and their holy people. In summing up the way in which the elders

69 viewed the weavings presented to them, Willink and Zolbard stated that “For the traditional Navajos, the past is recycled in the present to secure harmony in the future.”26

Sometimes the Navajo, as well as other Native American tribes, became concerned that they revealed too much information to outsiders. Other tribes believed in the importance of preserving this knowledge that might otherwise be lost. Curtis’s photographs may have been a way for the Navajo to preserve the knowledge and ways of their past during their time to secure harmony for future generations of Navajo.

Curtis’s Photographic Style Versus the Rest

Curtis was not the first photographer documenting Native Americans in the West.

One of their earliest photographers, William Henry Jackson, became popular in the 1870s when he was the photographer for the Hayden Expedition funded by the U. S. General

Land Office. Jackson photographed landscapes, people, and buildings from Wyoming and Yellowstone, down through the Rockies, and into the American Southwest.27 Will

Soule was a noted photographer of Indians around Fort Sill Oklahoma from 1869-1874.28

Adam Clark Vroman, a contemporary of Curtis, “was employed as a photographer by the

Bureau of American Ethnology (a research unit of the Smithsonian Institution) for two separate trips to the Southwest during 1897 and 1899.”29

Curtis, however, had a focused plan with a specific purpose. Curtis wanted to make a photographic history of Native American culture “before he gave way too much to the white man’s culture.”30 Curtis worked hard to gain native trust. He sent representatives to native groups before he came to take the photographs, establishing a relationship as well as to begin research. Curtis also paid the subjects of his photographs.

He began the process of compensating his Native American subjects with Princess

Angeline in Seattle.31 According to Curtis’s son Harold, “My father carried a number of

bank sacks filled with silver dollars to pay the Indians for posing, a dollar each time.”32

Finally, Curtis related to them as fellow human beings. He respected their culture. His

daughter, Beth, witnessed how her father worked with Native Americans. “Accepting the

Indians and their beliefs,” she stated, “Father made no effort to influence or change their

way of life.”33 Curtis liked native people and they realized he “was trying to do

something for them.”34

In 1911, Curtis described the reaction of Native Americans to his project in a New

York Times report:

Many of them are not only willing but anxious to help. They have grasped the idea that this is to be a permanent memorial of their race, and it appeals to their imagination. Word passes from tribe to tribe . . . A tribe that I have visited and studied lets another tribe know that after the present generation has passed away men will know from this record what they were like, and what they did, and the second tribe doesn’t want to be left out.35

While this quote was made five years after Curtis finished his work in Navajo

country, it was probably true for his visit to the Navajo in 1906. Curtis had a good

relationship with the nearby Hopi, taking photographs of them as early as the summer of

1900. He had spent time with other Pueblo cultures and the Apache before his visit to the

Navajo.

The Native Americans subjects probably never saw the photographs taken by

Curtis. It is possible, however, that they knew these were special photographs. Curtis

took the time to capture Native Americans in photography not only as they were, but in a

positive way. For example, the photograph Nature’s Mirror-Navaho shows a young

Navajo woman wrapped in a blanket standing on a rock in the middle of a pond formed

between rock formations (see figure 4.1). While Curtis probably recommended the pose 71

in this lovely photograph, it appeared to be natural. Curtis used all the talents he had

gained in portrait photography of young Seattle debutants as well as of the President of

the United States, to reveal the beauty and personality of Native American people.

Curtis worked to capture the character of every person and scene he photographed. Native Americans surely knew these photographs were different because of the respectful way in which they were taken. Both Curtis and the Native Americans who posed for him hoped they would be seen for who they were at that moment in time.

Figure 4.1. “Nature’s Mirror-Navaho.” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis,

1904. The North American Indian, Vol. I, facing page 66.

NOTES

1 “The Daguerreotype Process,” Sussex Photo History, http://www.photohistory- sussex.co.uk/dagprocess.htm (accessed December 31, 2017).

2 Martha A. Sandweiss, Print the Legend: Photography and the American West, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 2. 3 Ibid., 3.

4 Ibid., 7.

5 Ibid., 225.

6 Ibid., 208-210.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid., 225.

9 Florence Curtis Graybill and Victor Boesen, Edward Sheriff Curtis: Visions of a Vanishing Race (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1976), 24.

10 Ibid., 23-25.

11 Timothy Egan, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), 127-128.

12 Sandweiss, Print the Legend, 233. George P. Horse Capture, a Native American scholar of the Gros Ventre tribe, speculated that his ancestors collaborated with Matteson according to this source: George P. Horse Capture, “The Camera Eye of Sumner Matteson and the People Who Fooled Them All,” Montana Magazine of Western History (Summer 1997), 70.

13 Ibid, 230.

14 Ibid., 216-217.

15 Martha A. Sandweiss, Print the Legend: Photography and the American West, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 7-9.

16Letter to Lulu Miller from Edward S. Curtis dated April 6, 1908, from the collection of the Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI. It was displayed in the Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian Exhibition, summer of 2017. 74

17 Shamoon Zamir, The Gift of the Face: Portraiture and Time in Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014, 3. The quote in the Muskegon exhibit was taken from this book. 18 The quote for the exhibit originated from two different essays written by two different authors within Christopher Cardozo’s book, Sacred Legacy: Joseph D. Horse Capture, “A Personal Legacy,” Christopher Cardozo, Sacred Legacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 27. Anne Makepeace, “Afterword,” quote during interview of Joseph D. Horse Capture, Christopher Cardozo, Sacred Legacy, 183.

19 Jennifer Nez Denetdale, Reclaiming Dine History: The Legacies of Navajo Chief Manuelito and Juanita. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2007), 98. 20 Ibid., 100.

21 Ibid.

22 Arnold Berke, Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), 134.

23 Roseann S. Willink and Paul G. Zolbrod, Weaving a World: Textiles and the Navajo Way of Seeing (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1996), 16. 24 Ibid., 6, along with titles listed in the Table of Contents.

25 Ibid., 26-27

26 Willink and Zolbrod, Weaving a World, 18.

27 Rebecca Hein, William Henry Jackson: Foremost Photographer of the American West, WyoHistory.org., https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/william- henry-jackson-foremost-photographer-american-west, accessed January 1, 2017.

28 Graybill and Boesen, Edward Sheriff Curtis: Visions, 12.

29 Massachusetts Historical Society, “The Photographs of Adam Clark Vroman, 1895-1904,” https://www.masshist.org/photographs/nativeamericans/essay.php?entry_id=74, accessed January 1, 2017.

30 Graybill and Boesen, Edward Sheriff Curtis, 12.

31 Egan, Short Nights, 15.

32 Harold Curtis, “Introduction by Harold Curtis,” in Graybill and Boeson, Edward Sheriff Curtis, no page number.

33 Ibid., 3.

34 Ibid., 13.

35 Ibid.

CHAPTER V

RESEARCH

As a photographic resource, The North American Indian struck me as a gold

mine. Here was a collection of over 2,000 photographs, completed under the direction of

one man, illustrating the everyday life and culture of over eighty-four Native American tribes from 1899-1928.

Curtis felt a tremendous amount of urgency in his project. Curtis, as well as other prominent Anglo-Americans of the time, believed that Native American culture was

about to vanish. He desperately wanted to document in detail the old ways of each native

group before these cultures were lost forever. The Native Americans who collaborated

with Curtis in his project, however, wanted to show others the beauty of their cultures.

Both photographer and subject worked together to capture Native American life in

pictures for their own reasons. Cherished items within each culture were photographed to

create an accurate depiction of their lives.

I hoped to find Navajo weavings among these cherished items. My objective was

to see what these photographs would tell me about Navajo weaving and its importance to

their culture at the turn of the twentieth century. In my search through the photographs, I

wanted to see if prized Navajo weavings, such as the chief blanket, remained valued

within the North American Native American culture. I also wanted to see how other

native groups used Navajo weavings and observe if the craft of Navajo weaving

continued to evolve and grow.

Five major challenges arose during the research process as I searched for Navajo

weavings within the photographs found in The North American Indian: selecting an

appropriate research method; creating a research instrument to organize photographic data; evaluating a textile’s origins; determining Navajo trading partners; and interpreting the whole emerging picture objectively.

Selecting an Appropriate Research Method

In selecting an appropriate research method, content analysis seemed to be the

most logical research method for this study. I needed a method that would help organize

the large number of photographs found in Curtis’s work. This method had been used

previously by Laura Angela Brayham for her thesis, entitled Art of Ethnography: A

critical analysis of Edward S. Curtis’ The North American Indian.1

Clothing and textile researchers had also used content analysis to study the history

of costume. In volume I of the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal published in

1982, Jo B. Paoletti described the following steps to complete a content analysis research

project:

1. Articulation of precisely-stated objectives or hypotheses.

2. Creation of an instrument designed to sort relevant variables into predetermined categories.

3. Unbiased sampling of sources.

4. Systematic recording of variables using the instrument.

5. Analysis of the data using appropriate statistical procedures.2

Once I began looking and documenting the photographs, I had second thoughts as

to how Paoletti’s research method would help in analyzing and organizing the

information I searched for in my study. First, I couldn’t come up with a “precisely-stated objective.” I was looking for a Native American perspective of Navajo weaving. I did not know, however, that the perspective would not emerge until the end of my research.

Second, an “unbiased sampling of sources” seemed impossible since I was only using one

source. Third, I kept adding variables as I went along, making the analysis of the data in

a statistical manner complicated. The research instrument I created evolved to contain a

much larger collection of data than I originally thought. I was not sure how I would

analyze the data. I believed, however, that organizing these variables in a chart would

help in finding the answer about the importance of Navajo weaving to its culture during

the time Curtis took his photographs for The North American Indian.

Creating the Research Instrument

The focus of my research was to find and document photographs of Navajo

textiles in The North American Indian. The first challenge to overcome was to

systematically review and document over 2000 photographs. I decided to use Microsoft

Excel to document every photograph in the volumes and portfolios of Curtis’s multi-

volume set. This allowed organizing photographs into categories, using the Excel sort

tool.

My plan to organize and document the photographs included assigning a number

to each photograph and creating a spreadsheet which would include the number with

other information. As I would go through the photographs, I assigned each photograph

its number, and placed the photograph on one of three lists. The three lists would include

79 photographs containing flat patterned textiles, plain or unrecognizable textiles, or no textiles. I went through all the volumes and portfolios in an initial sorting process. I evaluated each photograph to discover textile use, assigned a number to each photograph, determined the list in which the photograph belonged, and completed the information on my spreadsheets. Once I finished the initial sorting process, I evaluated the photographs by list.

The Identification Number

My first challenge was to create a research number for each photograph.

Photographs in the volumes did not have their own page numbers. They were identified in the index as being located on the “page facing” a numbered page. Portfolio photographs were numbered consecutively from volume to volume. As an example, the last portfolio photograph in Volume I was numbered 39. The first portfolio photograph for Volume II started at number 40. Curtis’s system may have made sense for a work with both text and photographs published every few years over a long period of time for an affluent audience. I needed a method, however, that would document all the photographs one right after the other, counting them at the same time for a research project. A good identification number would assist in finding the photograph within its volume or portfolio quickly, if needed, during my research.

This new identification number was divided into three components. The first component was the volume number where the photograph was located. The second component was number identifying the consecutive placement of the photograph within the volume or its portfolio. The third component was a letter identifying the specific List of A, B, or C in which the photograph was placed for this research.

List Criteria

Dividing all Curtis’s photographs into three different lists allowed easier evaluation of his work. Each list provided a smaller, manageable group of photographs to evaluate within the list and from list to list.

List A were of photographs containing any type of flat, patterned textile. Navajo textiles were used straight off the loom, making the shape of any Navajo weaving flat and rectangular. A flat, patterned woven textile included on List A could be shawls, wearing blankets, blankets for equestrian use, rugs, and door way coverings. Navajo patterns and motifs are distinctive; however, I was not concerned with specifically finding textiles with Navajo patterns initially. I would first separate photographs with flat, patterned textiles from the all the other photographs in Curtis’s series. I would re-evaluate the photographs on List A to determine if the photograph contained a Navajo created textile.

List B were of photographs containing flat textiles without a pattern or flat textiles with an unrecognizable pattern. I initially believed that counting these photographs could help in determining possible changes in how Native Americans used their textiles. For example, I thought it would be good to know how many Navajo blankets were used compared to all the blankets found in the volumes and portfolios. It seemed easier to place these on their own list during the initial counting.

List C were of photographs containing no visible flat, patterned, rectangular textiles. This list was the largest list of the three.

Completing the Spreadsheet

I used the version of The North American Indian found on the website of

Northwestern University’s Digital Library Collection. This version allowed me to search

the entire set of both volumes and portfolios online by text and illustration, by text only,

or by illustration only. By selecting illustration only, I was able to sort through Curtis’s

many photographs, one right after the other, at a reasonable pace. Each photograph was

assigned its identification number and placed on its volume’s spreadsheet as I scrolled

through the photographs in the volumes. When I got to the portfolio photographs

affiliated with each volume, I continued with the consecutive order; however, the letter

“P” was added to denote its position in a portfolio instead of the volume. When I finished a volume and continued to the next, the numbering of the photographs would begin at one.

Each component of the identification number was given its own column on the spreadsheet to enable the use of the Excel Spreadsheet tool. For example, a photograph with the number 1-42-A would be found in Volume I. It was assigned the number “42” as it was the forty-second photograph found as I looked through the volume page by page. The “A” indicated the photograph contained a recognizable flat pattern woven textile. Placing each component of the identification number in its own column allowed me to consecutively document all the photographs as I went through the volumes and portfolios. I could then use the sort tool to resort and list all the A category photographs with textiles together.

Other information on the spreadsheet included the photograph’s name or title, the date of origination for the photograph, the native group name, the context of photographic content, the textile’s use, and page facing number.

The name or title of the photograph was the title Curtis originally gave the

photograph in his work. Curtis also included a date of origination for each photograph.

The date only included the year, not a specific month or day.

The distance or context in which a photograph was taken seemed to be important

at first. I was attempting to document the number of Navajo weavings found in the work

but could not see all of them or their pattern due to distance or drape as the textile was

being used or worn. Under context, I created additional categories such as portrait and

casual with one person; group if the Natives were in a group; distance if I could see

Natives in the photographs, but they were far off; and other which did not contain people at all. While it seemed a good idea in the beginning, in the end subdividing the photographs in this manner was not needed.

Evaluating a Textile’s Origins

After my initial sorting of photographs, I returned to List A to determine which

photographs contained Navajo-created textiles. One of the major challenges was to

determine the difference between a Navajo-created textile and a manufactured trade

blanket. Manufactured blankets had become part of the Navajo culture beginning in the

1880s.3 These trade blankets used symbols similar to the Navajo in order to appeal to

their Native American markets, creating a challenge in differentiating the Navajo created

from the manufactured.

I was expecting to find chief blankets, as Anecita Agustinez, a modern-day

Navajo weaver, had mentioned that chief blankets could be found in The North American

Indian in her interview on Native Voice TV in March 2014.4 I studied photographs found in publications by credible authors of Navajo textiles most likely used during the

time frame to study common Navajo textile patterns and designs. I compared these photographs to Curtis’s photographs in List A containing flat, patterned textiles.

In closely observing the flat patterned textiles of List A, I noticed different characteristics of textile structure in closer range photographs. I had studied Navajo textile structure and experienced Navajo weaving techniques at the weaving workshop during the Sheep is Life event in June 2014. From these observations, I determined different traits between manufactured textiles and Navajo textiles, and created a chart, comparing these traits (see figure 5.1). The information in the chart assisted in determining if a textile was Navajo created.

Photographs by Curtis were shown via power point to Dr. Virginia Gunn and Dr.

Teena Jennings-Rentenaar of the University of Akron. They were asked to look at the physical characteristics of the photographed textile to verify the accuracy of the chart.

Determining Navajo Trading Partners

I wanted to see if the Navajo continued to trade their weavings with other Native

American tribes. The Navajo were proficient traders even before the Navajo Chief

Blanket became a popular trade blanket, particularly with the Plains Indians after 1800.5

Determining with whom the Navajo had traded could show a possible shift in Navajo

culture.

The Navajo themselves did not take their weavings to every tribe throughout the

North American continent. Native American tribal culture conducted an extensive trade-

to-trade system, allowing the chief blanket to travel far beyond the Southwest. It was important to understand who the Navajos’ main trading partners had been in the past to

Textile Trait Navajo Textile Manufactured Textile Plaid Textile Used a continuous warp, Looms could be threaded making it impossible to to have warp ends weave a plaid textile. different colors thus permitting a plaid textile. Woven and/or surface Designs created using Many Techniques of design discontinuous weft creating design such as technique. No printing or Structural dyeing techniques were • Dobby used on the completed • Jacquard fabric. Dyeing • Direct • Resist Yarn Colors Drape/Perceived Weight Use heavier handspun Yarn structure not based wool yarn creating stiff on tradition. Fabric can drape. possess any level of weight and drape Pattern Repetition Stripes. Recognized Looms allow smaller and Repertoire of Patterns. frequent patterns such Pattern placement dobby weave. arbitrary. Type of Weave Use a greater number of Assorted types in addition wefts per inch which hide to a plain balanced the warp yarns.6 weave. Discontinuous weft forms pattern Textile Finishes Did not use finishes. Often fulled blankets for softness.7 Additional Elements Did not use covered Used machine bindings to binding on edges. Fringe finished edges. and tassels occasionally used on saddle blankets. Selvedge cords tied tightly at the corners.8

Figure 5.1. Comparison of Navajo and Manufactured Textiles. These comparisons, in addition to pattern, were used to identify a Navajo-created textile.

85 discover the amount of trade the Navajo were conducting during the time span when

Curtis took his photographs. Kathleen Whitaker described some of the trading routes

Native Americans used to trade for chief blankets in her book, Southwest Textiles:

Weavings of the Navajo and Pueblo. She noted, for example, that the nearby Comanche acquired blankets by trade or raid from the Navajo and traded with the Crow, found further east in the plains of central United States. The Crow then continued trading their blankets for goods they needed within other Great Plains tribes to their east and north.9

I created a chart comparing the tribes listed by Kathleen Whitaker to the tribes

Curtis visited in the early twentieth century to determine which tribes would likely use

Navajo textiles in their culture. This chart was also used as a basis to begin my research of the photographs in The North American Indian (see Figure 5.2.).

The general region where each tribe was located is included in the chart. This helped me to visualize the general habitat of the tribe and its possible relationship with the Navajo. The regions were determined by maps found in The Northwestern Digital

Library site of The North American Indian.

Three regions contained the tribes most likely to have traded with the Navajo:

The New Southwest, the Great Plains, and the Great Basin. The New Southwest Region included Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California. The Great Plains Region included areas west of the Mississippi and east of the Rocky Mountains. The Great Basin

Region included Colorado, Utah, and Central California.

The process of comparing Whitaker’s trading partners to Curtis’s native cultures proved to be difficult at times. For example, Whitaker used the name Crow while Curtis

Indian to Indian Trading System: Navajo Weaving Prior to 1865

The New Southwest Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California Volume I: 1907 The Apache. The Jicarillas. The Navaho. Volume II: 1908 The Pima. The Papago. The Qahatika. The Mohave. The Yuma. The Maricopa. The Walapai. The Havasupai. The Apache-Mohave, or Yavapai. Volume XII (1922) The Hopi Vol. XVI (1926) The Tiwa. The Keres. Vol. XVII (1926) The Tewa. The Zuñi. The Great Plains Between the Mississippi River and Rocky Mountains Volume III: 1908 The Teton Sioux. The Yanktonai. The Assiniboin Volume IV: 1909 The Apsaroke, or Crows. The Hidatsa. Volume V: 1909 The Mandan. The Arikara. The Atsina Volume VI: 1911 The Piegan. The Cheyenne. The Arapaho. Vol. XIX: (1930) The Indians of Oklahoma. The Wichita. The Southern Cheyenne. The Oto. The Comanche. The Peyote Cult. The Great Basin Colorado, Utah, and Central California Vol. XV: (1926) Southern California Shoshoneans. The Diegueños. Plateau Shoshoneans. The Washo.

Figure 5.2. Indian to Indian Trading System. This list contains tribes known to trade directly with the Navajo or their trading partners by region according to Whitaker.

referred to the same culture with the name Asparoke. As another example, Curtis was

very specific about the names of the Pueblo villages he visited such as Zuni and Tewa

while Whitaker used the general term “Pueblo” in writing about Southwest textiles. The website of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center was referenced to determine which Pueblo cultures and villages Curtis photographed. This process revealed the existence of many smaller cultures within larger native cultures. The Sioux of the Great Plains Region was also a large nation comprised of smaller cultural groups such as the Teton Sioux and

Brule′ Sioux to name a few.

Interpreting the Emerging Picture Objectively

I wished to distance myself from the Anglo-American perspective of Native culture as “vanishing” which Curtis projected in his photographs. I wanted to evaluate the significance of Navajo textiles to the Navajo to determine an accurate insight of their life at the time Curtis took their photographs. It was important to view these photographs objectively.

Viewing Curtis’s work in a digital format made my research easier to complete.

The Northwestern website offered the option of looking only at the photographs. Using this option kept me focused only on the photographs. I specifically viewed the work by illustration only. I did read captions written for the specific photograph when available.

Challenges raised by Curtis’s Decisions

Two other factors arose prior to beginning my actual counting of the photographs.

As I initially previewed the photographs from Volume I to Volume XX, I noticed a change from native dress to Anglo-American styles, illustrating a change in culture for the tribes between 1907 and 1930. This cultural change over time indicated the

importance of comparing tribes within a specific time-frame closer to the time Curtis visited Navajo Country. I decided to consider photographs originating from 1900-1910.

The publication date of each volume containing photographs of Navajo trading partners did not influence which volumes to research. For example, I initially decided not to look at Volume XVI. This volume of neighboring Pueblo tribes published in 1926 seemed too great a time span from when Curtis published his volume containing photographs and information on the Navajo in 1907. A quick look in Volume XVI showed that Curtis included photographs taken during visits around the same time as he visited the Navajo but waited to publish them in the later volume.

When I first began my research, I considered only searching for Navajo weavings from established Navajo trading partners. Curtis’s decision to use photographs from his archives over a wide range of time led to my decision to view all the photographs in the entire work due. If all were not viewed, a photograph taken at an earlier time and published in a later volume might be missed from this research.

Research by the Numbers

I created a table to organize the data of my spreadsheets upon completion of viewing all the photographs (see figure 5.3). The total number of photographs in the twenty-volume set of The North American Indian and its accompanying portfolios was

2,234. The total number of photographs in List A of patterned, flat woven textiles was

326, comprising 15% of the entire set of photographs. The total number of photographs in List B of textiles containing no or unrecognizable patterns was 338, comprising 15% of the total set. The total number of photographs without a textile was 1,570 or 70% of the entire set of photographs.

Yr. List List List Origin. Vol. Total Partner Area Pub A B C Dates 1 1907 21 22 75 118 1903 1907 Yes SW 55 Navajo related photos. 2 contained rugs. 2 with sheep. 1 weaving on loom. 9 Navajos wearing trade blankets. One Apache chief wearing Chief Blanket. 2 1908 13 56 42 111 1903 1907 Yes SW 3 1908 4 14 96 114 1891 1908 Yes Plains 4 1909 18 13 79 110 1905 1908 Yes Plains 1 possible Chief Blanket. 5 1909 20 17 75 112 1908 1910 Yes Plains 6 1911 28 23 60 111 1900 1911 Yes Plains 7 1911 18 11 82 111 1900 1910 No Plateau 8 1911 12 10 92 114 1899 1910 No Plateau 9 1913 24 16 71 111 1898 1912 No Pac NW Native-created Goat Hair and Sweet Grass Textiles. 10 1915 35 8 67 110 1914 1914 No Pac NW Native-created Cedar Bark Textiles. 11 1916 50 21 41 112 1915 1915 No Pac NW Native created Cedar Bark and Painted Textiles. 12 1922 30 16 65 111 1900 1921 Yes SW 1 possible Navajo Textile. 13 1924 1 3 107 111 1923 1923 No Pac NW 14 1924 0 6 105 111 1924 1924 No CA. 15 1926 2 14 95 111 1924 1924 No Basin 16 1926 14 24 73 111 1904 1925 No SW 1 textile either Navajo or Pueblo. 17 1926 8 36 66 110 1903 1926 Yes SW 18 1928 16 14 81 111 1926 1926 No Plains 19 1930 12 14 85 111 1927 1927 Yes Plains 20 1930 0 0 113 113 1928 1928 No Alaska Total 326 338 1570 2234

Figure 5.3. Research by the Numbers Chart. Volumes with native-created textiles were noted in the space below the volume. If no notation is found underneath the volume data line, no native-created textiles were found.

Notation was made under each volume on the chart of any Navajo weavings

found in the volume and discovered in my second and closer evaluation of List A

containing flat, patterned textiles. Only four volumes contained weavings that could possibly be Navajo created.

Volume I, published in 1907, featured three native groups of the Apache, the

Jicarillo, and the Navajo. The origination dates for these photographs were 1903-1907.

The total number of Navajo related photographs in the volume was 55. Out of these 55 photographs, two contained Navajo rugs and one featured a weaving on a loom. Nine

Navajos wore trade blankets. Two Navajo photographs pictured flocks of sheep. In the photographs of the Apache, one chief was wearing a chief blanket.

Volume IV, published in 1909, was the next volume with likely Navajo weaving.

The origination dates for these photographs were 1905-1908. One photograph contained

one possible chief blanket.

Volume XII, published in 1922, became the next volume with a likely Navajo

weaving. The origination dates for these photographs were 1900-1921. One photograph contained a possible Navajo weaving.

Volume XVI, published in 1926, was the last volume with a likely Navajo weaving. The origination dates for these photographs were 1904-1925. The weaving could have been either Pueblo or Navajo created.

I also evaluated the photographs of known Navajo trading partners from the chart

I had created to determine the amount of trading between the Navajo and other native tribes (see figure 5.2). I added the number photographs from List A of each native group within its region. I compared this total with the total number of photographs in List A.

These figures are described below along with additional comments relating to Navajo weaving observed in the photographs.

Photographs of the Southwest Region (SW) containing patterned, flat woven textiles totaled 86, comprising 26% of List A. Navajo weavings consisted of two rugs, one weaving on a loom, one chief blanket, and two blankets that might be Navajo- created.

The photographs of the Great Plains (Plains) contained more flat, patterned textiles totaling 98 or 30% of List A. One possible chief blanket was found.

The Great Basin (Basin) volumes and portfolios contained only 2 photographs with flat, patterned textiles. Neither blanket was Navajo created.

Curtis traveled to four other regions. He photographed Native Americans in central and northern California (CA) and the Plateau Region (Plateau) of Washington,

Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. He also traveled along the western coast of Canada called the Pacific Northwest (Pac NW). Curtis’s last journey took him to Alaska. No photographs of these tribes contained any evidence of Navajo weaving.

Finally, I added together all the photographs with any flat, textile both plain and patterned, totaling 664 photographs, comprising 30% of all the photographs in the series.

After looking at over 2000 photographs in the volumes and portfolios of The

North American Indian, I found only five textiles I felt comfortable in identifying as

Navajo created. This appeared to be disappointing until I began looking at these photographs in relation to all the other photographs in Curtis’s work. This absence of

Navajo textiles was significant as I compared my research findings to the information I discovered of the Navajo and Curtis in the beginning of my research.

A Revised Research Approach

I began to look carefully at the photographs with Navajo weavings in relation to

other photographs on List A. Looking carefully at Curtis’s photographs collectively revealed a story of transition among the Navajo and other Native American cultures on the North American continent.

The photograph entitled Tobacco Ceremony-Apsaroke, originating in 1907, represented a changed Native American perspective on Navajo weaving (see figure 5.4).

The photograph features five Native Americans walking in a line, each wearing a full blanket. The person at the front of this line is wearing a broad white and dark striped

blanket. This blanket is similar to the blankets worn in a photograph found in Whitaker’s

book, Southwest Textiles: Weaving of the Navajo and Pueblo. Whitaker’s picture, taken circa 1890, features a group of Brule′ Sioux women photographed at an honoring ceremony for their reservation. The captions of the photograph described their wearing blankets as “Navajo chief-style blankets.”10 I believe the leader of the line in

Curtis’s Apsaroke photograph was wearing a chief blanket while the other four wore

trade blankets.

The trade blanket became widely popular among Native tribes toward the end of

the nineteenth century, affecting the production of Navajo created blankets. An

American Indian trade blanket was defined as “a commercially created, machine-woven

wearing blanket produced for an American Indian market.”11 The Navajo themselves bought manufactured trade blankets for personal use in the 1880s as they saw the value in purchasing a blanket in a few minutes rather than taking a minimum of six months to make one of similar size. They continued to weave blankets for cash and credit at the

Figure 5.4. “Tobacco Ceremony-Apsaroke.” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1907. The North American Indian, Vol. IV, facing page 66.

trading post to be sold off the reservation, making it possible for a new chief blanket to be

worn in the Tobacco Ceremony-Apsorake photograph.12 It is also possible the person

wearing the chief blanket may have kept the blanket over the years and only wore it on

special occasions.

While other Plains tribes may have appreciated the convenience and value of a

trade blanket, the Sioux seemed to be no longer wearing blankets at all. Only four

photographs with a flat, patterned textile were found in Volume III. A photograph,

originating in 1907, of two Sioux young women on horseback, entitled Daughters of a

Chief, shows one daughter wearing a striped blouse and the other daughter, a native

looking top with sleeves. Both appear to be wearing contemporary clothing. Neither

wore chief blankets, though one had a dark striped blanket of different widths at the back

of her saddle. This was in stark contrast to Whitaker’s photograph of Brule′ Sioux women wearing chief blankets taken in 1890.

A major reason for the lack of native blankets in this volume could have been because Sioux tribes were starving. Curtis originally visited the Sioux in 1905. By the time Curtis returned in 1907, starvation was a major issue. Since the Sioux were living on the reservation, the diet of the Sioux had radically changed with the slaughter of the buffalo. The average Sioux, used to eating six buffalo in a year’s time, was now dependent on government handouts for food. Curtis had promised a feast as payment in

his 1905 visit, yet the number of people showing up for the feast in 1907 far outnumbered

his food. Government rations had never appeared. Curtis ended up finding another steer

to make up the difference.13

Blankets also could have been difficult to obtain with the slow action of the government. The ones they had in their possession, may have been used only when needed in extreme cold. Two of the four photographs with patterned textiles were of the same woman carrying sticks on her back as she walked through snow (see figures 5.5 and

5.6). Her striped blanket featured long fringe at the bottom. With both the Navajo and the Sioux on reservations and under government control, trade seemed unlikely to be taking place. I also did not believe it was Navajo created with its fluid drape and numerous striped patterns.

Another example of the Native American trend away from Navajo weaving may have been the rapid pace of acculturation of Native Americans into the dominant Anglo-

American culture. This was particularly evident in two photographs of the Apache chief,

Alchise, of the Southwest Region. Curtis took two photographs, both entitled Alchise-

Apache. One was found in Portfolio I (see figure 5.7). This 1903 photograph features a younger looking Alchise leaning against a tree, looking out in a relaxed profile. He is wearing a wide-striped blanket draped over one shoulder and wrapped around his waist.

This photograph was an early photograph taken by Curtis, originating in 1903, reflecting his fascination with the idea of the “vanishing” Indian. It was thought that blankets worn as robes conveyed meaning in how they were worn. In the forward of

Robert W. Koupon’s 1992 book, The Language of the Robe, Patrick T. Houlihan, director of the Millicent A. Rogers Memorial Museum in Taos, New Mexico, stated:

Figure 5.5. “Heavy Load-Sioux.” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1908. The North American Indian, Portfolio III, Plate no. 100.

Figure 5.6. “Wood Gatherer-Sioux.” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1908. The North American Indian, Portfolio III, Plate no. 105.

Figure 5.7. “Alchise-Apache.” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1903. The North American Indian, Portfolio I, Plate no. 5.

A study in point concerning cultural communications through the use of the wearing blanket is seen in the Omaha ethnology by Alice Fletcher and Francis La Flesche. Hidden within volume 27 of the BAE Annual Report for 1905-1906 is a description of the nonverbal communication practiced in the past on the Southern Plains using the buffalo robe.14

It is possible Curtis knew of this nonverbal communication practice. His editor for The

North American Indian, Frederick Webb Hodge, worked for the Bureau of Ethnology

(BAE).15 Hodge may have told Curtis of the report or Curtis could have seen the report

with its photographs before it was published and suggested one of the poses to Alchise

labeled “a watchful state.” Alchise may have also been aware of the communication

system. As I compared Curtis’s photograph to the BAE poses reprinted in Kapoun’s

book, I believe the robe worn by Alchise communicated that he was in a watchful state.16

When Curtis returned to visit the Apache in 1906, he took another photograph of

Alchise, also published in Volume I entitled Alchise-Apache (see figure 5.8). This formal, portrait photograph now shows an older Alchise dressed in contemporary clothing, not his chief blanket. He has a plain blanket draped over his shoulder closest to the camera. Curtis often used plain blankets to hide certain features such as contemporary clothing or to capture something he thought was more important, in this case, the face of Alchise. The photograph in 1903 shows a simpler form of clothing with only a blanket, while the second shows his assimilation into mainstream culture.

Navajo Transitions

At the beginning of my thesis research, when Anecita Agustinez mentioned in her interview on Native Voice TV that chief blankets could be found in The North American

Indian, I became excited. I thought I would find a number of them. The more I studied

Navajo weaving, the more I understood the fact that chief blankets would be difficult to 99

Figure 5.8. “Alchise-Apache.” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1906. The North American Indian, Vol. I, facing page 10.

100

find as other authors and researchers indicated the Navajo were now weaving for the

tourist trade. The two photographs showing chief blankets were taken in the beginning

years of Curtis’s photographic endeavor: Alchise-Apache in 1903 and Tobacco

Ceremony-Apsaroke in 1907. I found two other weavings that may have been Navajo created but did not feel confident in stating their true origins. One was found in Volume

XII, published in 1922, and the other in Volume XVI, published in 1926. Each volume

contained information of Pueblo tribes in the Southwest region. The Pueblo tribes

continued to weave during this time, probably making the origins of these textiles Pueblo.

Two photographs of the Navajo in Volume I indicated that the Navajo had

transitioned from wearing their own blankets. A Navajo portrait, entitled Chief of the

Desert-Navaho, featured a man with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders with a drape

to the front (see figure 5.9). The design is very detailed and appeared to be Navajo

created. The blanket, however, was bound on the edges and the weave was not a strong

weft-faced weave, causing doubt that it was Navajo created and more likely

manufactured.

In observing the blanket worn by The Blanket Maker-Navaho, it would make

sense she would be wearing a blanket she had created (see figure 5.10). In an interview

with Dr. Jennings-Rentenaar and Dr. Virginia Gunn, however, their analysis of the

blanket determined that the blanket had been fulled, a trait not common in Navajo woven

blankets. In my observations, the pattern appeared to be inspired by Navajo symbols, but

was abstract in nature. Also, the edges of the blanket appeared to be bound and sewn.

These clues indicate the blanket may have been a trade blanket.

101

Figure 5.9. “Chief of the Desert-Navaho. Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1904. The North American Indian, Portfolio I, Plate no. 26.

102

Figure 5.10. “Blanket Maker-Navaho.” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1904. The North American Indian, Vol. I, facing page 76.

103

Transitions in Navajo Weaving

The photograph of The Blanket Maker-Navaho, originating in 1904, also indicates

that weaving remained a strong part of the Navajo culture. The Navajo woman found in

this photograph holds skeins of yarn prominently in front of her. She holds the skeins tightly along with a small tool, probably a weaving fork, as if the objects in her hands were of high value. The visual texture of the yarn reminded me of the twisted skeins of homespun yarn we used in our weavings at the Sheep is Life event; however, it is possible this yarn could have been manufactured.

Prior to Bosque Redondo, Navajo weavers spun their own yarn and dyed their yarn with natural dyes when they needed to create the patterns within their weavings.

The Navajo-Churro sheep produced a range of natural fleece colors from creamy white to

tan and dark brown to black. Natural dyes, referred to as vegetal dyes, created color by

using natural plant vegetation and insects found on their own countryside or through

trade.17 The Navajo also created color using fiber found in commercially manufactured textiles. The most commonly used cloth was bayeta, a type of cheap, wool flannel textile introduced to the Southwest by the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Navajo weavers tore apart the cloth and reworked the fibers of the yarn into their own homespun.18 As they

returned to the reservation in 1867, Germantown yarn, given to them at Bosque Redondo,

was considered a good alternative to using native handspun as natural vegetal dyes were

also used to create the colors of Germantown yarn. Navajo blanket trade improved in the

1880s. Owners of the trading posts located on the reservation encouraged the Navajo to

create quality weavings for a growing market off the reservation.19 As the Navajo

blanket market grew commercially, traders encouraged Navajo weavers to create blankets

104

at a faster pace. They encouraged the weavers to use aniline dyes, synthetic dyes created

in the 1860s, instead of taking the time to create natural dyes.20

The producers of Germantown yarns began using aniline dyes in their yarns

during the 1870s. Aniline dyes became popular in the 1880s on the reservation as an

alternative to natural dyes, creating an easier and more cost-effective method of dyeing yarn. B. F. Hyatt and C. N. Cotton, both traders on the reservation, taught the Navajo how to use aniline dyes for their handspun wool by the winter of 1886-1887.21 The use

of these dyes to add color to wool yarn had a drawback, however, because aniline colors

diminished and faded over time.

Traders also introduced the use of cotton warps bought at the trading post instead

of handspun wool yarn warps to speed up production. Cotton warps, however, provided a weaker base to the textile than handspun wool yarn warps. Weavers continued to use their handspun wool yarn for the weft. They sometimes did not, however, have enough time to properly card the wool fiber. This created a poor-quality yarn with dirt and debris. The additional dirt and debris found in the quickly carded wool also affected the dyeing process as the yarn would not take the dye properly, causing uneven color. The weak, cotton warps could not hold the defective wool weft, creating a poor-quality textile.22 Weavers had been pressured to make blankets at a faster pace and the quality of their weaving suffered. George Wharton James stated in his historical account of Navajo weaving, Indian Blankets and their Makers published in 1920, that the reputation of

Navajo weaving as an art “was doomed unless something speedily was done.”23

Not all traders pushed the Navajo to produce inferior work for the sake of speed.

Juan Lorenzo Hubbell, a trader from Ganado, was reluctant to encourage the use of

105

aniline dyes, opposing Hyatt and Cotton, as he feared it would cause a deterioration of

Navajo weaving. In 1902, Hubbell’s catalogue featured classic revival pieces, advertised

as “native wool Navajo Blankets.”24 Hubbell, along with trader J. B. Moore of Crystal

from 1897-1911, set high standards in the completion of the rugs they sold. They

advertised their rugs as “genuinely handmade,” ending the use of Germantown yarns and

cotton warps.25

Both traders also worked with their weavers to produce patterns pleasing to

eastern markets. Starting in 1902, Hubbell commissioned artists to create paintings of

historical Navajo designs he preferred and placed them in his post for his weavers to

study and recreate.26

Moore, on the other hand, preferred the oriental influence of Turkey and Iran. He introduced these designs to his weavers, encouraging the weavers to creatively use them

in their own design patterns as they created their Navajo rugs.27

This change in the attitude of the traders must have been widespread. In 1903, U.

S. Hollister stated in his book, The Navajo and his Blanket:

We are glad to believe, however, that the worst period in this respect has passed as there is a tendency on the part of traders to induce the Navajos to return to the old-time methods, and also to insist that when mineral dyes are used they shall be only of the best qualities.28

It must be remembered the Navajo were going through very challenging times.

They had lost their annuity to purchase yarn in 1878; endured settlers infringing on their

land in the 1880s; and suffered the effects of drought along with the Panic of 1893 in the

1890s. The Navajo worked with the traders to adapt to their ways, attempting to maintain

the high production level, because they were starving, and their flocks were dwindling.

106

The traders had mistakenly taught the Navajo economical ways to create the yarn for their blankets to adjust to the expanding markets from 1880-1900. When the traders realized their error, they changed the course by “influencing” the Navajo to return to their old ways. The traders controlled the door to the textile and wool markets the Navajo needed to survive. This was the setting when Curtis arrived to begin working with the

Navajo in 1904.

Curtis took two photographs, originating in 1904, entitled Navaho Flocks and

Jeditoh-Navaho (see figures 5.11 and 5.12). Both photographs contained flocks of sheep, indicating to me the continued importance of sheep to the Navajo. Frederick Webb

Hodge, Curtis’s editor, reinforced this in his own work, The Handbook of American

Indians North of Mexico, published between 1907-1910. Hodge stated that upon their return from Bosque Redondo, the Navaho were given a “new supply of sheep. Since that time, they remained at peace and greatly prospered.” He also noted that their population numbered about 7300 during their incarceration. By 1906, the Indian Office estimated their population at 28,500.29

The number of sheep in Curtis’s two photographs and the importance of yarn in the Blanket Weaver-Navaho photographs, all originating in 1904, provides a strong indication the Navajo were again actively pursuing their craft of weaving, probably using their own home-spun wool. They appeared to be an industrious culture, not the vanishing race Curtis thought he would find.

107

Figure 5.11. “Navaho Flock.” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1904. The North American Indian, Portfolio I, Plate no. 33.

Figure 5.12. “Jeditoh-Navaho.” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1904. The North American Indian, Vol.1, facing page 60.

108

Weaving in Canyon de Chelly

The subject of the 1904 Blanket Weaver-Navaho photograph was a Navajo weaver at her loom underneath the shade of trees in Canyon de Chelly (see figure 5.13).

The large loom made from slim, straight tree trunks takes center stage. The weaver is in the beginning stages of creating her piece with the weaving slightly less than one-quarter of the height of the loom from the bottom. The weaver is working on two geometric patterns on each side of the textile. While the measurements of the textile are not given, looking at it proportionally to the size of the woman weaving the piece, it could be six feet wide by eight feet long.

The size of this weaving seemed to be much larger than a wearing blanket. I understood what was probably happening when I looked at photographs of interior spaces created by Mary Coulter. Coulter served as an architect and interior designer charged with creating hotels, restaurants, train stations, and gift shops for the Fred Harvey

Company and Santa Fe Railroad beginning in 1902. Coulter also designed structures in and around the Grand Canyon due to the association of the Harvey Company and the

Santa Fe Railroad with the National Park Service.30 Flooring materials used in Coulter’s

designs were either wood or tile. She then used large rugs with geometric patterns

throughout these spaces to create smaller areas in the large rooms. Rugs also played a

role in her gift shops, creating specific display areas. The rug the weaver was creating on

her loom could have been for the growing craft market promoted by the Harvey company

for the influx of Anglo-American tourists to the Southwest.

109

Figure 5.13. “Blanket Weaver-Navaho.” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1904. The North American Indian, Portfolio I, Plate no. 34.

110

The Fred Harvey Company began to show its influence on Navajo weaving when

it refused to purchase inferior weavings from the traders for their Indian stores being

established in the Southwest.31 The photograph of the Blanket Weaver-Navaho seems to

illustrate the influence of the Harvey Company on the design and size of Navajo

weavings for their markets indicating the Navajo were now weaving rugs for new markets.

Blankets to Rugs

Even though the Navajo were now weaving rugs, the term blanket for this textile was still used to describe it. Two Curtis photographs originating in 1904, Blanket Maker-

Navaho and Blanket Weaver-Navaho, are examples of how the two terms were used interchangeably during this time. U. S. Hollister explained the reason in his book, The

Navajo and His Blanket, published in 1903. The term “blanket” was used as a matter of

“convenience” to refer to all Navajo weaving “products” in general. The term blanket had been “fastened upon them by common consent.”32 Hollister noted that Navajo

fabrics had been originally used for sleeping as blankets or as a serape wrap. Now,

however, smaller sizes and larger sizes were being used as rugs to adapt to popular

demand in creating fashionable interiors.

Kathleen Whitaker offered this detailed analysis of the evolution of the blanket to

rug era for the Navajo:

From the time the Navajo began weaving to around 1900, numerous Navajo blanket styles have been identified. Characterized by their longer-than-wide size, design styles, and plain, weft-faced weaves, they were woven for use as garments, and doorway covers, for equestrian needs, and for sale and trade to tourists. By the 1860s commercially made blankets were issued to the Navajo, and by the 1890s native-woven textiles were being woven as heavier, thicker rugs and redirected toward a new market.33

111

Two Curtis photographs showcased completed Navajo rug weavings. The

photograph, Hastin Yazhe-Navaho, originating in 1904, features a man named Hastin

Yazhe on a box draped with a Navajo rug (see figure 5.14). The Navaho Still Life photograph may contain items Curtis acquired during his journeys to the Navajo reservation, first in 1904 and again in 1906, as the origination date is one year after Curtis returned to Seattle in 1907 (see figure 5.15). The stiff drape of these weavings indicated to me that they were rugs.

Transitioning, Not Vanishing

The patterns and textures of the Navajo textiles found in The North American

Indian were not what I originally expected. After looking at the patterns of the Navajo weavings in Volume I, especially Hastin Yazhie, I noticed none appeared to be patterns depicted in the twentieth-century classification of rug patterns within different regions of the Navajo Nation such as Ganado, Crystal, Two-Grey Hills, and Chinle. I had familiarized myself with these patterns, as well as the historic chief blanket styles, by studying rug photographs through books. I had hoped to find them in Curtis’s photographs. The symbols and patterns found in the weavings featured in Curtis’s photographs were geometrical in Navajo style, but their placement and size of pattern were different than examples I studied. I believe Curtis had captured the state of Navajo weaving as the craft had transitioned from blankets to rugs and before the emergence of regional rug styles became popular in the twentieth century.

J. B. Moore, owner of the Crystal Trading Post in New Mexico from 1896-1911, is credited with being the first trader to create a regional style.34 Charles Avery Amsden

describes this transition in his book Navaho Weaving: Its Technic and History published

112

Figure 5.14. “Hastin Yazhe-Navaho.” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1906. The North American Indian, Vol. I, facing page 80.

113

Figure 5.15. “Navaho Still Life,” Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1907. The North American Indian, Vol. I, facing page 84.

114

in 1934. During this time, Moore would send Navajo wool for scouring and carding to

eastern factories and dyed to his specifications. He then employed the best weavers to

make rugs in patterns of his own design. Moore created a high-quality rug and sold it by mail order to eastern markets. This tradition continued with Moore’s successor and spilled into other trading posts throughout the region, beginning with the Two Gray Hills regional style in 1920.35

It would have been unlikely that regional rugs would be a part of Curtis’s Navajo

photographs. Most of Curtis’s photographs had an origination date of 1904. The only

regional blanket made at the time was the Crystal Rug style. While Curtis visited the

Navajo reservation eight years after Moore established his trading post in 1896, Moore

would have been using this time to develop the Crystal rug style. It also took time for

other traders to eventually develop their own regional style. The next style to emerge

after the Crystal style was the Two Grey Hills style.36

I compared the textiles found in Curtis’s photographs with Navajo textiles in

Kathleen Whitaker’s book. Whitaker stated that certain “textiles reflect the changes that

occurred in Navajo weaving when blankets made for native consumption and trade

changed to the production of rugs for tourist.” According to Whitaker, this time frame of

Navajo weaving is known as the Transitional period. 37

The Native American weavings found in The North American Indian such as

Hastin Yahzee-Navaho and Still Life matched descriptions of 1875-1920 transitional

weavings Whitaker illustrated in her book. The weavings in Curtis’s two photographs

had the stiffer weigh of rugs instead of a lighter weight blanket.38 The rug in Hastin

115

Yazhe-Navaho appeared to be an eye-dazzler, a popular pattern during this time. The eye-dazzler featured jagged, triangular-edged patterns and used different colors to

“dazzle” the eye. Navaho Still Life contained angular square patterns connected diagonally at their corners. This pattern was commonly found in blankets and rugs of

Whitaker’s Transitional period.

Curtis captured, in his photographs, a transitioning Navajo craft. The Navajo were no longer weaving for other Native American tribes as evidenced by the low number of photographs containing Navajo weavings throughout his series. His photographs of the Navajo illustrated an industrious culture, shepherding their wool- producing sheep, possessing yarn, and creating weavings on their looms. The Navajo weavings in his photographs featured rugs of documented Navajo textile patterns of the

Transitional period. Finally, none of the patterned Navajo weavings contained regional patterns of the trading posts commonly found in the twentieth century. Curtis photographed the Navajo culture adapting to their circumstances in order to continue, as they worked diligently to expand their craft. They were a culture in transition, using their ancient craft at that moment in time to prepare for the future.

Native American Transitions

Curtis photographs also illustrate the transition of Native American culture throughout the North American continent. Curtis attempted to highlight ancient Native traditions in his photographs. One of these ancient traditions was wearing and using blankets. Thirty percent of the photographs found in the series contained a flat textile either plain or patterned. This rather large percentage could be reflective of Curtis’s attempt to show Native Americans as an ancient people who were vanishing. In

116 observing the photographs, Curtis used plain blankets in his portraits, wrapping them around their faces and covering their clothing. Patterned blankets were often scattered in the background. The Native Americans in his photographs were still using blankets, however, almost all were trade blankets. This use of trade blankets signified transitioning native cultures as they used manufactured trade blankets instead of native creative blankets.

117

NOTES

1 Angel Laura Brayham, “Art of Ethnography: A critical analysis of Edward S. Curtis’ The North American Indian,” (Master of Arts Thesis, University of Calgary, Canada, 1992), Abstract, In Proquest Dissertations and Theses, https://search-proquest- com.ezproxy.uakron.edu:2443/dissertations/docview/303994375/abstract/10F56581CA5 84CE1PQ/1?accountid=14471 (accessed January 15, 2018).

2 Jo B. Paoletti, “Content Analysis: Its application to the Study of the History of Costume,” Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, Volume I, (1982): 14-17.

3 Robert W. Kapoun, Language of the Robe: American Indian Trade Blankets (Salt Lake City: Gibbs -Smith, 1992), 34-35.

4 Cihuapilli Rose Amador and Sundust Martinez, “Interview with Anecita Agustinez,” Native Voice TV, YouTube. March 26, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAFSHjd_6tA (accessed January 23, 2016).

5 Kathleen Whitaker, Southwest Textiles: Weavings of the Navajo and Pueblo (University of Washington Press in association with the Southwest Museum: Seattle and London, 2002), 31.

6 Kate Peck Kent, Navajo Weaving: Three Centuries of Change (Santa Fe: SAR Press, 1985), 26-27.

7 Simon Clarke, Textile Design (London: Laurence King Publishing, 2011), 217.

8 Joe Ben Wheat, Blanket Weaving in the Southwest (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2003), 102, Table 5.

9 Whitaker, Southwest Textiles, 31.

10 Ibid., 67.

11 Kapoun, Language of the Robe, x.

12 Ibid., 34-35.

13 Timothy Egan, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), 168-169.

14 Kapoun, Language of the Robe, vii.

118

15 Egan, Short Nights, 123. Curtis knew Hodge for 3 years prior to hiring him as his editor in 1906.

16 Kapoun, Language of the Robe, ix.

17 Wheat, Blanket Weaving, 57.

18 Ibid., 70.

19 George Wharton James, Indian Blankets and Their Makers (Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co, 1920), 47.

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid., 48.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid., 49.

24 Kent, Navajo Weaving: Three Centuries, 86.

25 Ibid., 85.

26 Whitaker, Southwest Textiles, 74.

27 Kent, Navajo Weaving: Three Centuries, 87.

28 U. S. Hollister, The Navajo and His Blanket (Denver: 1903. Reprinted Glorieta, New Mexico: The Rio Grande Press, Inc., 1972), 108.

29 “Navaho,” in Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 2 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910), ed. Frederick Webb Hodge, https://archive.org/details/handbookamindians01hodgrich/page/40 (accessed October 26, 2018), 41-42.

30 Arnold Berke, Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), 9.

31 Ibid., 52. In 1900, the Harvey Company had opened the Indian Building in Albuquerque, New Mexico, followed by the Hopi House in the Grand Canyon in 1905.

32 U. S. Hollister, The Navajo and His Blanket, 94.

33 Whitaker, Southwest Textiles, 120. 119

34 Ibid., 296.

35 Charles Avery Amsden, Navaho Weaving: Its Technic and History (Santa Ana CA: Fine Arts Press in cooperation with the Southwest Museum, 1934). Reprint: University of New Mexico Press: 1949. Reprint: New York: Dover Publications, Inc, 1991, 194-195.

36 Whitaker, Southwest Textiles, 302.

37 Ibid., 174.

38 Ibid.

120

CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION

Searching for Navajo weavings throughout the photographs of The North

American Indian, in both the volumes and their portfolios, revealed a transitional era for the Navajo and other Native American cultures. Blankets originally created by the

Navajo, initially for their own use and later for trading during the nineteenth century, had

been replaced with trade blankets manufactured by Anglo-Americans. Trade with other

Native American cultures seem to be gone because of circumstances caused by living on

the reservation. One example was the Sioux. Their photographed had few blankets, probably due to poverty and hunger. Another example of changing Native American life were the two photos of Alchise, an Apache chief. Alchise had posed in 1903 wearing a

Navajo chief blanket and again in a 1906 wearing contemporary clothing covered in part with a plain blanket. These two photographs of Alchise illustrated the rapid acculturation of Native Americans to Anglo American life.

The market of trading or selling Navajo blankets to their fellow Native Americans was gone. Native Americans had transitioned to wearing trade blankets. The Navajo then transitioned from weaving blankets to weaving rugs. They were now working through reservation traders to market their new weavings to an Anglo-American society wanting to buy a remembrance from what they thought of as “a vanishing race.”

121

Documenting the photographs of textiles within The North American Indian

created a story not even considered by Curtis himself, something I think he would be

pleased to know. In his 1908 letter to Lulu Miller, a subscriber to The North American

Indian for a library in Muskegon, Michigan, Curtis stated: “The work is primarily a

pictorial one. I feel that no written words can tell the story as well as pictures . . .”1

Curtis began taking photographs of Native Americans to preserve their culture for the

future generations he thought would never experience their existence.

For many Native American tribes, Curtis’s vision of a vanishing race did not happen. While Curtis’s intent was to capture Native American life before their culture

disappeared, Curtis may have inadvertently contributed to its survival. Native American

craft became popular because Anglo-Americans across the country wanted a remembrance from a culture they believed was rapidly disappearing. Curtis’s photographs, however, may have served as an unwitting promotional tool for the sale of

Native American craft.

The first two volumes of The North American Indian, published in 1907, garnered high praise from major reviews found in some of the nation’s largest publications. The

New York Times stated that the text and photographs “present a more vivid, faithful and comprehensive view of The North American Indian as he is to-day than has ever been made before or can possibly be made again . . .”2 The New York Herald referred to The

North American Indian as “the most gigantic undertaking since the making of the King

James edition of the Bible.” The Herald review stated, “The real, savage Indian is fast

disappearing or becoming metamorphosed into a mere ordinary, uninteresting imitation

of the white man.” 3 The series was also reviewed in London and Chicago.4

122

Reviews such as this must have caught the attention of many Americans;

however, it must be remembered that most people were unable to afford The North

American Indian at the time of its initial publication. The series was not found in any

store and was located only in a few select libraries, available by appointment. Curtis

himself was just hoping the reviews would encourage a few reluctant institutions to

purchase a subscription.5 While the series had limited readership, the reviews may have

created interest not only for the series, but also for the subjects within its pages.

Suggestions for Future Study

While the content analysis research method did help in organizing the

photographs for this research, it proved confining with the large number of photographs to document. This method has its merits for smaller projects; however, using it in a large

collection of photographs, limiting the data to only counting, featured its limitations.

Throughout the process of examining Curtis’s photographs, I often wished I had

someone else looking at the photographs with me. I was afraid of missing something and

equally concerned I was reading too much into the photographs as I used my computer’s

ability to expand photographs to look at each photograph in detail. Because of

similarities between Southwest textile styles and the popularity of the trade blanket, it

was sometimes difficult to differentiate a true Navajo weaving in the photographs.

Curtis took several photographs of the same people to show different perspectives

of their faces. This, in turn, duplicated the number of textiles documented in this study.

This may be a consideration in any future material-culture study examining the

photographic content of The North American Indian.

123

Curtis’s photographs were filled with a wide assortment of textiles, both Native

created and contemporary mass-manufactured textiles of the period. A number of topics

based on textiles can be found in this body of work. Topics could include research of early twentieth century textile patterns or contrasting the use of textiles between Native

American cultures. Cedar bark and other natural materials were also woven by other cultures and would make interesting topics to explore.

I did my best to consider the Navajo perspective in this process. Dr. Denetdale’s viewpoints kept me on course as well as the heavily statistical argument of Kathy

M’Closkey in her work, Swept Under the Rug, about the relationship of traders and

Navajo weavers. I truly treasured my time with the Navajo in the summer of 2014. Yet,

I am not Navajo and have spent a limited amount of time with them. It would have added to the depth of this research to have worked with a Navajo on this project.

Continuation

Both Curtis and the Native Americans who collaborated with him did not profit financially from this effort. Curtis died in obscurity and relative poverty. The Navajo and other Native Americans continued life on the reservation, struggling in their own poverty and attempting to adapt to a dominant culture. Neither knew the impact the project might have on others. Curtis and the Native Americans who collaborated with him, however, both looked to the future as they worked together on The North American

Indian.

Curtis believed his work would return to life long after he passed away.6 He was

right. The exhibition at the Muskegon Art Museum was a perfect example. Another

example is The Wittliff Collection of Texas State University. The university acquired

124

numerous volumes of The North American Indian in October 2016 and is committed to completing the set. The addition of the volumes supports the gallery in its mission to collect, preserve, and share the creative legacy of the Southwest through photographs, literature, and music. Their goal is to construct a gallery to showcase Curtis’s photographic career.7

Photographs found in The North American Indian have been interpreted

differently by numerous people as they discussed Curtis’s photographic intent. It is the

faces of the Native Americans, however, in these photographs that are the true fascination

of his work.

Over a five-week period in the fall of 2013, a group of Native American high

school students in Arizona created photographs in response to Curtis photographs of

Native Americans taken in the early twentieth century. The project was a cooperative

endeavor between the Arizona State Museum and the Ha:san Preparatory Leadership

School in Tucson, Arizona.8

Each student created a photographic portrait of themselves wrapped in a blanket

or shawl with focus on their face, a common practice in Curtis’s portrait photography. A

second photograph taken was similar, but the student held a Curtis photograph of a

person from their tribe. The third photograph was a photograph of themselves,

considering their family and ethnicity, interests, and dress. The purpose of the exercise

was to learn how we construct ideas about identity. Photography influences how we

perceive and remember others whose culture differs from our own. It can also be used as

a tool to establish and express our own identity.9

125

The student’s responses reflected an appreciation of their culture and featured

strong statements as to their own identity as Native Americans today. Here are a few of

their statements:

It feels fun taking a picture in the different kinds of ways-the past, present and future-like I’m a part of them now. – Timothy

(The photographs of people wrapped in blankets) made me feel sad because they are not showing who they are. They need to be proud of where they come from and who they are and what their language is -who they represent.”- Wendel

When I was wrapped up I felt like I was being part of my culture. I also felt like I was very respectful. I don’t think I look cultural to be honest. It felt like I was a famous Native person with everybody around taking pictures. - George10

The textiles and blankets found in The North American Indian provided a thread

of continuity between Native Americans of the early twentieth century and Native

American children one-hundred years later. Native Americans in Curtis’s pictures and portraits found their way into the hearts of their descendant’s children. The wisdom of the Navajo in recycling the past “into the present to secure harmony in the future” still rings true for all Native American tribes.11 This is the beauty of the textile-wrapped faces

found in the photographs of their ancestors within the pages of The North American

Indian.

126

NOTES

1 Lulu Miller Letter. Muskegon Museum of Art. Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian exhibition, Muskegon, MI.

2 Timothy Egan, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), 154.

3 Ibid., 154-156.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid., 325.

7 The Wittliff Collections, Wittliff collections acquires Majority of Edward S. Curtis’ The North America Indian, October 3, 2016, http://www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/about/news/oct-2016-edwardcurtis.html, (accessed March 13, 2018).

8 Arizona State Museum, Photo ID: Portraits by Native Youth in response to Edward S. Curtis photographs of American Indians, October 18, 2014 - March 31, 2015, http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/exhiits/curtis_reframed/student_photo_id/, (accessed July 25. 2015).

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Roseann S Willink and Paul G. Zolbrod, Weaving a World: Textiles and the Navajo Way of Seeing, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1996, 18.

127

BIBLIOGRAPHY

SOURCES

Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1881-1882. Edited by J. W. Powell. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1884.

Curtis, Edward S. The North American Indian. Vols. 1-20. Cambridge: The University Press, 1907. Northwestern Digital Libraries Collection. http://curtis.library.northwestern.edu/ (accessed March 1, 2018).

Letter from Edward S. Curtis to Lulu Miller, dated April 6, 1908. Muskegon Museum of Art. Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian Exhibition, Muskegon, MI, May 11-September 10, 2017.

Hodge, Frederick Webb, ed. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 2. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/handbookamindians01hodgrich/page/40 (accessed October 26, 2018).

Wilson, Edward L. Wilson’s Photographics: A series of Lessons Accompanied by Notes on All Processes Which Are Needful in Photography. New York: Edward L. Wilson, 1881. Forgotten Books, https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/readbook/WilsonsPhotographics_10316197# 14 (accessed November 23, 2017).

SECONDARY WORKS

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Bailey, Garrick and Roberta Glenn Bailey. A History of the Navajos: The Reservation Years. Santa Fe: School of American Research, 1986.

Berke, Arnold. Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. 128

Cardozo, Christopher. Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and The North American Indian. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Clarke, Simon. Textile Design. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2011.

Denetdale, Jennifer Nez. Reclaiming Dine History: The Legacies of Navajo Chief Manuelito and Juanita. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2007.

Egan, Timothy. Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

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Hedlund, Ann Lane. Beyond the Loom: Keys to Understanding Early Southwestern Weaving. Boulder: Johnson Books, 1990.

Hedlund, Ann Lane. Navajo Weaving in the Late Twentieth Century: Kin Community, and Collectors. Tuscon: The University of Arizona Press, 2004.

Hollister, U.S. The Navajo and His Blanket. Denver: 1903. Reprinted Glorieta, NM: The Rio Grande Press, Inc., 1972.

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James, George Wharton. Indian Blankets and Their Makers. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co, 1920.

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129

M’Closkey, Kathy. Swept under the Rug: A Hidden History of Navajo Weaving. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press in cooperation with the University of Arizona Southwest Center, 2002.

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Wheat, Joe Ben. Blanket Weaving in the Southwest. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2003.

Whitaker, Kathleen. Southwest Textiles: Weavings of the Navajo and Pueblo. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press in association with Los Angeles Southwest Museum, 2002.

Willink, Roseann S. and Paul G. Zolbrod. Weaving a World: Textiles and the Navajo Way of Seeing. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1996.

Zamir, Shamoon. The Gift of the Face: Portraiture and Time in Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014. Thesis and Dissertations

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Articles

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Internet Sources

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Arizona State Museum. Photo ID: Portraits by Native Youth in response to Edward S. Curtis photographs of American Indians. October 18, 2014 - March 31, 2015. http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/exhiits/curtis_reframed/student_photo_id/ (accessed July 25, 2015).

Baldwin, Lorna. “Small Michigan museum holds massive collection of Edward Curtis’ Native American photography.” PBS Newshour, August 30, 2017. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/small-michigan-museum-holds-massive- collection-edward-curtis-native-american-photography/ (accessed September 23, 2017).

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Exhibition

Muskegon Museum of Art. Edward S. Curtis: The North American Indian. Muskegon, MI. May 11-September 10, 2017.

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APPENDICES

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APPENDIX A

RAW DATA, LIST A, VOLUMES I, IV, XII, AND XVI.

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V OR SH ID Title of Photograph Year Tribe Con Use Page 1 7 A 1-7-A Apache camp 1906 Apache G On Ground xx 1 10 A 1-10-A At the ford - Apache 1903 Apache G Clothing 6 1 38 A 1-38-A Lake Lajara - Navaho 1904 Navajo G Clothing 62 1 40 A 1-40-A Nature's mirror - Navaho 1904 Navajo C Clothing 66 1 42 A 1-42-A A drink in the desert - Navaho 1904 Navajo C Clothing 70 1 45 A 1-45-A The blanket maker - Navaho 1904 Navajo P Clothing 76 1 47 A 1-47-A Hastin Yazhe - Navaho 1906 Navajo P On Floor 80 1 49 A 1-49-A Navaho still life 1907 Navajo O On Floor 84 1 51 A 1-51-A Through the cañon - Navaho 1904 Navajo G Clothing 88 1 82 A 1-82-A Desert rovers - Apache 1903 Apache G Clothing P#3 1 84 A 1-84-A Alchise - Apache 1903 Apache C Clothing P#5 1 85 A 1-85-A Sigesh - Apache 1903 Apache P Clothing P#6 1 89 A 1-89-A Getting water - Apache 1903 Apache C Clothing/Saddle P#10 1 90 A 1-90-A Story-telling - Apache 1903 Apache G Clothing P#11 1 91 A 1-91-A Story-telling - Apache 1903 Apache P Clothing P#12 1 95 A 1-95-A Eskadi - Apache 1903 Apache P Clothing P#16 1 97 A 1-97-A Chideh - Apache 1903 Apache P Clothing P#18 1 98 A 1-98-A Lost trail - Apache 1903 Apache G Clothing P#19 1 105 A 1-105-A Chief of the desert - Navaho 1904 Navajo O Clothing P#26 1 106 A 1-106-A Women of the desert - Navaho 1906 Navajo G Saddle Blanket/Clothing P#27 1 113 A 1-113-A Blanket weaver - Navaho 1904 Navajo C On Loom P#34 Raw Data of List A: Flat Patterned Textiles, Volume I.

V OR SH ID Name Year Tribe Con Use Page 4 2 A 4-2-A Hide stretching - Apsaroke 1908 Apsaroke C Door to tipi 4 4 3 A 4-3-A Hide scraping - Apsaroke 1908 Apsaroke C Door to tipi 6 4 4 A 4-4-A Pack-horse - Apsaroke 1908 Apsaroke C Saddle 8 4 8 A 4-8-A Apsaroke horse trappings 1908 Apsaroke C Horse Dressing 20 4 10 A 4-10-A Apsaroke mother 1908 Apsaroke P Clothing 24 4 11 A 4-11-A A young horsewoman 1908 Apsaroke C Horse Dressing 26 4 19 A 4-19-A Apsaroke youths 1908 Apsaroke G Saddle 44 4 24 A 4-24-A Medicine lodge - Apsaroke 1908 Apsaroke C Over Arm 56 4 27 A 4-27-A Tobacco ceremony - Apsaroke 1907 Apsaroke G 5-Clothing 66 4 34 A 4-34-A On Top - Apsaroke 1908 Apsaroke C/P Clothing 84 4 38 A 4-38-A The lookout - Apsaroke 1905 Apsaroke G Saddle 94 4 40 A 4-40-A Hairy Moccasins - Apsaroke 1908 Apsaroke C Scarf 98 4 50 A 4-50-A Two Leggings Lodge - Apsaroke 1905 Apsaroke C Skirt 120 4 55 A 4-55-A Hidatsa man 1908 Hidatsa C Blanket 138 4 57 A 4-57-A Hidatsa mother 1908 Hidatsa C Blanket 142 4 61 A 4-61-A Long-time Dog - Hidatsa 1908 Hidatsa C Skirt 152 4 64 A 4-64-A Holds The Eagle - Hidatsa 1908 Hidatsa P Clothing 160 4 85 A 4-85-AP Spirit of the past - Apsaroke 1908 Apsaroke G Saddle P#122

Raw Data of List A: Flat Patterned Textiles, Volume IV.

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V OR SH ID Name Year Tribe Con Use Page 12 19 A 12-19-A Hopi bridal costume 1900 Hopi P Clothing 40 12 75 A 12-75-A An East Mesa girl 1904 East Mesa P Clothing 180 12 68 A 12-68-A Flute dancers approaching the spring 1905 Hopi G 166 12 88 A 12-88-A Hopi maiden 1905 Hopi P Clothing P#412 12 9 A 12-9-A Gossip at the water-hole 1906 Hopi G Clothing 18 12 12 A 12-12-A On a housetop - Walpi 1906 Walpi G Clothing 24 12 40 A 12-40-A An afternoon chat 1906 Hopi G 82 12 41 A 12-41-A The weaver 1906 Hopi C On Loom 84 12 42 A 12-41-A Good morning 1906 Hopi G 86 12 81 A 12-81-A Watching the dancers 1906 Hopi G Clothing P#405 12 83 A 12-83-C Evening in Hopi land 1906 Hopi G Clothing P#407 12 21 A 12-21-A Grinding meal 1907 Hopi G Clothing 44 12 53 A 12-53-A Singing to the snakes - Shipaulovi 1907 Shipaulovi G Skirt Print 136 12 5 A 12-5-A On a Walpi housetop 1921 Hopi G Clothing 10 12 15 A 12-15-A Hano and Walpi girls wearing atoo 1921 Hano/Walpi G Clothing 30 12 36 A 12-36-A Pulini and Koyame - Walpi 1921 Walpi P 2 people 74 12 66 A 12-66-A Dressing the flute maiden 1921 Hopi C 162 12 69 A 12-69-A Dressing at Tawapa Spring, Walpi flute ceremony 1921 Walpi G 168 12 72 A 12-72-A Offering sacred meal, Mishongnovi flute dance 1921 Mishongnovi G Clothing 174 12 73 A 12-73-A Sumaikuli Katsina at Hano 1921 Hano G 176 12 76 A 12-76-A Loitering at the spring 1921 Hopi G Clothing P#400 12 85 A 12-85-A On the housetop 1921 Hopi G Clothing P#409 12 90 A 12-90-A Chaiwa – Tewa 1921 Tewa P Clothing P#414 12 91 A 12-91-A Chaiwa - Tewa, profile 1921 Tewa P Clothing P#415 12 92 A 12-92-A At the trysting place 1921 Hopi G Clothing P#416 12 96 A 12-96-A Hopi man 1921 Hopi P Clothing P#420 12 103 A 12-103-A East mesa girls 1921 East Mesa G Clothing P#427 12 107 A 12-107-C Flute dancers at Tureva Spring 1921 Hopi G Clothing P#431 12 110 A 12-110-A Tewa girl 1921 Hopi G Clothing/Blanket P#434 12 111 A 12-111-A Water carriers 1921 Hopi G Clothing/Cotton P#435

Raw Data of List A: Flat Patterned Textiles, Volume XII.

V OR SH ID Name Year Tribe Con Use Page 16 53 A 16-53-A A morning chat - Acoma 1904 Acoma G Long head scarfs 202 16 57 A 16-57-A Among the rocks - Acoma 1904 Acoma G Clothing Head scarf 212 16 100 A 16-100-A Acoma water carriers 1904 Acoma G Plaid head scarf P#568 16 104 A 16-104-A An Acoma Woman 1904 Acoma P Head scarf P#572 16 20 A 16-20-A Walvia - "Medicine Root" - Taos 1905 Taos P Floral head scarf 46 16 6 A 16-6-A An Isleta woman 1925 Isleta C 14 16 9 A 16-9-A Felicia - Isleta 1925 Isleta C Floral head scarf 20 16 12 A 16-12-A A Jemez fiscal 1925 Jemez P Clothing 26 16 25 A 16-25-A A Taos maid 1925 Taos P Print headscarf 58 16 39 A 16-39-A Tsipiai - Sia 1925 Sia G Plaid apron/Cape 98 16 40 A 16-40-A A Cochiti woman 1925 Cochiti C Plaid head scarf 100 16 45 A 16-45-A Pishkuty - "Cornstalk" - Santo Domingo 1925 Santo Domingo P Plaid clothing 132 16 82 A 16-82-A Francisca Chiwiwi – Isleta 1925 Isleta P P#550 16 84 A 16-84-A Jemez fiscal 1925 Jemez P Shoulder blanket P#552

Raw Data of List A: Flat Patterned Textiles, Volume XVI.

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