Early 1900's photography of North American Indians.

Over one hundred photographs from the renowned Kurt Koegler collection of Native American portraits taken between the end of the Civil War and the end of World War I are featured in this powerful compendium depicting a proud and defeated people. Native American Portraits presents a factual, anecdotal, and visual history of the evolving artistry and technology of a century of photographers, as well as of the tribes whose vanishing trappings and traditions they sought to capture with their craft. The photographers -- William Henry Jackson, Camillus Fly, Carleton Watkins, and Lee Moorhouse, among scores of others -- were intrepid adventurers, fiercely committed to their work, who hauled hundreds of pounds of photographic equipment across the mountains and faced many dangers; their subjects -- including such important warriors as Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, Red Cloud, Geronimo, and Chief Gall (who led the Indians to victory against Custer) -- appear venerable, dignified, and beaten. Fascinating and provocative, this richly illustrated and painstakingly annotated volume documents the intersection of photography in its infancy and Native American culture in precipitous decline.

A collection of early photographs of Native Americans, including the Southeast, the Southwest, the plains, plateau and basin, California, the Northwest coast, the subarctic, the arctic, and the Northeast.

What is American Indian photography? At the turn of the twentieth century, Edward Curtis began creating romantic images of American Indians, and his works—along with pictures by other non-Native photographers—came to define the field. Yet beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century, American Indians themselves started using cameras to record their daily activities and to memorialize tribal members. Through a Native Lens offers a refreshing, new perspective by highlighting the active contributions of North American Indians, both as patrons who commissioned portraits and as photographers who created collections. In this richly illustrated volume, Nicole Dawn Strathman explores how indigenous peoples throughout the United States and Canada appropriated the art of photography and integrated it into their lifeways. The photographs she analyzes date to the first one hundred years of the medium, between 1840 and 1940. To account for Native activity both in front of and behind the camera, the author divides her survey into two parts. Part I focuses on Native participants, including such public figures as Sarah Winnemucca and Red Cloud, who fashioned themselves in deliberate ways for their portraits. Part II examines Native professional, semiprofessional, and amateur photographers. Drawing from tribal and state archives, libraries, museums, and individual collections, Through a Native Lens features photographs—including some never before published—that range from formal portraits to casual snapshots. The images represent multiple tribal communities across Native North America, including the Inland Tlingit, Northern Paiute, and Kiowa. Moving beyond studies of Native Americans as photographic subjects, this groundbreaking book demonstrates how indigenous peoples took control of their own images and distinguished themselves as pioneers of photography.

Photographer Edward S. Curtis was a prolific photographer and recorder of Native American culture. This is a collection of his most moving, cultural portraits.

Portraits of prominent Indians supplemented by capsule biographies provide insight into the spirit and character of the American Indian