The Plains Indian Photographs of Edward S. Curtis

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