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Performing Archive Main Menu Visualizing the “Vanishing Race”: the photogravures of Edward S. Curtis Front Page for Visualizing the "Vanishing Race" path Curtis' Image and Life: The Network of The North American Indian, Inc. An experiment with data visualization approach to understand and contextualize Curtis' images and his life Media, Technology and Mediations Curtis's Technology, Relationships to Media and Style Contextualizing Curtis, The North American Indian, and Race the collection of essays from the contributors Consulting with Tribes as Part of Archive Development Introduction to Consulting with Tribes by Ulia Gosart Contributing Archives Information on how to participate in Performing Archive Browsing the Media A path of paths that allow users to cut through the collection in a variety of ways. Acknowledgements and Project Information Project Network

Medicine-pipe - Piegan

29482 Medicine-pipes, of which the Piegan have many, are simply long pipe-stems variously decorated with beads, paint, feathers, and fur. Each one is believed to have been obtained long ago in some supernatural manner, as recounted in a myth. The medicine-pipe is ordinarily concealed in a bundle of wrappings, which are removed only when the sacred object is to be employed in healing sickness, or when it is to be transferred from one custodian to another in exchange for property. Such exchanges, occurring at intervals of a few years in the history of each pipe, are attended by much ceremony

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"Ceremony" Erik Loyer
Contents of this path:
1. Nesjaja Hatali - Navaho
2. Alhkidokihi - Navaho
3. Hukalowapi ceremony
4. Arikara medicine fraternity
5. Arikara medicine ceremony - Dance of the fraternity
6. Announcement - Arikara
7. Arikara medicine ceremony - The Bears
8. Arikara medicine ceremony - Dance of the black-tail deer
9. Arikara medicine ceremony - The Ducks
10. Arikara medicine fraternity - The prayer
11. Travaux - Piegan
12. Medicine-pipe - Piegan Medicine-pipes, of which the Piegan have many, are simply long pipe-stems variously decorated with beads, paint, feathers, and fur. Each one is believed to have been obtained long ago in some supernatural manner, as recounted in a myth. The medicine-pipe is ordinarily concealed in a bundle of wrappings, which are removed only when the sacred object is to be employed in healing sickness, or when it is to be transferred from one custodian to another in exchange for property. Such exchanges, occurring at intervals of a few years in the history of each pipe, are attended by much ceremony
13. Hamasaka in Tlu'wulahu costume with speaker's staff - Qagyuhl The principal chief of the Qagyuhl is depicted in a "button blanket" (which is simply a woollen blanket ornamented with hundreds of large mother-of-pearl buttons), cedar-bark neck-ring, and cedar-bark head-band. His right hand grasps a shaman's rattle, and his left the carved staff which, as a kind of emblem of office, a man always holds when making a speech. The button designs along the edge of the blanket represent "coppers" (see page 144). The tlu'wulahu ceremony is described on page 243 of Volume X.
14. Wedding party - Qagyuhl
15. Masked dancers - Qagyuhl The plate shows a group of masked and costumed performers in the winter ceremony. The chief who is holding the dance stands at the left, grasping a speaker's staff and wearing cedar-bark neck-ring and head-band and a few of the spectators are visible at the right. At the extreme left is seen a part of the painted mawihl through which the dancers emerge from the secret room; and in the centre, between the carved house-posts, is the Awaitlala hams'pek, showing three of the five mouths through which the hamatsa wriggle from the top to the bottom of the column. See page 175 and footnote.
16. Hesquiat maiden
17. Flute dancers at Tureva Spring The Flute dance is a religious ceremony concerned with bringing rain. It represents the legendary arrival of the Flute people in the Hopi country, their friendly encounter with the clans already there, and the rain-making rites subsequently performed by them for the common good. The episode here represented was photographed at Middle mesa. The individual seated near the right end is an albino, not a white man.
18. Hupa jumping dance costume The Jumping dance was an annual ceremony for averting pestilence. The head-dress worn by the dancers was a wide band of deerskin with rows of red woodpecker crests and a narrow edging of white deer-hair sewn on it. A deerskin robe was worn as a kilt, and each performer displayed all the shells and beads he possessed or could borrow. In the right hand was carried a straw-stuffed cylinder with a slit-like opening from end to end, an object the significance of which is unknown to the modern Hupa.
19. Tablita dancers and singers - San Ildefonso The ceremony called Koheye-hyare ("tablita dance"), occurring in June and again in September, is characterized by public dancing and singing for the purpose of bringing rain-clouds. The name refers to wooden "tablets" worn by female dancers. (See Volume XVII, illustrations facing pages 56,60,62,64,66,68.) In the plate the performers are dancing in to the plaza, men and women alternating in pairs. At the right is the group of singers, their aged leader slightly in advance and the drummer at one side.
20. Zuni woman
21. Tobacco ceremony - Apsaroke
22. Arikara corn ceremony : bearing out the osiers
23. Arikara medicine ceremony : The bears
24. Arikara medicine ceremony : Bear, buffalo, and night men
25. Arikara medicine ceremony : The buffalo
26. Arikara medicine ceremony : Night men dancing
27. Arikara medicine ceremony : The buffalo dancing
28. Dressing at Tawapa Spring, Walpi flute ceremony
29. Wall-painting for the summer Shiwanna ceremony - Santo Domingo
Piegan Erik Loyer
Contents of this path:
1. Piegan
2. Morning Eagle - Piegan
3. Painted lodges - Piegan
4. Tearing Lodge - Piegan Pinokiminush is one of the few Piegan of advanced years and retentive memory. He was born about 1835 on Jusdith river in what is now northern Montana, and was found to be a valuable informant on many topics. The buffalo-skin cap is a part of his war costume, and was made and worn at the command of a spirit in a vision. The first fasting of Tearing Lodge for the sake of experiencing a vision is narrated by him in Volume VI, pages 79-81.
5. In a Piegan lodge Little Plume with his son Yellow Kidney occupies the position of honor, the space at the rear opposite the entrance. The picture is full of suggestion of the various Indian activities. In a prominent place lie the ever-present pipe and its accessories on the tobacco cutting-board. From the lodge-poles hang the buffalo-skin shield, the long medicine-bundle, an eagle-wing fan, and deerskin articles for accoutering the horse. The upper end of the rope is attached to the intersection of the lodge-poles, and in stormy weather the lower end is made fast to a stake near the centre of the floor space.
6. White Calf - Piegan Unistai-poka (White Buffalo-calf) died at Washington in 1903. He was then almost eighty years of age, and had been the chief of his tribe for about a generation. In 1855, being then known as Feather, he signed the treaty negotiated by Governor Stevens. As a warrior, White Calf was famous among the tribes, but with the passing of inter tribal warfare he devoted himself to working in peaceful ways for the good of his people. He was remarkable in the breadth of his judgement, and in the readiness with which he recognized, and adapted himself to, the changes which his people were obliged to face when the buffalo vanished. Kindly, benevolent, and gentle of nature, White Calf yet possessed a sturdy determination and independence that bullying and threats could not move. Yet if reasons were advanced which appealed to his judgement, he was quick to acknowledge error and to modify his views - George Bird Grinnell..
7. Two Bear Woman - Piegan
8. Double Runner - Piegan
9. Sun dance encampment - Piegan
10. Travaux - Piegan
11. Gambler - Piegan
12. At the water's edge - Piegan
13. Yellow Kidney - Piegan
14. Idle hour - Piegan
15. Grizzly-bear brave - Piegan At least two of the Piegan Warrior societies (the Braves and the All Brave Dogs) included in their membership two men known as Grizzly-bear Braves. It was their duty, at the time of the society dances, to provide their comrades with meat, which they appropriated wherever they could find it. Their expression and demeanor did justice to their name, and in their official capacity they were generally feared by the people. See Volume VI, pages 20-21.
16. Medicine-pipe - Piegan Medicine-pipes, of which the Piegan have many, are simply long pipe-stems variously decorated with beads, paint, feathers, and fur. Each one is believed to have been obtained long ago in some supernatural manner, as recounted in a myth. The medicine-pipe is ordinarily concealed in a bundle of wrappings, which are removed only when the sacred object is to be employed in healing sickness, or when it is to be transferred from one custodian to another in exchange for property. Such exchanges, occurring at intervals of a few years in the history of each pipe, are attended by much ceremony
17. New Chest - Piegan
18. Crow Eagle - Piegan
19. Middle Calf - Piegan
20. Weasel Tail - Piegan
21. Old person - Piegan
22. Bringing the sweat-lodge willows - Piegan
23. Iron Breast - Piegan
24. Piegan encampment
25. Piegan dandy
26. Three chiefs - Piegan
27. Titishu-kghitluhl ("Deer Running") - Sarsi The Sarsi are an Athapascan tribe which prior to the nineteenth century came out of the far north, crossed the Saskatchewan, and becoming affiliated with the Algonquian confederacy of the Bloods, Blackfeet, and Piegan, became typical plainsmen, following the buffalo, engaging in horse-stealing raids, and in general adopting the religious practices of their allies. Old Sarsi, as the subject of this plate is colloquially known, was ninety-eight years of age when the photograph was made in 1925. In spite of his years, he was still agile and keen.
28. Blackfoot country
29. Red Plume - Piegan
30. Piegan camp
31. Piegan lodge
32. Mountain chief - Piegan
33. Two Medicine River - Piegan
34. A prairie camp - Piegan
35. A buffalo-fall - Piegan
36. Piegan war-bonnet and coup-stick
37. Lodge interior - Piegan
38. The Grizzly-bear - Piegan
39. Camp in the foothills - Piegan
40. Piegan woman
41. Overlooking the camp - Piegan
42. A grave-house - Piegan
43. A Piegan home
44. Navel-amulets - Piegan
45. In the lodge - Piegan
46. Goldenrod meadows - Piegan
47. The crier - Piegan
48. Return to faster's lodge - Piegan
49. The pledger - Piegan
50. Return with willows - Piegan
51. Substitute sacred head-dress - Piegan
52. Piegan dancers
53. The Whistler - Piegan
54. The sun lodge - Piegan
55. Day-dreams - Piegan
56. Camp by a prairie lake - Piegan
57. Piegan girls
58. A child's lodge - Piegan
59. Buffalo-stones - Piegan
60. Medicine-bags - Piegan
61. Running Owl - Piegan
62. A Piegan woman
63. A Piegan play tipi
64. Frame of the sun-lodge - Piegan
65. Offerings in the sun-lodge - Piegan
66. Central post of the sun lodge - Piegan
67. A Piegan war-bonnet
68. A Piegan tipi
List of Large Plates Supplementing Volume Six Erik Loyer
Contents of this path:
1. Piegan
2. Morning Eagle - Piegan
3. Painted lodges - Piegan
4. Tearing Lodge - Piegan Pinokiminush is one of the few Piegan of advanced years and retentive memory. He was born about 1835 on Jusdith river in what is now northern Montana, and was found to be a valuable informant on many topics. The buffalo-skin cap is a part of his war costume, and was made and worn at the command of a spirit in a vision. The first fasting of Tearing Lodge for the sake of experiencing a vision is narrated by him in Volume VI, pages 79-81.
5. In a Piegan lodge Little Plume with his son Yellow Kidney occupies the position of honor, the space at the rear opposite the entrance. The picture is full of suggestion of the various Indian activities. In a prominent place lie the ever-present pipe and its accessories on the tobacco cutting-board. From the lodge-poles hang the buffalo-skin shield, the long medicine-bundle, an eagle-wing fan, and deerskin articles for accoutering the horse. The upper end of the rope is attached to the intersection of the lodge-poles, and in stormy weather the lower end is made fast to a stake near the centre of the floor space.
6. White Calf - Piegan Unistai-poka (White Buffalo-calf) died at Washington in 1903. He was then almost eighty years of age, and had been the chief of his tribe for about a generation. In 1855, being then known as Feather, he signed the treaty negotiated by Governor Stevens. As a warrior, White Calf was famous among the tribes, but with the passing of inter tribal warfare he devoted himself to working in peaceful ways for the good of his people. He was remarkable in the breadth of his judgement, and in the readiness with which he recognized, and adapted himself to, the changes which his people were obliged to face when the buffalo vanished. Kindly, benevolent, and gentle of nature, White Calf yet possessed a sturdy determination and independence that bullying and threats could not move. Yet if reasons were advanced which appealed to his judgement, he was quick to acknowledge error and to modify his views - George Bird Grinnell..
7. Two Bear Woman - Piegan
8. Double Runner - Piegan
9. Sun dance encampment - Piegan
10. Travaux - Piegan
11. Gambler - Piegan
12. At the water's edge - Piegan
13. Yellow Kidney - Piegan
14. Idle hour - Piegan
15. Grizzly-bear brave - Piegan At least two of the Piegan Warrior societies (the Braves and the All Brave Dogs) included in their membership two men known as Grizzly-bear Braves. It was their duty, at the time of the society dances, to provide their comrades with meat, which they appropriated wherever they could find it. Their expression and demeanor did justice to their name, and in their official capacity they were generally feared by the people. See Volume VI, pages 20-21.
16. Medicine-pipe - Piegan Medicine-pipes, of which the Piegan have many, are simply long pipe-stems variously decorated with beads, paint, feathers, and fur. Each one is believed to have been obtained long ago in some supernatural manner, as recounted in a myth. The medicine-pipe is ordinarily concealed in a bundle of wrappings, which are removed only when the sacred object is to be employed in healing sickness, or when it is to be transferred from one custodian to another in exchange for property. Such exchanges, occurring at intervals of a few years in the history of each pipe, are attended by much ceremony
17. New Chest - Piegan
18. Crow Eagle - Piegan
19. Middle Calf - Piegan
20. Weasel Tail - Piegan
21. Old person - Piegan
22. Bringing the sweat-lodge willows - Piegan
23. Iron Breast - Piegan
24. Piegan encampment
25. Piegan dandy
26. Three chiefs - Piegan
27. Cheyenne type
28. Cheyenne profile
29. Cheyenne girl
30. Two Moons - Cheyenne
31. At the ford - Cheyenne
32. Cheyenne warriors
33. Porcupine - Cheyenne
34. Camp in the cottonwoods - Cheyenne
35. Waiting in the forest - Cheyenne
36. Little Wolf - Cheyenne