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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

Flathead chief

29482 Through the medium of their annual incursions into the buffalo plains east of the Rocky mountains, the Flatheads adopted much of the plains culture. Not only their domicile (the tipi), their garments, weapons, and articles of adornment, came from this source, but many of their dances were in imitation of similar ceremonies practised by the prairie tribes. Prominent features of the accoutrement of this Flathead chief are his war-club of the plains type, and an eagle-bone whistle, such as was used in the Sun Dance. The Flatheads however never acquired the sun rite

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List of Large Plates Supplementing Volume Seven Erik Loyer
Contents of this path:
1. Inashah - Yakima Many of the elderly and middle-aged Yakima, especially those of what was formerly the ruling class, feel the same dislike and suspicion of the white man that moved their fathers, in the uprising of 1855, to attempt to expel the newcomers from their territory. The brooding expression of dissatisfaction on the face of this man seemingly represents inherent tribal antipathy to the white race, engendered by their aggression and greed.
2. Wife of Mnainak - Yakima
3. Wishnai - Yakima
4. Camp of the Yakima
5. Mountain camp - Yakima
6. Klickitat type
7. Klickitat profile
8. Flathead type
9. Flathead profile
10. Flathead chief Through the medium of their annual incursions into the buffalo plains east of the Rocky mountains, the Flatheads adopted much of the plains culture. Not only their domicile (the tipi), their garments, weapons, and articles of adornment, came from this source, but many of their dances were in imitation of similar ceremonies practised by the prairie tribes. Prominent features of the accoutrement of this Flathead chief are his war-club of the plains type, and an eagle-bone whistle, such as was used in the Sun Dance. The Flatheads however never acquired the sun rite
11. Big Knife - Flathead
12. Flathead camp
13. Flathead camp on Jocko River
14. Stormy day - Flathead
15. Flathead dance
16. Flathead childhood
17. By the river - Flathead
18. Kalispel type
19. Dusty dress - Kalispel
20. Village of the Kalispel
21. Kalispel scene
22. Spokan man
23. On Spokane River Spokane river, from a short distance below its head in Coeur d?Alene lake to its confluence with the Columbia, flows through the midst of what was the territory of the Spokan Indians. The character of the country through which the stream passes for some miles above its mouth is well shown in the picture. Northward from the stream lie the mountains among which the three Spokan tribes hunted deer and gathered their supplies of roots.
24. Spokan camp
25. Nespilim man
26. Nespilim woman
27. Nespilim girl In the early years of the nineteenth century various explorers noted that the bands dwelling along the upper course of the Columbia, among which the Nespilim were included, wore practically no clothing. Excepting as the cold made some protection necessary. The hair of the women was arranged in two knots at the sides of the face ? a method of hairdressing still in vogue among the Salish on Fraser river. Prior to the middle of the century the use of deerskin garments had become common, and gradually other customs such as the style of hairdressing here illustrated, were borrowed from the tribes east of the Rocky mountains
28. Luqaiot - Kittitas The original of this portrait is a son Owhi (Ohai), who as chief of the Salishan band inhabiting Kittitas valley, Washington, at first appeared to favor the Stevens treaty of 1855, but a few months later was drawn into the Indian uprising by the act of another son, Qahlchun, in killing some prospectors. At the termination of hostilities Luqaiot made his permanent home among the Spokan, taking for his wife the daughter of a Spokan chief and widow of his executed brother Qahlchun. Luqaiot's recollections of the events of these times will be found scattered through the account of the Yakima war in Volume VII.
29. Country of the Kutenai The Kutenai occupied portions of southeastern British Columbia, northern Idaho, and northwestern Montana. In this region of blue, mountain-girt lakes and majestic rivers they very naturally made use of canoes. The commoner form was the pine-bark craft still to be observed among the Kalispel (see plates 239, 240), but occasionally they made canoes of the form here illustrated, by stretching fresh elk-hides over a framework of fir strips or tough saplings. The one seen in the picture is a canvas-covered specimen found on the shore of Flathead lake in 1909.
30. Kutenai duck hunter
31. Embarking - Kutenai
32. On the shore of the lake - Kutenai
33. Crossing the lake - Kutenai
34. Kutenai girls
35. Kutenai camp
36. Rush gatherer - Kutenai
"Dance" Erik Loyer
Contents of this path:
1. Woven Sash
2. Bear Song, Winter Dance
3. Sun dancer "As they dance, the performers never leave the spot on which they stand, the movement consisting in a slight upward spring from the toes and ball of the foot; legs and body are rigid. Always the right palm is extended to the yellow glaring sun, and their eyes are fixed on its lower rim. The dancer concentrates his mind, his very self, upon the one thing that he desires, whether it be the acquirement of powerful medicine or only success in the next conflict with the enemy." - Volume III, pages 95-96.
4. Arikara medicine ceremony - Dance of the fraternity
5. Arikara medicine ceremony - Dance of the black-tail deer
6. Arikara medicine ceremony - The Ducks
7. Sun dance encampment - Piegan
8. 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.
9. Bringing the sweat-lodge willows - Piegan
10. Porcupine - Cheyenne
11. Flathead chief Through the medium of their annual incursions into the buffalo plains east of the Rocky mountains, the Flatheads adopted much of the plains culture. Not only their domicile (the tipi), their garments, weapons, and articles of adornment, came from this source, but many of their dances were in imitation of similar ceremonies practised by the prairie tribes. Prominent features of the accoutrement of this Flathead chief are his war-club of the plains type, and an eagle-bone whistle, such as was used in the Sun Dance. The Flatheads however never acquired the sun rite
12. Flathead dance
13. Masked dancer - Cowichan
14. Kotsuis and Hohhuq - Nakoaktok
15. Coming for the bride
16. Wedding party - Qagyuhl
17. Group of winter dancers - Qagyuhl
18. Nimkish village at Alert Bay The figure at the bottom of the column in the foreground, with the painting on the front of the house, represents a raven. When a feast or a dance is to be held in this house, the guests enter through the raven's beak, the lower mandible of which swings up and down on a pivot. When a guest steps beyond the pivot, his weight caused the beak to clap shut, and thus the mythic raven symbolically "swallows" the tribesman one by one. A view from the other end of this street is shown in the illustration facing page 8, Volume X.
19. Masked dancers in canoes - Qagyhl, A
20. Dancing to restore an eclipsed moon - Qagyuhl
21. 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.
22. Bridal group
23. Masked dancers in canoes - Qagyuhl, B
24. Buffalo dance at Hano
25. Antelopes and snakes at Oraibi
26. Watching the dancers
27. Honovi - Walpi snake priest, with Totokya Day painting
28. Snake priest
29. Snake dancers entering the plaza
30. Snake dancer in costume
31. 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.
32. 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.
33. Klamath lake marshes
34. Sia buffalo dancer The Buffalo dance of the Keres is almost exactly the same as that of the Tewa. The performers are two young men with head-dresses of buffalo-hair and horns, and a girl wearing the usual female costume and a pair of small horns. The head of the hunters' society plays the part of guard. The dance is very strenuous, and the simulated actions of t he buffalo are quite realistic and readily comprehended by the spectator.
35. 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.
36. Tesuque buffalo dancers The Buffalo dance is performed, though the original object of exerting prenatural influence on the abundance and accessibility of the buffalo no longer prevails. The two male dancers are accompanied by the Buffalo Girl, who is fully clothed in native costume and has a pair of small horns on the head. These three give a very striking and dramatic performance under the watchful eye of the head of the hunters' society.
37. Corner of Zuni
38. Cheyenne sun-dance lodge
39. Hotamitaye Society, Cheyenne sun-dance
40. Water rite purification, Cheyenne animal dance
41. At the pool, animal dance - Cheyenne
42. Yebichai dancers - Navaho
43. The sun dancer - Apsaroke
44. The sun dance votary - Apsaroke
45. Buffalo dance costume - Mandan
46. Ready for Okipe buffalo dance - Mandan
47. Buffalo dancer - Mandan
48. Atsina scalp dance
49. Atsina fly dance
50. Atsina fly dance : "Robes outstretched"
51. Atsina crazy dance : A dancer kisses the grandfather
52. Atsina crazy dance : The flight of arrows
53. Atsina crazy dancers
54. Singing in the crazy dance - Atsina
55. Piegan dancers
56. Sun dance pledgers - Cheyenne
57. Crazy dancers - Cheyenne
58. Animal dance - Cheyenne
59. Sun dance in progress - Cheyenne
60. A dance in the forest - Flathead
61. Masked dancer - Cowichan
62. Grizzly-bear dancer - Qagyuhl
63. An incident of the winter dance - Nakoaktok
64. Sisiutl dancer - Qagyuhl
65. Spectators at the snake dance
66. Snake dancer and "hugger"
67. Oraibi snake dance
68. Flute dancers dressing at Kuchina house
69. Flute dancers approaching the spring
70. Entering the spring, Walpi flute dance
71. Offering sacred meal, Mishongnovi flute dance
72. Buffalo dance at Hano
73. Flute dancers returning to Walpi
74. White deerskin dance costume - Hupa
75. Dancer with black deer effigy - Hupa
76. Obsidian bearer, White deerskin dance - Hupa
77. Pomo dance costume
78. Picuris harvest dance
79. Sia war-dancer
80. Good luck dance by San Juan hunters
81. Tewa dance - costume
82. Eagle dancer - San Ildefonso
83. Tablita woman dancer - San Ildefonso
84. Tablita dance - San Ildefonso - A
85. Tablita dance - San Ildefonso - B
86. Tablita dance - San Ildefonso - C
87. Tablita dancers returning to the kiva - San Ildefonso
88. Tablita dancers at the kiva - San Ildefonso
89. Tablita dancers - San Ildefonso
90. Frame of the sponsor's tipi, Cree sun-dance
91. The dance - Wichita
92. Dancers - Wichita
93. A Wichita dancer
94. Skidi and Wichita dancers
95. Modern dance costume - Pawnee
96. Chiefs in the sun dance parade - Cheyenne
97. Hivihhnihpoih Society, Cheyenne sun dance
98. Hefatyu Society, Cheyenne sun dance
99. Preparatory lodge, Cheyenne sun dance
100. Sun dance lodge - Cheyenne
101. Interior of sun dance lodge - Cheyenne
102. Sun dancers - Cheyenne
103. Buffalo society, animal dance - Cheyenne
104. Buffalo dancers, animal dance - Cheyenne
105. Animal dance - Cheyenne
106. Brush huts, animal dance encampment - Cheyenne
107. The clowns, animal dance - Cheyenne
108. The wolf, animal dance - Cheyenne
109. Deer society, animal dance - Cheyenne
110. Healing rite of the Deer society, animal dance - Cheyenne
111. A Ponca dancer
112. Curtis and His Collaborators
113. Grass Dance - Atsina Gros Ventres
114. Seven Girl Dance Sung in Plaza
115. Seven Girl Dance When Woman Whips
116. Snake Dance - Nambe Pueblo
117. Squaw Dance - Atsina Gros Ventres
118. The Hopi Maiden and Watching the Dancers
119. Chief Josef –Nez Perce
120. Vanishing Race and Cañon de Chelly
121. Upshaw – Apsaroke
122. At the Old Well and A Zuni Woman
123. Princess Angeline
124. Watching the Dancers