This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.
Thanks for your patience during our recent outage at scalar.usc.edu. While Scalar content is loading normally now, saving is still slow, and Scalar's 'additional metadata' features have been disabled, which may interfere with features like timelines and maps that depend on metadata. This also means that saving a page or media item will remove its additional metadata. If this occurs, you can use the 'All versions' link at the bottom of the page to restore the earlier version. We are continuing to troubleshoot, and will provide further updates as needed. Note that this only affects Scalar projects at scalar.usc.edu, and not those hosted elsewhere.
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
Jacqueline Wernimont
bce78f60db1628727fc0b905ad2512506798cac8
David J. Kim
18723eee6e5a79c8d8823c02b7b02cb2319ee0f1
Stephan Schonberg
23744229577bdc62e9a8c09d3492541be754e1ef
Amy Borsuk
c533a79d33d48cbf428e1160c2edc0b38c50db19
Beatrice Schuster
a02047525b31e94c1336b01e99d7f4f758870500
Heather Blackmore
d0a2bf9f2053b3c0505d20108092251fc75010bf
Ulia Gosart (Popova)
67c984897e6357dbeeac6a13141c0defe5ef3403
Lone Chief - Oto
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Erik Loyer
f862727c4b34febd6a0341bffd27f168a35aa637
29482
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Erik Loyer
f862727c4b34febd6a0341bffd27f168a35aa637
This page has paths:
1
2018-03-16T21:13:01-07:00
Erik Loyer
f862727c4b34febd6a0341bffd27f168a35aa637
Oto
Erik Loyer
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:13:01-07:00
Erik Loyer
f862727c4b34febd6a0341bffd27f168a35aa637
Contents of this path:
1
2018-03-16T21:11:34-07:00
In Black Cañon - Apsaroke
1
The Apsaroke, although not exclusively mountain dwellers, were ever fond of the hills, preferring the forest shade and the clear mountain streams to the hot ill-watered, monotonous prairies. The picture illustrates the Apsaroke custom of wearing at the back of the head a band from which fall numerous strands of false hair ornamented at regular intervals with pellets of bright-colored gum. Black Cañon is in the northern portion of the Bighorn mountains, Montana.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:34-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:38-07:00
Yellow Kidney - Piegan
1
The portrait shows Apuyotoksi ("light-colored kidney") wearing a wolf-skin war-bonnet.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:38-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:58-07:00
Evening on Puget Sound
1
The photograph was made near the city of Seattle.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:58-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:13-07:00
Honovi - Walpi snake priest, with Totokya Day painting
1
This plate depicts the accoutrement of a Snake dancer on the day of the Antelope dance (see Volume XII, pages 146-149). The right hand grasps a pair of eagle-feathers - the "snake whip" - and the left a bag of ceremonial meal. Honovi was one of the author's principal informants.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:13-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:06-07:00
Flute dancers at Tureva Spring
1
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.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:06-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:28-07:00
Datsolali, Washo basket-maker
1
The coiled baskets produced by this woman have not been equalled by any Indian now living. Compare her work, shown in Plate 541, with the baskets of another woman as illustrated in Plate 542. The latter, seen alone, would be very excellent examples of Indian basketry, but their comparative coarseness is easily seen even in photographic reproduction. About ninety years old, Datsolali appears to be in the early sixties. She has the pride of a master in his craft, and a goodly endowment of artistic temperament. Persuading her to sit for a portrait is a task not to be lightly undertaken. Tatsolali (said to mean "big hips") is a nickname. Her proper name is Tabuta.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:28-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
Ti'mu - Cochiti
1
This Cochiti girl married a Sia man, and the photograph was made at her adopted home.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:30-07:00
Lucero - Santo Domingo
1
Photographing a native of Santo Domingo is comparable to hunting big game with a camera. This pueblo measures its contentment inversely to the extent of unavoidable contact with the hated white race. A guard is detailed to watch the Catholic priest when he visits the village, and the Government has pursued the wise policy of detailing Indian teachers to the local school. The Santo Domingans long resisted the gratuitous digging of wells to be equipped with windmills, continue to deny their sick children the services of the Government physician, and resist the activities of census enumerators. There is no doubt that the death sentence would be past on any individual found guilty of revealing native practices, and if the priestly authorities learned that Lucero sold his likeness to a white man he doubtless had an unpleasant half hour.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:30-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:36-07:00
Terraced houses of Zuni
1
In the early eighties one of the house-groups of Zuni rose to a height of six well-defined stories. In 1903, when the photograph here reproduced was made, there were five stories. In 1910 a single apartment was four stories from the ground, but in 1919 this room was demolished. Note the bottomless pots forming chimneys, the wooden drain piercing the coping, the hemispherical oven of Spanish provenience on a roof.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:36-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:37-07:00
Titishu-kghitluhl ("Deer Running") - Sarsi
1
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.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:37-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:38-07:00
A Sarsi camp
1
The scene is a riverside grove near Okotoks, Alberta, where a band of Sarsi were awaiting clement weather to begin the prosaic labor of shocking wheat for one of their Caucasian neighbors.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:38-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Standing Two - Oto
1
The Oto belong to the great Siouan linguistic family and originally formed, with other tribes, a part of the Winnebago. The typical ceremonial head-dress of the Oto of the present time is shown here and in the nest three plates.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Lone Chief - Oto
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Wakonda - Oto
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Pipe-stem - Oto
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
Old Eagle - Oto
1
The head-dress of this Oto is characteristic of the older style, like that worn also by the related Osage in plate 680 and the adopted head-dress of the Comanche in plate 683. The medal worn by Old Eagle, in this case bearing the portrait of Lincoln, is like other medals given by the Government to noted chiefs from Washington's time.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:09:18-07:00
Seeing High - Oto
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:09:18-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:09:19-07:00
Standing On The Earth - Oto
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:09:19-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:09:19-07:00
Oto puberty lodge
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:09:19-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:09:19-07:00
Wife of Wakonda - Oto
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:09:19-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:09:19-07:00
White Elk - Oto
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:09:19-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:09:19-07:00
A little Oto
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:09:19-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:13:03-07:00
Erik Loyer
f862727c4b34febd6a0341bffd27f168a35aa637
List of Large Plates Supplementing Volume Nineteen
Erik Loyer
1
Media Gallery
structured_gallery
2018-03-16T21:13:03-07:00
Erik Loyer
f862727c4b34febd6a0341bffd27f168a35aa637
Contents of this path:
1
2018-03-16T21:12:41-07:00
As it was in the old days
1
In early days, before white men invaded the Great Plains and ruthlessly slaughtered them by the hundreds of thousands, bison were of prime importance to the hunting tribes of the vast region in which those animals had their range. The bison was not only the chief source of food of the Plains Indians, but its skin was made into clothing, shields, packs, bags, snowshoes, and tent and boat covers; the horns were fashioned into spoons and drinking vessels; the sinew was woven into reatas, belts, personal ornaments, and the covers of sacred bundles; and the dried droppings, "buffalo-chips," were used as fuel. So dependent on the buffalo were these Indians that it became sacred to them, and many were the ceremonies performed for the purpose of promoting the increase of the herds.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:41-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
A Wichita
1
The Wichita belong to the Caddoan linguistic family and in the earliest historical times lived in the Arkansas valley in the present Kansas. Here they were visited by Coronado and his force of Spaniards in 1541, in a region known to them, through Indian informants, as the Province of Quivira. Then, as in later times, after moving southward, the Wichita lived in grass-houses.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
Wichita grass-house
1
The relatively permanent character of the typical dwelling of the Wichita indicates the sedentary life of this tribe. They were farmers in the main, but hunted the buffalo and other game in season.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
Grass-house ceremony - Wichita
1
The rites performed at the building of a grass-house are described in Volume XIX, pages 64-72.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
Henry - Wichita
1
The native names of the Indians are often unpronounceable by untrained white people, who therefore apply such incongruous English names as this and the following.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
Walter Ross - Wichita
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:09-07:00
Story of the Washita
1
An Old Cheyenne warrior recounts the famous battle of the Washita in 1868, when the tribe was severely defeated by General Custer.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:09-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:09-07:00
On the Canadian River
1
The name of the Canadian river was not derived from any association with Canada or the Canadians, but from the Spanish cañada, on account of the high, cut banks of the stream. The Canadian originally divided the lands claimed by the Quapaw on the south and those of the Great and Little Osage on the both. The Indians in the picture are Cheyenne.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:09-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:09-07:00
Cheyenne sun-dance lodge
1
For an account of the Sun-dance ceremony and the erection of the lodge among the Southern Cheyenne, see Volume XIX, pages 121-128.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:09-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:10-07:00
Hotamitaye Society, Cheyenne sun-dance
1
The members of this and other bands, which were created by the Prophet of Cheyenne legend, go to the forest for the poles with which to build the lodge. While in the forest they decorate themselves and their horses with willow branches, leaving the rearmost horsemen to drag the poles to camp.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:10-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:10-07:00
Water rite purification, Cheyenne animal dance
1
The legend of the Animal dance is given on pages 133-135 of Volume XIX.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:10-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:10-07:00
At the pool, animal dance - Cheyenne
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:10-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:07:28-07:00
Cheyenne chief
1
The Cheyenne belong to the Algonquian linguistic family and therefore are related to the tribes of the Blackfoot Confederacy and to the Arapaho of the north, and, much more remotely, to many of the tribes that once lives along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Midwest. They are now divided into the Northern Cheyenne, living in Montana, and the Southern Cheyenne who were assigned a reservation in the present Oklahoma in 1867.
plain
2018-03-16T21:07:28-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:10-07:00
Lone chief - Cheyenne
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:10-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:10-07:00
Cheyenne costume
1
This woman's deerskin costume, ornamented with porcupine-quill embroidery and with beads and fringe, is characteristic of that of the Cheyenne; but such is now worn only on gala occasions and probably ere very long will be a thing of the past.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:10-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
Cheyenne maiden
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
Dog woman - Cheyenne
1
The woman's dress is embellished with elk-teeth.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
Woista - Cheyenne woman
1
Remarkable strength of character is depicted in the features of this woman, and indeed in those of all the Cheyenne. Their former life was such that only the fittest could survive.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
Reuben Taylor
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:42-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
Black Belly - Cheyenne
1
The extreme age of this Cheyenne is quite apparent.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
Old Cheyenne
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
Old warrior - Arapaho
1
The Arapaho, of Algonquian stock like the Cheyenne, are divided into Northern and a Southern tribe, the former living on the Wind River reservation in Wyoming and the latter on the reservation assigned to them and the Cheyenne in the present Oklahoma in 1867.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:11-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Black Man - Arapaho
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Standing Two - Oto
1
The Oto belong to the great Siouan linguistic family and originally formed, with other tribes, a part of the Winnebago. The typical ceremonial head-dress of the Oto of the present time is shown here and in the nest three plates.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Lone Chief - Oto
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Wakonda - Oto
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Pipe-stem - Oto
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
Old Eagle - Oto
1
The head-dress of this Oto is characteristic of the older style, like that worn also by the related Osage in plate 680 and the adopted head-dress of the Comanche in plate 683. The medal worn by Old Eagle, in this case bearing the portrait of Lincoln, is like other medals given by the Government to noted chiefs from Washington's time.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
John Abbott - Osage
1
The Osage (corrupted from Whzahzae, their own name) is a Siouan tribe - the wealthiest of all Indians, and probably the richest people in the world, population considered. They are most closely related to the Omaha, Quapaw, Ponca, and Kansa, with whom they once formed a single body.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
John Quapaw - Hunta Wakunta
1
The Quapaw are another Siouan tribe, otherwise known as Akansa, from which Arkansas river and state derive their name.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
Esipermi - Comanche
1
There were no more vigorous people among the Indians of the Plains than the Comanche, a Shoshonean tribe, related to the Shoshone and Bannock of Idaho, from which region they entered the northern plains and drifted ever southward, following the bison in their wanderings. They were noted warriors and raiders, being the enemies of many tribes and extending their depredations far into Mexico. One need look no farther than the accompanying portraits to discern the warrior character of those old braves.
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
Lefthand - Comanche
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
Uwat - Comanche
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
A Comanche mother
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
A Comanche
1
plain
2018-03-16T21:11:15-07:00
1
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00
Peyote drummer
1
The Peyote rite as practised by the Indians of Oklahoma is described in Volume XIX. No Indian custom has been the subject of greater controversy or has led to the adoption of more laws and regulations with a view of abolishing it, largely because its effects have been misunderstood by white people.
plain
2018-03-16T21:12:43-07:00