A comprehensive look at photographs of Indians by both Native and Anglo Americans, from 1840 to the present, offers an informative history of the traditional life of the Native American and the cultural and political role of the photograph. UP.

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.

Located along rivers, at the edges of lakes, on mountain boulders, in rock shelters, on rock ledges where the continent meets the ocean, and tucked into parks and public places, American Indian rock art offers tantilizing glimpses of the signs and symbols of a Native American culture. Picture Rocks documents all known permanent petroglyph and pictograph sites from the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the six New England states, New York, and New Jersey. Some sites are subject to disputes over their origins—Indian or Portuguese? Some are ancient, and others, such as the work of the Mi’kmaq, were executed in the past 200 years. Many of these sites are little known; others, like those at Bellows Falls, Vermont, are sources of great local pride and appear on city walking tours. Interspersing his own interpretations with comments from scholars and Native American storytellers, Edward J. Lenik provides a definitive look at an extraordinary art form. Two hundred illustrations include historic sketches by early Euro-American colonists, nineteenth-century photographs, and recent photographs and drawings of the current conditions of many sites.

Introductory essays by Katakis (photographer and writer), Vizenor (Native American literature, U. of California) and Preucel (curator and professor of anthropology, U. of Pennsylvania) discuss how the attitude of the photographer affects the image produced, whether a photograph is worth a thousand words, and the multitude of voices represented by the 48 full-page bandw photographs. The loudest "voices" speak of Manifest Destiny, progress, and industrial capitalism, which have both defined and controlled the ongoing conversation between native peoples and whites. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

A selection of Curtis' photographs taken during the thirty five years he spent documenting Native American life.

Early 1900's photography of North American Indians.

"Complete with compelling stories told by tribal members and customs passed down through the ages, historical milestones, and profiles of prominent, modern-day leaders, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN INDIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE is a richly illustrated and authoritative family reference." -- page 4 of cover.

The photographs and stories of Edward S Curtis, speak though time of a bygone age.

A powerful, insider's history of the first decade of the American Indian Movement.

To understand the aboriginal roots of lacrosse, one must enter a world of spiritual belief and magic where players sewed inchworms into the innards of lacrosse balls and medicine men gazed at miniature lacrosse sticks to predict future events, where bits of bat wings were twisted into the stick's netting, and where famous players were—and are still—buried with their sticks. Here Thomas Vennum brings this world to life.