Antique Native American Indian Photograph entitled "Eagle Arrow"circa 1927 |
T. J. HILEMAN Antique Native American Indian Photograph entitled "Eagle Arrow"circa 1927; image measures 7.5 x 9.5" Blind stamped copyright Hileman Kalispell Montana bottom right image, hand pencil signed "Heilman" and dated "27." Hand written on the verso, in Hileman's Montana State shaped rubber stamp, is the title: "Eagle Arrow." T. J. HILEMAN Antique Native American Indian Photograph entitled "Eagle Arrow"circa 1927 |
more than a thousand of Hileman's nitrate negatives, which were added to the collection of Hileman's albums which already contained more than 2,000 prints. Some 107 of these photos were purchased by the Glenbow Museum in Canada, where they comprise part of their collection relating to Blackfoot history. These photos are especially valuable to researchers for their examples of Kainai and South Peigan styles of clothing, hairstyles, ornaments, and housing. T. J. (Tomar Jacob) Hileman (1882–1945) was an American photographer born in Marienville, Pennsylvania, who is renowned for his photos of Glacier Park in Montana, and Blackfoot people. After working a while in Chicago and graduating from Effingham School of Photography there, he moved to Colorado and began to take photographs. In 1911, Hileman moved to Kalispell, Montana to open his own portrait studio. He and Alice Georgeson were the first couple to marry in Glacier National Park in 1913. Appointed the official photographer for the Great Northern Railway in 1924, Hileman took photos of Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, moving bulky camera equipment by packhorse, even at times perching on a narrow ledge to get just the right image on film. He also photographed the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton, Alberta, which was built by the railway. In 1926, Hileman opened photo-finishing labs in both Glacier Park Lodge and Many Glacier Hotel, which were convenient for tourists who could drop off their film evenings and pick up their prints the next morning. The collection of Frank Rinehart Indian Photographs is currently preserved at Haskell Indian Nations University. Since 1994, the collection has been organized, preserved, copied, and cataloged in a computer database, funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Hallmark Foundation. It includes images from the 1898 Exposition, the 1899 Greater American Exposition, studio portraits from 1900, and photographs by Rinehart taken at the Crow Agency in Montana also in 1900. Rinehart and Muhr photographed American Indians at the Indian Congress in a studio on the Exposition grounds with an 8 x 10 glass-negative camera with a German lens. Platinum prints were produced to achieve the broad range of tonal values that medium afforded. After the Indian Congress, Rinehart and Muhr travelled the Indian reservations for two years, portraying Native American leaders who had not attended the event, as well as depicting general aspects of the indigenous everyday life and culture. Tom Southall, former photograph curator at the University of Kansas' Spencer Art Museum, said of the Rinehart collection: "The dramatic beauty of these portraits is especially impressive as a departure from earlier, less sensitive photographs of Native Americans. Instead of being detached, ethnographic records, the Rinehart photographs are portraits of individuals with an emphasis on strength of expression. While Rinehart and Muhr were not the first photographers to portray Indian subjects with such dignity, this large body of work which was widely seen and distributed may have had an important influence in changing subsequent portrayals of Native Americans." Rinehart married Anna Ransom Johnson (daughter of Willard Bemis Johnson and Phebe Jane Carpenter) on 5 September 1885 in Denver County, Colorado. They had two daughters, Ruth and Helen, both born in Nebraska. In 1898, and in occasion of the Indian Congress held in conjunction with the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, Rinehart was commissioned to photograph the event and the Native American personalities who attended it. Together with his assistant Adolph Muhr (who would later be employed by the famous photographer Edward S. Curtis), they produced what is now considered "one of the best photographic documentations of Indian leaders at the turn of the century". Frank Albert Rinehart (February 12 1861 – December 17, 1928) was an American artist famous for his photography capturing Native American personalities and scenes, especially portrait settings of leaders and members of the delegations who attended the 1898 Indian Congress in Omaha. German American Rinehart was born in Lodi (now Maple Park), Illinois. He and his brother, Alfred, moved to Colorado in the 1870s and found employment at the Charles Bohm photography studio, in Denver. In 1881 the Rinehart brothers formed a partnership with famous Western photographer William Henry Jackson, who had achieved widespread fame for his images of the West. Under Jackson's teachings, Rinehart's perfected his professional skills, and developed a keen interest in Native American culture. Frank Rinehart and Anna, the receptionist of Jackson's studio, married and in 1885 moved to Nebraska. In downtown Omaha, Rinehart opened a studio in the Brandeis Building, where he worked until his death. Edward Curtis took on the daunting task of creating ten thousand Edison wax cylinder recordings of Indian language and music. The delicate wax cylinders were often rendered unusable by heat, dirt, excessive moisture, or a variety of other factors almost impossible to control in the field. Much of the information he was able to record was incorporated into the volumes. Many of the recordings still survive at the University of Indiana archives. They provide an invaluable record, particularly for American Indians, as they may be the only extant record of lost language, music, or family histories. By the end of 1908, Volumes 1 and 2 were completed. But the financial panic of 1907 had seriously impaired his sales efforts, and he managed to place far fewer than the five hundred sets thought necessary to make the project profitable. In fact, as late as 1930 Curtis had only managed to secure two hundred subscribers. His Herculean efforts to interest prospective purchasers were further hampered by a world war, dwindling interest in American Indians, and perhaps most importantly, the widely held misperception that J.P. Morgan would pick up the financial slack whenever necessary. The lack of subscriptions created significant hardships not only for the project, but also for Curtis personally, whose work on The North American Indian was forgotten even before the project was completed. Having driven himself to the limit for thirty years, Curtis suffered a nervous and physical breakdown, and his whereabouts for the next two years are unknown. Upon his recovery, Curtis resumed some of his activities as a photographer and did film work in Hollywood. Yet despite great physical disabilities and hardships, he never lost his intellectual drive and curiosity. As late as 1949, in his early eighties, he was deeply involved in researching his new passion and hoped to write a book entitled “The Lure of Gold.” In 1950 he had even planned t join a major gold mining expedition to Brazil and the wild regions of the Amazon and the Andes. Unfortunately, the organizers of the expedition had a falling-out and the expedition was canceled. Curtis was crushed, a visit to the Amazon having been a life-long interest. Curtis’ physical condition further deteriorated and in the fall of 1952, at the age of eighty-four, he died! While Curtis enjoyed great celebrity, his activities were not self-sustaining, and he was forced to borrow substantial sums to survive. Fortunately, among Curtis’ many friends and allies was President Theodore Roosevelt who provided Curtis with a letter of introduction to J.P. Morgan. Then one of the most powerful men in the world, Morgan was also a renounced bibliophile very active in producing elegant limited edition books on his various collections. At their meeting, Morgan summarily dismissed Curtis saying he could not take on any more commitments. Undaunted, Curtis asked that Morgan at least look at his photographs. Upon seeing the work, the usually intransigent Morgan agreed to underwrite the project for five years. When Curtis and Morgan struck their deal, both men assumed a major publisher would take over the risks and responsibilities of publishing such a monumental project, leaving Curtis free to concentrate on the photography and ethnography. Unfortunately, publishing houses shied away from such an ambitious and capital-intensive undertaking, so Curtis agreed also to become chief administrator, fundraiser, and publisher. This was an enormous, backbreaking task. The substantial costs and demands of being in the field with assistants, interpreters, film and still cameras, and sound recording equipment paled in comparison to the cost of making the photogravure plates, pulling the limited edition prints, and binding the books and portfolios. Each of these steps required more capital than all the field research combined. Curtis was forced to devote ever-increasing amounts of time to fundraising and publishing burdens, which greatly distracted him. In the field, Curtis instituted his own methodology, “the twenty-five cardinal points,” to amass information on all areas of Indian life and lore, including vocabulary, political and social organization, religious customs, dwellings, food gathering and preparation, geography, games, music and dance, dress, weights and measures, and birth, marriage, and death customs. While Curtis was able to gather significant data on all these subjects, his most important contribution was in the areas of mythology and spirituality, fields in which many others had previously failed to gather information. Curtis often sent assistants ahead months in advance to supplement his extensive pre-field research. Only when Curtis felt sufficiently briefed by both his many assistants, led by W.E. Myers, and the leading Indian scholars, did he begin the actual fieldwork. This depth of understanding was critical to his success. Curtis who was soon dubbed the “shadow-catcher.” Word passes from tribe to tribe. A tribe that I have visited and studied lets another tribe know that after the present generation has passed away men will know from this record what they were like, and what they did, and the second tribe doesn’t want to be left out. Tribes that I won’t reach for four or five years yet have sent word asking me to come and see them…there was old Black Eagle, an Assiniboin, ninety years old, who had all of his life refused to talk about his nation to white men. At last, he became convinced that his tribe ought to get into the record, and he unbent, and he gave me a great amount of valuable information. Edward Sheriff Curtis not only attempted, but actually achieved the impossible. With The North American Indian, he created an irreplaceable photographic and ethnographic record of more than eighty of North America’s native nations – a record first published between 1907 and 1930, which after decades of obscurity in rare book rooms and private collections, has experienced its renaissance. Comprising twenty volumes, twenty portfolios, thousands of pages of text, and more than twenty- two hundred photogravures, The North American Indian remains not only an unparalleled artistic and historic achievement, but a watershed in publishing history. Encouraged by great public hoopla and imbued with blind faith, Curtis did not foresee the unremitting sacrifices the project would exact from him. He hoped to complete the study in five or six years within a budget of $25,000. In fact, what the New York Herald hailed as “the most gigantic undertaking since the making of the King James edition of the Bible,” required for its completion more than thirty years, one and a half million dollars and the assistance of a vast array of patrons, researchers, scientists, editors, master craftsmen, interpreters, sympathetic creditors, tribal elders, and medicine men. Ultimately, the study cost Curtis his family, his financial security and his health. Nevertheless, to the end, he single-mindedly pursued his intense and powerful vision with an extraordinary sense of mission to document how Indians lived prior to their contact with the white man. Curtis believed, The passing of every old man or woman means the passing of some tradition, some knowledge of sacred rites possessed by no other; consequently the information that is to be gathered, for the benefit of future generations, respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost for all time. Curtis removed parasols, suspenders, wagons, and other traces of Western material culture from many of his images. In his photogravure In a Piegan Lodge, published in The North American Indian, Curtis retouched the image to remove a clock between the two men seated on the ground. He also is known to have paid natives to pose in staged scenes, wear historically inaccurate dress and costumes, dance and partake in simulated ceremonies. In Curtis's picture Oglala War-Party, the image shows 10 Oglala men wearing feather headdresses, on horseback riding down hill. The photo caption reads, "a group of Sioux warriors as they appeared in the days of inter tribal warfare, carefully making their way down a hillside in the vicinity of the enemy's camp". In truth, headdresses would have been worn only for special occasions and, in some tribes, only by the chief of the tribe. The photograph was taken in 1907, when natives had been relegated to reservations and warring between tribes had ended. Curtis paid natives to pose as warriors at a time when they lived with little dignity and few rights and freedoms. It has been suggested that he altered and manipulated his pictures to create an ethnographic simulation of native tribes untouched by Western society. Theodore Roosevelt, a contemporary of Curtis's and one of his most fervent supporters, wrote the following comments in the foreword to Volume 1 of The North American Indian: In Mr. Curtis we have both an artist and a trained observer, whose work has far more than mere accuracy, because it is truthful. …because of his extraordinary success in making and using his opportunities, has been able to do what no other man ever has done; what, as far as we can see, no other man could do. Mr. Curtis in publishing this book is rendering a real and great service; a service not only to our own people, but to the world of scholarship everywhere. Curtis has been praised as a gifted photographer but also criticized by some contemporary ethnologists for manipulating his images. Although the early twentieth century was a difficult time for most Native communities in America, not all natives were doomed to becoming a "vanishing race." At a time when natives' rights were being denied and their treaties were unrecognized by the federal government, many natives were successfully adapting to Western society. By reinforcing the native identity as the noble savage and a tragic vanishing race, some believe Curtis deflected attention from the true plight of American natives. At the time when he was witnessing their squalid conditions on reservations first-hand, they were attempting to find their place in Western culture and adapt to their changing world. "The North American Indian—extensively produced and issued in a severely limited edition—could not prove popular. But in recent years anthropologists and others, even when they have censured what they have assumed were Curtis' methodological assumptions or quarrelled with the text's conclusions, have begun to appreciate the value of the project's achievement: exhibitions have been mounted, anthologies of pictures have been published, and The North American Indian has increasingly been cited in the researches of others... The North American Indian is not monolithic or merely a monument. It is alive, it speaks, if with several voices, and among those perhaps mingled voices are those of otherwise silent or muted Indian individuals.” Of the full Curtis opus N. Scott Momaday wrote, "Taken as a whole, the work of Edward S. Curtis is a singular achievement. Never before have we seen the Indians of North America so close to the origins of their humanity...Curtis' photographs comprehend indispensable images of every human being at every time in every place" Don Gulbrandsen, the author of Edward Sheriff Curtis: Visions of the First Americans, put it this way in his introductory essay on Curtis’s life: “The faces stare out at you, images seemingly from an ancient time and from a place far, far away…Yet as you gaze at the faces the humanity becomes apparent, lives filled with dignity but also sadness and loss, representatives of a world that has all but disappeared from our planet. Two hundred seventy-six of the wax cylinders made by Curtis between 1907 and 1913 are held by the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University.[18] These include recordings of music of the following Native American groups: Clayoquot, Cowichan, Haida, Hesquiat, and Kwakiutl, in British Columbia; and Arapaho, Cheyenne, Cochiti, Crow, Klikitat, Kutenai, Nez Percé, Salish, Shoshoni, Snohomish, Wishram, Yakima, Acoma, Arikara, Hidatsa, Makah, Mandan, Paloos, Piegan, Tewa (San Ildefonso, San Juan, Tesuque, Nambé), and possibly Dakota, Clallam, Twana, Colville and Nespelim in the western United States. Toppan Rare Books Library at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming, holds the entire 20 volumes of narrative text and photogravure images. Each volume is accompanied by a portfolio of large photogravure plates. Though Curtis was largely forgotten at the time of his death, interest in his work revived in the 1970s. Major exhibitions of his photographs were presented at the Morgan Library & Museum, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the University of California. His work was also featured in several anthologies on Native American photography published in the early 1970s. Original printings of The North American Indian began to fetch high prices at auction. In 1972, a complete set sold for $20,000. Five years later, another set was auctioned for $60,500. The revival of interest in Curtis's work can be seen as part of the increased attention to Native American issues during this period. Around 1970, Karl Kernberger, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, went to Boston to search for Curtis's original copper plates and photogravures at the Charles E. Lauriat rare bookstore. He discovered almost 285,000 original photogravures as well as all the copper plates. With Jack Loeffler and David Padwa, they jointly purchased all of the surviving Curtis material that was owned by Charles Emelius Lauriat (1874–1937). The collection was later purchased by another group of investors led by Mark Zaplin, of Santa Fe. The Zaplin Group owned the plates until 1982, when they sold them to a California group led by Kenneth Zerbe, the owner of the plates as of 2005. 1985 Kern donated a portion of the collection to the Museum of the American Indian (National Museum of the American Indian New York) Charles Goddard Weld purchased 110 prints that Curtis had made for his 1905–06 exhibit and donated them to the Peabody Essex Museum, where they remain. The 14" by 17" prints are each unique and remain in pristine condition. Clark Worswick, curator of photography for the museum, describes them as: ...Curtis' most carefully selected prints of what was then his life’s work...certainly these are some of the most glorious prints ever made in the history of the photographic medium. The fact that we have this man’s entire show of 1906 is one of the minor miracles of photography and museology. The entire 20 volumes of narrative text and photogravure images for each volume are online. Each volume is accompanied by a portfolio of large photogravure plates. The online publishing was supported largely by funds from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. The Prints and Photographs Division Curtis collection consists of more than 2,400 silver-gelatin, first-generation photographic prints – some of which are sepia-toned – made from Curtis's original glass negatives. Most are 5 by 7 inches (13 cm × 18 cm) although nearly 100 are 11 by 14 inches (28 cm × 36 cm) and larger; many include the Curtis file or negative number in the lower left-hand corner of the image. The Library of Congress acquired these images as copyright deposits from about 1900 through 1930. The dates on them are dates of registration, not the dates when the photographs were taken. About two-thirds (1,608) of these images were not published in The North American Indian and therefore offer a different glimpse into Curtis's work with indigenous cultures. The original glass plate negatives, which had been stored and nearly forgotten in the basement of the Morgan Library, in New York, were dispersed during World War II. Many others were destroyed and some were sold as junk. On October 19, 1952, at the age of 84, Curtis died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, in the home of his daughter Beth. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. A brief obituary appeared in The New York Times on October 20, 1952: "Edward S. Curtis, internationally known authority on the history of the North American Indian, died today at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Beth Magnuson. His age was 84. Mr. Curtis devoted his life to compiling Indian history. His research was done under the patronage of the late financier, J. Pierpont Morgan. The forewar for the monumental set of Curtis books was written by President Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Curtis was also widely known as a photographer." In 1935, the Morgan estate sold the rights to The North American Indian and remaining unpublished material to the Charles E. Lauriat Company in Boston for $1,000 plus a percentage of any future royalties. This included 19 complete bound sets of The North American Indian, thousands of individual paper prints, the copper printing plates, the unbound printed pages, and the original glass-plate negatives. Lauriat bound the remaining loose printed pages and sold them with the completed sets. The remaining material remained untouched in the Lauriat basement in Boston until they were rediscovered in 1972. In 1892, Curtis married Clara J. Phillips (1874–1932), who was born in Pennsylvania. Her parents were from Canada. Together they had four children: Harold (1893–1988); Elizabeth M. (Beth) (1896–1973), who married Manford E. Magnuson (1895–1993); Florence (1899–1987), who married Henry Graybill; and Katherine. In 1896, the entire family moved to a new house in Seattle. The household then included Curtis's mother, Ellen Sheriff; his sister, Eva Curtis; his brother, Asahel Curtis; Clara's sisters, Susie and Nellie Phillips; and their cousin, William. During the years of work on The North American Indian, Curtis was often absent from home for most of the year, leaving Clara to manage the children and the studio by herself. After several years of estrangement, Clara filed for divorce on October 16, 1916. In 1919 she was granted the divorce and received Curtis's photographic studio and all of his original camera negatives as her part of the settlement. Curtis and his daughter Beth went to the studio and destroyed all of his original glass negatives, rather than have them become the property of his ex-wife. Clara went on to manage the Curtis studio with her sister Nellie, who was married to Martin Lucus (1880–?). Following the divorce, the two oldest daughters, Beth and Florence, remained in Seattle, living in a boarding house separate from their mother. The youngest daughter, Katherine, lived with Clara in Charleston, Kitsap County, Washington. Curtis was born on February 16, 1868, on a farm near Whitewater, Wisconsin.[3][4] His father, the Reverend Asahel "Johnson" Curtis (1840–1887), was a minister, farmer, and American Civil War veteran born in Ohio. His mother, Ellen Sheriff (1844–1912), was born in Pennsylvania. Curtis's siblings were Raphael (1862–c.1885), also called Ray; Edward, called Eddy; Eva and Asahel Curtis (1874–1941). Weakened by his experiences in the Civil War, Johnson Curtis had difficulty in managing his farm, resulting in hardship and poverty for his family. Around 1874, the family moved from Wisconsin to Minnesota to join Johnson Curtis's father, Asahel Curtis, who ran a grocery store and was a postmaster in Le Sueur County. Curtis left school in the sixth grade and soon built his own camera The photographer Ella E. McBride assisted Curtis in his studio beginning in 1907 and became a friend of the family. She made an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the studio with Curtis's daughter Beth in 1916, the year of Curtis's divorce, and left to open her own studio. Around 1922, Curtis moved to Los Angeles with Beth and opened a new photo studio. To earn money he worked as an assistant cameraman for Cecil B. DeMille and was an uncredited assistant cameraman in the 1923 filming of The Ten Commandments. On October 16, 1924, Curtis sold the rights to his ethnographic motion picture In the Land of the Head-Hunters to the American Museum of Natural History. He was paid $1,500 for the master print and the original camera negative. It had cost him over $20,000 to create the film. In 1927, after returning from Alaska to Seattle with Beth, Curtis was arrested for failure to pay alimony over the preceding seven years. The total owed was $4,500, but the charges were dropped. For Christmas of 1927, the family was reunited at the home of his daughter Florence in Medford, Oregon. This was the first time since the divorce that Curtis was with all of his children at the same time, and it had been 13 years since he had seen Katherine. In 1928, desperate for cash, Curtis sold the rights to his project to J. P. Morgan, Jr. The concluding volume of The North American Indian was published in 1930. In total, about 280 sets were sold of his now completed magnum opus. In 1930, his ex-wife, Clara, was still living in Seattle operating the photo studio with their daughter Katherine. His other daughter, Florence Curtis, was still living in Medford, Oregon, with her husband, Henry Graybill. After Clara died of heart failure in 1932, his daughter Katherine moved to California to be closer to her father and Beth. Curtis had been using motion picture cameras in fieldwork for The North American Indian since 1906. He worked extensively with the ethnographer and British Columbia native George Hunt in 1910, which inspired his work with the Kwakiutl, but much of their collaboration remains unpublished. At the end of 1912, Curtis decided to create a feature film depicting Native American life, partly as a way of improving his financial situation and partly because film technology had improved to the point where it was conceivable to create and screen films more than a few minutes long. Curtis chose the Kwakiutl tribe, of the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, for his subject. His film, In the Land of the Head Hunters, was the first feature-length film whose cast was composed entirely of Native North Americans. In the Land of the Head-Hunters premiered simultaneously at the Casino Theatre in New York and the Moore Theatre in Seattle on December 7, 1914. The silent film was accompanied by a score composed by John J. Braham, a musical theater composer who had also worked with Gilbert and Sullivan. The film was praised by critics but made only $3,269.18 in its initial run. In 1906, J. P. Morgan provided Curtis with $75,000 to produce a series on Native Americans.[8] This work was to be in 20 volumes with 1,500 photographs. Morgan's funds were to be disbursed over five years and were earmarked to support only fieldwork for the books, not for writing, editing, or production of the volumes. Curtis received no salary for the project, which was to last more than 20 years. Under the terms of the arrangement, Morgan was to receive 25 sets and 500 original prints as repayment. Once Curtis had secured funding for the project, he was able to hire several employees to help him. For writing and for recording Native American languages, he hired a former journalist, William E. Myers. For general assistance with logistics and fieldwork, he hired Bill Phillips, a graduate of the University of Washington. Perhaps the most important hire for the success of the project was Frederick Webb Hodge, an anthropologist employed by the Smithsonian Institution, who had researched Native American peoples of the southwestern United States. Hodge was hired to edit the entire series. Eventually 222 complete sets were published. Curtis's goal was not just to photograph but also to document as much of Native American traditional life as possible before that way of life disappeared. He wrote in the introduction to his first volume in 1907, "The information that is to be gathered ... respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost." Curtis made over 10,000 wax cylinder recordings of Native American language and music. He took over 40,000 photographic images of members of over 80 tribes. He recorded tribal lore and history, and he described traditional foods, housing, garments, recreation, ceremonies, and funeral customs. He wrote biographical sketches of tribal leaders. His material, in most cases, is the only written recorded history, although there is still a rich oral tradition that preserves history. His work was exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles festival in France in 1973 In 1885, at the age of 17, Curtis became an apprentice photographer in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1887 the family moved to Seattle, Washington, where he purchased a new camera and became a partner with Rasmus Rothi in an existing photographic studio. Curtis paid $150 for his 50% share in the studio. After about six months, he left Rothi and formed a new partnership with Thomas Guptill. They established a new studio, Curtis and Guptill, Photographers and Photoengravers. In 1895, Curtis met and photographed Princess Angeline (c. 1820–1896), also known as Kickisomlo, the daughter of Chief Sealth of Seattle. This was his first portrait of a Native American. In 1898, three of Curtis's images were chosen for an exhibition sponsored by the National Photographic Society. Two were images of Princess Angeline, "The Mussel Gatherer" and "The Clam Digger". The other was of Puget Sound, entitled "Homeward", which was awarded the exhibition's grand prize and a gold medal.[6] In that same year, while photographing Mt. Rainier, Curtis came upon a small group of scientists. One of them was George Bird Grinnell, considered an "expert" on Native Americans by his peers. Curtis was appointed the official photographer of the Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899, probably as a result of his friendship with Grinnell. Having very little formal education Curtis learned much during the lectures that were given aboard the ship each evening of the voyag. Grinnell became interested in Curtis's photography and invited him to join an expedition to photograph people of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Montana in 1900. Kachinas are spirits or personifications of things in the real world. These spirits are believed to visit the Hopi villages where Zuni tribes also live during the first half of the year. A kachina can represent anything in the natural world or cosmos, from a revered ancestor to an element, a location, a quality, a natural phenomenon, or a concept. There are more than 400 different kachinas in Hopi and Pueblo culture. The local pantheon of kachinas varies in each pueblo community; there may be kachinas for the sun, stars, thunderstorms, wind, corn, insects, and many other concepts. Kachinas are understood as having humanlike relationships; they may have uncles, sisters, and grandmothers, and may marry and have children. Although not worshipped, each is viewed as a powerful being who, if given veneration and respect, can use his particular power for human good, bringing rainfall, healing, fertility, or protection, for example. One observer has written: The central theme of the kachina [religion] is the presence of life in all objects that fill the universe. Everything has an essence or a life force, and humans must interact with these or fail to survive. The exact origin of the kachinas is not completely known, but according to one version of Hopi belief, the kachinas were beneficent spirit-beings who came with the Hopis from the underworld. The underworld is a concept common to all the Pueblo Indians. It is a place where the spirits or shades live: the newly born come from there and the dead return there. The kachinas wandered with the Hopis over the world until they arrived at Casa Grande, where both the Hopis and the kachinas settled for a while. With their powerful ceremonies, the kachinas brought rain for the crops and were in general of much help and comfort. Unfortunately, all of the kachinas were killed when the Hopis were attacked by enemies and their souls returned to the underworld. Since the sacred paraphernalia of the kachinas were left behind, the Hopis began impersonating the kachinas, wearing their masks and costumes, and imitating their ceremonies in order to bring rain, good crops, and life's happiness. Kachina dancers, Shongopovi pueblo, Arizona, sometime before 1900 Another version says that in an early period, the kachinas danced for the Hopis, bringing them rain and all the many blessings of life. But eventually, the Hopis came to take the kachinas for granted, losing all respect and reverence for them, so the kachinas finally left and returned to the underworld. However, before they left, the kachinas taught some of their ceremonies to a few faithful young men and showed them how to make the masks and costumes. When the other Hopi realized their loss, they remorsefully turned to the human substitute of kachinas, and the ceremonies have continued since then. Hopi katsina figures (Hopi language: tithu or katsintithu), also known as kachina dolls are figures carved, typically from cottonwood root, by Hopi people to instruct young girls and new brides about katsinas or katsinam, the immortal beings that bring rain, control other aspects of the natural world and society, and act as messengers between humans and the spirit world. Hopi people live primarily on three mesas in Northeastern Arizona, about 70 miles from Flagstaff. In Hopi cosmology, the majority of katsinas reside on the Humphreys Peak, approximately 60 miles west of Hopiland. Each year, throughout the period from winter solstice to mid-July, these spirits, in the form of katsinas, come down to the villages to dance and sing, to bring rain for the upcoming harvest, and to give gifts to the children. The katsinas are known to be the spirits of deities, natural elements or animals, or the deceased ancestors of the Hopi. Prior to each katsina ceremony, the men of the village will spend days studiously making figures in the likeness of the katsinam represented in that particular ceremony. The figures are then passed on to the daughters of the village by the Giver Kachina during the ceremony. Following the ceremony, the figures are hung on the walls of the pueblo and are meant to be studied in order to learn the characteristics of that certain Kachina. Edward Kennard, co-author of Hopi Kachinas, says concerning the purpose of the kachina figure, “Essentially it is a means of education; it is a gift at dance-time; it is a decorative article for the home, but above all it is a constant reminder of the Kachinas. The early forms of the katcina figure belonged to the Early Traditional Period. Only one piece of cottonwood root was used to carve the body, although facial features made from varying sources were occasionally glued on. The figures were no longer than 8–10 inches and only somewhat resembled human proportions. Sandpaper and wood finishing tools were generally unavailable to the Hopi in this era. In order to smooth out the rough carved surfaces, the figures were rubbed smooth with sandstone and the flaws in the cottonwood root were coated with kaolin clay. Their surfaces were not as smooth as in later periods, and the paint was made of non water-resistant mineral and vegetable pigments. The figures in this period were stiff and only meant to be hung on the wall after ceremonies. Starting around 1900, the figures began to have a more naturalistic look to them as a result of the white man’s interest and trade. The price of dolls in this period was on average about $0.25 (adjusted for today’s currency). Feathered war bonnets (also called warbonnets or headdresses) are traditionally worn by male leaders of the American Plains Indians Nations who have earned a place of great respect in their tribe. Originally they were sometimes worn into battle, but they are now primarily used for ceremonial occasions. They are seen as items of great spiritual and political importance, only to be worn by those who have earned the right and honour through formal recognition by their People. Native American tribes consider the presentation of an eagle feather to be one of their highest marks of respect. Any honored person must have earned their feather through selfless acts of courage and honour, or been gifted them in gratitude for their work or service to their tribe. Traditional deeds that brought honour would include acts of valor in battle, but also political and diplomatic gains or acts that helped their community survive and prosper. The esteem attached to eagle feathers was so high that in many cases, such as a warrior (e.g. Dog Soldiers of the Cheyenne), only two or three honour feathers might be awarded in their whole lifetime. Historically, the warrior who was the first to touch an enemy in battle and escape unscathed received an eagle feather. When enough feathers were collected, they might be incorporated into a headdress or some other form of worn regalia. Headdresses were usually reserved exclusively for the tribe's chosen political and spiritual leaders. Roman Nose, who was one of the most influential Cheyenne warriors of the Plain Indian Wars of the 1860s, was known for his illustrious warbonnet that was said to protect him during battle. Several instances record how while wearing his war bonnet, he rode back and forth before soldiers of the United States Army and, despite being fired upon, was left unscathed. While women have traditional regalia that can include other types of headdresses, historically women did not wear the Plains warbonnet. However, in recent years a few Indigenous women who have attained a very high level of respect in their communities have been ceremonially gifted with headdresses of the type that were formerly only worn by men. Due to their historical importance and status, many Native Americans now consider the wearing of headdresses without the express permission of tribal leaders to be an affront to their culture and traditions. Consequently, in cases where non-Native political leaders have been symbolically allowed to wear the headdress, this has caused controversy Totem poles are monumental sculptures, a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large trees, mostly western red cedar, by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast of North America (Washington, Oregon, and Canada's western province, British Columbia). The word totem derives from the Algonquian (most likely Ojibwe) word odoodem [oˈtuːtɛm], "his kinship group". The carvings may symbolize or commemorate cultural beliefs that recount familiar legends, clan lineages, or notable events. The poles may also serve as functional architectural features, welcome signs for village visitors, mortuary vessels for the remains of deceased ancestors, or as a means to publicly ridicule someone. Given the complexity and symbolic meanings of totem pole carvings, their placement and importance lies in the observer's knowledge and connection to the meanings of the figures. Totem pole carvings were likely preceded by a long history of decorative carving, with stylistic features borrowed from smaller prototypes. Eighteenth-century explorers documented the existence of decorated interior and exterior house posts prior to 1800; however, due to the lack of efficient carving tools, sufficient wealth, and leisure time to devote to the craft, the monumental poles placed in front of native homes along the Pacific Northwest coast probably did not appear in large numbers until the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Trade and settlement initially led to the growth of totem pole carving, but governmental policies and practices of acculturation and assimilation sharply reduced totem pole production by the end of nineteenth century. Renewed interest from tourists, collectors, and scholars in the 1880s and 1890s helped document and collect the remaining totem poles, but nearly all totem pole making had ceased by 1901. Twentieth-century revivals of the craft, additional research, and continued support from the public have helped establish new interest in this regional artistic tradition. A ceremonial pipe is a particular type of smoking pipe, used by a number of Native American cultures in their sacred ceremonies. Traditionally they are used to offer prayers in a religious ceremony, to make a ceremonial commitment, or to seal a covenant or treaty. The pipe ceremony may be a component of a larger ceremony, or held as a sacred ceremony in and of itself. Indigenous peoples of the Americas who use ceremonial pipes have names for them in each culture's indigenous language. Not all cultures have pipe traditions, and there is no single word for all ceremonial pipes across the hundreds of diverse Native cultures. Native American ceremonial pipes have sometimes been called "peace pipes" by Europeans or others whose cultures do not include these ceremonial objects. However, the smoking of a ceremonial pipe to seal a peace treaty is only one use of a ceremonial smoking pipe, by only some of the nations that utilize them. Various types of ceremonial pipes have been used by different Native American cultures. The style of pipe, materials smoked, and ceremonies are unique to the specific and distinct religions of those nations. Historically, ceremonial pipes have been used to mark war and peace, as well as commerce and trade, and social and political decision-making. Many Native American cultures still practice these ceremonies. During his travels down the Mississippi River in 1673, Father Jacques Marquette documented the universal respect that the ceremonial pipe was shown among all Native peoples he encountered, even those at war with each other. He claimed that presenting the pipe during battle would halt the fighting. The Illinois people gave Marquette such a pipe as a gift to ensure his safe travel through the interior of the land. All Native American tribal groups that use the pipe consider it to be a highly sacred object. The bowl and stem are separated and carried along with a tamper, the smoking mixture and other smoking accessories in a bag or pouch. Each person has their own ritual about handing and smoking their pipe. It usually starts by smudging (purifying) the pipe and all of its parts and accessories in the smoke of sage, sweet grass, pine or cedar. Once the pipe has been purified, the stem is connected to the bowl, the stem being viewed as male and the bowl as female. A certain number of pinches of the smoking mixture are added to the bowl in ceremony. Each pinch is smudged before loading in the bowl. The smoking of the pipe generally consists of puffing on it, not inhaling it. It is viewed as a means of sending one's prayers to the Great Spirit and making a connection between the earthly world and the spiritual world. The pipe figures into Native American culture in many ways and for each culture there are different uses and traditions. The intent of this article is not to provide a comprehensive explanation of the sacred significance of the pipe in Native American cultures, but to just offer a brief idea of how pipes have been and are used by Native Americans. On first contact with Native Americans, the French used the word "calumet" [from the Latin "calamus", for reed] to refer to the sacred pipe. Early pipes of the Miami and Illinois were hollow canes decorated with feathers. The Lakota sacred pipe, the chanunpa, is an important part of healing ceremonies conducted by medicine men. Once a pipe is made, it must be blessed in a special ceremony that connects it to the original sacred pipe that was brought to the Lakota by the White Buffalo Calf Woman. This is to ensure that a good spirit resides in the pipe. Native American wooden war clubs were made by craftsmen who took great pride in their work. The head of the wooden ball clubs were carefully decorated and embellished to produce unusual effects such as carvings depicting the round head of the club in the grasp of an animal being held in the talons of a bird or in the mouth of a predator. The handle was also elaborately carved and decorated with representations of animals and birds which were believed to invoke the spirits of nature. Other carvings depicted creatures that featured in mythology such as the Thunderbird and the Horned Serpent. Other carvings depicted arrows, bands or crosses indicating the number of kills or coups of the warrior. The Wooden Ball Clubs, also referred to as Ball-headed wooden clubs or Fixed Ball Clubs, was used to deal blows with the hand rather than by throwing. The Fixed Ball Clubs were usually made of beech wood from a sapling that grew out horizontally and upward from a riverbank, preserving the natural curve of the club without cutting across the grain and reducing its strength. the root-ball of the sapling provided the round mass of wood for the ball head. The Native American Indians were a very creative people. They have introduced the world to many styles of weapons still in use today. Although there have been various forms of the Native American weapons found earlier, the Native Americans customized their weapons in many ways that became popular styles around the world. The weapons that will be outlined in this article were often times used as tools for hunting or camp use just as much as they were used in combat. The most popular of the American Indian weapons are the bow and arrow and the tomahawk. War clubs originated when Europeans began trading with the Native American Indians. There are a few different styles of Native American war clubs: Gunstock War Clubs Ball Head War Clubs Stone Clubs The gunstock war club is a war club made from the stock of a wooden rifle or similar piece of carved wood. The ball head war club is a club with a ball on the head; sometimes tipped with a sharp arrow or blade for added combat effect. The stone club is most frequently associated with the tomahawk in appearance and style; being basically a stick with a round stone wrapped to a haft. Native American Gunstock War Clubs were frequently made of hard wood or whale bone and embellished with carvings on the handle and a blade on the head. Embellishments as engraving or carving of Native American symbols, the addition of pigment and brass tacks, was common. In Native American society, gunstock clubs are used in Pow Wow ceremonial regalia and in other formal occasions. The gunstock war club is the primary weapon of practitioners of Okichitaw, a martial art based on the fighting techniques of the Assiniboine and Plains Cree Indians. It was recently rejuvenated by Canadian martial artist, George J. Lépine. Alongside other indigenous weapons excelling in blunt force trauma injuries - such as the ball-head clubs and stone-head tomahawks - the gunstock has a significant presence in tribal warfare across several different American Indian nations. War clubs were usually made of straight grain hard woods like maple, ash, oak, hickory or hornbeam (depending on the region of its use) and weighed from two to three pounds. With swinging force focused onto the small striking edges of the club, the gunstock club could hit with remarkable power. The lethality of the club was further increased by the addition of a short spear point or one or more blades positioned near the elbow of the club. Blades could be flint, horn, or iron. An inspiration for the heart-shaped blade may have been the ornate European pole-arm, the Spontoon. The introduction of forged iron and steel knives from European settlers to American Indian tribes across the United States may have contributed to the popularity of the gunstock club. For example, an excavated Plains Indian carved gunstock club from the late 19th century was found set with three butcher knife blades marked "Lamson and Goodnow Mfg. Co. Patent March 6, 1860." The clubs were often embellished with brass tacks and the wood was carved with geometric or representational designs. The gunstock club or gun stock war club is an indigenous weapon used by Native Americans, named for its similar appearance to the wooden stocks of muskets and rifles of the time. Gunstock clubs were most predominantly used by Eastern Woodland, Central and Northern Plains tribes in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although well known as an indigenous weapon encountered in several American Indian tribes across the northern United States and Canada, details of its early development continue to elude historians. They were first used in the late 17th century but were in use by Northern Plains tribes, such as the Lakota by the mid-19th century. Many sources have claimed that indigenous tribes created the design based upon European firearms. The tribes who encountered British, French, and colonial soldiers were impressed by their usage of a musket that, once its shot was spent, could easily be reversed, held by the metal barrel, and used as a harrowing bludgeoning weapon in close quarters combat. Other historical sources have claimed that several tribes obtained muskets from traders and later modified them into club weapons. However, with substantial holes already carved out of the crook of the gunstock - the focal striking area - for the metal loading and firing mechanisms of the musket, a club of this design would not have withstood repeated usage before breaking. Furthermore, none of the original war clubs excavated from archaeological digs have borne any indication that they started out as an actual firearm, as they lack lock and barrel inlets, and many are instead flat and board-like. Another theory is that muskets and rifles of sixteenth-century Europeans merely provided the inspiration for the design of the gunstock war club. American Indian tribes, impressed with the thundering power of the musket as well as its dual usage in close quarters battles, may have tried to capitalize on the awe and terror created by European muskets by fashioning similarly designed clubs. Carrying these clubs closely resembling European muskets, American Indian tribes might have gained a psychological advantage over rival tribes in battle. A third theory posed by some historians and several American Indian activist groups contends that the gunstock war club is simply a coincidence of design, developed independently years before the arrival of Europeans. Since the end of the 15th century, the migration of Europeans to the Americas has led to centuries of population, cultural, and agricultural transfer and adjustment between Old and New World societies, a process known as the Columbian exchange. Most Native American groups had historically preserved their histories by oral traditions and artwork, which has resulted in the first written sources on the conflict being authored by Europeans. At the time of first contact, the indigenous cultures were quite different from those of the proto-industrial and mostly Christian immigrants. Some of the Northeastern and Southwestern cultures in particular were matrilineal and operated on a more collective basis than the Europeans were familiar with. The majority of Indigenous American tribes maintained their hunting grounds and agricultural lands for use of the entire tribe. Europeans at that time had patriarchal cultures and had developed concepts of individual property rights with respect to land that were extremely different. The differences in cultures between the established Native Americans and immigrant Europeans, as well as shifting alliances among different nations in times of war, caused extensive political tension, ethnic violence, and social disruption. Even before the European settlement of what is now the United States, Native Americans suffered high fatalities from contact with European diseases spread throughout the Americas by the Spanish to which they had yet not acquired immunity. Smallpox epidemics are thought to have caused the greatest loss of life for indigenous populations, although estimates of the pre-Columbian population of what today constitutes the U.S. vary significantly, from one million to eighteen million. The "Bat Wing" shaped tomahawk heads first appeared in the 1860-65 period and originated in the high plains/plateau region. It is thought that it was a blacksmith who worked at either Fort Peck, or perhaps one on the upper high plains/plateau region. There are only a small handful of old photographs from the 1800's of Indians holding batwing tomahawks, I think maybe only 6 or 8 photos. They are all Shoshone, Nez Perce or Crow Indians. Therefore, because these type of tomahawks were never seen in the hands of any Sioux, Arapahoe, Blackfoot, Pawnee, Chippewa, Cree or other tribes, we can conclude the source that made them only traded and sold them to local tribes in his area. These batwing tomahawks were only found with plateau tribes like the Crow, Shoshone and Nez Perce, never central or northern Plains tribes like the Sioux or Cheyenne. John Baldwin had information in one of his books that the blacksmith that made these was later killed by Indians in the 1875 period. And that may have been true because they stopped appearing and were never produced in any great numbers. So their rarity and value is based on the fact that they were produced in very low numbers and only used by a small number of tribes, coupled with the fact that so few examples survived and exist today in any private collections or museums. There are only 2 authentic single batwing cutout pipe tomahawks in any private collection or museum in the world. There are only approximately 20 known double batwing pipe tomahawks documented in any old photograph, museum or private collection They are that rare. That's it; approximately 20. There are only 4 authentic triple batwing known examples known, one of which is in the late John Baldwin's family trust collection and another is owned by the artist / photographer David Howard. Double bat wing tomahawks are some of the rarest American Indian tomahawks in the world. The shape does not really resemble a "bat's wing" at all, although some collectors thought them to be a stylized bird in flight others thought they resemble royalty crowns... but tomahawk and American Indian weapons collectors refer to them as "batwing" cut outs. Nobody surely knows why the blacksmiths that made them ceated that style or shape of cut outs in the blade. Was it first started by an Indian request? Was the blacksmith having a little fun at work that day and came up with the design on his own? Nobody knows for sure, but here's what we do know: Authentic batwings; the heads are forged, never cast. The moulding, "V" or chevron, pipe bowl rings, are all hand filed. There is a small, rear-facing, spur. The doubles all have an extended collar or "eyehole" where the haft goes through. About 1/2 inch longer than it really needs to be. It's unknow why this was done, but it is just how authentic examples were made and depicted in old photos as our guides. The copper inserts are copper on the doubles, poured brass on the triples. Authentic doubles that feature the copper inserts ( some have them, others don't ) number in 7, never 9, never 5. When you look closely at how the punch-dot stippling was done, you will see little mistakes and stop and start points because they were hand-hammered. Authentic triple batwing or triple cut out examples have 4 inserts. Originally (early 1600's Jamestown era) the Algonquin term 'tӓmӓhâk' used by the local Virginia Algonquian Indians, & a similar name by the Renape, referred to virtually ANY stone cutting implement or wooden war club referring to a head breaker--or at least according to the colonists of the time. The French and those allied with them called them "casse-têtes". Then when Europeans began trading the iron hatchets the English corrupted version of the term tomahawk grew to apply only to iron axes traded to Indians in Virginia in the 1620's. This is an oversimplification of the origin and definition however early translations, dialects, nuances and tribes have broadened the definitions to ridiculousness. We are probably never going to know the precise origins/definitions from each tribe from the earliest point of European contact. Linguistics did not exist at the time and early settler translators didn't always precisely interpret the meaning correctly of some words. As time went on the differentiation, & also confusion, between tomahawks and every other axe/hatchet/war club, etc. expanded, much to the chagrin of researchers trying to follow their history. Today most collectors and museums refer to stone tomahawks as simply 'stone axes' although at the time some early writers claim it was also considered a tomahawk. Native Americans embellished tomahawks, rifles, scabbards, knives, beaded sheaths, ball clubs, root clubs, spiked gunstock clubs and axes. Weapons were used by Native Americans to hunt game and do battle with other tribes and white settlers. Typical weapons include clubs, hatchets, knives, spears, and bows. As early as 1700, some tribes began to adopt firearms for both hunting and warfare. However white-settler controlled supplies of gunpowder and firearms ensured that traditional native weapons were not abandoned. Pre-contact Native Americans lacked ironmaking technology, so tomahawks were not fitted with metal axe heads until they could be obtained from trade with Europeans. The tomahawk's original designs were fitted with heads of bladed or rounded stone or deer antler. The modern tomahawk shaft is usually less than 2 ft in length, traditionally made of hickory, ash, or maple. The heads weigh anywhere from 9–20 oz , with a cutting edge usually not much longer than four inches from toe to heel. The poll can feature a hammer, spike, or may simply be rounded off, and they usually do not have lugs. These sometimes had a pipe-bowl carved into the poll, and a hole drilled down the center of the shaft for smoking tobacco through the tomahawk. There are also metal-headed versions of this unusual pipe. Pipe tomahawks are artifacts unique to North America: created by Europeans as trade objects but often exchanged as diplomatic gifts. They were symbols of the choice Europeans and Native Americans faced whenever they met: one end was the pipe of peace, the other an axe of war. In colonial French territory, a very different tomahawk design, closer to the ancient European francisca, was in use by French settlers and indigenous peoples. In the late 18th century, the British Army issued tomahawks to their colonial regulars during the American Revolutionary War as a weapon and tool. The Algonquian Indians in early America created the tomahawk. Before Europeans came to the continent, Native Americans would use stones attached to wooden handles, secured with strips of rawhide. Though typically used as weapons, they could also be used for everyday tasks, such as chopping, cutting or hunting. When Europeans arrived, they introduced the metal blade to the natives, which improved the effectiveness of the tool. Metal did not break as readily as stone and could be fashioned for additional uses. Native Americans created a tomahawk’s poll, the side opposite the blade, which consisted of a hammer, spike or a pipe. These became known as pipe tomahawks, which consisted of a bowl on the poll and a hollowed out shaft. These were created by European and American artisans for trade and diplomatic gifts for the tribes The Sioux are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects. The Sioux comprise three major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota. The Great Sioux War of 1876 comprised a series of battles between the Lakota and allied tribes such as the Cheyenne against the United States military. The earliest engagement was the Battle of Powder River, and the final battle was the Wolf Mountain. Included are the Battle of the Rosebud, Battle of the Little Bighorn, Battle of Warbonnet Creek, Battle of Slim Buttes, Battle of Cedar Creek, and the Dull Knife Fight. The Great Sioux War of 1876–77 was also known as the Black Hills War, and was centered on the Lakota tribes of the Sioux, although several natives believe that the primary target of the United States military was the Northern Cheyenne tribe. The series of battles occurred in Montana territory, Dakota territory, and Wyoming territory, and resulted in a victory for the United States military. In the late 19th century, railroads wanted to build tracks through Indian lands. The railroad companies hired hunters to exterminate the bison herds, the Plains Indians' primary food supply. The Dakota and Lakota were forced to accept US-defined reservations in exchange for the rest of their lands and farming and ranching of domestic cattle, as opposed to a nomadic, hunting economy. During the first years of the Reservation Era, the Sioux people depended upon annual federal payments guaranteed by treaty for survival. In Minnesota, the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota in 1851 left the Dakota with a reservation 20 miles wide on each side of the Minnesota River. Today, half of all enrolled Sioux in the United States live off reservation. Enrolled members in any of the Sioux tribes in the United States are required to have ancestry that is at least 1/4 degree Sioux (the equivalent to one grandparent). In Canada, the Canadian government recognizes the tribal community as First Nations. The land holdings of these First Nations are called Indian reserves. armed conflict between the Sioux and the United States. It was described as a "massacre" by General Nelson A. Miles in a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. On December 29, 1890, five hundred troops of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, supported by four Hotchkiss guns (a lightweight artillery piece capable of rapid fire), surrounded an encampment of the Lakota Sioux bands of the Miniconjou and Hunkpapa with orders to escort them to the railroad for transport to Omaha, Nebraska. By the time it was over, 25 troopers and more than 150 Lakota Sioux lay dead, including men, women, and children. It remains unknown which side was responsible for the first shot; some of the soldiers are believed to have been the victims of "friendly fire" because the shooting took place at point-blank range in chaotic conditions. Around 150 Lakota are believed to have fled the chaos, many of whom may have died from hypothermia. The Lakȟóta people; also known as Teton, Thítȟuŋwaŋ ("prairie dwellers"), and Teton Sioux are part of a confederation of seven related Sioux tribes, the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ or seven council fires, and as such one of the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains of North America. They speak the Lakota language, the westernmost of the three Siouan language groups, occupying lands in both North and South Dakota. Siouan language speakers may have originated in the lower Mississippi River region and then migrated to or originated in the Ohio Valley. They were agriculturalists and may have been part of the Mound Builder civilization during the 9th–12th centuries CE. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Dakota-Lakota speakers lived in the upper Mississippi Region in present-day Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakotas. Conflicts with Anishnaabe and Cree peoples pushed the Lakota west onto the Great Plains in the mid- to late-17th century. Early Lakota history is recorded in their Winter counts (Lakota: waníyetu wówapi), pictorial calendars painted on hides or later recorded on paper. The Battiste Good winter count records Lakota history back to 900 CE, when White Buffalo Calf Woman gave the Lakota people the White Buffalo Calf Pipe. Around 1730, Cheyenne people introduced the Lakota to horses, called šuŋkawakaŋ ("dog [of] power/mystery/wonder"). After their adoption of horse culture, Lakota society centered on the buffalo hunt on horseback. The total population of the Sioux (Lakota, Santee, Yankton, and Yanktonai) was estimated at 28,000 by French explorers in 1660. The Lakota population was first estimated at 8,500 in 1805, growing steadily and reaching 16,110 in 1881. The Lakota were, thus, one of the few Native American tribes to increase in population in the 19th century. The number of Lakota has now increased to more than 170,000,[6] of whom about 2,000 still speak the Lakota language (Lakȟótiyapi). After 1720, the Lakota branch of the Seven Council Fires split into two major sects, the Saône who moved to the Lake Traverse area on the South Dakota–North Dakota–Minnesota border, and the Oglála-Sičháŋǧu who occupied the James River valley. However, by about 1750 the Saône had moved to the east bank of the Missouri River, followed 10 years later by the Oglála and Brulé (Sičháŋǧu). The large and powerful Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa villages had long prevented the Lakota from crossing the Missouri. However, the great smallpox epidemic of 1772–1780 destroyed three-quarters of these tribes. The Lakota crossed the river into the drier, short-grass prairies of the High Plains. These newcomers were the Saône, well-mounted and increasingly confident, who spread out quickly. In 1765, a Saône exploring and raiding party led by Chief Standing Bear discovered the Black Hills (the Paha Sapa), then the territory of the Cheyenne. Ten years later, the Oglála and Brulé also crossed the river. In 1776, the Lakota defeated the Cheyenne, who had earlier taken the region from the Kiowa. The Cheyenne then moved west to the Powder River country, and the Lakota made the Black Hills their home. The Cheyenne are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and their language is of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the Tsétsêhéstâhese (also spelled Tsitsistas). These tribes merged in the early 19th century. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized Nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enrolled in the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma, and the Northern Cheyenne, who are enrolled in the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana. At the time of their first contact with the Europeans, the Cheyenne were living in the area of what is now Minnesota. At times they have been allied with the Lakota and Arapaho, and at other points enemies of the Lakota. In the early 18th century they migrated west across the Mississippi River and into North and South Dakota, where they adopted the horse culture. Having settled the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Powder River Country of present-day Montana, they introduced the horse culture to Lakota bands about 1730. Allied with the Arapaho, the Cheyenne pushed the Kiowa to the Southern Plains. In turn, they were pushed west by the more numerous Lakota. The Cheyenne Nation or Tsêhéstáno was at one time composed of ten bands that spread across the Great Plains from southern Colorado to the Black Hills in South Dakota. They fought their traditional enemies, the Crow and later (1856–79) the United States Army forces. In the mid-19th century, the bands began to split, with some bands choosing to remain near the Black Hills, while others chose to remain near the Platte Rivers of central Colorado. The Northern Cheyenne, known in Cheyenne either as Notameohmésêhese, meaning "Northern Eaters" or simply as Ohmésêhese meaning "Eaters", live in southeastern Montana on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Tribal enrollment figures, as of late 2014, indicate that there are approximately 10,840 members, of which about 4,939 reside on the reservation. Approximately 91% of the population are Native Americans (full or part race), with 72.8% identifying themselves as Cheyenne. Slightly more than one quarter of the population five years or older spoke a language other than English. The Southern Cheyenne, known in Cheyenne as Heévâhetaneo'o meaning "Roped People", together with the Southern Arapaho, form the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, in western Oklahoma. Their combined population is 12,130, as of 2008. In 2003, approximately 8,000 of these identified themselves as Cheyenne, although with continuing intermarriage it has become increasingly difficult to separate the tribes. The Apache are culturally related Native American tribes from the Southwestern United States, and have traditionally lived in Eastern Arizona, Northern Mexico (Sonora and Chihuahua), New Mexico, West Texas, and Southern Colorado. These areas are collectively known as Apacheria. Their collective homelands consist of high mountains, sheltered and watered valleys, deep canyons, deserts, and the southern Great Plains. The Apache tribes fought the invading Spanish and Mexican peoples for centuries. The first Apache raids on Sonora appear to have taken place during the late 17th century. In 19th-century confrontations during the American-Indian wars, the U.S. Army found the Apache to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists. Apache groups are politically autonomous. The major groups speak several different languages and developed distinct and competitive cultures. The current post-colonial division of Apache groups includes Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, and Plains Apache (also known as the Kiowa-Apache). Apache groups live in Oklahoma and Texas and on reservations in Arizona and New Mexico. Apache people have moved throughout the United States and elsewhere, including urban centers. Many Native American Indians stayed in present-day Mexico in the State of Chihuahua near the Sierra Madre occidental called "Sierra Tarahumara" The people who are known today as Apache were first encountered by the Conquistadors of the Spanish Crown, and thus the term Apache has its roots in the Spanish language. The Spanish first used the term "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navajo) in the 1620s, referring to people in the Chama region east of the San Juan River. By the 1640s, they applied the term to southern Athabaskan peoples from the Chama on the east to the San Juan on the west. The ultimate origin is uncertain and lost to Spanish history. Modern Apache people today, and the US government, maintain use of the Spanish term to describe themselves and tribal functions. Indigenous lineages who also speak the language that was handed down to them would also refer to themselves and their people in that language's term Inde meaning "person" and/or "People". Distant cousins and a subgroup of the Apache, generally, are the Navajo Peoples who in their own language refer to themselves as the Diné. The first known written record in Spanish is by Juan de Oñate in 1598. The most widely accepted origin theory suggests Apache was borrowed and transliterated from the Zuni word ʔa·paču meaning "Navajos" (the plural of paču "Navajo"). Another theory suggests the term comes from Yavapai ʔpačə meaning "enemy". The Zuni and Yavapai sources are less certain because Oñate used the term before he had encountered any Zuni or Yavapai. A less likely origin may be from Spanish mapache, meaning "raccoon". The fame of the tribes' tenacity and fighting skills, probably bolstered by dime novels, was widely known among Europeans. In early 20th century Parisian society, the word Apache was adopted into French, essentially meaning an outlaw. The term Apachean includes the related Navajo people. Since the end of the 15th century, the migration of Europeans to the Americas has led to centuries of population, cultural, and agricultural transfer and adjustment between Old and New World societies, a process known as the Columbian exchange. Most Native American groups had historically preserved their histories by oral traditions and artwork, which has resulted in the first written sources on the conflict being authored by Europeans. At the time of first contact, the indigenous cultures were quite different from those of the proto-industrial and mostly Christian immigrants. Some of the Northeastern and Southwestern cultures in particular were matrilineal and operated on a more collective basis than the Europeans were familiar with. The majority of Indigenous American tribes maintained their hunting grounds and agricultural lands for use of the entire tribe. Europeans at that time had patriarchal cultures and had developed concepts of individual property rights with respect to land that were extremely different. The differences in cultures between the established Native Americans and immigrant Europeans, as well as shifting alliances among different nations in times of war, caused extensive political tension, ethnic violence, and social disruption. Even before the European settlement of what is now the United States, Native Americans suffered high fatalities from contact with European diseases spread throughout the Americas by the Spanish to which they had yet not acquired immunity. Smallpox epidemics are thought to have caused the greatest loss of life for indigenous populations, although estimates of the pre-Columbian population of what today constitutes the U.S. vary significantly, from one million to eighteen million. After the thirteen colonies revolted against Great Britain and established the United States, President George Washington and Henry Knox conceived of the idea of "civilizing" Native Americans in preparation for assimilation as U.S. citizens. Assimilation (whether voluntary, as with the Choctaw, or forced) became a consistent policy through American administrations. During the 19th century, the ideology of manifest destiny became integral to the American nationalist movement. Expansion of European-American populations to the west after the American Revolution resulted in increasing pressure on Native American lands, warfare between the groups, and rising tensions. In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, authorizing the government to relocate Native Americans from their homelands within established states to lands west of the Mississippi River, accommodating European-American expansion. This resulted in the ethnic cleansing of many tribes, with the brutal, forced marches coming to be known as The Trail of Tears. |
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