Edward S. Curtis and the Complex Legacy of The North American Indian Project

Abstract

In 1907 Edward S. Curtis published the first volume of The North American Indian – the 20-volume series which was his life achievement, completed in 1930. During thirty years he took probably about 40,000 photographs of Native Americans belonging to various tribes. These included both portraits and depictions of everyday life of the peoples his generation believed were vanishing. During the field work he also collected textual material documenting the tribes’ histories, legends, rituals as well as biographies of individual people. The project, in its immensity, exhausted the resources and did bring Curtis the recognition he hoped for. His works were rediscovered in 1972 and since then photographs have been either criticised for being staged and not depicting the Native tribes’ life as it really was, or appreciated both for their aesthetic quality and documentary value. The article provides an overview of the project, discusses the controversies surrounding it and its significance from today’s perspective. It also refers to the legacy of Curtis’s work and the way contemporary artists remain in a dialogue with it.