Portfolio of the North
American Indian
Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952)
Tobadzishini-Navaho
[sic.]
Gelatin silver print, 1904
Prints & Photographs
Division
Copyright deposit (46A.5)
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From the 1890s to the 1930s, Edward S. Curtis photographed approximately
eighty different Native American groups, including their traditional
clothing, crafts, and homes. He published a twenty-eight volume
work, the North American Indian, which embraced the
romantic notion he and other white Americans held about the vanquished
Indian. This image of Tobadzischini,(war god), a
participant in the Yebechai dance--a nine-day ritual
combining ritual and medicine still practiced today--dates from
a 1904 trip to the Southwest he made among the Navajo and Apache.
It is unlikely that Curtis photographed the actual sacred ceremony,
and this is probably a recreation, a practice to which he frequently
resorted.
Additional Links:
Edward S. Curtis (1868--1952)
A Navajo Smile
Gelatin silver print, 1904
Prints & Photographs
Division (46A.6)
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