Long ago, a man named Edward Curtis hauled his huge camera all over the west and southwest and northwest in particular, posing Native Americans in regalia that did not belong to their tribes and also taking pictures of young Native women he posed naked, half undressed. He published and sold these pictures widely. Curtis is despised by many Native People for these cheap Barnum Bailey tricks –using people who often did not quite understand what he was up to.
It can be said that many of his pictures, as inaccurate as they may be artifact-wise, as imposing as his disrespect of young women not belonging to his own culture is condemned by Native men and women– he made many an image of a people beautiful whether a camera lens was present or not.
There is an ongoing mistrust of those who come bearing cameras. Even at sacred dances on the mesas, every tribal group has banned cameras, for tourists have demonstrated lack of proper intention with regard to running into the sacred dance circles amongst the male snake dancers, the camera sot trying to ‘get a better shot.’ So now, at sacred ceremony, no cameras or else knife cuts straps and camera goes bouncey bouncey over the cragged mesa.
But recently, the foremost Native American newspaper, Indian Country Today, a strong voice for Native peoples, ran another article on Curtis the Exploiter of the naive. But this time, the work of photograph Gertrude Käsebier was praised very large.
Indian Country Today journalists, are bold in pushing back hard, by name, those who think it tourist-shallow and cute and funny to do what is called “indian face’ [like blackface]– which is to dress up in sacred regalia and display holy artifacts outside the tribe and clan’s proscribed ceremonies of meaning. The Native journalists are clear and knife sharp in dissecting those who take tribal names for monetary reasons, and without permissions of the stakeholding tribal people, as well as slicing and dicing those who use racist portrayals of Native people, also to make money.
Yet, one can see why the newspaper brought forth some black and white photo images by Gertrude Käsebier, who lived long and long ago… 1852-1934. You can google her name and “native american’ photography and see her care of the subjects, her clarity of framing, her respect for those who have agreed to sit for her. Her photos belong to the nation and are kept at the Smithsonian
Used to be, long ago, the Native people anywhere on earth were afraid to say Dont do that. Stop. No, you may not.
But, learning about the abject tortures that various priests, including the torturer and enslaver priest Junipera Serra visited on Native peoples to build ‘his missions in California via beatings, whippings, bloodshed and humiliation… reading about colonist-thugs, reading what is called the Trail of Broken Treaties about the grand larcenies of stealing land belonging to those Native people who lived on it, worked the land, a land that sustained their families– hearing the stories handed down in our families– the new generations are no longer afraid.
We are a gentle kindly people … until someone lies to us, harasses, until someone trivializes and ridicules what is sacred. Then regardless of waving money in our faces [as did the Redskin’s owner], or trying to force their way through without convival relationship… the line of decency is held to. And calling out those who have none.
And yet, look, here is a woman, Gertrude Käsebier, who made authentic and compassionate portraits of Native people, praised by many modern Natives. Her way that honored instead of humiliated. As is said about respectful people amongst the Diné, time for Honor Song.
CODA
In a headdress, often erroneously called a ‘war bonnet,’ which is not a name in any tribe, the feathers represent that the person earned each one, each time the entire tribe concurred that he had executed a brave and honorable action. The first feather was often granted at first sign of manhood, again by the adult members of the tribe. Another aspect often held away from casual observors is that the warrior had to prepare himself to receive the ‘honor feather’ by days of fasting and prayer and hardship.
Headdresses were not worn into battle or to parade around aimlessly as is often portrayed in staged photographs made by non-Native people. One wore, for obvious reasons of agility and streamlined body, only one or two feathers into battle. Sometimes the feathers before or after were put on a long pole [called by some a coup stick– another term that is not from Indian languages].
Once a man had collected many feathers, he and his cohort made them into a unique headdress, no two alike. People of the tribe can ‘read’ the feathers of each headdress, for each feather was earned by accolade of the tribe. Now the elders and brothers and cousins and uncles, bind the feathers together in different colors of wool and baize, which is an honor act in itself. Many of the feathers most prized are from the Bald Eagle and the Golden Eagles. The eagle is seen as one who too, earns his and her feathers through hardship of changes, loyalty to the young, and strength to endure in beauty.
THe Image is Whirling Horse, from Smithsonian Collection