The Exploitation of Native Imagery
Cover image from Radical Indigenous Survivance and Empowerment (R.I.S.E.). To honor and respect the tribes mentioned in this article, no visual representation of any sacred items, dances, ceremonies, photographs, etc. will be shown. This article was originally published on Terra Incognita Media in 2017. I'm sharing this article on my personal blog with minor grammatical updates and revisions. History of Native Imagery in Art Historic black and white photographs of Native Americans in documentaries, books, stationery, or even on posters, are very likely to be one of the innumerable works of the photographer, Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952). Curtis was a photographer and ethnologist most known for his multi-volume series, The North American Indian. The photographic images in this series were taken between 1907-1927 and were meant to be a journal, of sorts, that documented “the vanishing race” of Native Americans. At the turn of the nineteenth century, the western U.S. wa...