![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis02_670.jpg)
Sioux Chiefs, 1905
Edward Sheriff Curtis was born on a Wisconsin farm in 1868, and ended up a commercial photographer in Seattle. He is famous for photographing Princess Angeline, the daughter of the Duwamish chief Seattle, for whom the city was named.
That experience kindled a fascination with Native American culture within him that would remain for the rest of his life. He photographed tribal people during expeditions to Alaska and Montana, and was also approached by J.P. Morgan about funding a documentary project of American indigenous people. The result was a 20-volume series called The North American Indian.
Backed by Morgan, Curtis spent over 20 years traveling North America, capturing more than 40,000 pictures of over 80 different tribes. In addition, he made thousands of recordings of native songs and language, and wrote down their histories, legends, and biographies of their great people.
In an effort to capture what he saw as a swiftly disappearing tribal culture, Curtis at times posed his subjects in settings that more resembled their pre-Western settlement existences rather than their actual present lives. All stereotypes aside, Curtis’ exhaustive body of work is an impressive historical record of Native life at the beginning of the 20th century.
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis01_670.jpg)
Navajo traveling through Canyon de Chelly, AZ, 1904
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis03_670.jpg)
Apsaroke mother and child, 1908
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis04_670.jpg)
Luzi of the Papago tribe, 1907
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis05_670.jpg)
A Qagyuhi woman wears a fringed Chilkat blanket and a mask representing a deceased relative who had been a shaman, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis06_670.jpg)
Hakalahl, a Nakoaktok chief, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis07_670.jpg)
A Kwakluti gatherer hunts abalones in Washington, 1910
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis08_670.jpg)
Piegan girls gathering goldenrod, 1910
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis09_670.jpg)
A Qahatika girl, 1907
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis10_670.jpg)
A young Apache, 1910
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis11_670.jpg)
Eskadi of the Apache, 1903
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis12_670.jpg)
Kwakiuti people in canoes in British Columbia, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis13_670.jpg)
Kwakiuti people in canoes in British Columbia, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis14_670.jpg)
A Kwakiuti wedding party arrives in canoes, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis15_670.jpg)
A Kwakiuti shaman performs a religious ritual, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis16_670.jpg)
A Koskimo man dressed as Haml (“dangerous thing”) during a Numhim ceremony, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis17_670.jpg)
A Qagyuhi dancer dressed as Paqusilahl (“man of the ground embodiment”) 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis18_670.jpg)
A Qagyuhi man dressed as a bear, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis19_670.jpg)
Qagyuhi dancers, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis20_670.jpg)
Nakoaktok dancers wear Hamatsa masks in a ritual, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis21_670.jpg)
Apache man, 1910
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis22_670.jpg)
Hollow Horn Bear, a Brulé man, 1907
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis23_670.jpg)
A Tewa girl, 1906
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis24_670.jpg)
An Apache woman reaps grain, 1910
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis25_670.jpg)
A Mariposa man on the Tule River Reservation, 1924
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis26_670.jpg)
A Hidatsa man with a captured eagle, 1908
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis27_670.jpg)
A Nootka man aims a bow and arrow, 1910
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis28_670.jpg)
Piegan tepees, 1910
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis29_670.jpg)
Sioux hunter, 1905
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis30_670.jpg)
A Kwakiutl shaman, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis31_670.jpg)
A Kwakiutl man wearing a mask depicting a man transforming into a loon, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis32_670.jpg)
An Apsaroke man on horseback, 1908
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis33_670.jpg)
A Klamath chief stands on a hill above Crater Lake, Oregon, 1923
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis34_670.jpg)
Iron Breast, a Piegan man, 1900
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis35_670.jpg)
Black Eagle, an Assiniboin man, 1908
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis36_670.jpg)
Nayenezgani, a Navajo man, 1904
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis37_670.jpg)
A Kwakiutl person dressed as a forest spirit, Nuhlimkilaka, (“bringer of confusion”), 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis38_670.jpg)
A Hupa woman, 1923
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis39_670.jpg)
Mowakiu, a Tsawatenok man, 1914
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis40_670.jpg)
Piegan chiefs, 1900
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis41_670.jpg)
Vash Gon, a Jicarrilla man, 1910
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis42_670.jpg)
“The Hopi Maiden,” 1905
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis43_670.jpg)
A Jicarrilla girl, 1910
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis44_670.jpg)
A Zuni woman, 1903
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis45_670.jpg)
Iahla, also known as “Willow,” of the Taos Pueblo, 1905
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis46_670.jpg)
A Papago woman, 1907
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis47_670.jpg)
A Hupa spear fisherman watches for salmon, 1923
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis48_670.jpg)
A Maricopa woman, 1907
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis49_670.jpg)
Okuwa-Tsire, also known as “Cloud Bird,” of the San Ildefonso Pueblo, 1905
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis50_670.jpg)
A Maricopa woman with arrow-brush stalks, 1907
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis51_670.jpg)
An Apsaroke shaman, 1908
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis53_670.jpg)
A Kwakiutl chief’s daughter, 1910
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis54_670.jpg)
A Kutenai duck hunter, 1910
![](http://payload424.cargocollective.com/1/11/360454/10784528/TW_Curtis58_670.jpg)
Members of the Qagyuhl tribe dance to restore an eclipsed moon, 1910
All images courtesy of Edward S. Curtis/Library Of Congress