Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "The First Images Of Native Americans" Story

Friday, September 18, 2020

The "The First Images Of Native Americans" Story

It was an ordinary day. Reading my latest edition of the Saturday Evening Post magazine when I came across a story titled "Earliest Pictures of Native Americans." The story told of a Jewish photographer's nearly forgotten portraits of Cheyenne Indians.

Photographer Soloman Nunes Carvalho

The year was 1853 when Soloman Nunes Carvalho placed his 10 pound daguerreotype camera on his tripod and snapped a photograph of a pair of Cheyenne Indians. Today the image taken that day in 1853 came still be recognized as two figures on the left of the print with drying animal hides on the right side of the print. Soloman was 38 at the time and an unknown daguerrotypist when he received an offer from Col. John C. Fremont, the most famous explorer of the time. The offer was to act as Fremont's official photographer for his fifth westward expedition. Fremont had always taken an artist on his trips, but decided it was time to use the new photographic technology to document his expedition.

This dagerrotype shows animal hides hanging on the right
of the photograph with two Native American figures on the left.

Daguerrotypy was the earliest form of photography having been invented in 1839. At that time in history, the photo- graphers that could be found were all working indoors. During the trip west Carvalho worked at his craft and succeeded in capturing images of landscapes, buffalo and the expansive terrain of the West. It was during a supply stop along the Santa Fe Trail that he encountered the Cheyenne Village that is shown in his photographs. He said that he had a hard time taking photos of the Native Americans since they couldn't sit still for his long exposures times. Today there are about 60 surviving Daguerreotypes that tell the story of his journey West with Fremont. Another photographer who used his camera to capture the experiences of native Americans was Edward S. Curtis who had moved to the state of Washington in 1887.

Photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis

Over 30 years he used his camera to document over 80 tribes west of the Mississippi, from the Mexican border to northern Alaska. His many photographs have preserved the legacy and culture of the tribes in the early 1900s. During the expansion west, Colonists began to encroach upon what had been Native American lands. Then in 1830 President Andrew Jackson helped pass the Indian Removal Act which gave the government power to take over American Indian occupied territory east of the Mississippi which forcibly moved tribes to the West. This movement of the Native Americans has become known as the "Trail of Tears", since thousands of Native Americans died in the long journey west.

A Navajo medicine man, c. 1900

By 1840 thousands of Native Americans had been moved west to land designated for them. But, it wasn't long before Native American land was once again taken over by more white Americans. Images captured by Edward S. Curtis began to show the plight of the Native Americans. His collection of 227 gelatin silver and platinum prints were displayed in the New York Public Library. In 1851 Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act which created the Indian Reservation System which required Native Americans to have permission to leave their reservations. During the next 30 years Native Americans and American troops battled in several locations as the Native Americans attempted to stay on the lands they were told they could have.

Navajo Yebichai (Yei Bi Chei) dancers c.1900

Mr. Curtis documented Native Americans into the early 1900s. Many of his photo- graphs can be found in the Library of Congress. You can read all you want about history, but photo- graphy gives you the visual expression that you need to make it come to life. Edward Curtis was one of those photographers who led the way to document history with his camera. Edward Sheriff Curtis died on October 19, 1952 having been one of America's best photographers whose work focused on the American West, specifically Native Americans. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.