Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952)

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Edward S. Curtis - Canon de Chelly - Navajo - Vintage Goldtone - 11 x 14 inches
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NEW
Canon de Chelly - Navajo
11 x 14 inches
Vintage Goldtone

Edward S. Curtis - Son of the Desert - Navaho - Vintage Goldtone - 14 x 11 inches - Original Vintage Frame
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Son of the Desert - Navaho
14 x 11 inches
Vintage Goldtone

Edward S. Curtis - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches

Edward S. Curtis - Piki Maker - Orotone on glass (goldtone) - 10 x 8 inches - Original Vintage Frame
Piki Maker
10 x 8 inches
Orotone on glass (goldtone)

Edward S. Curtis - Piki Maker - Orotone on glass (goldtone) - 14 x 11 inches
Piki Maker
14 x 11 inches
Orotone on glass (goldtone)

Edward S. Curtis - The Oath - Apsaroke - Vintage Goldtone - 14 x 11 inches - This image is the frontice image to Volume IV. This is a very rare example of this image as a goldtone. The condition is absolutely beautiful. <br> <br>In stature and in vigor the Apsaroke, or Crows, excelled all other <br>tribes of the Rocky Mountain region, and were surpassed by none <br>in bravery and in devotion to the supernatural forces that gave <br>them strength against their enemies. Social laws, rigidly adhered to, <br>prevented marriage of those even distantly related, and the hardships <br>of their life as hunters eliminated infant weaklings. The rigors of this <br>life made the women as strong as the men; and women who could <br>carry a quarter of a buffalo apparently without great exertion, ride all <br>day and all night with a raiding war-party, or travel afoot two hundred <br>and fifty miles across an unmarked wilderness of mountains, plains, <br>and swollen streams in four days and nights, were not the women to <br>bring forth puny offspring. <br> <br>The Apsaroke were and are the proudest of Indians, and although <br>comparatively few (they now number only one thousand seven <br>hundred and eighty-seven, and are constantly decreasing), they rarely <br>allied themselves with other tribes for purposes of defence. For <br>probably two and a half centuries they were the enemy of every tribe <br>that came within striking distance, and for a goodly part of this time <br>they were virtually surrounded by hostile bands with a common hatred <br>against this mountain tribe that likened itself to a pack of wolves. The <br>swarming thousands of the western Sioux, aided by the Cheyenne <br>and Arapaho, tried to force them westward. The powerful Blackfeet <br>invaded their territory from the north and northwest, Flatheads and <br>Nez Percés were worthy foes from the west, and the wily Shoshoni <br>pressed in from the south; yet the Apsaroke were ever ready to repel <br>invasion from whatever direction it might come. <br> <br>While the general status was one of hostility, there were brief <br>intervals of peace with the different tribes, even with the Sioux, their <br>bitterest foe, with whom at times they smoked the pipe and negotiated <br>peace for a year. Such truces so seriously made in many smokes, <br>were often quickly broken by some impetuous or irresponsible young <br>man stealing a horse or a woman; then in a moment peace was at <br>an end and conflict raged again. As a rule, however, these periods of <br>1. <br> <br>The North American Indian: Volume 4 <br>tranquillity lasted long enough to permit discussion of previous fights <br>and a general comparison of the honors therein won. <br> <br>The country which the Apsaroke ranged and claimed as their own <br>was an extensive one for so small a tribe. In area it may be compared, <br>east and west, to the distance from Boston to Buffalo, and north to <br>south, from Montreal to Washington — certainly a vast region to <br>be dominated by a tribe never numbering more than fi fteen hundred <br>warriors. The borders of their range were, roughly, a line extending <br>from the mouth of the Yellowstone southward through the Black <br>Hills, thence westward to the crest of the Wind River mountains, <br>northwestward through the Yellowstone Park to the site of Helena, <br>thence to the junction of the Musselshell and the Missouri, and down <br>the latter stream to the mouth of the Yellowstone. This region is the <br>veritable Eden of the Northwest. With beautiful broad valleys and <br>abundant wooded streams, no part of the country was more favorable <br>for buffalo, while its wild forested mountains made it almost unequalled <br>for elk and other highland game. <br> <br>The Apsaroke enjoyed the climax of their existence during the <br>scant century following the acquisition of horses. Previous to that <br>event their life had not known the fulness that was theirs when they <br>had herds of horses, and firearms had supplanted arrows and spears. <br>Notwithstanding their aggressive, warlike disposition, they never <br>were in serious conflict with the Government, nor did they commit <br>many depredations against white settlers, who, although regarded <br>by them as trespassers, were rarely molested. The Indians captured <br>many horses from early hunters and trappers, but this was to them <br>a legitimate procedure, for these men were intruders on their lands, <br>taking their game, consequently all captures of livestock were regarded <br>as just compensation. <br> <br>By all observers who have written of them, the Crows have been <br>pronounced exceedingly lax in morals, and while many statements of <br>this sort have been overdrawn, they are certainly an unusually sensual <br>people. Still, as an alien race, we should hardly presume to judge <br>them wholly by our standards and not give them credit for their own <br>customs and codes. They on their part consider some of our customs <br>highly objectionable and immoral. <br> <br>In the old times the Apsaroke, during a large part of the year, were <br>constantly on the move. One day they would be quietly encamped <br>on one of their favorite streams, the next travelling away in quest of <br>2. <br> <br>The Apsaroke <br>buffalo or solely for the mere pleasure of going. Their customary camps <br>were along the mountain streams, where the lodges were commonly <br>placed in a circle, but at times, where the valley was narrow, they were close together, paralleling the wooded watercourse. <br>The larger camps were always the scene of great activity. Horses <br>were tethered everywhere close at hand; on the slopes far and near <br>thousands were grazing, while on the nearby hilltops groups of <br>people were statuesquely outlined against the sky. Here are chiefs and <br>councillors in quiet discussion of tribal affairs. As they pass the pipe <br>from man to man and look down upon the village with its hundreds <br>of lodges their eyes are glad, for the picture is one of plenty, and the <br>murmur of the camp as it is wafted to their ears tells of happiness. <br>by are laughing, romping children, the bronze skin of their rounded <br>bodies gleaming in the sunlight, and the old men reflect, “It is well <br>that their bodies know the heat and the cold; it will make them strong <br>warriors and mothers.” On another hill proud youths are seen, decked <br>in the savage trappings that make glad their hearts. Their words are <br>of the hunt, the war-path, and sweethearts. Not far distant is a group <br>of maidens gayly dressed in garments of soft skins. It is not many <br>moons since they romped about with the freedom of fawns, unabashed <br>that the breeze caressed their bodies; but all that is past now; they are <br>maidens, every part save face and hands must be carefully concealed, <br>and a keen-eyed mother is always near. But all cannot be childhood <br>and youth and love-making; on other outlooks are wrinkled old women <br>who live only in the past, muttering and dreaming of the days of their <br>youth, when husbands and sweethearts rode away to conflict, — of <br>the days when brave warriors stole them from the arms of others, — <br>when warrior husbands took them along on their forays, perhaps to see their men killed and themselves borne off by the victorious Lakota, on whose coup-sticks waved the hair upon which they had lavished so <br>much loving attention. Farther from the village mourners cry out in <br>anguish for those whose lives have been taken; and on distant peaks <br>are lonely men fasting through the long days and nights in supplication <br>for spiritual strength. In the camp itself there is an endless panorama of activities and a ceaseless confusion of sounds. Women are everywhere stretching the drying hides, and filling great drying-racks with long thin strips of rich, red buffalo-meat. In the lodges others are tanning skins, and on many sides can be heard the thud of the wooden tray as women. <br> <br>The North American Indian: Volume 4 <br>gamble with plum-seed dice. In other lodges men are shouting a wild <br>song as they engage in the hand gambling game, while in the open <br>another group is playing at hoop-and-pole, and others the game of the <br>arrows. The sick and the wounded are being cared for by medicinemen, who accompany their incantation with rattle and drum. Men and women, old and young, are constantly passing from lodge to lodge for a word or a smoke, and food is always placed before them. <br>As evening approaches the people begin to gather around the <br>lodge-fires, and with the arrival of men laden with the product of the <br>hunt, the village assumes an even livelier air. Heralds of the chiefs <br>are shouting invitations to the feasts, and as night falls the lodges <br>glow in the darkness. If the weather is at all cool, the evening is spent <br>mostly indoors, where on soft skins and furs heaped in profusion the <br>people lounge in full contentment. From many dwellings echo the <br>muffled beat of the drum and the droning song of men and women, <br>and occasionally is heard the doleful note of a flute as some lovesick <br>youth serenades his sweetheart. <br> <br>Early in the morning the village is astir, for the counsel of the men <br>who have thoughts is, “Do not follow the sleep to the end, but waken <br>when it requires determination; be up and alive to what is going on <br>about you!” As soon as the family awaken they throw blankets around <br>their bodies and go to the river for their morning bath. If the water is <br>icy cold, so much the better, for it requires a strong heart to plunge <br>in, and it inures the body to cold and heat. Husband and wife and <br>small children go together, each family a group of itself. Probably <br>not ten yards away is another family, and so on for a mile or more, <br>many hundreds bathing at the same time. At other hours of the day it <br>would be the height of impropriety for a woman to expose any part <br>of her body, but at the morning bath there is no embarrassment, “for <br>this is our custom,” they say. Truly custom is a strange thing, for an <br>Apsaroke woman — who a half-hour before has been playing about in <br>the water like a happy seal — blushes at the picture of a white woman <br>in a décolleté gown, and says, “Such women have no shame!” Parties <br>of maidens, accompanied by some watchful mother, bathe in secluded <br>nooks. <br> <br>When the chief decides that camp is to be moved, his herald goes <br>through the village in the evening, crying out, “Prepare, prepare! <br>Tomorrow we move!” And again at the first blush of day he rides from <br>end to end of the village, calling, “Hun hun héeeeeee! To-day the chief. <br> <br>The Apsaroke <br>says we move toward the buffalo! Men, bring in the horses; women, <br>throw down the lodges!” As all have known from the previous <br>announcement that they are to move, the morning meal is finished <br>before daylight appears. Soon all the herds of horses come trotting in <br>and the women are running about among them throwing ropes over the <br>necks of the old, gentle pack-animals. Others are at work on the lodges, <br>the covers of which come rattling down, soon making of the camp a <br>skeleton of bare poles. From the middle of each framework a column <br>of smoke curls skyward; sleepy children still in their blankets are <br>rolled out as their mothers pull the robes from under them in the work <br>of packing. The tousled-headed youngsters whimper for something to <br>eat and are thrown a hard, dry piece of meat for their breakfast. Soon <br>the horses are packed with high bundles of robes and clothing, and the <br>lodge-poles tied at the sides, usually six to a side, two horses being <br>required for each lodge. Here and there horses break away and go <br>galloping through the camp before their packs are secured, scattering <br>their loads broadcast, and causing great excitement and confusion. <br>Women call, children cry, grandmothers chatter and mumble. <br>The chief rides off a short distance in the direction they are to go, <br>and some of his old men sit about him smoking and talking. Then <br>they move forward a distance and halt while the people complete <br>their preparations for the march. Now the line begins to form — <br>first the chiefs and old men; then a band of arrogant, gayly dressed <br>Lumpwoods, with newly stolen wives riding behind and carrying <br>their husbands’ shields and lances; next a body of clansmen with a <br>group of proud young wives bedecked in all their fi nery. Behind them <br>the column continues to form, family by family, each driving its herd <br>of horses, until at length come straggling by those who have been <br>slow in packing. A moving column of six hundred lodges is miles in <br>length and of a width determined by the groups of families or by the <br>nature of the country traversed. When they near the place the chief has designated for the night’s camp, many of the grandfathers ride ahead and select spots for their own lodges, clear the ground, and gather dry wood. As the irregular line drags in, they stand beside their chosen places, calling out to their wives where to come. If the weather be cold, they already have kindled small fires, and now take down the <br>little children from the tops of the packs and hold them in the warmth <br>of the leaping flames. A splendid picture of the nomads’ life they made as the caravan. <br> <br>The North American Indian: Volume 4 <br>moved across far-reaching plain, hill, and valley. The crossing of a <br>broad stream added much to the animation of the scene. One summer <br>nine hundred and fifty lodges of Apsaroke went to the Yellowstone, <br>intending to cross. As the water was very high and the river nearly <br>half a mile in width, the Kick Bellys, numbering four hundred and <br>fifty lodges, lost their courage, and would not attempt the crossing. <br>All the others, however, were unafraid and passed over. They used <br>no boats, but made small rafts of driftwood, laying the ends of the <br>lodge-poles on these rude craft, and allowing the tops to float on the <br>water behind. On the poles a large piece of old lodge-covering was <br>spread, and on that were piled the domestic belongings, the edges of <br>the skin being gathered up and tied at the top to protect the load from <br>splashing water. Perched upon this bundle rode the old women and <br>the children. Two young men grasped the manes of strong swimming <br>horses and swam along by their side, towing the raft across. Behind, <br>holding to the ends of the lodge-poles, swam the young women and <br>maidens, clad only in a short skirt reaching from waist to knee. It <br>was a time of great merriment and fun-making, yet one not without <br>its serious side, for a tottering old woman gazed long at the swirling <br>river and, declaring that she was not afraid to die but feared the water, <br>stabbed herself and fell lifeless. The crossing occupied four days, for <br>the current was swift, and many who had no horses were compelled <br>to wait for assistance from their relatives. Before going into the water <br>men and women painted red stripes about waist, wrists, and ankles, for protection against the water-monsters that were believed to inhabit all large streams. Necklaces of white beads were never worn in the water, for beads of that sort were believed to be hailstones, the symbol of the Thunderbird, a deadly enemy of water-monsters, which therefore would be glad to swallow any one thus showing his friendship with the Thunderbird.
The Oath - Apsaroke
14 x 11 inches
Vintage Goldtone
Edition: c. 1908

Edward S. Curtis - The Oath - Apsaroke - Vintage Goldtone - 10 x 8 inches
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The Oath - Apsaroke
c. 1908
10 x 8 inches
Vintage Goldtone

Edward S. Curtis - The Salmon Stream - Hupa - Vintage Goldtone - 10 x 8 inches
The Salmon Stream - Hupa
1923
10 x 8 inches
Vintage Goldtone

Edward S. Curtis - The Three Chiefs - Piegan - Vintage Goldtone - 8 x 10 inches
SOLD
The Three Chiefs - Piegan
c. 1910
8 x 10 inches
Vintage Goldtone

Edward S. Curtis - Vash Gon - Jicarilla - Orotone on glass (goldtone) - 10 x 8 inches
Vash Gon - Jicarilla
10 x 8 inches
Orotone on glass (goldtone)

Edward S. Curtis - Complete Volume III - Sioux, Yanktonai, Assiniboin - Vintage Photogravure - 13 x 10 x 2 inches
Complete Volume III - Sioux, Yanktonai, Assiniboin
13 x 10 x 2 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Complete Volume VII - Yakima, Klickitat, Interior Salish, Kutenai - Vintage Photogravure - 12 1/4 x 10 1/4 x 2 inches
Complete Volume VII - Yakima, Klickitat, Interior Salish, Kutenai
12 1/4 x 10 1/4 x 2 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Provenance: Private Collector, NY
SOLD
Rush Gatherer - Kutenai
8 x 10 inches
Vintage Goldtone
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - 50% OFF Opportunity Offering - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
50% OFF Opportunity Offering
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches

Edward S. Curtis - 50% OFF Opportunity Offering - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
50% OFF Opportunity Offering
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches

Edward S. Curtis - "Crying to the Spirits" - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
"Crying to the Spirits"
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - A Blackfoot Tipi - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
A Blackfoot Tipi
1926
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - A Chief's Son - Assiniboin - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
A Chief's Son - Assiniboin
1926
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - A Hill Camp - Spokan - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
A Hill Camp - Spokan
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - A Little Oto - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
A Little Oto
1927
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - A Piegan Play Tipi - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
A Piegan Play Tipi
1926
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - A River Camp - Yanktonai - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - A beautiful Yanktonai camp along the river bend is pictured in this photogravure by Edward S. Curtis. Three tipis are visible tucked into the trees and shrubs surrounding the waterway. There are a few Natives around the camp preforming tasks and youngsters watching. This image was taken by Curtis in 1908 and is on display at our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>The Yanktonai had five principal religious rites "Sun Dance," "Vision Cry," Ghost Keeper," "Buffalo Chant" (puberty), and "Foster-parent Chant", similar to the Tetons, but did not include "White Buffalo Woman." The Assiniboin venerated Thunder and Sun and "Anu k-ite" (Double Face), vaguely described as a spirit which appeared to devotees in the Sun Dance, and told them he was searching for those who did not make sacrifice to him. - Edward Curtis <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
A River Camp - Yanktonai
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Period Frame
A Wichita Dancer
1927
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - A Young Warrior - Nez Perce - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
A Young Warrior - Nez Perce
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - After the Snow - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - This image is of a Lakota tipi tucked into the trees on a snowy day. The Sioux used tipis because they were easily portable and they were a generally nomadic people (to follow the buffalo). The construction consisted of a framework of about 15 poles covered in tanned buffalo skins. Each had a smoke hole at the top with two flaps to regulate the draft. <br> <br>This photogravure was taken by Edward Curtis for his North American Indian Project and now is on display in our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
After the Snow
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - An Afternoon Chat - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - A handful of young Hopi maidens look down at the Edward Curtis’ camera from an adobe rooftop. The structure is of the typical Hopi adobe structure constructed of undressed stone fragments bound with mud plaster. There is a large ladder leading up to the rooftop. The rooftops were made of wooden beams resting on the tops of the walls and covered in rod and grass thatching, a layer of plaster and then topped with a covering of dry earth. <br> <br>These impressive structures can be up to four or even five stories high and are a fine show of ingenuity on the part of the Hopi people. The girls in this picture are dressed in costume, and most have their hair in two twisted buns on either side of their heads, indicating that they are unmarried. The ladder, which thins at the top bring the viewers eyes right up to the girls in the sky. This photogravure by Edward Curtis was taken in 1906 and is available at our Aspen Art Gallery.
An Afternoon Chat
1906
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - An Assiniboin Lodge - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - In this image an Assiniboin tipi rests on the shore of a river. A Native woman is bending over to stake the tipi and finish its construction. Tipis were easily portable so the people could move around for the change of seasons or to follow the buffalo. There is another tipi in the background that is only the under layer of wooden poles without the buffalo skin outer layer. This photogravure was taken by Edward S. Curtis in 1908 and is on display in our Aspen Art Gallery.
An Assiniboin Lodge
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Apsaroke Woman - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - This Apsaroke woman stands facing the camera so that we can view her entire figure. She is wearing a dress very typical of the Apsaroke people generally made of sheep skin. On the neck and sleeves this dress may be embroidered with porcupine quills or beads but the most striking element of these dresses are the elk teeth. From top to bottom of the dress, elk teeth adorn the dress. The number of these teeth were a show of the families wealth as a fine dress required over a thousand teeth. <br> <br>She is holding a short staff, perhaps a walking stick and standing in front of what looks like an adobe wall. This photogravure was taken by Edward Curtis in 1908 and is on display in our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>“At the climax of the life of the Apsaroke a good horse purchased a hundred, and no self-respecting man presumed to marry unless he and his family could furnish the elk-teeth necessary to adorn a wife’s dress.” - Edward Curtis
Apsaroke Woman
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Apsaroke Youths - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Apsaroke Youths
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Arapaho Water Girl - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Arapaho Water Girl
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Arikara Corn Ceremony - Bearing out the Osiers - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Arikara Corn Ceremony - Bearing out the Osiers
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Arikara Medicine Ceremony - The Buffalo - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Arikara Medicine Ceremony - The Buffalo
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Arikara Summer Home - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Arikara Summer Home
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Assiniboin Camp near the Rocky Mountains - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Assiniboin Camp near the Rocky Mountains
1926
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Assiniboin Camp on Bow River - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Assiniboin Camp on Bow River
1926
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Author's Temporary Camp - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Author's Temporary Camp
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Berry-Pickers in Camp - Chipewyan - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Berry-Pickers in Camp - Chipewyan
1926
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Blackfoot Finery - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Blackfoot Finery
1926
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Blue Horse - Ogalala - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born about 1830. He led five war-parties against Ute, Shoshoni, Bannock, and Piegan. A prominent chief for many years, who boasts that he has always been opposed to war with the white people.
Blue Horse - Ogalala
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Brule Warriors - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Brule Warriors
1907
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Buffalo - Berry Gatherers - Mandan - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Buffalo - Berry Gatherers - Mandan
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Camp by a Prairie Lake - Piegan - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Camp by a Prairie Lake - Piegan
1911
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Camp Life - Assiniboin - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - "Three centuries ago the seven divisions of the Dakota were dwelling in the region between the headwaters of the Mississippi and the west end of Lake Superior. About the time of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, a band of the Yanktonai, deserting their tribesmen in anger, says tradition, over wrong done to the chief's wife, moved away to the north and east, until, after indefinite wandering, they established a temporary home on the shores of a wooded lake. Thus was born the Assiniboin tribe, first mentioned as distinct from the Dakota by the Jesuit Relation of 1640 on "Lake Alimibeg," later identified as either Rainy lake on the northern boundary of the present state of Minnesota, or else Lake Nipigon, north of Lake Superior in the direction of Hudson Bay." by Edward S. Curtis in "The North American Indian," Volume III
Camp Life - Assiniboin
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Cayuse Mother and Child - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Cayuse Mother and Child
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Cayuse Woman - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Cayuse Woman
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Chiefs in the Sun Dance Parade - Cheyenne - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Chiefs in the Sun Dance Parade - Cheyenne
1927
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Cree Fishing Camp - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - Cree people used s dip-net in the winter months and a gill-net in summer to fish with. They caught maskininge, whitefish, lake trout and wall-eyed pike-perch which they would often freeze and preserve. Spearing fish was another method generally done by the males of the tribe. This image shows a group of Natives at camp either before or after a day of fishing. <br> <br>Taken by Edward S. Curtis in 1926 this image was printed on Japon Vellum paper. It is now on display in our Aspen Gallery.
Cree Fishing Camp
1926
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Crow Dog - Brule - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Photographed in 1907 by Edward S. Curtis, Crow dog was a Brule sub-chief who is noted to have once murdered Spotted tail as the result of a feud involving jealousy and politics. <br> <br>The Brule tribe was a subset of the Lakota or Teton Sioux. Located in North and South Dakota or Montana. It was typical of the Siouan tribes for the men to part their hair down the middle as seen in this photo by Edward S. Curtis. This photogravure by Edward S. Curtis is from his 3rd volume and printed on Dutch Van Gelder paper. This piece is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Crow Dog - Brule
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Custer Monument - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - After the Custer battle Congress as well as the military authorities awakened to the seriousness of conditions among the Lakota. On August 15, 1876, an act was passed for the appointment of a new commission, and on August 24, the personnel was made up as follows: George W. Manypenny, Henry C. Bullis, Newton Edmunds, Bishop Henry B. Whipple, A.G. Boone, A.S. Gaylord, General H.H. Sibley, and Dr. J.W. Daniels. They prepared a treaty in advance, the main object was to secure the cession of the Black Hills. Many concessions and advantages were promised and an effort was to be made to move the Lakota into Indian Territory. In violation of the Laramie treaty of 1868, no effort was made to obtain the consent of three-fourths of the adult males; but instead the treaty was first presented to the friendly Spotted Tail and his leaders, and then to the headman of the other bands separately. By the end of October all of the Lakota except the irreconcilable bands of Gall and Sitting Bull had signed. The Indian Territory project was abandoned, and after discussing other localities without results the bands settled down to a prosaic existence on the reservations where their survivors are still living. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Custer Monument
1905
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Daughter of American Horse - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Photographer Edward Curtis took this photogravure of American Horse’s daughter.American Horse was elected as an Ogalala chief one of the seven separate bands of the Teton Sioux. Each Band had its own head chief and they generally lived apart from the other bands. Chiefs would be elected at a general council of warriors and would stay on as chief until old age made them unfit for war, or they lost the wealth demanded for hospitality. Chiefs were influential and able to control their bands well. <br> <br>American Horse’s daughter would have lived comfortable and married well because of her wealth and status. She pictured here in a heavily adorned dress (probably quillwork) with her hair parted as is typical and braided. Photographer Edward S. Curtis took this photo in 1908 and it was printed on Japon Vellum paper. It is now available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Daughter of American Horse
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Elk Boy - Ogalala - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born 1848. At fourteen he accompanied a party under the great leader White Swan against the Apsaroke. At twenty he lead his first war-party, which met and killed thirty Apsaroke, Elk Boy himself counting two first coups in the fight. One of the Apsaroke, who were surrounded on a rocky hill, dashed out alone; Elk Boy rushed to meet him, shot him down, struck him with his gun, and scalped him. Another coming to the assistance of the Apsaroke was shot by others of the Sioux, and Elk Boy struck him as he fell. He was engaged in eleven battles against the Apsaroke, Shoshoni, Pawnee, Assiniboin, Arikara, and Ponca; fought once against the soldiers. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
Elk Boy - Ogalala
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Elk Head and Sacred Pipe Bundle - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - This photo was taken by Edward S. Curtis in 1907 and the story is as follows: According to the Lakota Legend they were a people with little knowledge of how to live or worship before the coming of a divine messenger named “White Buffalo Woman”. White Buffalo Woman left with her people along with her teachings a sacred calf pipe. At the time of Edward S. Curtis’ photograph Elk Head had been the keeper and protector of the pipe for 31 years with 6 other keepers prior to him. This myth is of relatively recent origin, about 368 years before Curtis met the tribe. This amount of time would have meant that Elk Head’s predecessors had protected the sacred pipe for about 56 years each. To the Lakota the pipe is the holiest of things. <br> <br>Elk head holds the beaded and quilled pipe bag in this image while standing in the plains. The image was taken for Curtis’ volume three and was printed on Dutch Van Gelder. It is now available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Elk Head and Sacred Pipe Bundle
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Fasting - Sioux - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - There were five principal religious rites "Sun Dance," "Vision Cry," Ghost Keeper," "Buffalo Chant" (puberty), and "Foster-parent Chant." All were intoned by a mythical person, "Pte-sa-wi ya," "White Buffalo Woman." The dances of the societies had no religious significance, and there was no ritualistic healing ceremony. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
Fasting - Sioux
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Flathead Buffalo - Skin Lodge - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - This photogravure was taken by Edward S. Curtis sin 1910 and depicts a typical Flathead lodge in the shade. Considered one of the Salishan tribes on the interior the Flatheads controlled a portion of Montana. A tribe that from the very beginning of their history was abundant in horses which would make them a target of attack for other tribes less fortunate. Flathead country was beautiful and mountainous. The Flatheads have no tradition of any lodges other than buffalo skin lodges. <br> <br>Printed on Japon Vellum for Curtis’ volume VII of the North American Indian. This piece is now available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Flathead Buffalo - Skin Lodge
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Flying Shield - Yanktonai - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born near Fort Berthhold, North Dakota, in 1856. He first went with a war-party against the Ute when he was fifteen years of age, on which occasion the Yanktonai brought back several horses. The next year he went against the Hidatsa with a party which took seven horses, and on several occasions Flying Shield captured horses for the Assiniboin. While with a party near Milk river he and another Yanktonai killed an entire Cree family in a solitary lodge, Flying Shield taking the man's scalp. He engaged in several horse-stealing expeditions against the Apsaroke and Nez Perces, and his war-honors were restricted chiefly to the capture of horses. His medicine consisted of a pipe and a wolf-skin. He married at twenty-one. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
Flying Shield - Yanktonai
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Goldenrod Meadows - Piegan - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - In this Edward S. Curtis photo two young Piegan maidens collects goldenrods in the meadow. The look forward to the camera inquisitively. Edward Curtis took this photo in 1911 for his 6th volume of the Native American Indian. It is printed on Japon Vellum and available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Goldenrod Meadows - Piegan
1911
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Good Day Woman - Ogalala - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - "The decorative art of the Lakota found expression on their deerskin garments, pipe-bags, saddle-blankets, robes, parfleches, shields and tipis… There seems to be no fixed motif in many of their designs, each woman reading into her art whatever may be prompted by her thoughts, the same figure sometimes meaning as many different things as there are workers." by Edward S. Curtis in "The North American Indian," Volume III <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Good Day Woman - Ogalala
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Good Lance - Ogalala - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born 1846. At thirteen he accompanied a party under his brother, then the possessor of the name Good Lance, against Pawnee, four woman and one man of whom they killed without loss to themselves. At twenty-five he led a party, and himself won first coup from the leader of the Pawnee, whom he struck with his lance and unhorsed, capturing the horse. On another occasion he struck with his coup stick a Pawnee boy left behind by his retreating companions; the father, armed with a Spencer rifle, turned to the rescue and fired at close range, but missed. Good Lance struck him with a sword, and others closing in killed father and son. He participated in ninety raids, mostly against the Pawnee. Fought against the troops in 1878, but was on the southern plains in 1876 and consequently took no part in the Custer fight. From a famous Cheyenne medicine-man south of the Platte he bought medicine of pulverized roots tied in deerskin, as a charm against bullets and arrows. The medicine-man clothed him in a buffalo-robe with horns and tail attached, and rubbed the charm all over his body. To prove that nothing could now harm him, the Cheyenne discharged a pistol at him, but the bullet only inflicted a skin wound in the arm; he then struck Good Lance in the back with a bayonet, but the resulting wound was slight. Good Lance paid the medicine-man a horse, and thereafter before entering a fight rubbed the medicine over his body. He fasted five times, the first time during two days and two nights. At dawn of the second day a white-breasted crow perched near him; at daylight the crow was transformed into a hawk. A thunder-storm approached and the hawk became a horse, which trotted toward the storm, while from beyond the ridge over which the animal passed was heard the sound of many horses whinnying. The storm broke, and holding his pipe close, he drew his robe over his crouching body and waited amid the rain and hail. After the storm abated he perceived that all the ground about him was perfectly dry, and that there were four men, each with a lance thrust into his body, who became mere ridges of hail. The faster concluded that the import of the vision was that he was destined to kill four men with a lance as he afterwards really did. His second fast was not rewarded, for he remained out only one day: the camp was being moved and he accompanied the others. On another occasion, he began to fast in the evening, standing upon a hilltop with his robe drawn about him. The following day as he slept under his robe he became aware of something creeping over his body toward his face. When he saw that it was a rattlesnake he was frightened; he dared not move. He set his teeth, and that thought came to him that this thing ought not to happen to one who had made offerings. The snake began to crawl away, and in his relief he moved; the reptile coiled at once and struck. Returning to the camp he went into a sweat-lodge, and though his body became stiff and swollen, he recovered. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Good Lance - Ogalala
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Good Morning - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - This Edward S. Curtis photo depicts a morning scene in a Hopi village. There are young girls in traditional dress and hair and it is a great example of the complex apartment-like buildings they created for themselves. This photogravure was taken by Edward Curtis in 1906 and is printed on Japon Vellum. The piece is now available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Good Morning
1906
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Good Voice Hawk - Yanktonai - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born in 1832. He first went on the war-path at nineteen, his party meeting the Apsaroke and killing six of them. On this occasion Good Voice hawk counted a first coup. He was the member of another war-party which met some Apsaroke near the Yellowstone, killed one, and drove the rest across the river; in this fight also he counted a first coup. Good Voice Hawk invoked the sun, but had no vision. He married at twenty-three. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Good Voice Hawk - Yanktonai
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Gray Bear - Yanktonai - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born in South Dakota in 1845. When fourteen years of age he joined a war party, but achieved no honors. He fought against the Hidatsa, running down, while mounted, a horse less warrior and counting first coup. In another raid against the Hidatsa, he successfully captured nine tethered horses on a dark and stormy night. Gray Bear's tutelary deities were the sun and the horses he rode in battle. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Gray Bear - Yanktonai
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Half Moon - Nez Perce - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Half Moon - Nez Perce
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Hamasilahl - Qagyuhl, Vol. X - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Pictured here by photographer Edward S. Curtis is Hamasilahl of the Qagyuhl tribe. The Qagyuhl were one of the very few tribes that true primitive life could be observed by Edward S. Curtis. They had dramatic and well developed ceremonies and their development of ceremonial masks and costumes was far more advanced than other tribes. <br> <br>Hamasilahl means "Wasp-Embodiment" was a dance that came from creatures in the sky for ceremony. The image was taken by Edward Curtis in 1914 and is printed on Japon Vellum. The piece is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Hamasilahl - Qagyuhl, Vol. X
1914
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - He Perceived an Earthen Vessel - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - This Edward Curtis photo was taken in 1908 and depicts a reenactment of the Legend of Taking up the Bowl. <br> <br>The Hidatsa tribe had a great ceremony in addition to the Sun Dance called the Ceremony of the Bowl. According to the legend a long time ago one of the tribe was fasting on a shore far from the village and crying to the spirits to pity him. Just before the sun went down he saw something on the shore where the waves had lapped the sand and he found it to be an earthen vessel marked with the track of a brant around its rim. <br> <br>He took it home and that night he had a vision. The bowl spoke to him saying, "My child, I am Old Woman Who Never Dies. Hold me sacred, and I will bring you good fortune, for I have many friends among the spirits. The corn and buffalo-paunch are my food. I shall teach you the songs and rites of a ceremony that will cause your people to prosper and bring rain upon your crops. Make offerings to me of buffalo-paunches, and hang them before me on cottonwood stakes. Prepare a pipe and tobacco for Itsihkawahidish and Adhapushish, who aid me in making medicine, for they are men and like to smoke. All the birds and animals living on this lake are of my medicine. Let no man who has blood on his hands enter the lodge where this ceremony takes place, nor permit any woman to be present." <br> <br>She revealed to him the rites of taking up the bowl. This would be a huge ceremony for the tribe. <br> <br>This image was printed on Dutch Van Gelder paper and is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
He Perceived an Earthen Vessel
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Head-Dress of Matoki Society - Blood - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Head-Dress of Matoki Society - Blood
1926
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Hidatsa Mother - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - This beautiful image photographed by Edward S. Curtis is of a Hidatsa mother with a small child strapped to her back. When a child was born the parents made a feast and a prominent figure, likely and elderly man or woman was called upon to name the infant. There was no ceremony connected with piercing the ears a job given to the grandmother. This Edward S. Curtis photo was printed in 1908 on Dutch Van Gelder and is for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>"The Hidatsa, commonly known under the inappropriate appellation "Gros Ventres of the Missouri," differed from most of the tribes of the northern plains in that they were a sedentary and semi-agricultural people, gaining part of their livelihood, of course, by the chase. Their habitat for many generations has been along the Missouri from heart river to the Little Missouri, in North Dakota." from Volume IV in Edward Curtis' "The North American Indian"
Hidatsa Mother
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - His Fights - Ogalala - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born 1832. At fourteen he accompanied a war-party under Long Bear and Buffalo Head against the Apsaroke. The ground was muddy, and the horses of the chiefs becoming exhausted, the warriors went on without their leaders. Arriving in the Crow country, they charged upon some hunters who were engaged in cutting up meat, killed and scalped two, and escaped with about ten horses. His Fights and the other boys guarded the clothing and extra horses of the warriors during this fight. When a young man, he went again against the Apsaroke. When the enemy was sighted, White Man's Fire, the medicine-man, donned his headdress of buffalo-horns and eagle-feathers, and while the chief held forward the war pipe he prayed, each of the warriors extending his own pipe toward the enemy. Then the medicine-man rode toward the war-pipe, which now lay on the ground, dismounted, and sat in front of it, while His Fights raised it and gave it to White Man's Fire, saying "Brother-in-law, go and tell the warriors what you have seen." A bit of buffalo-chip was placed on the top of the tobacco in the pipe and fire applied, after which the medicine-man smoked. Then he pointed with his thumbs and thrust one hand after another in the direction of the enemy, exclaiming "She! She!"-indicating that his heart was hot against them. "I see a hundred horses coming toward us. We will kill the Raven Men and one of them will be dressed like a chief." Then they charged, and succeeded in running off about eight hundred horses. The Apsaroke rushed out, and two boys and three men, one of the latter wearing a shirt covered with weasel-skins were killed. It was afterward learned that he was Big Otter. In the retreat twenty Sioux were killed and about half of the horses lost. No scalp dance followed the return of the party. His Fights' medicine was given him by White Man's Fire, who, in the summer preceding this fight, got it in the Black Hills, from a geyser which the medicine-man entered and from which he emerged holding several long white roots, one of which he gave to each of the five warriors present, at the same time instructing them how to paint. His Fights took part in the battle of the Little Bighorn. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
His Fights - Ogalala
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Huka-Lowapi , Painting the Skull - Sioux - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Huka-Lowapi , Painting the Skull - Sioux
1907
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Huka-Lowapi, "Work-do Removes the Covering" - Sioux - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - This Edward Curtis photograph is depicting a part of a ceremony called Huka-lowapi. The name of the Huka-lowapi ceremony is taken from Huka a term of respect for ones parents or ancestors, and Lowapi, they chant. The purpose of the ceremony is to implant the virtues of kindness, generosity, hospitality, truthfulness, fairness, and honesty. At the same time it is a prayer for continued prosperity, abundance of food, health, strength, and moral well-being as people. <br> <br>"The name of the Hunká-lowanpi ceremony is derived from hunká, a term of respect for one's parents or ancestors, and lowanpi, they chant. As the Singer becomes the grandfather of the initiate, child or adult, a proper translation of the name seems to be Foster-parent Chant. The principal purpose of Hunká-lowanpi is to implant in the initiate the virtues of kindness, generosity, hospitality, truthfulness, fairness, honesty. At the same time it is a prayer for continued prosperity — for abundance of food, for health, strength, and moral well-being as a people. <br> <br>"Hunká-lowanpi is usually observed for a child who has been near to death, whose recovery is regarded as the result of the father's solemn promise to worship the Mystery by means of these rites. Having made such a vow, he begins to bend every effort to the accumulation of property— horses, skins, clothing, deerskin bags and parfléches, and many varieties of food. A sufficient quantity collected, he goes to the Hunká-lowankta, the Hunka Singer, and after the usual formal smoke announces his intention, requesting him to take charge of the ceremony. <br> <br>The Singer, accepting, provides the necessary sacred articles mentioned throughout the description of the rites, and on the day before the ceremony is to occur — it may be months after the intention was proclaimed — he calls to his tipi a certain man, to whom he offers the ceremonial pipe. After the smoke the man is informed that he has been selected as Wówashi-echúnkta, the Work-do, or Worker, which means that he will appear as the principal active participant in the rite. The Singer arrays him in new clothing, and the two sit in the rear of the tipi with the ceremonial paraphernalia tied into a bundle at the Singer's left. <br> <br>Spreading it between himself and the altar-space, Work-do calls for the buffalo-skull, which the Fire-carrier brings, wrapped in a buffalo-skin given him by the Singer, and lays tenderly on the sage. Work-do as cautiously removes the covering. He now thoroughly works a bit of red paint into a piece of buffalo-tallow, and purifies, first this mixture, then a roll of buffalo hair and a braid of sweet-grass. The hair and the sweet-grass he extends to the buffalo-skull, and after offering them to the spirits of the four quarters feigns to mark a line across its face from left temple to right, just above the orbits." -Edward S. Curtis in "The North American Indian" <br> <br>The photogravure was taken in 1907 by Edward Curtis and is printed on Dutch Van Gelder. The piece is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
Huka-Lowapi, "Work-do Removes the Covering" - Sioux
1907
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Huka-Lowapi, Fire Carrier Bringing Skull - Sioux - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
Huka-Lowapi, Fire Carrier Bringing Skull - Sioux
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Huka-Lowapi, The Altar Complete - Sioux - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - "At his bidding the Fire-carrier brings from the Singer's tipi and lays beside Work-do a bundle containing the four cherry sticks, the ear of corn, the eagle-feathers, the two Hunka pipes, and the red and blue paint — all to be used in preparing the altar. The bundle is passed through the sacred smoke. Returning to the Singer's tipi the Fire-carrier receives another skin, which he fills with sage and brings to the wakán-tipi. Spreading it between himself and the altar-space, Work-do calls for the buffalo-skull, which the Fire-carrier brings, wrapped in a buffalo-skin given him by the Singer, and lays tenderly on the sage. Work-do as cautiously removes the covering. He now thoroughly works a bit of red paint into a piece of buffalo-tallow, and purifies, first this mixture, then a roll of buffalo hair and a braid of sweet-grass. The hair and the sweet-grass he extends to the buffalo-skull, and after offering them to the spirits of the four quarters feigns to mark a line across its face from left temple to right, just above the orbits. After brushing the hair and grass downward over the face of the skull as if washing it, he offers the reddened tallow to the four spirits and paints a line across the forehead of the skull, with others down the right cheek, nose, and left cheek, and a few stripes on the horns. Back of the skull he plants the two forked sticks, lays the third wand across them, and leans the two Hunka pipes from the ground immediately in front of him to the cross-stick. Beneath it are laid two buffalo-skin rattles. The fourth stick with the ear of corn impaled on its tip and the eagle-feathers, one for each initiate, attached lower down, is implanted to the left of the two forked sticks and in a line with them. The altar is now complete." -Edward S. Curtis in "The North American Indian" <br> <br>This Edward Curtis photo was taken in 1907 of a completed ceremonial altar. Pictured are 3 Natives with a large buffalo skull in front of them. The piece was printed by Edward S. Curtis on Dutch Van Gelder and is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Huka-Lowapi, The Altar Complete - Sioux
1907
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - In the Canon - Apsaroke - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
In the Canon - Apsaroke
1905
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - In the Medicine Lodge - Arikara - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - The healers of disease were usually men belonging to the medicine fraternity, but such membership was not essential. In the treatment they used many herbs in connection with the universal incantation; but each herb employed was supposedly possessed of spiritual strength, and the knowledge of its potency with the right to use it was acquired by each medicine-man through revelation, inheritance, or purchase from some other medicine-man. Each acquisition, whether a plant, an animal, or instruction as to method, was an added unit, one more medicine. The more of such possessed by an individual the greater was his standing in the eyes of the tribe. Medicine-men procured many of their medicines by sending their wives as emissaries to men possessing the desired power, a practice common to various other tribes, as the Mandan, Hidatsa, Apsaroke, and Cheyenne. <br> <br>In treating his patient a healer usually remained four days, not singing, but smoking and praying much to his spirit helpers. If no improvement was apparent, he departed and allowed some one else to attempt a cure, but if progress was made under his ministrations, he usually remained until the patient could move about. After the recovery and before his departure the healer sang his medicine songs, in thankfulness for the success of his efforts. In short, the treatment was a combination of mental healing, primitive therapeutics, and massage.
In the Medicine Lodge - Arikara
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - In the Mountains - Sioux - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - The Teton Sioux or Lakota Indians would have been located as far West as Montana by the time Edward S. Curtis had the opportunity to photograph the tribe. This photogravure “In the Mountains" may have been taken in the Black Hills. The Sioux would live in portable tipi structures being a seminomadic people they needed to move to follow the buffalo. This camp look to be a winter camp and would be well insulated. <br> <br>This photo by Edward S. Curtis was taken in 1908 and printed on Dutch Van Gelder. The piece is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
In the Mountains - Sioux
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - In the Mountains - Spokan - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - Spokan tribes were located in the Eastern Washington area. This Edward Curtis photo was taken in 1910 of a small Spokan camp in the forest. The buffalo-skin tipis are in a small grouping. This photo by Edward S. Curtis was taken in 1910 and printed on Japon Vellum. The piece is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
In the Mountains - Spokan
1910
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Incense - Atsina - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Incense - Atsina
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Incense over a Medicine Bundle - Hidatsa - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Incense over a Medicine Bundle - Hidatsa
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Joseph - Nez Perce - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - The man who became a national celebrity with the name "Chief Joseph" was born in the Wallowa Valley in what is now northeastern Oregon in 1840. He was given the name Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, or Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain, but was widely known as Joseph, or Joseph the Younger, because his father had taken the Christian name Joseph when he was baptized at the Lapwai mission by Henry Spalding in 1838. <br>Joseph the Elder was one of the first Nez Percé converts to Christianity and an active supporter of the tribe's longstanding peace with whites. In 1855 he even helped Washington's territorial governor set up a Nez Percé reservation that stretched from Oregon into Idaho. But in 1863, following a gold rush into Nez Percé territory, the federal government took back almost six million acres of this land, restricting the Nez Percé to a reservation in Idaho that was only one tenth its prior size. Feeling himself betrayed, Joseph the Elder denounced the United States, destroyed his American flag and his Bible, and refused to move his band from the Wallowa Valley or sign the treaty that would make the new reservation boundaries official. <br>When his father died in 1871, Joseph was elected to succeed him. He inherited not only a name but a situation made increasingly volatile as white settlers continued to arrive in the Wallowa Valley. Joseph staunchly resisted all efforts to force his band onto the small Idaho reservation, and in 1873 a federal order to remove white settlers and let his people remain in the Wallowa Valley made it appear that he might be successful. But the federal government soon reversed itself, and in 1877 General Oliver Otis Howard threatened a cavalry attack to force Joseph's band and other hold-outs onto the reservation. Believing military resistance futile, Joseph reluctantly led his people toward Idaho. <br>Unfortunately, they never got there. About twenty young Nez Percé warriors, enraged at the loss of their homeland, staged a raid on nearby settlements and killed several whites. Immediately, the army began to pursue Joseph's band and the others who had not moved onto the reservation. Although he had opposed war, Joseph cast his lot with the war leaders. <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br>What followed was one of the most brilliant military retreats in American history. Even the unsympathetic General William Techumseh Sherman could not help but be impressed with the 1,400 mile march, stating that "the Indians throughout displayed a courage and skill that elicited universal praise... [they] fought with almost scientific skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications." In over three months, the band of about 700, fewer than 200 of whom were warriors, fought 2,000 U.S. soldiers and Indian auxiliaries in four major battles and numerous skirmishes. <br>By the time he formally surrendered on October 5, 1877, Joseph was widely referred to in the American press as "the Red Napoleon." It is unlikely, however, that he played as critical a role in the Nez Percé's military feat as his legend suggests. He was never considered a war chief by his people, and even within the Wallowa band, it was Joseph's younger brother, Olikut, who led the warriors, while Joseph was responsible for guarding the camp. It appears, in fact, that Joseph opposed the decision to flee into Montana and seek aid from the Crows and that other chiefs – Looking Glass and some who had been killed before the surrender -- were the true strategists of the campaign. Nevertheless, Joseph's widely reprinted surrender speech has immortalized him as a military leader in American popular culture: <br>I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say, "Yes" or "No." He who led the young men [Olikut] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever. <br>Joseph's fame did him little good. Although he had surrendered with the understanding that he would be allowed to return home, Joseph and his people were instead taken first to eastern Kansas and then to a reservation in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) where many of them died of epidemic diseases. Although he was allowed to visit Washington, D.C., in 1879 to plead his case to U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes, it was not until 1885 that Joseph and the other refugees were returned to the Pacific Northwest. Even then, half, including Joseph, were taken to a non-Nez Percé reservation in northern Washington, separated from the rest of their people in Idaho and their homeland in the Wallowa Valley. <br>In his last years, Joseph spoke eloquently against the injustice of United States policy toward his people and held out the hope that America's promise of freedom and equality might one day be fulfilled for Native Americans as well. An indomitable voice of conscience for the West, he died in 1904, still in exile from his homeland, according to his doctor "of a broken heart."
Joseph - Nez Perce
1903
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Kaloqutsuis - Qagyuhl - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Kaloqutsuis - Qagyuhl
1914
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Komitsa - Kutenai - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Komitsa - Kutenai
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Learning to Ride - Cayuse - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Learning to Ride - Cayuse
1905
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Little Dog - Brule - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born 1848. First war-party at sixteen against the troops at the head of Platte river; horses were captured without fighting. The next year he led a party against a detachment on Lodgepole Creek; one soldier was killed, and some horses were taken. Counted three coups, one of the first grade, each while acting as a war-leader, and was thrice wounded. Sorrowing at the death of a sister, he went alone against the Pawnee, and nearing their camp gave chase to a solitary hunter, but abandoned the pursuit because there was no one to testify that he counted coup even if he had done so. That night he stole into camp and captured five horses. Participated in forty-one fights and fifteen horse raids. Scouted for General Crook. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Little Dog - Brule
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Little Hawk - Brule - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Photographed in 1907 by Edward S. Curtis, Little Hawk was a member of the Brule tribe. <br> <br>The Brule tribe was a subset of the Lakota or Teton Sioux. Located in North and South Dakota or Montana. It was typical of the Siouan tribes for the men to part their hair down the middle as seen in this photo by Edward S. Curtis. This photogravure by Edward S. Curtis is from his 3rd volume and printed on Japon Vellum paper. This piece is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Little Hawk - Brule
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Long Fox - Assiniboin - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Long Fox - Assiniboin
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Making a Travois - Atsina - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Before horses were acquired, perhaps in the early years of the nineteenth century, the dog-travois was the means of conveyance; later, vehicles of the same kind, only larger, were drawn by horses.
Making a Travois - Atsina
1909
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Making Camp - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - This photo by Edward S. Curtis depicts the process involved in building a camp for the Teton Sioux. After a perfect location is selected, here a place backed with a few trees for protection, they would begin setting up. The Sioux resided mainly in tipis and these were made of large poles which were then draped with buffalo skins. The tipis would allow for smoke to exit through the top using closable flaps. <br> <br> This photogravure was taken in 1908 by Edward S. Curtis. The piece was printed on Dutch Van Gelder and is available for sale in out Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
Making Camp
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Mnashwai - Wishham - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Mnashwai - Wishham
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Mohave Potter - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - The primitive Mohave would wear dresses of only willow bark cloth likely pictured here by Edward S. Curtis. Unlike the braids seen in many tribes the Mohave women would always wear their hair loose. For art the tribe was quite skilled at beadwork and some crude but lovely pottery. Pictured here is an interesting vessel with a small sculptural face. The Mohave woman is hard at work and does not look up at photographer Edward Curtis. <br> <br> This photogravure was taken in 1907 by Edward S. Curtis. The piece was printed on Deluxe Japanese Tissue and is available for sale in out Aspen Art Gallery.
Mohave Potter
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Moving – Apsaroke - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Moving – Apsaroke
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - No Flesh - Ogalala - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Pictured in this image by Edward S. Curtis is No Flesh of the Ogalala tribe. While he is pictured as if he is perhaps a man of importance, we know almost nothing about him. Edward Curtis took this photograph while he was discovering the Teton Sioux for his third volume of the North American Indian. <br> <br> This photogravure was taken in 1907 by Edward S. Curtis. The piece was printed on Dutch Van Gelder and is available for sale in out Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
No Flesh - Ogalala
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Ogalala Child - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - When a young woman gave her consent to marry her relatives would bring to her an elk-toothed dress, beaded moccasins, and leggings all of the things considered necessary for a married woman. The young Ogalala girl pictured here by Edward Curtis is wearing an example of the elk toothed dress and beaded moccasins that showed wealth and status in her tribe. <br> <br> This photogravure was taken in 1907 by Edward S. Curtis. The piece was printed on Dutch Van Gelder and is available for sale in out Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
Ogalala Child
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - On a Walpi Housetop - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
On a Walpi Housetop
1921
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Painted Tipis - Assiniboin - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Painted Tipis - Assiniboin
1926
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Piegan Woman - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Piegan Woman
1910
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Piksohkomi ("Calling - Bird") - Piegan - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Piksohkomi (“Calling Bird”) appears in Edward S. Curtis’ eighteenth volume. From the Piegan tribe, this man is depicted wearing a beautiful deerskin shirt adorned with patterns (likely made by porcupine quills and beads) and weasel tails. A garment of this nature would be worn by most of the Plains Indian tribes. He is holding what appear to be religious items, with feathers. The arts and crafts of the Piegan Indians generally revolved around the production of clothing, shelters, and implements of war. <br> <br>Edward S. Curtis took this photograph in 1926.
Piksohkomi ("Calling - Bird") - Piegan
1926
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 001 The Vanishing Race - Navaho - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - This image was captured in 1907, 1/3 of the way through the 1897 – 1927 project. No other photogravure makes this significant statement. When one understands the expansive nature of Edward Sheriff Curtis’ study and his focus on the character of the people, the evocative nature of this very image is felt as a story, not just another “snapshot” of Indians on horseback. <br> <br>The importance of his documentation are the portraits from North American Indian life that capture the individual people groups, their character and their culture. “Vanishing Race” makes the statement for all. <br> <br>“The thought, which this picture is meant to convey, is that the Indians as a race, already shorn in their tribal strength and stripped of their primitive dress, are passing into the darkness of an unknown future. Feeling that the picture expresses so much of the thought that inspired the entire work, the author has chosen it as the first of the series.” – Edward Curtis
Plate 001 The Vanishing Race - Navaho
1904
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 002 Geronimo - Apache - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - “This portrait of the historical old Apache was made in March, 1905. According to Geronimo's calculation he was at the time seventy-six years of age, thus making the year of his birth 1829. The picture was taken at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the day before the inauguration of President Roosevelt, Geronimo being one of the warriors who took part in the inaugural parade at Washington. He appreciated the honor of being one of those chosen for this occasion, and the catching of his features while the old warrior was in a retrospective mood was most fortunate.” – Edward Curtis <br> <br>Edward Curtis Apache images reveal the various elements of life in the warrior tribe. In the ethnographic study of the “The North American Indian” is rich in its depiction of the culture and lifestyle, with some emphasis on significant individuals. <br> <br>In the late 19th century, Geronimo had one of the most well-known Indian names, and is memorable today. There are a number of stories about him, some violent and some peacemaker. In the end he realized the fate of his people was set and pursued the importance of learning new ways to make it work. However, his many attempts at this were thwarted by the inconsistency of the Federal government. <br> <br>Toward the end, as a very independent persona, Geronimo became associated with resisting settling in the reservation, escaping three times with a band of renegades. As a result, he was captured and spent the rest of his life as a prisoner of war. <br> <br>“General Crook said to me, ‘Why did you leave the reservation?’ I said: ‘You told me that I might live in the reservation the same as white people lived. One year I raised a crop of corn, and gathered and stored it, and the next year I put in a crop of oats, and when the crop was almost ready to harvest, you told your soldiers to put me in prison, and if I resisted, to kill me. If I had been let alone, I would now have been in good circumstances, but instead of that you and the Mexicans are hunting me with soldiers." - Geronimo <br> <br>The following statement is telling regarding his spiritual perspective, which leaves room for both attempts at working toward a solution and defensive action. <br> <br>"When a child my mother taught me the legends of our people; taught me of the sun and sky, the moon and stars, the clouds and storms. She also taught me to kneel and pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom, and protection. We never prayed against any person, but if we had aught against any individual, we ourselves took vengeance. We were taught that Usen does not care for the petty quarrels of men." ~ Geronimo
Plate 002 Geronimo - Apache
1907
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 021 Chief Garfield - Jicarilla - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
SOLD
Plate 021 Chief Garfield - Jicarilla
1904
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 025 Jicarilla Women - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - Edward Curtis describes this piece as: Women watching the races on their annual ceremonial or feast day. It will be observed that they are all dressed uniformly in garments cut after the primitive mode. This is the 25th piece in “The North American Indian” a project which represents the final compilation of decades of field photography and research by Edward S. Curtis who labored under Morgan’s patronage for 23 years, from 1907 - 1930, to complete the series.
Plate 025 Jicarilla Women
1904
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 028 Canon de Chelly - Navaho - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - Written by Edward Curtis: A wonderfully scenic spot is this in northeastern Arizona, in the heart of the Navaho country - one of their strongholds, in fact. Cañon de Chelly exhibits evidences of having been occupied by a considerable number of people in former times, as in every niche at every side are seen the cliff-perched ruins of former villages. <br> <br>QUOTES FROM "THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN: "The Navaho are a pastoral, semi nomadic people whose activities center in their flocks and small farms...While the Navaho leads a wandering life, the zone of his movements is surprisingly limited; indeed the average Navaho's personal knowledge of his country is confined to a radius of not more than fifty miles." <br> <br>DWELLINGS: A Navaho house is called a "Hogan" and is made of logs, brush, and earth. Summer houses are also utilized and made of brush with a windbreak. <br> <br>"Although raiders and plunderers since known to history, the Navaho cannot be designated a warring tribe, for however courageous they may be, their lack of political integrity has been an obstacle to military organization. They never have had a tribal chief, properly so called, while many leading men could never command more than a small following."
Plate 028 Canon de Chelly - Navaho
1904
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 061 Mosa - Mohave - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - “It would be difficult to conceive of a more aboriginal than this Mohave girl. Her eyes are those of the fawn of the forest, questioning the strange things of civilization upon which it gazes for the first time. She is such a type as Father Garces may have viewed on his journey through the Mohave country in 1776.” <br> <br>The Mohave tribe was one of the most primitive; from their method of hunting, to lack of curiosity to see past where they lived, “along the backs of the Colorado river, an environment into which they have so fitted themselves that they seem to have been always a vital part of it. To describe the Mohave without first speaking of their river would be like telling of the Makah of wind-swept Cape Flattery without alluding to the sea that beats the sands at their very feet.” <br> <br>This quiet, simple life shows on the face of Mosa – there is no cynicism, or defiance. There is only the look of a young girl who is looking into Curtis' lens with the emotion and power that the photographer captured beautifully.
SOLD
Plate 061 Mosa - Mohave
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 077 Ogalala War-Party - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - Provenance: <br> <br>Private Collector | Mrs. Cunningham, CA <br> <br>With this photogravure, was a letter written by Edward Curtis to Robert Quarles Sr. (first state archivist of Tennessee) asking if Robert thought the photos were worthy of being published in a bound version. <br> <br>In the 1800s, Robert T. Quarles Sr. was a worker in the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. Family lore says he was a "janitor" but that is uncertain. At one point, the Tennessee Capitol Building experienced a flood and Quarles went to heroic lengths to save documents housed in the basement of the building. As an expression of gratitude, Quarles was then named "Archivist" for the State of Tennessee. Upon his retirement, Robert Quarles passed the position down to his son, Robert T. Quarles Jr. <br> <br>Robert T. Quarles, Jr. took an enormous interest in Native American history and culture, and he was a member of a group called "The Loyal Order of the Red Man". Robert Quarles Jr. -- or possibly his sister Mary Ashby -- acquired one of the Curtis portfolios as a gift directly from Edward Curtis himself. Mary and her husband, Jeff Ashby, were enthusiastic collectors of artifacts and art from all over the world. <br> <br>The Ashby's were childless and when they passed away, the Curtis photogravures went to the three nephews of Robert Quarles Jr. in equal parts. These works were then passed down to their descendants, who are the previous owners of this artwork.
Plate 077 Ogalala War-Party
1907
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 080 An Oasis in the Badlands - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio: 18 x 22 inches - Born 1854. First war-party in 1865 under Crazy Horse, against troops. Led an unsuccessful war-party at twenty-two against Shoshoni. First coup when twelve horse-raiding Blackfeet were discovered in a creek bottom and annihilated. Led another party against Shoshoni, but failed to find them; encountered and surrounded a white-horse troop. From a hill overlooking the fight Red Hawk saw soldiers dismount and charge. The Lakota fled, leaving him alone. A soldier came close and fired, but missed. Red Hawk did likewise, but while the soldier was reloading his carbine he fired again with his Winchester and heard a thump and "O-h-h-h!" A Cheyenne boy on horseback rushed in and struck the soldier, counting coup. Engaged in twenty battles, many with troops, among them the Custer fight of 1876; others with Pawnee, Apsaroke, Shoshoni, Cheyenne, and even with Sioux scouts. <br>Red Hawk fasted twice. The second time, after two days and a night, he saw a vision. As he slept, something from the west came galloping and panting. It circled about him, then went away. A voice said, "Look! I told you there would be many horses!" He looked, and saw a man holding green grass in his hand. Again the voice said, "There will be many horses about this season;" then he saw the speaker was a rose-hip, half red, half green. Then the creature went away and became a yellow-headed blackbird. It alighted on one of the offering poles, which bent as if under great weight. The bird became a man again, and said, "Look at this!" Red Hawk saw a village, into which the man threw two long-haired human heads. Said the voice,"I came to tell you something, and I have now told you. You have done right." Then the creature, becoming a bird, rose and disappeared in the south. Red Hawk slept, and heard a voice saying, "look at your village!" He saw four woman going around the village with their hair on the top of their heads, and their legs aflame. Following them was a naked man, mourning and singing the death-song. Again he slept, and felt a hand on his head, shaking him, and as he awoke a voice said, "Arise, behold the face of your grandfather!" He looked to the eastward and saw the sun peeping above a ridge. The voice continued, "Listen! He is coming, anxious to eat." So he took his pipe and held the stem toward the rising sun. This time he knew he was not asleep, or dreaming: He knew he was on a hill three miles from the village. A few days later came news that of five who had gone against the enemy, four had been killed; one returned alive, and followed the four mourning wives around the camp singing the death-song. Still later they killed a Cheyenne and an Apsaroke scout, and the two heads were brought into camp.
Plate 080 An Oasis in the Badlands
1905
Portfolio: 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 081 Jack Red Cloud - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Born 1822. The subject of this portrait is the son of the Ogalala Chief, Red Cloud. <br> <br>In 1868 Red Cloud was at the height of his powers. He’d just won the most significant treaty that the Indians had ever gained with the U.S. The 1868 treaty with the Sioux gave them the Black Hills “For as long at the rivers run and the sun shall shine.” The “Bloody Bozeman” trail and three forts were closed as a result. It was 1905 when, Curtis stopped to visit Red Cloud on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation, where he’d been forced to stay for the previous 30 years. Red Cloud, had held steadfastly to his principles. He had honored the treaty with the White Men, even though they had violated every part of it within a few years of its signing.
Plate 081 Jack Red Cloud
1907
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 082 Hollow Horn Bear - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - The life of this Brule Sioux is briefly treated in Volume III, page 186. <br> <br>Born 1850. First war-party at twelve against Pawnee. At nineteen he took the pipe and led a party, which killed a number of Pawnee wood-haulers. Struck a first coup-"kill right"-in that battle. After that his father, Iron Shell, desired him to take that name, but he said that he would take his grandfather's name instead, and make the name Hollow Horn Bear good. During his career as a warrior, he counted coup many times and participated in twenty-three fights with Pawnee, Omaha, Ponca, Ute, Arikara, and United States troops. He was present at the Custer fight. <br> <br>*Additional biographical notes (not written by Curtis): <br>*A son of the famous, mid-19th century Brule chief Iron Shell, he nearly died as an infant during the first U.S. Army attack on a Lakota village, at the Blue Water battle near Fort Laramie in 1855. After the attack, his mother recovered the infant from the wreckage of the village. Hollow Horn Bear became a distinguished leader of the Brule. His portrait graced the old, U.S. 14-cent stamp. <br> <br>Hollow Horn Bear traveled often to Washington, D.C., rode in the inaugural parade of Theodore Roosevelt, and died in the Capitol in March, 1913, of pneumonia contracted while riding in the rain during the inaugural parade for Woodrow Wilson.
SOLD
Plate 082 Hollow Horn Bear
1907
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 083 The Sun Dancer - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio: 22 x 18 inches - The sun dance was an important ritual in Native culture. From Edward S Curtis' Volume III: "As they dance, the performers never leave the spot on which they stand, the movement consisting in a slight upward spring from the toes and ball of the foot; legs and body are rigid. Always the right palm is extended to the yellow glaring sun, and their eyes are fixed on its lower rim. The dancer concentrates his mind, his very self, upon the one thing that he desires, whether it be the acquirement of powerful medicine or only success in the next conflict with the enemy." <br> <br>In this image the Dancer is smoking a peace pipe and the detail in the photograph is so clear that one can see the smoke rising from his pipe. The subject is wearing a single feather and a simple loincloth. Much like Curtis’ description of the Sun Dance, the subject has his right palm extended towards the sky and he appears to be looking up as well.
Plate 083 The Sun Dancer
1907
Portfolio: 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 085 Brule War-Party - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - Provenance: <br> <br>Private Collector | Mrs. Cunningham, CA <br> <br>With this photogravure, was a letter written by Edward Curtis to Robert Quarles Sr. (first state archivist of Tennessee) asking if Robert thought the photos were worthy of being published in a bound version. <br> <br>In the 1800s, Robert T. Quarles Sr. was a worker in the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. Family lore says he was a "janitor" but that is uncertain. At one point, the Tennessee Capitol Building experienced a flood and Quarles went to heroic lengths to save documents housed in the basement of the building. As an expression of gratitude, Quarles was then named "Archivist" for the State of Tennessee. Upon his retirement, Robert Quarles passed the position down to his son, Robert T. Quarles Jr. <br> <br>Robert T. Quarles, Jr. took an enormous interest in Native American history and culture, and he was a member of a group called "The Loyal Order of the Red Man". Robert Quarles Jr. -- or possibly his sister Mary Ashby -- acquired one of the Curtis portfolios as a gift directly from Edward Curtis himself. Mary and her husband, Jeff Ashby, were enthusiastic collectors of artifacts and art from all over the world. <br> <br>The Ashby's were childless and when they passed away, the Curtis photogravures went to the three nephews of Robert Quarles Jr. in equal parts. These works were then passed down to their descendants, who are the previous owners of this artwork.
Plate 085 Brule War-Party
1907
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 089 Little Hawk - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Description by Edward Curtis: This portrait exhibits the typical Brule physiognomy. The Brule are a subset of the Lakota Sioux and could be found in North and South Dakota and Montana-Big Sioux and James valleys in South Dakota, Missouri river, and Black Hills. <br> <br>From Curtis' North American Indian: "No tribe which the writer has studied is so lacking in traditional knowledge of its original home and early migration. In fact, no creation and early migration legend worthy of the name has been found to exist among any of the western Sioux tribes. On the other hand, other tribes of Siouan stock, the Apsaroke, Hidatsa, and Mandan, have definite creation and migration stories, which make it clearly evident that at one time they had their home on the South Atlantic seaboard, where Siouan tribes are known to have lived well within the eighteenth century, and where indeed the remnant of the Catawba still live." <br> <br>This image is uniquely cropped by Curtis, elongating the subject. The photographer used artistic effects to have the photograph fade into the bottom of the paper.
SOLD
Plate 089 Little Hawk
1908
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 092 Fast Elk - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Born 1838. He first went on the war path at age eighteen; the party searched for the Pawnee, but finding only a deserted village, returned. Fast Elk never led a war-party, but fought in four great battles with other tribes, and participated in the Fetterman massacre in 1866. He counted coup once in a fight with the Apsaroke, when their village on Pryer creek was surrounded by the Sioux.
Plate 092 Fast Elk
1907
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 097 Sioux Girl - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - A young Sioux woman in a dress made entirely of deerskin, embroidered with beads and porcupine-quills. <br> <br>The decorative art of the Lakota found expression on their deerskin garments, pipe-bags, saddle-blankets, robes, parfleches, shields and tipis… There seems to be no fixed motif in many of their designs, each woman reading into her art whatever may be prompted by her thoughts, the same figure sometimes meaning as many different things as there are workers.
Plate 097 Sioux Girl
1907
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 101 Black Eagle - Assiniboin - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Black Eagle was born in 1834 in North Dakota to the Assiniboin tribe, a subset of the Sioux. Like many young native men, he entered the war path early in his case only thirteen years old. By his fourth time in battle he was a seasoned warrior and was able to capture 6 Yanktonai horses on his own. By the time he was photographed by Edward S. Curtis at age 74, he had killed many men in battle and had led 3 war parties. He had also had a fulfilled vision of capturing horses and had been married for 56 years. <br> <br>This powerful image displays Black Eagles full body which is adorned with a long bear robe and an eagle wing. According to legend he refused for many years to have his picture taken by Edward S. Curtis until one time he came to Curtis in the middle of the night and said “I’m ready” and that is where this photogravure came from. Photographed in 1908 this image is printed on Dutch Van Gelder paper and is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Plate 101 Black Eagle - Assiniboin
1908
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 103 Red Cloud - Ogalala - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 21 3/8 x 17 3/16 inches
Plate 103 Red Cloud - Ogalala
1905
Portfolio, 21 3/8 x 17 3/16 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 107 An Assiniboin Camp - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - Provenance: <br> <br>Private Collector | Mrs. Cunningham, CA <br> <br>With this photogravure, was a letter written by Edward Curtis to Robert Quarles Sr. (first state archivist of Tennessee) asking if Robert thought the photos were worthy of being published in a bound version. <br> <br>In the 1800s, Robert T. Quarles Sr. was a worker in the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. Family lore says he was a "janitor" but that is uncertain. At one point, the Tennessee Capitol Building experienced a flood and Quarles went to heroic lengths to save documents housed in the basement of the building. As an expression of gratitude, Quarles was then named "Archivist" for the State of Tennessee. Upon his retirement, Robert Quarles passed the position down to his son, Robert T. Quarles Jr. <br> <br>Robert T. Quarles, Jr. took an enormous interest in Native American history and culture, and he was a member of a group called "The Loyal Order of the Red Man". Robert Quarles Jr. -- or possibly his sister Mary Ashby -- acquired one of the Curtis portfolios as a gift directly from Edward Curtis himself. Mary and her husband, Jeff Ashby, were enthusiastic collectors of artifacts and art from all over the world. <br> <br>The Ashby's were childless and when they passed away, the Curtis photogravures went to the three nephews of Robert Quarles Jr. in equal parts. These works were then passed down to their descendants, who are the previous owners of this artwork.
Plate 107 An Assiniboin Camp
1908
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 113 Two Leggings - Apsaroke - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Born about 1848. River Crow; Not Mixed clan; Lumpwood organization. Having no great medicine derived from his own vision, he was adopted into the Tobacco order by Bull Goes Hunting, who gave him his medicine of a fossil, or a stone, roughly shaped like a horse facing two ways. Two Leggings thus became a war-leader. In pursuing some Piegan who had killed a woman in the Apsaroke camp opposite Fort C.F. Smith on the Bighorn, he counted "dakshe" and captured a gun by the same act-a high honor. Led two parties against the Hunkpapa Sioux, each time taking scalps. Captured fifty horses from the Yanktonai at Fort Peck, and with Deaf Bull led a party that brought back eighty horses from the Teton Sioux.
Plate 113 Two Leggings - Apsaroke
1908
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 115 White Man Runs Him (One of Custer’s Crow Scouts) - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Born about 1854 or 1855. Mountain Crow; Big Lodge clan; Lumpwood organization. His only coup was counted by the capture of a tethered horse. Noted for his many successful horse-raiding expeditions against the Sioux. <br>Scouted with Custer in his last campaign, and was one of the party of three or four scouts who, at the dawn of the morning of the Custer fight, first sighted the Sioux camp. A small party of Crow and Arikara scouts under Lieutenant Varnum, having traveled nearly all night, arrived shortly before dawn almost a the summit of the highest peak in the Wolf mountains, where the party slept for a short time. At approaching light White Man Runs Him and a couple of companions went to the top of the high peak which gave them the first view of the Sioux encampment. Following Custer's coming up to view the valley and its camp of hostiles, he was with Custer until the Sioux made their attack on him. White Man Runs Him's recollections of that day are exceedingly clear. The author spent several days with him traveling carefully over the ground covered on the day of the disastrous fight on the Little Bighorn, part of this time being accompanied by general C.A. Woodruff. <br>White Man Runs Him possesses no medicine derived from his own vision, but once fasted four days and four nights in the Bighorn mountains on a peak known to the Apsaroke as "Where White Man Runs Him Fasted." Of his seven wives he gave up six "good ones," that is, those who had borne him children; to discard such was an indication of a strong heart.
Plate 115 White Man Runs Him (One of Custer’s Crow Scouts)
1908
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Provenance: <br>Edward S. Curtis Studio. <br>Original Subscriber Set #96 William Henry Moore, The Moore Memorial Library. <br>The Christopher G. Cardozo Collection, 1998. <br>Valley Fine Art, Ltd.
SOLD
Plate 120 Red Wing – Apsaroke
1908
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 121 Bread - Apsaroke - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Born 1863. A Mountain Crow, (he was a member of the) Whistle Water clan. First war experience under Young Wolf Calf, when the party captured a hundred horses from the Piegan. On another occasion, under Wet, he himself captured a horse from the Yanktonai. Married five times; "threw away" four wives; is the father of one child. Never fasted and never achieved an honor. <br> <br>The Apsaroke were and are the proudest of Indians, and although <br>comparatively few, they rarely allied themselves with other tribes for purposes of defence. For probably two and a half centuries they were the enemy of every tribe that came within striking distance, and for a goodly part of this time they were virtually surrounded by hostile bands with a common hatred against this mountain tribe that likened itself to a pack of wolves. The swarming thousands of the western Sioux, aided by the Cheyenne and Arapaho, tried to force them westward. The powerful Blackfeet invaded their territory from the north and northwest, Flatheads and Nez Percés were worthy foes from the west, and the wily Shoshoni pressed in from the south; yet the Apsaroke were ever ready to repel invasion from whatever direction it might come.
Plate 121 Bread - Apsaroke
1908
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 130 Autumn - Apsaroke - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - Description by Edward Curtis: An autumn scene in the valley of Little Bighorn. <br> <br>A peaceful scene, this Apsaroke camp is tucked into the trees and displays one simple tipi and two horses. <br> <br>"The country which the Apsaroke ranged and claimed as their own was an extensive one for so small a tribe. In area it may be compared, east and west, to the distance from Boston to Buffalo, and north to south, from Montreal to Washington — certainly a vast region to be dominated by a tribe never numbering more than fifteen hundred warriors. The borders of their range were, roughly, a line extending from the mouth of the Yellowstone southward through the Black Hills, thence westward to the crest of the Wind River mountains, northwestward through the Yellowstone Park to the site of Helena, thence to the junction of the Musselshell and the Missouri, and down the latter stream to the mouth of the Yellowstone. This region is the veritable Eden of the Northwest. With beautiful broad valleys and abundant wooded streams, no part of the country was more favorable for buffalo, while its wild forested mountains made it almost unequalled for elk and other highland game."
Plate 130 Autumn - Apsaroke
1908
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 132 Passing the Cliff - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - A winter scene on Pryor Creek, Montana <br> <br>The country which the Apsaroke ranged and claimed as their own <br>was an extensive one for so small a tribe. In area it may be compared, <br>east and west, to the distance from Boston to Buffalo, and north to <br>south, from Montreal to Washington — certainly a vast region to <br>be dominated by a tribe never numbering more than fi fteen hundred <br>warriors. The borders of their range were, roughly, a line extending <br>from the mouth of the Yellowstone southward through the Black <br>Hills, thence westward to the crest of the Wind River mountains, <br>northwestward through the Yellowstone Park to the site of Helena, <br>thence to the junction of the Musselshell and the Missouri, and down <br>the latter stream to the mouth of the Yellowstone. This region is the <br>veritable Eden of the Northwest. With beautiful broad valleys and <br>abundant wooded streams, no part of the country was more favorable <br>for buffalo, while its wild forested mountains made it almost unequalled <br>for elk and other highland game.
Plate 132 Passing the Cliff
1908
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 136 In Black Canon - Apsaroke - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - Description by Edward Curtis: The Apsaroke, although not exclusively mountain dwellers, were ever fond of the hills, preferring the forest shade and the clear mountain streams to the hot ill-watered, monotonous prairies. The picture illustrates the Apsaroke custom of wearing at the back of the head a band from which fall numerous strands of false hair ornamented at regular intervals with pellets of bright-colored gum. Black Cañon is in the northern portion of the Bighorn Mountains, Montana. <br> <br>An interesting thing to note about this image is that one of the riders is carrying a coup stick. There are 3 riders in total and they are riding away from the viewer into a mountainous area.
Plate 136 In Black Canon - Apsaroke
1905
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 137 The Chief and His Staff - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - In stature and in vigor the Apsaroke, or Crows, excelled all other <br>tribes of the Rocky Mountain region, and were surpassed by none <br>in bravery and in devotion to the supernatural forces that gave <br>them strength against their enemies. Social laws, rigidly adhered to, <br>prevented marriage of those even distantly related, and the hardships <br>of their life as hunters eliminated infant weaklings. The rigors of this <br>life made the women as strong as the men; and women who could <br>carry a quarter of a buffalo apparently without great exertion, ride all <br>day and all night with a raiding war-party, or travel afoot two hundred <br>and fifty miles across an unmarked wilderness of mountains, plains, <br>and swollen streams in four days and nights, were not the women to <br>bring forth puny offspring. <br> <br>The Apsaroke were and are the proudest of Indians, and although <br>comparatively few (they now number only one thousand seven <br>hundred and eighty-seven, and are constantly decreasing), they rarely <br>allied themselves with other tribes for purposes of defence. For <br>probably two and a half centuries they were the enemy of every tribe <br>that came within striking distance, and for a goodly part of this time <br>they were virtually surrounded by hostile bands with a common hatred <br>against this mountain tribe that likened itself to a pack of wolves. The <br>swarming thousands of the western Sioux, aided by the Cheyenne <br>and Arapaho, tried to force them westward. The powerful Blackfeet <br>invaded their territory from the north and northwest, Flatheads and <br>Nez Percés were worthy foes from the west, and the wily Shoshoni <br>pressed in from the south; yet the Apsaroke were ever ready to repel <br>invasion from whatever direction it might come. <br> <br>While the general status was one of hostility, there were brief <br>intervals of peace with the different tribes, even with the Sioux, their <br>bitterest foe, with whom at times they smoked the pipe and negotiated <br>peace for a year. Such truces so seriously made in many smokes, <br>were often quickly broken by some impetuous or irresponsible young <br>man stealing a horse or a woman; then in a moment peace was at <br>an end and conflict raged again. As a rule, however, these periods of <br>1 <br> <br>Tranquillity lasted long enough to permit discussion of previous fights <br>and a general comparison of the honors therein won. <br>The country which the Apsaroke ranged and claimed as their own <br>was an extensive one for so small a tribe. In area it may be compared, <br>east and west, to the distance from Boston to Buffalo, and north to <br>south, from Montreal to Washington — certainly a vast region to <br>be dominated by a tribe never numbering more than fi fteen hundred <br>warriors. The borders of their range were, roughly, a line extending <br>from the mouth of the Yellowstone southward through the Black <br>Hills, thence westward to the crest of the Wind River mountains, <br>northwestward through the Yellowstone Park to the site of Helena, <br>thence to the junction of the Musselshell and the Missouri, and down <br>the latter stream to the mouth of the Yellowstone. This region is the <br>veritable Eden of the Northwest. With beautiful broad valleys and <br>abundant wooded streams, no part of the country was more favorable <br>for buffalo, while its wild forested mountains made it almost unequalled <br>for elk and other highland game.
SOLD
Plate 137 The Chief and His Staff
1905
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 139 Upshaw - Asparoke - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - With the money granted to him by J.P. Morgan for his North American Indian project, Curtis was able to employ Native American assistants to help him in the field. These assistants were interpreters, informants, and even friends. The most notable of his assistants was Alexander B. Upshaw a Crow Indian who had been well educated but had turned his back on “White” ways. <br> <br>Upshaw was a tireless campaigner for Indian land rights and was much admired by his own people. He was employed by Curtis and worked with the project from 1905 until his death in 1909. He was essential in collecting ethnological data from members of a number of tribes, including the Sioux, Arikaras, and the Blackfeet. His hard work gained them access to ceremonies and more importantly helped with a thorough investigation of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. <br> <br>Upshaw was an intelligent and trusted aide in the project, “In one sense Upshaw become more famous than any other member of the project except Curtis himself”, said Mick Gidley. It is safe to say, especially for the material on the Apsaroke and Hidatsa peoples, that Upshaw played a key role in Curtis’ ability to gain the relationships and acquire the knowledge he sought after.
SOLD
Plate 139 Upshaw - Asparoke
1905
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 141 Apsaroke Medicine Tipi - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Plate 141 Apsaroke Medicine Tipi
1905
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 149 Spotted Bull - Mandan - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - from Volume V in "The North American Indian" by Edward S. Curtis: <br> <br>"No more impaired than the Mandan material culture were their religious and ceremonial beliefs and practices. Nothing had yet shaken their faith in their own gods. As the bird instinctively builds its own nest to meet its own needs, the Mandan had formulated their religion to fit the requirements of their life, and were strong in precepts. Their well developed political organization enabled them to execute effectively the tribal laws. <br> <br>The society organization of the Mandan is worthy of particular notice. The system comprised seven societies, or lodges, though which a man passed successively, beginning with the Fox order. The usual age of entrance into this grade was eighteen to twenty years, and no one younger than fifty years was permitted to enter the Bull society, the sixth organization of the system. To become a member of this system one had first to purchase the rights of a member of the lowest order before passing successively through the others. This could not be done individually, but only when it was arranged that the whole society purchase the right of the next highest one."
Plate 149 Spotted Bull - Mandan
1908
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 150 Bear's Belly - Arikara - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Born in 1847 in present-day North Dakota, Bear's Belly was a highly respected and honored warrior of the Arikara tribe. <br> <br>He acquired his bearskin in a dramatic battle in which he single-handedly killed three bears, thus gaining his sacred medicine to remain part of him always. <br> <br>"Needing a bear-skin in my medicine-making, I went into the White Clay hills. Coming suddenly to the brink of a cliff I saw below me three bears. <br> <br>I wanted a bear, but to fight three was hard. I decided to try it, and, descending, crept up to within forty yards of them. I waited until the second one was close to the first, and pulled the trigger. <br> <br>The farther one fell; the bullet had passed through the body of one and into the brain of the other. The wounded one charged, and I ran, loading my rifle, then turned and shot again, breaking his backbone. He lay there on the ground only ten paces from me. <br> <br>A noise caused me to remember the third bear, which I saw rushing upon me only six or seven paces away. I was yelling to keep up my courage, and the bear was growling in his anger. He rose on his hindlegs, and I shot, with my gun nearly touching his chest. <br> <br>The bear with the broken back was dragging himself about with his forelegs, and I went to him and said: <br> <br>'I came looking for you to be my friend, to be with me always.' Then I reloaded my gun and shot him through the head. His skin I kept, but the other two I sold." <br> <br>Volume V, The North American Indian <br>"Bear's Belly," 1908 <br> <br>Courtesy of www.CurtisLegacyFoundation.com
SOLD
Plate 150 Bear's Belly - Arikara
1908
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 152 White Shield - Arikara - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - “A mixed-blood member of the medicine fraternity.” <br> <br>Spend a moment to look at the details in this extraordinary tunic. <br> <br>This Arikara wears an elaborate shirt, with meticulous details in this and the headdress. The details in the weaving are significantly different than designs in other Indian clothing. <br> <br>What we find in Arikara clothing is most like what we remember in many pictorial descriptions of the North American Indian; breechcloths, fringed buckskin tunics shirts and leggings. For protection from rain and cold a warm, buffalo robe was worn. When dressed for ceremony they wore elaborately decorated shirts and war bonnets with eagle feathers and beadwork, which symbolize courage and accomplishment. <br> <br>"The Arikara are a semi-agricultural people, and have apparently been such from an early period, many myths and ceremonies bearing relation to growing corn and other products of the soil. The variety of corn raised is characteristic of the agricultural tribes in the Southwest-dwarf-like but very leafy stalks with many small ears of varicolored grains growing near the ground." <br> <br>"The basket common to these three tribes is claimed by the Arikara as originally a product of their own art, and writers acquainted with the basketry of southern Caddoan tribes assert this is a Caddoan pattern." <br> <br>"The soul, called "Sishu," is responsible for all acts of man during life: it resides in the breast, and appears in the spoken word, in the look of the eye, in the movement of the muscles. It is the Sishu that rattles in the throat of the dying in an attempt to escape… All animals have Sishu, but not trees and inanimate objects." <br> <br>"The Arikara developed the legerdemain of their all summer medicine ceremony to such an extent that other tribes, far and near, learned of their wonderful and potent magic. The superstition and credulity of the Indian are such that medicine-men living afar, as well as the tribesmen of the performers, believed these tricks to be the mysterious tricks of supernatural powers.
SOLD
Plate 152 White Shield - Arikara
1908
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 172 Atsina Chiefs - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - In this image two Atsina Chiefs are riding strong horses. One carries a long stick adorned with feathers which is perhaps a Coup stick. The picture was taken from below so that the chiefs looks extremely large and important. We also get a full view of the entire horse and rider. <br> <br>Edward S. Curtis' description from, "The North American Indian”: "The Atsina, commonly designated Gros Ventres of the Prairie, are of the Algonquian stock and a branch of the Arapaho. Their name for themselves is "Aaninen," Atsina being their Blackfoot name. Judging by their vague tradition, their original separation from the Arapaho must have occurred in early times; but care should be taken not to confuse with this primal separation their return to the north from an extended visit to the Arapaho during the last century." <br> <br>"The tribe was composed of ten bands, all under one head, who with the chiefs of the bands, formed the council. The head-chief conducted treaties on the part of the tribe, selected camp sites, and directed tribal affairs generally. When he and the council disagreed, two young men, each representing a faction, were sent out with a bundle of sticks. passing around in the camp in opposite directions they stopped at each sub-chiefs lodge and asked what side of the question he favored....having completed the circuit of the camp, the two young men returned to the head-chief's lodge, the decision of those represented by the messenger with the fewest sticks....."
Plate 172 Atsina Chiefs
1908
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 175 Atsina Camp - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - A great peak at what an Atsina camp looks like. The tipis are large and well-constructed. The composition of this photograph is interesting with the dark hill in the background creating an intersection with the triangular tipis. <br> <br>Description by Edward S. Curtis: The Atsina lived in tipis of twenty buffalo skins and twenty four poles, the latter about thirty feet in length. <br> <br>"It is believed that when a man dies he goes northward to 'Bashnobe,' the Big Sand, where he joins the spirits finds plenty of game and follows the customs and habits of their former existence. The ghosts of the dead are believed to haunt graves, to travel with the whirlwind, and to have the power of shooting invisible arrows into people." - From Edward Curtis' North American Indian
SOLD
Plate 175 Atsina Camp
1908
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 188 In a Piegan Lodge - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - Description by Edward S. Curtis: <br> <br>Little Plume with his son Yellow Kidney occupies the position of honor, the space at the rear opposite the entrance. The picture is full of suggestion of the various Indian activities. In a prominent place lie the ever-present pipe and its accessories on the tobacco cutting-board. From the lodge-poles hang the buffalo-skin shield, the long medicine-bundle, an eagle-wing fan, and deerskin articles for accoutering the horse. The upper end of the rope is attached to the intersection of the lodge-poles, and in stormy weather the lower end is made fast to a stake near the centre of the floor space. <br> <br>Desiring to keep the photographs as traditional and accurate as possible Curtis is accused of altering this photograph. It is said that he manipulated a clock out of the center of the piece. This is all the more interesting a photograph because of that, and showed Curtis' dedication to preserving this incredible group of people.
Plate 188 In a Piegan Lodge
1908
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 193 Travaux - Piegan - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - Edward Curtis' Description: With the most of the plains tribes the travois was the universal vehicle for transporting camp equipment, but is now rarely seen. In the days before the acquisition of horses a smaller form of the same device was drawn by dogs. The occasion of this picture was the bringing of the sacred tongues to the medicine-lodge ceremony. <br> <br>Medicine culture in Native tribes is fascinating. Anyone seeking aid of medicine man would first fill a pipe, take it reverently to his lodge, and lay it on the ground in front of the scaffold. The healer’s acceptance of the case was indicated by smoking the pipe.
Plate 193 Travaux - Piegan
1911
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 195 At the Water's Edge - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - from Volume VI in "The North American Indian" by Edward S. Curtis: <br> <br>"In disposition the Piegan are particularly tractable and likable. One can scarcely find a tribe so satisfactory to work among. In the old days of primitive customs and laws, they were fond of formalities, especially in their social relations, and these exactions were, of course, largely a part of their religion. A noteworthy phase of such form in their daily and hourly life was the excessive use of the pipe."
Plate 195 At the Water's Edge
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 196 Yellow Kidney - Piegan - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - The portrait shows Apuyotoksi (Light-colored Kidney) wear a wolf-skin war bonnet. <br> <br>Similar to the well-known headdress the war bonnet would be worn into battle or for ceremonial purposes. Generally the war bonnets or headdresses would only be worn by someone of great respect in their tribe. This photograph by Edward S. Curtis was taken in 1910 and shows the subject in profile. Yellow Kidney is of young or middle age and very attractive, he appears to be posing in front of a tipi backdrop which likely would have been Edward S. Curtis’ tipi. <br> <br>The men of the Piegan tribe were organized into a series of warrior societies in which membership was based on age. Arranged in the order of the age of their members these groups were: Doves, Flies, Braves, All Brave Dogs, Tails, Raven bearers, Dogs, Kit-foxes, Catchers, and Bulls. As a whole they were known as 'All Comrades.' The function of the societies was primarily to preserve order in the camp during the march, and on the hunt; to protect the camp by guarding against possible sunrise by the enemy; to be informed at all times as to the movement of the buffalo herds; and secondarily by intersociety rivalry to cultivate the military spirit, and by their feasts and dances to minister to the desire of members for social recreation.
SOLD
Plate 196 Yellow Kidney - Piegan
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 197 An Idle Hour-Piegan - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - In this serene moment, two native girls sit and look out upon a still lake. The two girl’s backs are towards the camera so that the viewer can participate in the moment. Both are wearing beautiful garments and have beautiful hair, one can see how shiny it is in the detail of the photogravure. <br> <br>"In disposition the Piegan are particularly tractable and likable. One can scarcely find a tribe so satisfactory to work among. In the old days of primitive customs and laws, they were fond of formalities, especially in their social relations, and these exactions were, of course, largely a part of their religion. A noteworthy phase of such form in their daily and hourly life was the excessive use of the pipe." written by Edward S. Curtis
Plate 197 An Idle Hour-Piegan
1910
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 199 A Medicine Pipe - Piegan - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Curtis' Description: Medicine-pipes, of which the Piegan have many, are simply long pipe-stems variously decorated with beads, paint, feathers, and fur. Each one is believed to have been obtained long ago in some supernatural manner, as recounted in a myth. The medicine-pipe is ordinarily concealed in a bundle of wrappings, which are removed only when the sacred object is to be employed in healing sickness, or when it is to be transferred from one custodian to another in exchange for property. Such exchanges, occurring at intervals of a few years in the history of each pipe, are attended by much ceremony
Plate 199 A Medicine Pipe - Piegan
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 204 Old Person - Piegan - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Description by Edward Curtis: The young men eagerly seize every occasion of public festivity to don the habiliments of their warrior fathers. <br> <br>This image of Old Person is in fact a young man. His elaborate costume is likely that of his fathers who was a great warrior. The incredible feathered headdress her wears extends down his entire body. White furry tails surround his face, neck and chest and there is no lack of detail on any part of his attire. Facing sideways to get a view of the many feathers trailing down his body and the portrait view of a handsome face. <br> <br>"The Sun dance of the Piegan, their most important religious ceremony, was performed annually in the fulfillment of a pledge to the sun made by some woman (who thus avowed herself virtuous) in the belief that her promise to erect a lodge to the sun would result in the recovery of some relative from illness or in his escape from threatening danger." From The North American Indian written by Edward Curtis <br> <br>"The enemies of the Piegan were the Kutenai, Flatheads, Nez Perces, Shoshoni, Apsaroke, Sioux, Cree, and Atsina." - Curtis
SOLD
Plate 204 Old Person - Piegan
1911
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 218 Waiting in the Forest-Cheyenne - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - A mysterious image of a Cheyenne standing fully draped in the forest. Though often thought to be female, the subject is in fact a male. The men would wait for their girlfriends dressed this way in the forest. <br> <br>Description by Edward Curtis: At dusk in the neighborhood of the large encampments young men, closely wrapped in non-comittal blankets or white cotton sheets, may be seen gliding about the tipis or standing motionless in the shadow of the trees, each one alert for the opportunity to steal a meeting with his sweetheart.
Plate 218 Waiting in the Forest-Cheyenne
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 219 Little Wolf - Cheyenne - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - This photograph was taken by Edward S. Curtis in 1905 for portfolio VI of his North American Indian project. Edward Curtis was about 5 years in to what would become a 30 year undertaking in documenting the Native American Indians. Pictured here is an elderly man named Little wolf. He is pictured in profile in traditional Cheyenne dress. Cheyenne men would generally wear hip leggings of deerskin or buffalo and deerskin shirts. The tribe was located around Minnesota and North Dakota, they were nomadic and migrated from the upper Mississippi river area in Minnesota to the Cheyenne River in North Dakota. <br> <br>This Edward S. Curtis photograph was printed on Japon Vellum and is available for sale in our Aspen art Gallery.
Plate 219 Little Wolf - Cheyenne
1905
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 232 Flathead Camp on Jocko River - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Plate 232 Flathead Camp on Jocko River
1910
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 235 Flathead Childhood - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - This image was published in Volume VII of "The North American Indian" by Edward S. Curtis. Volume VII recorded Salishan and Tribes of the Interior: Collvilles, Kalispel, Lakes, Methow, Nespilim and Sanpoel, Sinkiuse, Spokan, Coeur D'Alenes, Flatheads, and Pend D'Oreilles. These tribal regions consisted of Washington, Idaho, and Montana- The country lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Cascades, and south of the Canadian border to the forty seventh parallel (forty-sixth in Montana). <br> <br>This portrait depicts a young Flathead child fully dressed in traditional garb smiling in the outdoors.
Plate 235 Flathead Childhood
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Provenance: Hill Reference Library, St. Paul
Plate 242 On Spokan River
1910
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 249 Kutenai Duck Hunter - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - The Kutenai Duck Hunter is one of Edward Curtis’ most iconic images, right alongside with Canon de Chelly or Bear’s Belly. The photo depicts a lone hunter, looking for ducks according o Edward Curtis “In the gray dawn of a foggy morning the hunter crouches in his canoe among the rushes, waiting for the water-fowl to come within range” from his North American Indian. The image is printed on Deluxe Japanese Tissue and is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>"Inhabiting a mountainous country dotted with lakes and traversed by long winding rivers, the Kutenai very naturally became expert boatmen. The commoner form of craft was made of pine-bark or spruce-bark laid over a framework of split-fur. It was sharp at bow and stern, of a form still seen among the Kalispel." from Edward S. Curtis' "The North American Indian", Volume VII
Plate 249 Kutenai Duck Hunter
1910
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 251 On the Shore of the Lake - Kutenai - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - Provenance: <br> <br>Private Collector | Mrs. Cunningham, CA <br> <br>With this photogravure, was a letter written by Edward Curtis to Robert Quarles Sr. (first state archivist of Tennessee) asking if Robert thought the photos were worthy of being published in a bound version. <br> <br>In the 1800s, Robert T. Quarles Sr. was a worker in the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. Family lore says he was a "janitor" but that is uncertain. At one point, the Tennessee Capitol Building experienced a flood and Quarles went to heroic lengths to save documents housed in the basement of the building. As an expression of gratitude, Quarles was then named "Archivist" for the State of Tennessee. Upon his retirement, Robert Quarles passed the position down to his son, Robert T. Quarles Jr. <br> <br>Robert T. Quarles, Jr. took an enormous interest in Native American history and culture, and he was a member of a group called "The Loyal Order of the Red Man". Robert Quarles Jr. -- or possibly his sister Mary Ashby -- acquired one of the Curtis portfolios as a gift directly from Edward Curtis himself. Mary and her husband, Jeff Ashby, were enthusiastic collectors of artifacts and art from all over the world. <br> <br>The Ashby's were childless and when they passed away, the Curtis photogravures went to the three nephews of Robert Quarles Jr. in equal parts. These works were then passed down to their descendants, who are the previous owners of this artwork.
Plate 251 On the Shore of the Lake - Kutenai
1910
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 256 Chief Joseph - Nez Perce - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - The man who became a national celebrity with the name "Chief Joseph" was born in the Wallowa Valley in what is now northeastern Oregon in 1840. He was given the name Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, or Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain, but was widely known as Joseph, or Joseph the Younger, because his father had taken the Christian name Joseph when he was baptized at the Lapwai mission by Henry Spalding in 1838. <br>Joseph the Elder was one of the first Nez Percé converts to Christianity and an active supporter of the tribe's longstanding peace with whites. In 1855 he even helped Washington's territorial governor set up a Nez Percé reservation that stretched from Oregon into Idaho. But in 1863, following a gold rush into Nez Percé territory, the federal government took back almost six million acres of this land, restricting the Nez Percé to a reservation in Idaho that was only one tenth its prior size. Feeling himself betrayed, Joseph the Elder denounced the United States, destroyed his American flag and his Bible, and refused to move his band from the Wallowa Valley or sign the treaty that would make the new reservation boundaries official. <br>When his father died in 1871, Joseph was elected to succeed him. He inherited not only a name but a situation made increasingly volatile as white settlers continued to arrive in the Wallowa Valley. Joseph staunchly resisted all efforts to force his band onto the small Idaho reservation, and in 1873 a federal order to remove white settlers and let his people remain in the Wallowa Valley made it appear that he might be successful. But the federal government soon reversed itself, and in 1877 General Oliver Otis Howard threatened a cavalry attack to force Joseph's band and other hold-outs onto the reservation. Believing military resistance futile, Joseph reluctantly led his people toward Idaho. <br>Unfortunately, they never got there. About twenty young Nez Percé warriors, enraged at the loss of their homeland, staged a raid on nearby settlements and killed several whites. Immediately, the army began to pursue Joseph's band and the others who had not moved onto the reservation. Although he had opposed war, Joseph cast his lot with the war leaders. <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br>What followed was one of the most brilliant military retreats in American history. Even the unsympathetic General William Techumseh Sherman could not help but be impressed with the 1,400 mile march, stating that "the Indians throughout displayed a courage and skill that elicited universal praise… [they] fought with almost scientific skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications." In over three months, the band of about 700, fewer than 200 of whom were warriors, fought 2,000 U.S. soldiers and Indian auxiliaries in four major battles and numerous skirmishes. <br>By the time he formally surrendered on October 5, 1877, Joseph was widely referred to in the American press as "the Red Napoleon." It is unlikely, however, that he played as critical a role in the Nez Percé's military feat as his legend suggests. He was never considered a war chief by his people, and even within the Wallowa band, it was Joseph's younger brother, Olikut, who led the warriors, while Joseph was responsible for guarding the camp. It appears, in fact, that Joseph opposed the decision to flee into Montana and seek aid from the Crows and that other chiefs – Looking Glass and some who had been killed before the surrender -- were the true strategists of the campaign. Nevertheless, Joseph's widely reprinted surrender speech has immortalized him as a military leader in American popular culture: <br>I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say, "Yes" or "No." He who led the young men [Olikut] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever. <br>Joseph's fame did him little good. Although he had surrendered with the understanding that he would be allowed to return home, Joseph and his people were instead taken first to eastern Kansas and then to a reservation in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) where many of them died of epidemic diseases. Although he was allowed to visit Washington, D.C., in 1879 to plead his case to U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes, it was not until 1885 that Joseph and the other refugees were returned to the Pacific Northwest. Even then, half, including Joseph, were taken to a non-Nez Percé reservation in northern Washington, separated from the rest of their people in Idaho and their homeland in the Wallowa Valley. <br>In his last years, Joseph spoke eloquently against the injustice of United States policy toward his people and held out the hope that America's promise of freedom and equality might one day be fulfilled for Native Americans as well. An indomitable voice of conscience for the West, he died in 1904, still in exile from his homeland, according to his doctor "of a broken heart."
Plate 256 Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
1903
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 259 Raven Blanket - Nez Perce - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - This profile reveals the details of the Nez Perce headdress and clothing. <br>“The war-bonnet of eagle-feathers, with pendant weasel-skins, as well as the otter-fur wrappings of his hair braids, indicates the extent to which the Nez Perce were influenced by the Indians of the prairies, whom they met in their annual pilgrimage to the buffalo country.” – Edward Curtis <br> <br>The North American Indian lifestyle included shared hunting and summering grounds. As a result, many clothing, customs and mythologies were adopted for their practicality and, in the case of this headdress, grandeur. <br> <br>Outside of the ceremonial, the clothing of both sexes was plains style, with the single exception of the fez shaped basket hats of the women. The usual material for clothing was deerskin, but the dresses of women were frequently of mountain-sheep skin. <br> <br>Raven Blanket is dressed in a full headdress here and is staring off into the distance. His sad eyes are representative of the treatment that his people endured since the White Man come to his land. <br> <br>"The history of the Nez Perces, when studied as a part of the North American Indian's conflict with civilization, is convincing that there was absolutely no course, policy, or conduct open to him which insured fair treatment, nor was there any road open to him which seemed materially to alleviate the situation or to stay the grasping encroachment. The inert, unorganized Indians of southern California were literally crowded from the earth. The fact that they, with their pacific disposition, made no resistance has no effect on the covetous settler, nor did it cause the Government to reach to them a helping hand in appreciation of their good behavior. They suffered through good conduct. The warlike, haughty tribes of the plains stood the imposition as long as they could, and then their long-smoldering resentment broke into flame and they struck back as only Indians can, and they suffered through their hostility. The Nez Perces, a mentally superior people were friendly from their first contact with white men, and as a tribe they always desired to be so. Their history since 1855, and particularly the war of 1877, tells how they were repaid for their loyalty to the white brother." <br> <br>From Edward S Curtis' North American Indian.
Plate 259 Raven Blanket - Nez Perce
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 262 Nez Perce Warrior - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Plate 262 Nez Perce Warrior
1905
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 266 Nez Perce Babe - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - When traveling this familiar lifestyle necessity is found in many North American Indian tribes. While the papoose design is similar throughout the tribal culture, there are distinctions in constructions essential to its use. <br> <br>This cradleboard back is very high, beyond where the head of the mother would be. Behind it is a wide strap and additional material. This papoose is designed to be strapped to a saddle and the decoration is unique in the creativity of the mother. <br> <br>The laced-in baby is surrounded in layers of warmth, as a few bands of the loosely organized tribe lived in the mountainous areas of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. <br> <br>From Volume 8, of "The North American Indian", Edward Curtis describes this area in visual prose, “the lofty, forested mountains are the source of numberless, clear perennial streams. Here and there are broad, undulating upland prairies, which once afforded the inhabitants a dependable, though laboriously gathered, supply of edible roots, and abundant forage for their horses. The lower courses of the streams flow through pleasant, narrow valleys completely shut in from the cold mountain winds, forming ideal spots for wintering. Deer, elk and mountain-sheep were obtained without great difficulty, and the rivers were alive with fish, particularly the salmon, which formed their principal food.”
Plate 266 Nez Perce Babe
1900
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 269 Umatilla Maid - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - “Two distinct cultural areas are represented in the costume of this damsel. The familiar beadworked, deerskin dress is an acquisition from the plains culture, while the basketry hat and the shell-bead necklace hail from the pacific slope. Note the skin of the deer's tail fastened in front at the collar, as an aid in removing the garment.” – Edward Curtis. <br> <br>It is curious to note that very little is written by Curtis regarding the Umatilla. The narrative in Volume VIII of The North American Indian, barely a paragraph speaks about them, only referring to a linguistic association to the Yakima.
Plate 269 Umatilla Maid
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 270 Innocence - Umatilla - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - “Few aspects of Indian life are more interesting to the casual visitor than the demeanor of the children, with the coy bashfulness, their mischievous, sparkling eyes, their doubtful hesitating just the other side of friendship.” – Edward Curtis <br> <br>Edward Curtis loved the faces of children from whom he could coax an expression. Notice the native clothing and detailed beaded bag over the girl’s plaid dress and tights. Because of the time his work was recorded, many costumes showed an intermingling of the native and contemporary North American Indian lifestyles.
Plate 270 Innocence - Umatilla
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 272 Cayuse Warrior - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - In the face of this portrait is the pictorial description Edward Sheriff Curtis wrote in the Volume VIII. <br> <br>“The Cayuse were a sullen, arrogant, warlike tribe . . . Of alien speech, they were on such intimate terms with the Shahaprian tribes of that region that even in 1851 their language was becoming obsolete, and for many years there has been none who could speak it.” <br> <br>Interestingly, the tribe believed to have influenced their language, the Molala, mysteriously disappeared and were believed to have lived underground.
Plate 272 Cayuse Warrior
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 278 Wishham Girl - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - The subject is clothed in a heavily beaded deerskin dress of the plains type. The throat is encircled by strands of shell beads of native manufacture, heirlooms which were obtained by the original Wishham possessor from the Pacific slope. Pendant on the breast are strands of larger beads of the same kind, as well as of various kinds brought into the country by the traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. An indispensable ornament of the well-born person was the dentalium-shell thrust through a perforation in the nasal septum; occasionally, as in this case, two such shells were connected by means of a bit of wood pushed into the hollow bases. Tied to the hair at each side of the face (see the following plate) is another dentalium-shell ornament, which is in reality an ear pendant transferred from the lobe of the ear (where its weight would be inconvenient) to the hair. The head-dress consists of shells, shell beads, commercial beads, and Chinese coins. The coins made their appearance in the Columbia River region at a comparatively early date. This form of head-dress was worn on special occasions by girls between the age of puberty and their marriage.” – Edward Curtis
Plate 278 Wishham Girl
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 279 Wishham Girl, Profile - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Of the 723 Plates included in the Edward Curtis book The North American Indian, this is one of the rare occasions when the detail was so intricate and expansive that two views are revealed. <br> <br>The piercing in her nose was important to her caste. From Volume VIII of text: “Men and women wore a long dentalium shell in the nose: every one wore this nasal ornament, for anybody without it ‘looked like a slave.”
Plate 279 Wishham Girl, Profile
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 281 Wishham Bride - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Wishham tribes were located in Oregon and Washington and the traditional dress was generally made of skins, breech cloth, or woven blankets. In this Edward Curtis photo however the beautiful Native subject is dressed for a wedding ceremony. She is very elaborately dressed in beaded clothing and jewelry. The marriage arrangements for the Wishham tribes would involve a messenger sent from the groom’s family to the bride’s father. The messenger would negotiate with him for a set price a very businesslike affair. <br> <br>On the day of the wedding the price would be payed and gifts would also be offered for other relatives of the bride. They would feast for days alternating between houses as part of the celebration. Polygamy was not frowned upon, but one would have had to be quite wealthy to support more than one wife. The most affluent of the tribe may have up to 8 wives. Adultery was punished according to Edward S. Curtis’ North American Indian.
Plate 281 Wishham Bride
1910
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 424 A Walpi Man - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Plate 424 A Walpi Man
1921
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 628 A Cree Camp at Lac Les Isles - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
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Plate 628 A Cree Camp at Lac Les Isles
1926
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 629 Chief Hector - Assiniboin - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Chief Hector, the son of Spotted Calf. <br> <br>Three centuries ago, the seven divisions of the Dakota were dwelling in the region between the headwaters of the Mississippi and the west end of Lake Superior. About the time of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, a band of the Yanktonai, deserting their tribesmen in anger, says tradition, over wrong done to the chief's wife, moved away to the north and east, until, after indefinite wandering, they established a temporary home on the shores of a wooded lake. Thus, the Assiniboin tribe was born, first mentioned as distinct from the Dakota by the Jesuit Relation of 1640 on "Lake Alimibeg," later identified as either Rainy lake on the northern boundary of the present state of Minnesota, or else Lake Nipigon, north of Lake Superior in the direction of Hudson Bay.
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Plate 629 Chief Hector - Assiniboin
1925
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 630 Assiniboin Hunter - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Plate 630 Assiniboin Hunter
1926
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 632 Assiniboin Mother and Child - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
SOLD
Plate 632 Assiniboin Mother and Child
1926
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 636 The Blackfoot Country - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches - The Blackfoot were known to be fierce warriors. This Blackfoot man sits in full headdress atop a white horse. He holds what is likely a coup stick and looks out onto the vast country of his people. The river leads one’s eyes right to the face of this handsome chief. Taken by Edward Curtis in 1928, this photogravure is on display in our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>"No tribe which the writer has studied is so lacking in traditional knowledge of its original home and early migration. In fact, no creation and early migration legend worthy of the name has been found to exist among any of the western Sioux tribes. On the other hand, other tribes of Siouan stock, the Apsaroke, Hidatsa, and Mandan, have definite creation and migration stories, which make it clearly evident that at one time they had their home on the South Atlantic seaboard, where Siouan tribes are known to have lived well within the eighteenth century, and where indeed the remnant of the Catawba still live." - Edward Curtis
SOLD
Plate 636 The Blackfoot Country
1926
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 637 A Blackfoot Travois - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Plate 637 A Blackfoot Travois
1926
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 640 Bear Bull - Blackfoot - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - Edward Curtis captures a fascinating aspect of North American Indian lifestyle. The hair worn in this manner is very specific to the Blackfoot tribe. The elder men allow their hair to grow, and twist it in the same manner as the Assiniboines; but instead of forming the coil on the crown, they wear it on the forehead, projecting seven or eight inches in a huge knob, smeared with red earth. <br> <br>A simple yet stunning portrait of a Blackfoot man named, “Bear Bull”. Pictured in profile one can see the deeps lines of a long life in his face. With a braided bun atop his forehead, he displays the ancient Blackfoot method of doing hair. The Blackfoot were fierce enemies and this man likely has seen many battles. Taken by Edward S. Curtis in 1927 this image is on display in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Plate 640 Bear Bull - Blackfoot
1927
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 642 Blackfoot Tipis - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
SOLD
Plate 642 Blackfoot Tipis
1926
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 646 Sacred Bags of the Horn Society - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Plate 646 Sacred Bags of the Horn Society
1926
Portfolio, 18 x 22 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 665 The Lone Chief - Cheyenne - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio: 22 x 18 inches
SOLD
Plate 665 The Lone Chief - Cheyenne
1927
Portfolio: 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Plate 685 A Comanche Mother - Vintage Photogravure - Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches - In this image, Curtis candidly captures a Comanche Mother stoically holding a child in a cradle. The pair are pictured outside and in typical garb. <br> <br>"The Comanche arer the sole representatives of the Shoshonean stock in Oklahoma. Like most of the tribes in that state, they were not natives of it, but were placed there for riddance. However, they differed from most other tribes removed to Oklahoma in that they were not strangers to the region, for it had been part of their hunting and raiding grounds for many years. No North American tribe ranged over so broad a territory. The Comanche were without prejudice in their selection of victims" from Edward S. Curtis' "The North American Indian", Volume XIX
Plate 685 A Comanche Mother
1926
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Red Cloud's Granddaughter - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - The Grandfather, Red Cloud <br> <br>In 1868 Red Cloud was at the height of his powers. He’d just won the most significant treaty that the Indians had ever gained with the U.S. The 1868 treaty with the Sioux gave them the Black Hills “For as long at the rivers run and the sun shall shine.” The “Bloody Bozeman” trail and three forts were closed as a result. Edward S. Curtis was born in Whitewater, Wisconsin in 1868. In 1905, Curtis had begun his odyssey to photograph the Indians of the U.S. and Canada. It was 1905 when, Curtis stopped to visit Red Cloud on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation, where he’d been forced to stay for the previous 30 years. Red Cloud, had held steadfastly to his principles. He had honored the treaty with the White Men, even though they had violated every part of it within a few years of its signing. Red Cloud was a man of principle, and when Curtis asked to take the old mans picture, Red Cloud agreed with one condition: that the picture be taken while he closed his eyes and “Dreamed of what life was like before the White Man came.” <br>That is the picture that Curtis took. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
Red Cloud's Granddaughter
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Red Hawk - Ogalala (Same Individual as seen in "An Oasis in the Badlands") - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born 1854. First war-party in 1865 under Crazy Horse, against troops. Led an unsuccessful war-party at twenty-two against Shoshoni. First coup when twelve horse-raiding Blackfeet were discovered in a creek bottom and annihilated. Led another party against Shoshoni, but failed to find them; encountered and surrounded a white-horse troop. From a hill overlooking the fight Red Hawk saw soldiers dismount and charge. The Lakota fled, leaving him alone. A soldier came close and fired, but missed. Red Hawk did likewise, but while the soldier was reloading his carbine he fired again with his Winchester and heard a thump and "O-h-h-h!" A Cheyenne boy on horseback rushed in and struck the soldier, counting coup. Engaged in twenty battles, many with troops, among them the Custer fight of 1876; others with Pawnee, Apsaroke, Shoshoni, Cheyenne, and even with Sioux scouts. <br>Red Hawk fasted twice. The second time, after two days and a night, he saw a vision. As he slept, something from the west came galloping and panting. It circled about him, then went away. A voice said, "Look! I told you there would be many horses!" He looked, and saw a man holding green grass in his hand. Again the voice said, "There will be many horses about this season;" then he saw the speaker was a rose-hip, half red, half green. Then the creature went away and became a yellow-headed blackbird. It alighted on one of the offering poles, which bent as if under great weight. The bird became a man again, and said, "Look at this!" Red Hawk saw a village, into which the man threw two long-haired human heads. Said the voice,"I came to tell you something, and I have now told you. You have done right." Then the creature, becoming a bird, rose and disappeared in the south. Red Hawk slept, and heard a voice saying, "look at your village!" He saw four woman going around the village with their hair on the top of their heads, and their legs aflame. Following them was a naked man, mourning and singing the death-song. Again he slept, and felt a hand on his head, shaking him, and as he awoke a voice said, "Arise, behold the face of your grandfather!" He looked to the eastward and saw the sun peeping above a ridge. The voice continued, "Listen! He is coming, anxious to eat." So he took his pipe and held the stem toward the rising sun. This time he knew he was not asleep, or dreaming: He knew he was on a hill three miles from the village. A few days later came news that of five who had gone against the enemy, four had been killed; one returned alive, and followed the four mourning wives around the camp singing the death-song. Still later they killed a Cheyenne and an Apsaroke scout, and the two heads were brought into camp.
Red Hawk - Ogalala (Same Individual as seen in "An Oasis in the Badlands")
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Return With Willows - Piegan - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Return With Willows - Piegan
1905
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Returned Scout – Ogalala - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - "The Teton Sioux had several other societies whose functions were much the same-that of encouraging the members to deeds of bravery and to perform acts of hospitality and liberality. Rivalry always existed between the different organizations as to which had the most aggressive and fearless leaders and the bravest men." by Edward S. Curtis in "The North American Indian," Volume III
Returned Scout – Ogalala
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Ring Thunder - Brule - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born 1840. At eighteen accompanied a party under Knife, against the Pawnee. He himself led twenty-three war-parties, all against the same tribe. He counted coup once, was never wounded, nor did an enemy ever strike him. <br> <br>Ring Thunder was 67 when he had this photograph taken by Edward S. Curtis. Born in 1840 he was an accomplished warrior and led 23 war parties. He was never wounded in battle or even ever hit by an enemy. When he was 33 he was elected chief of the Brule tribe. <br> <br>This photogravure was taken in 1907 by Edward S. Curtis. The piece was printed on Dutch Van Gelder and is available for sale in out Aspen Art Gallery.
Ring Thunder - Brule
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Running Fisher - Atsina - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Running Fisher - Atsina
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Santa Clara and the Rio Grande - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Santa Clara and the Rio Grande
1905
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Scouts - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Scouts
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Short Log - Two Kettle - Sioux - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - From Edward S. Curtis' "The North American Indian," Volume III, this image portrays a Sioux man named Short Log - Two Kettle. Pictured here in an elaborately decorated shirt, likely made of skin. <br> <br>This photogravure was taken in 1907 by Edward S. Curtis. The piece was printed on Japon Vellum and is available for sale in out Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Short Log - Two Kettle - Sioux
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Singing Deeds of Valor - Sioux - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - "A 'coup' could be won by actually killing an enemy, by striking the body of an enemy whether dead or alive, by capturing a horse or a band of horses, or by taking a scalp. Honors were counted on each hostile warrior by the first four who struck him, the first in each case winning the greatest renown, an honor called 'taya-kte' (kill right). Thus if twenty men were struck or even touched in an encounter, twenty honors of the first grade were won by the victors. But the greatest exploit of all was to ride in the midst of the enemy and strike a warrior in action without attempting to wound him. When a man had lead four war parties, and in each achieved a first honor, he was eligible to chiefmanship." by Edward S. Curtis in "The North American Indian", Volume III <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
Singing Deeds of Valor - Sioux
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Singing in the Crazy Dance - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Singing in the Crazy Dance
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Sioux Maiden - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - "The decorative art of the Lakota found expression on their deerskin garments, pipe-bags, saddle-blankets, robes, parfleches, shields and tipis... There seems to be no fixed motif in many of their designs, each woman reading into her art whatever may be prompted by her thoughts, the same figure sometimes meaning as many different things as there are workers." from "The North American Indian" by Edward S. Curtis, Volume III
Sioux Maiden
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Slow Bull's Tipi - Sioux - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Slow Bull was born 1844. First war-party at fourteen, under Red Cloud, against Apsaroke. Engaged in fifty-five battles with Apsaroke, Shoshoni, Ute, Pawnee, Blackfeet, and Kutenai. Struck seven first coups. At seventeen he captured one hundred and seventy horses from Apsaroke. In the same year he received medicine from buffalo in a dream while he slept on a hilltop, not fasting, but resting from travel on the war- path. Counted two honors in one fight, when the Lakota charged an Apsaroke camp and were routed. Slow Bull returned to the enemy; his horse stepped in a hole and fell, and an Apsaroke leaped on him. He threw his antagonist off, jumped on his horse, and struck his enemy in the face with a bow. At that moment another Apsaroke dashed up and dealt him a glancing blow in the back with a hatchet. Slow Bull counted coup on him also. He has been a subchief of the Ogalala since 1878. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Slow Bull's Tipi - Sioux
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Spotted Elk - Brule - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - First war-party at seventeen. It was said of him, as of any able-bodied male who waited so long before engaging in war that "he slept too long." At the first night's camp, to try his strength of heart, he was sent back to the starting point (the party traveled afoot) to bring water; he returned at daybreak with a buffalo-paunch full of water. He took an active part in the battle and was shot through the leg. Five Apsaroke scalps were taken, and four Sioux wounded. <br> <br>At twenty-one Spotted Elk headed a party of twenty-five, met two Apsaroke at the mouth of the Musselshell, and took their scalps. He led six other parties against Assiniboin, Hidatsa, Mandan, Apsaroke, and Arikara. Five of these fights resulted in one to ten enemies slain, seventeen in all, and in four no Lakota’s were lost. He took part in forty-seven battles, acquired eleven honors, five of them "kill right," was wounded five times, and captured horses eight times. He fasted on six occasions, once four days and four nights, when he "almost died of hunger," twice two days, thrice a day and a night. One of these fasts was in winter. In his visions came Elk, Bear, Fox, Gray Wolf, and Hawk. Elk helped him most of all. Both Elk and Bear correctly foretold his success in war. All these vision creatures showed him certain roots to be used for disease or wounds, and he used them both for himself and others. He participated three times in the Sun Dance, on one occasion being the principal dancer; twice the skewers were passed under the muscles of his arms, once through those of his back. He once saw his half-brother, Rain In The Face, actually suspended by the muscles of his back and shoulders. He succeeded his father, Burned Shaver, as a chief of the Hunkpapa. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Spotted Elk - Brule
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Standing Bear - Ogalala - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Men wore hip high leggings, loin cloth and moccasins, all made from tipi-coverings softened by weathering and by long exposure to smoke. Customarily no shirt was worn, when necessary, being covered with a buffalo skin belted at the waist. The war-bonnet of eagle feathers arrayed in a circlet about the heat and extending in a flowing train even to the heels was worn on special occasions by the warriors. Women wore deerskin dresses reaching half-way below the knee, with elbow length sleeves open at the armpits and tied with thongs. Leggings extended from ankle to knee, and moccasins were ornamented with quill work. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Standing Bear - Ogalala
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Start of a War-Party - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Start of a War-Party
1907
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Struck by Crow - Ogalala - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born 1847. At eleven he accompanied a party against the Apsaroke, the one in which Fast Thunder served as a warrior. He participated in ten battles, most of them against the Apsaroke, and fought four times against troops, three of these occasions being the Fetterman massacre, the engagement with Crook's command at the Rosebud, and the battle of the Little Bighorn. Counted coup twice, both in the same fight, when twenty Flathead and two Sioux were killed. Fasted four times in the Bighorn Mountains and experienced a vision. Early in the morning he took five tanned buffalo-skins to the summit and gave them to Mystery. He remained on his feet until long after darkness had fallen, and then as he laid sleeping he saw the fork of a river, and beside it a ridge over which came many horses driven by a man. Some of the horses were white. The next day at sunset he returned to his camp and went into the sweat-lodge. A short time after this Struck By Crow accompanied a raiding party and captured some white horses. <br> <br>Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
Struck by Crow - Ogalala
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Sumaikuli Katsina At Hano - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - Pictured here is a part of the ceremony of the Departure of the Kachinas. Performed by the Hopi tribe as one of the Kachina dances. Edward S. Curtis took this photo for his volume 12 of the North American Indian. <br> <br>This photogravure was taken in 1921 by Edward S. Curtis. The piece was printed on Japon Vellum and is available for sale in out Aspen Art Gallery.
Sumaikuli Katsina At Hano
1921
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - The Chief - Assiniboin - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
The Chief - Assiniboin
1926
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - The Halt - Atsina - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - The Atsina were a nomadic tribe, following the buffalo as it was their primary source of food, clothing, and housing. Here the tribe may be travelling and at a stop somewhere along the way. <br> <br>This photogravure was taken in 1909 by Edward S. Curtis. The piece was printed on Japanese Tissue and is available for sale in out Aspen Art Gallery.
The Halt - Atsina
1909
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - The North American Indian: Original Prospectus - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - A complete prospectus in excellent condition. Includes two images: "Navaho Medicine Man" and "The Oath".
The North American Indian: Original Prospectus
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - The Parley - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - "A 'coup' could be won by actually killing an enemy, by striking the body of an enemy whether dead or alive, by capturing a horse or a band of horses, or by taking a scalp. Honors were counted on each hostile warrior by the first four who struck him, the first in each case winning the greatest renown, an honor called 'taya-kte' (kill right). Thus if twenty men were struck or even touched in an encounter, twenty honors of the first grade were won by the victors. But the greatest exploit of all was to ride in the midst of the enemy and strike a warrior in action without attempting to wound him. When a man had lead four war parties, and in each achieved a first honor, he was eligible to chiefmanship." by Edward S. Curtis in "The North American Indian," Volume III <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
The Parley
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Three White Cows - Atsina - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Three White Cows - Atsina
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Traveling - Atsina - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - The Atsina were a nomadic tribe, following the buffalo as it was their primary source of food, clothing, and housing. Here the tribe may be travelling and at a stop somewhere along the way. <br> <br>This photogravure was taken in 1909 by Edward S. Curtis. The piece was printed on Japanese Tissue and is available for sale in out Aspen Art Gallery.
Traveling - Atsina
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Tsetsanu (Tewa) - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - The young woman “Tsetsanu” from the Tewa is pictured here by Edward S. Curtis. Tewa was a subset of the Hopi and had similar characteristics and dress. Her hair is done in whorls, indicating that she in unmarried. The subject is dressed stylishly with jewelry and an off the shoulder dress. <br> <br>This image was taken in 1921 by photographer Edward S. Curtis and was printed on Japon Vellum. The Original photogravure is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Tsetsanu (Tewa)
1921
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Umatilla Child - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Umatilla Child
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Umatilla Girl - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Umatilla Girl
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - When Winter Comes - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Pictured here by photographer Edward Curtis is an example of a winter camp. Winter was tough for almost all tribes, and required preparation by drying meats and preparing a warmer winter lodge. <br> <br>This image was taken in 1908 by photographer Edward S. Curtis and was printed on Dutch Van Gelder. The Original photogravure is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
When Winter Comes
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - White Bull - Umatilla - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
White Bull - Umatilla
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - White Elk - Oto - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
White Elk - Oto
1927
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - White Man Runs Him (Full Figure) - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born about 1854 or 1855. Mountain Crow; Big Lodge clan; Lumpwood organization. His only coup was counted by the capture of a tethered horse. Noted for his many successful horse-raiding expeditions against the Sioux. <br> <br>Scouted with Custer in his last campaign and was one of the party of three or four scouts who, at the dawn of the morning of the Custer fight, first sighted the Sioux camp. A small party of Crow and Arikara scouts under Lieutenant Varnum, having traveled nearly all night, arrived shortly before dawn almost the summit of the highest peak in the Wolf mountains, where the party slept for a short time. At approaching light White Man Runs Him and a couple of companions went to the top of the high peak which gave them the first view of the Sioux encampment. Following Custer's coming up to view the valley and its camp of hostiles, he was with Custer until the Sioux made their attack on him. White Man Runs Him's recollections of that day are exceedingly clear. The author spent several days with him traveling carefully over the ground covered on the day of the disastrous fight on the Little Bighorn, part of this time being accompanied by general C.A. Woodruff. <br> <br>White Man Runs Him possesses no medicine derived from his own vision, but once fasted four days and four nights in the Bighorn mountains on a peak known to the Apsaroke as "Where White Man Runs Him Fasted." Of his seven wives he gave up six "good ones," that is, those who had borne him children; to discard such was an indication of a strong heart. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
White Man Runs Him (Full Figure)
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - White Man Runs Him (Portrait) (One of Custer’s Crow Scouts) - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born about 1854 or 1855. Mountain Crow; Big Lodge clan; Lumpwood organization. His only coup was counted by the capture of a tethered horse. Noted for his many successful horse-raiding expeditions against the Sioux. <br>Scouted with Custer in his last campaign, and was one of the party of three or four scouts who, at the dawn of the morning of the Custer fight, first sighted the Sioux camp. A small party of Crow and Arikara scouts under Lieutenant Varnum, having traveled nearly all night, arrived shortly before dawn almost a the summit of the highest peak in the Wolf mountains, where the party slept for a short time. At approaching light White Man Runs Him and a couple of companions went to the top of the high peak which gave them the first view of the Sioux encampment. Following Custer's coming up to view the valley and its camp of hostiles, he was with Custer until the Sioux made their attack on him. White Man Runs Him's recollections of that day are exceedingly clear. The author spent several days with him traveling carefully over the ground covered on the day of the disastrous fight on the Little Bighorn, part of this time being accompanied by general C.A. Woodruff. <br>White Man Runs Him possesses no medicine derived from his own vision, but once fasted four days and four nights in the Bighorn mountains on a peak known to the Apsaroke as "Where White Man Runs Him Fasted." Of his seven wives he gave up six "good ones," that is, those who had borne him children; to discard such was an indication of a strong heart.
White Man Runs Him (Portrait) (One of Custer’s Crow Scouts)
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - White River Valley - Apache - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
White River Valley - Apache
1903
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Winter-Count - 1701-1727 - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Winter-Count - 1701-1727
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - Winter-Count - First Period - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Winter-Count - First Period
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure

Edward S. Curtis - With Her Proudly Decked Horse - Cayuse - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
With Her Proudly Decked Horse - Cayuse
1910
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Woman's Costume and Baby Swing - Assiniboin - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - This image by Edward Curtis depicts a, Assiniboin mother in an elaborately decorated dress swinging her young baby in a hammock-like swing. The swing is tied between two trees. A serene image of the beauty of motherhood in the Native tribes. <br> <br>This image was taken in 1926 by photographer Edward S. Curtis and was printed on Japon Vellum. The Original photogravure is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Woman's Costume and Baby Swing - Assiniboin
1926
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Yellow Hawk - Yanktonai - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born in 1854 near Fort Berthold, North Dakota. When he was sixteen he accompanied a war-party, but achieved nothing. While in an engagement with the Apsaroke near Musselshell river, Montana, he rushed into the thick of the fight and brought out his brother's dead body. Somewhat older, he was leading a war-party when a single Indian was seen. Wishing to fight him single-handedly, Yellow Hawk commanded his warriors to wait; he then charged the stranger, killing him with his war club. On another expedition he killed one enemy and counted a first coup. He captured a tethered horse from the Atsina near Fort Belknap, and another from the Cree. Yellow Hawk fasted many times and always had the same vision- that an old man in the clouds with his body painted blue and his legs read. This old man told him he would never be wounded, but would gain many honors and live to great age. Yellow Hawk married at twenty-three. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
Yellow Hawk - Yanktonai
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Yellow Horse - Yanktonai - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Yellow Horse was born in North Dakota in 1853 making him about 55 in this Edward Curtis photo. He was known to be a great warrior and his medicine was a bird-skin tied to a yellow cloth. Pictured by Curtis here in an elaborately decorated shirt and with feathers in his hair. <br> <br>This image was taken in 1908 by photographer Edward S. Curtis and was printed on Dutch Van Gelder. The original photogravure is available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
Yellow Horse - Yanktonai
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - Young Kalispel Girl - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Young Kalispel Girl
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

The North American Indian [Original Prospectus]. <br>With foreword by Theodore Roosevelt. Contains 2 photogravures, "The Oath, Apsaroke" and "Navajo Medicine Man" on Van Gelder paper. Printed wrappers, lightly soiled; with the original tissue guards. <br>
"The North American Indian" Prospectus
1907
12 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Original

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Beaver Bundle - Blackfoot 50% off opportunity - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - This image represents the very important ceremony surrounding the planting of tobacco. Two men sit beside each other holding the beaver bundles that are likely full of tobacco seed. They are in the shadows and the light shines mostly on the bundles. This photogravure was taken by Edward S. Curtis and is now on display in our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>“The principal Beaver Bundle was shown the writer in a tent at a haying camp. It lay in the place of honor on a pile of folded rawhides. It was wrapped in a tanned buffalo-skin colored red, and was securely wound with plaited rawhide rope. Under the turns of the rope were two hardwood dibbles, each having the incised outline of a beaver on its flat side. The handle ends were ornamented with beads. With the sticks were two long pipes separately wrapped in red flannel. <br> <br>The ceremony of planting tobacco is held in great awe. The following account, apparently half myth and half legend, purports to explain the origin of the beaver bundles and ritualistic tobacco planting.” -From Page 184 in volume 18 of Edward Curtis' North American Indian
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Beaver Bundle - Blackfoot 50% off opportunity
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Cave at Middle Mesa - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - In this photograph by Edward S. Curtis remnants of basketry and shards of pottery as strewn about a cave. He claims to have discovered this cave in 1900 near Middle Mesa. The baskets and jars were ceremonial objects and many were intact and even sealed. Edward Curtis said that the circumstances he was under made it impossible to examine the contents. This piece is on display at our Aspen Art Gallery.
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Cave at Middle Mesa
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Chukchansi Woman - Profile - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Language: The Yokuts, formerly known as the Mariposan linguistic fmaily, are now classed as a member of the new Penutian family <br>Population: The total Yokuts Population as reporated by the cencus of 1910 was 533 - Edward Curtis
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Chukchansi Woman - Profile
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Chukchansi Yokuts - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Dress: men, and a great many women, more only loin cloth; other women had double aprons of shredded willow-bark, tules, or sedge, more rarely of skin. IN cold weather both sexes used robes made of strips of the skins of rabbits, coyotes, or water foul. Moccsasins were rare. Men and women drew their hair together at the back of the head and tied it in a bunch or a sheaf with a cord, or passed a head-band from the base of the cranium up over the top. In the north women generally tattooed the chin, and some men the chest and forearms; and both sexes occasionally wore a bit of bird-bone, or, rarely, a cylinder of clamshell in an orifice in the lobe of each ear and the septum of the nose. In the south, however, they did not tattoo, and ornaments were long, slender pendants of clam-shell worn about the neck, in the lobes of the ears, and the septum. - Edward Curtis
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Chukchansi Yokuts
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Chukchansi Yokuts Woman - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Primitive Foods - In the hill country acorns and other nuts, seeds of grasses, sage, and other small plants, fruits, and various roots and green stalks were important articles of food. Many of the valley dwellers were far removed from the oaks and other food producing trees and shrubs, and depended largely on tule-roots, small seeds, and fish. In the region of Tulare lake large quantities of fish were dried. In winter the San Joaquin plain swarmed with deer, antelope, and elk, but the Yokuts were not adept at hunting. The usual method was to drive the animals past an ambush. Rabbits, ground-squirrels, and small birds were of more importance than the ruminants. - Edward S. Curtis
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Chukchansi Yokuts Woman
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Gem of Basketry - Southern Yokuts - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - This hand colored ledger depicts a Southern Yokuts basket. This particular basket is very well crafted and displays interesting designs. The Yokuts people were extremely skilled in the art of basketry and it was the only manufacturing industry they had. The tribe uses both a coil technique as well as a twined technique to create baskets. This photogravure was made in 1924 by Edward S Curtis and is currently on display in our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>“The Materials for coiled basketry are the stems of a grass which the Chukchansi call chinis for the multiple foundation, and shreds of the root-stock of a sedge, solosul, for the wrap. Black designs are effected by an overlay wrapping root fiber of sapasip dyed by burial in mud; and reddish designs by the use of the bark of redbud. A recent innovation is to add bits of a brighter ornamentation by employing the orange colored quills of the yellowhammer.” - Edward Curtis
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Gem of Basketry - Southern Yokuts
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Grave House - Piegan - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Grave House - Piegan
1911
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Maidu Woman - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Maidu Woman
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Middle Mesa Albino - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Middle Mesa Albino
1921
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Southern Miwok - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Southern Miwok
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Southern Miwok Woman - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Southern Miwok Woman
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Southern Miwok Youth - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Southern Miwok Youth
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Wailaki Man - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Wailaki Man
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Wailaki Woman - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Wailaki Woman
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Yaudanchi Yorkuts Woman - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* A Yaudanchi Yorkuts Woman
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* An Ancient Pottery Kiln - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* An Ancient Pottery Kiln
1921
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* An Apache - Mohave Woman - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* An Apache - Mohave Woman
1907
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* An Eastern Pomo - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* An Eastern Pomo
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* An Owens Valley Mono - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
SOLD
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* An Owens Valley Mono
1924
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Apache - Mohave Homes - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - The Apache dwellings consisted of a dome shaped frame of cottonwood or other poles, thatched with grass. The house itself was termed, "Kowa" and the grass thatch, "Pi".
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Apache - Mohave Homes
1907
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Atsina Burial - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - "It is believed that when a man dies he goes northward to 'Bashnobe,' the Big Sand, where he joins the spirits finds plenty of game and follows the customs and habits of their former existence. The ghosts of the dead are believed to haunt graves, to travel with the whirlwind, and to have the power of shooting invisible arrows into people."
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Atsina Burial
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Atsina Burial Ground - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Atsina Burial Ground
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Atsina Crazy Dance - A Dancer Kisses the Grandfather - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - The ceremony lasted four days and four nights, but the dancing continued until darkness, when the dancers' wives accompanied the Grandfathers beyond the camp circle to receive medicine from them. Each woman, on her return to the lodge, was kissed by all the dancers in turn, and her husband ended by kissing the Grandfather.
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Atsina Crazy Dance - A Dancer Kisses the Grandfather
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Atsina Fly Dance - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - In the dance of the Fly society, which lasted but one day, the performers were of four grades; the leader, who unpainted, wore a buffalo robe, hairy inside and out, and carried a wand; the pledger of the ceremony, who was painted yellow: four "elder brothers," members of companies which had already given the Fly Dance, who painted yellow, acted as guides in the dance; and finally, the rank and file of members, who were painted with white stripes across cheeds and nose, on arms and legs and across abdomen, and with a band of red around the neck. The Grandfathers chewed an herb which they rubbed on the dancers to make them brace and strong. Each of the ordinary dancers carried a stick about three feet long with a cactus thorn at the end. About noon the members of the society assembled in their lodge and began to walk about the circle, then danced up and down without shifting from their places. While thus dancing they held their robes outstretched, wing fashion, and made a humming noise like mosquitoes. At the close of a dance, while still forming a circle, all fell to their knees and touched their heads to the ground. When the fourth dance was ended, the Flies were at liberty during the next two hours or so to pursue all bystanders and to prick them with their gads. At the close of this sport they gathered in the centre of the camp and ran four races, then proceeded to their lodge and feasted on meat which one of their members had cooked.
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Atsina Fly Dance
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Atsina Fly Dance - "Robes Outstrectched" - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - On the fourth day a fire was kindled in the centre of the lodge, and the Grandfather said, "It is time for the Crazy Men to dance in the fire." Thereupon the relatives of the dancers brought in gifts of clothing and robes for the Grandfathers, who took them home and then returned as the members began to dance around the glowing embers of what had been a blazing fire, with each circuit approaching closer and closer. Suddenly all leaped upon the coals and stamped upon them until every ember was extinguished; then running outside and standing close together, they discharged arrors straight up into the air and immediately at the ground, exhibiting their bravery by standing motionless among falling shafts.
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Atsina Fly Dance - "Robes Outstrectched"
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Buffalo Stones - Piegan - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Buffalo Stones - Piegan
1911
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Caches at Celilo - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Caches at Celilo
1909
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Casa Grande Ruin - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Casa Grande Ruin
1907
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Ceremonial Ki - Pima - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches - The early dwellings of the Pima and their immediate congeners were quite alike: a dome-shape structure about seven feet high and fifteen feet in diameter at the base. A circular excavation twelve to eighteen inches deep was first made, in the centre of which four crotch posts were set about five feet apart, forming a square. Two heavy roof timbers rested upon these posts, five feet from the ground, supporting ten or more stout cross-beams. Numerous stave-like ribs of mesquite, tied to horizontal poles that extended around the outside like hoops, were stretched from the roof timbers to the bottom of the shallow excavation. The whole was thatched with arrow-brush and covered with clay, leaving only a small opening at the base on the eastern side as an entrance. Only a few of the old form of houses are now in use among the Pima. For the greater part their domiciles are rectangular, with flat roofs and straight walls of mud filled in between poles fastened horizontally to opposite sides of stout posts, or with brush-wattled walls plastered inside and out with mud.
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Ceremonial Ki - Pima
1907
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Charge Crow - Yanktonai - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - Born near Standing Rock in 1850. When in his seventeenth year he joined a war party against the Apsaroke near the Little Bighorn, the Yanktonai capturing a number of horses. While fighting the Flatheads, Charge Crow killed one and took his horse. He led a war-party on foot, and encountering the Atsina near Fort Belknap, Montana, captured fifty horses. Having found an old police badge, he visited a camp of Cree and told them he was an officer. They believed him, and Charge Crow stole most of the horses in the camp, and got away with them safely. Although he fasted often and prayed to the sun, he never had a vision; he attributes his success in war to the potency of his prayers. He married at twenty-one. <br> <br>The Yanktonai are known to have resided in North Dakota and Montana until reservation days and the total population in Curtis time was around 6,500. <br> <br>Charge Crow frowns into the camera in this image, he is dressed traditionally. This photogravure was taken in 1908 by Edward S. Curtis and is now available at our Aspen Art Gallery. <br> <br>Provenance: <br>Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Library
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Charge Crow - Yanktonai
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Cheyenne Female Type - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
SOLD
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Cheyenne Female Type
1911
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Cheyenne Matron - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Cheyenne Matron
1911
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Chinook Female Profile - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Chinook Female Profile
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Chinook Female Type - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Chinook Female Type
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Communal Ceremonial Shelter at Captain Grande - Diegueno - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Communal Ceremonial Shelter at Captain Grande - Diegueno
1924
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Contents of Arikara Tribal Medicine Bundle - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Contents of Arikara Tribal Medicine Bundle
1908
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Contents of Bundle of Numak Mahana - Mandan - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - The contents of this bundle include a girdle of buffalo skin with many strands of twisted hair hanging off, a large wooden pipe inlaid with stone, a cimeter-shaped club of ash ornamented on one side with carved figures of the moon and the thunderbird, a stuffed Raven, a headdress of porcupine hair, a collar and anklets of jack rabbit skin, a bunch of four buffalo tails, a set of buffalo teeth, and more. <br> <br>All of this paraphernalia is held and protected by a man named Packs Wolf a priest of the tribe. This photograph was hand colored and printed by Edward Curtis in 1909. It is now on display in our Aspen Art Gallery.
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Contents of Bundle of Numak Mahana - Mandan
1908
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Cutting the Centre Pole - Cheyenne - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Cutting the Centre Pole - Cheyenne
1911
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Departure From Preparation Lodge - Cheyenne - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches - The sweat lodge ceremony was very important to the Cheyenne tribes. This image taken by Edward S. Curtis depicts a number of Cheyenne in robes departing from one of the sweat lodges likely for ceremonial purposes. The image was printed for The North American Indian volume VI on Dutch Van Gelder paper. Printed in 1909 by photographer Edward S. Curtis, this piece is now available for sale in our Aspen Art Gallery.
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Departure From Preparation Lodge - Cheyenne
1910
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Deserted Lodge - Yakima - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
*50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Deserted Lodge - Yakima
1907
Volume, 9.5 x 12.5 inches
Vintage Photogravure
Edition: Vintage

Edward S. Curtis - *50% OFF OPPORTUNITY* Door-of-Lodge Grizzly - Flathead - Vintage Photogravure - Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches