Curtis Legacy Foundation

REACTIONS

“What holds my attention in Curtis’s work is not the triumph of character and individuality over typology, nor the possibility that he dignifies his Native American subjects by incorporating them into ‘the family of man’...it is rather the ways in which the faces in Curtis's pictures are occupied by and preoccupied with time.”

Shamoon Zamir, The Gift of the Face: Portraiture and Time in Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), page 8

Our Reactions series combines photographs and text from The North American Indian with reactions to those images and stories by Native Peoples today. Each Reaction focuses on one image and provides related text, quotes, and insights about the subject.

A portrait of Bear Bull, a Blackfoot Native man, by Edward S. Curtis.

Bear Bull - Blackfoot

Curtis created this distinctive portrait of Bear Bull in 1926. Learn more by clicking on the imageimage.

An early 1900s photograph by Edward Curtis of Piegan Natives on horseback.

Travaux - Piegan

These Piegan men and women are carrying scared items in the travaux strapped onto their horses. Learn more by clicking on the image.

Horse Capture - Atsina

This powerful portrait of Horse Capture includes several details about his life. Learn more by clicking on the image.

A portrait of a Klamath Native woman by Edward S. Curtis, 1923.

Klamath Woman

This piercing portrait of a Klamath woman was created in 1923. Learn more by clicking on the image.

Learn about the Curtis Legacy Foundation's Descendants Project in this presentation by founder and Edward Curtis's great-grandson John Graybill and his wife Coleen Graybill, (Viewing time: 0:39)