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Edward S. Curtis,
Photographer
"The following information is reprinted courtesy
of the Edward S Curtis Gallery of
edwardscurtis.com, whose site has copies of these incredible photogravures
for sale. We have no commercial association with them, and have included this
information because of its historical importance. Edward S. Curtis managed to
assemble a vivid photographic accounting of the Native Americans westward, north
and south from the Mississippi. As I researched his material, I was constantly
overwhelmed by the beauty and significance of what he had to convey. I know that
you'll agree that these works are very special."
Linda Hebert,
www.basketweaving.com
Nez Pierce Basketry Edward S. Curtis Biography
link to www.EdwardSCurtis.com
Other Native American
Basketry Photos
Edward Sheriff Curtis,
Born in 1868 near
Whitewater, Wisconsin, Edward Sheriff Curtis became one of America's finest
photographers and ethnologists. When the Curtis family moved to Port Orchard,
Washington in 1887, Edward's gift for photography led him to an investigation of
the Indians living on the Seattle waterfront. His portrait of Chief Seattle's
daughter, Princess Angeline, won Curtis the highest award in a photographic
contest. Having become well-known for his work-with the Indians, Curtis
participated in the 1899 Harriman expedition to Alaska as one of two official
photographers. He then accompanied George Bird Grinell, editor of Forest and
Stream, on a trip to northern Montana. There they witnessed the deeply
sacred Sundance of the Piegan and Blackfoot tribes. Traveling on horseback, with
their pack horses trailing behind, they emerged from the mountains to view the
valley floor massed with over a thousand teepees - an awesome sight to Curtis
and one that transformed his life. Everything fell into place at that moment: it
was clear to him that he was to record, with pen and camera, the life of the
North American Indian. Edward S. Curtis devoted the next 30 years photographing
and documenting over eighty,tribes west of the Mississippi, from the Mexican
border to northern Alaska. His project won support from such prominent and
powerful figures as President Theodore Roosevelt and J. Pierpont Morgan. From
1911-1914 Curtis also produced and directed a silent film based on the mythology
of the Rawakiutl Indians of the Pacific Northwest. Upon its completion in 1930,
the work, entitled The North American Indian, consisted of 20 volumes, each
containing 75 hand--pressed photogravures and 300 pages of text. Each volume was
accompanied by a corresponding portfolio containing at least 36 photogravures.
Documentation of Nez Pierce Basketry and
other handcrafts. Text by Edward S. Curtis
The handiwork
of the Nez Perce's shows greater skill than is exhibited by that of the tribes
of the plains. They made baskets and bags of several forms.
*A large cylindrical basket for the gathering and storage of roots was called
kakapa; it was made of twine from Indian
hemp and bear-grass, the latter forming the weft and the former the warp. The
bear-grass was sometimes dyed blue, red, or yellow, the blue being made from
lichens, the red and yellow from earth not burned or otherwise prepared.
*Kushh was a flat winnowing basket
made of osiers and measuring twenty to twenty-four inches in diameter. *
*Pishkut, the mortar basket, was of
the same material and shape; it was bottomless, as usual, and was fastened
upright to a flat stone upon which the roots or seeds were pounded. It is
probable that both the winnowing and the mortar basket of the Nez Perces were
borrowed originally from the Shoshoni.
Cooking-vessels consisted of coiled baskets made of willow splints, and had the
form of an inverted truncated cone. Flat bags or pouches were woven in several
sizes. The smaller bags of this type were used by the women for containing their
small, personal belongings, while the larger ones held the clothing and personal
effects of the family. Both warp and weft were of hemp twine, the design being
often produced or elaborated by the use of colored materials wrought into the
surface by being caught under the horizontal threads as the bag was woven.
Matting, woven from cattails or from tules, was made in great quantities, as it
furnished the principal house-covering, served as mattresses, and, spread upon
the ground, formed tables upon which to place the food, while small pieces were
used in lieu of dishes. Spoons were carved from the frontal bone of the deer,
from horn of the mountain-sheep, or from clam-shells. Bowls were hollowed out of
soft wood, such as alder, by means of knives, which primitively were flakes of
flint. Bows about three feet in length and of great strength were fashioned from
mountainsheep horn, and were either of one piece or of two pieces spliced. Red
cedar and syringa also were used. All well-made bows were strengthened with a
backing of several layers of sinew. Arrows were principally of syringa.
Flint-headed spears were sometimes used in war, also clubs consisting of a
spherical stone wrapped in rawhide and provided with a wooden handle; such a
weapon was called kaplafs. An effective armor was manufactured of rawhide
taken from the neck of the bull-elk. This shirt of mail, called tukupailakt,
protected the upper part of the body, had half-length sleeves, and was fastened
at the front with thongs. The Nez Perce shield, which was used only by
war-leaders and their principal followers, was made of doubled rawhide of the
elk, unshrunken, and stretched over a wooden hoop; it sometimes bore painted
representations of the war exploits of its owner. Quivers were made from the
skin of the otter, coyote, cougar, or deer. Crude canoes were hewn from drift
logs, usually cedar.
Other Basketry
Photographs by Edward S. Curtis
Following are some examples of Edward
S Curtis' photogravures of Native American basketry. I know that you'll be
inspired by the pattern, shape and color of these works. If you visit the
edwardscurtis gallery website, you'll
find a map of North America which locates the tribal regions. Their site also
has the text of many pages of Mr. Curtis' written documentation of his travels,
with many well detailed descriptions of Native American life.
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