Portfolio of the North American Indian

Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952)
Tobadzishini-Navaho [sic.]
Gelatin silver print, 1904
Prints & Photographs Division
Copyright deposit (46A.5)

From the 1890s to the 1930s, Edward S. Curtis photographed approximately eighty different Native American groups, including their traditional clothing, crafts, and homes. He published a twenty-eight volume work, the North American Indian, which embraced the romantic notion he and other white Americans held about the vanquished Indian. This image of Tobadzischini,(war god), a participant in the Yebechai dance--a nine-day ritual combining ritual and medicine still practiced today--dates from a 1904 trip to the Southwest he made among the Navajo and Apache. It is unlikely that Curtis photographed the actual sacred ceremony, and this is probably a recreation, a practice to which he frequently resorted.

Additional Links:

Edward S. Curtis (1868--1952)
A Navajo Smile
Gelatin silver print, 1904
Prints & Photographs Division (46A.6)