Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian
Sensitive Images and Text
This online collection contains all of the images and caption text as originally published in The North American Indian. The captions reflect a perspective that Indians were "primitive" people whose traditional cultures and ways of life were disappearing. In his representation of Indians as the "vanishing race," Curtis echoes the prevailing view held by Euro-Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Contemporary readers should interpret the captions in that context.
Some captions and images portray ceremonial rituals and objects that were not intended for viewing by the uninitiated. No images have been excluded or specially labeled. They are included in this digital collection in order to represent the work fully.