Edward Curtis devoted his adult life to documenting through photography the Native American tribes of the western United States. He spent extensive time getting to know individual cultures, then photographed them to capture a dying life at the turn of the century. 500 portfolios were published and purchased by wealthy individuals and libraries. Each portfolio consisted of a large portfolio of photographs and smaller format texts with smaller photographs. These photographs are from two of the original 40 large portfolios housed at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Curtis said of his own work, "These pictures were to be transcriptions for future generations that they might behold the Indian as nearly lifelike as possible as he moved about before he ever saw a paleface or knew there was anything human or in nature other than what he himself had seen."

These are not MY work. They were photographed by Edward Curtis. The copyright at the bottom of the page is automatically generated...not placed there by me! I am keeping this site up by popular demand. Again, these photos are NOT mine! See further explanation in comments section below.