16 rare, historical photos of Native American life that you've probably never seen
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Edward S. Curtis spent 30 years documenting over 80 Native American tribes in the early 1900s.
He published his photos in a 20-volume collection, "The North American Indian."
The images have been criticized while also serving as an important historical resource.
In the early 1900s, photographer Edward S. Curtis set out to document Native American tribes as westward expansion and ethnic cleansing threatened their way of life.
By the late 19th century, Native children were forced to attend government-operated boarding schools designed for assimilation, where their names, languages, and long hair were forbidden. Many students also died of infectious diseases like tuberculosis.
Curtis photographed important Native American figures such as chiefs and shamans.
Curtis took this photo of the Dakota Chief Stinking Bear in 1905.
He included subjects of all ages, from elders to babies.
A Hupa woman posed for Curtis with her baby in a traditional woven carrier in 1923.
Harold cardinal biography Harold Cardinal grew up on the Sucker Creek reserve, located about 22 km east of High Prairie, Alberta. In 1968, he was elected president of the Indian Association of Alberta, its youngest president. During his nine terms in office (1968-77), Cardinal initiated many programs to affirm Indigenous culture and traditions.