American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Indians and photography are inextricably intertwined in strange and persistent ways. From the earliest beginnings of photography to the most recent prints from the trip to Santa Fe, Indians are subject matter for generations of non-Indian photographers. Their cameras search out our homes, our clothing, our kids, our arts, our hands, and our faces in an attempt to capture our spirits through photography. This search parallels the development of photography and western expansion. It has become an American tradition to photograph the Indian. Why has the Indian been so important to white photographers, and what ethical questions arise from the use of 150 years of photographs of Indians? From the time of the arrival of Columbus to the current argument about the use of Indians as sports mascots, conflicting images of Indians have emerged and re-emerged in American popular and high culture. Often based on historic cultural and racial stereotypes, these persistent images give us a distorted view of Indians, a distortion that affects the past as well as the present. In one sense, we are surrounded by images of Indians. We grow up with these images in our cartoons, in textbooks, in films, in television shows, and in the names of sports teams. Museum collections are full of paintings and photographs of Indians from our collective past. Toy stores are full of plastic Indian warriors on horseback, tomahawks in their hands. Hollywood continues to bring stereotyped images right into our homes. Company logos continue to use Indian images for advertising everything from baking powder to bullets.