While we all know that a talented photographer with a good eye matters a lot when making a photograph, how much does it matter who is taking a picture and why they are taking it? An exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, In Our Hands: Native Photography 1890 to Now, asks that question.  As has been discussed on the network before, photography has been used to perpetuate stories about Native Americans as a disappearing people, as novelties and tourist attractions. The exhibition asks us to consider what we see when Native American photographers turn their cameras on themselves and their communities. Many of the historical images of indigenous people that we see in textbooks or popular culture were made by white people, and were taken for a variety of reasons, such as nostalgia or sentimentality, as documentation for government programs, or as souvenirs for tourists. In this exhibition the photographs were taken by native artists for the same reasons any artist uses photography as a medium: for self-reflection, as a means of understanding a person or issue, for documenting a time or place, or for sale, among a myriad other reasons. 

The TPS Guide to Analyzing Prints and Photographs asks the participants to consider questions of audience and intent. Those questions are especially pertinent to portrait photography, which inherently deals with identity. Photographs of people deal with relationships.  The photographer is in relationship with the subject, even if for only the click of the shutter. What can the photograph tell us about that relationship? 

The Inquiry in the Upper Midwest project by consortium member Minnesota Historical Society has a primary source set of historical photographs of Native American subjects. They suggest that educators consider the “power dynamic between those being photographed and the photographer.”

While viewing the show, I found myself thinking about a particular stereocard in the library of congress collection. We had wanted to include the image  in the Roaring 20s Redux teacher resource guide, but I was unable to find enough information on it to write about it meaningfully. I must have filed away in my mind. 

Keystone View Company. Metlakatlan Indian flappers, Alaska. , ca. 1926. Feb. 3. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017653103/.

I thought of it when I was at the opening for Mia's show and I came across a studio photograph by Horace Poolaw of two women in the 1920s, both in traditional deerskin dresses. One of the subjects has fashionably bobbed hair and the striking lipstick and makeup popular with flappers. 

I also noted a Tsimshian photographer from Metlakatia Alaska, Benjamin Haldane, who ran a studio in his community from the late 19th and into the early 20th century. He took formal portraits of Tsimshian families and individuals, as well as photographing community events. As the wikipedia article about Haldane cited above notes, “as a community insider, he was able to achieve an intimate look at the Tsimshian people.”

Could it be that the Library’s stereocard is by Haldane? There’s little information in the catalog record, but the title Metlakatlan Indian flappers, Alaska is a strong clue. It is a nicely composed shot, posed carefully, but naturally. The young women look at the camera with a confidence and openness that could imply familiarity, or at least comfort with the photographer. Is it possible that this stereograph photo was taken by Haldane? His studio seems to have closed by 1910, but he was still active in the community until his death in 1941. The card is copyrighted by a firm in Chicago. Did Haldane sell this image for distribution? 

Could the image instead be a part of the effort to show Metlakatla as an ideal assimilated community? 

https://www.docsteach.org/activities/printactivity/assimilation-and-the-native-people-of-metlakahtla-alaska The town was founded in 1887 when the missionary William Duncan asked the US government for land in Alaska for his Tsimshian followers, leading to the creation of the Annette Islands Reserve, the only American Indian reservation in Alaska.  While the community was Christian, they also retained their traditional culture. Decades earlier, photographs of community members had apparently been used to make it appear as if the people of Metlakatla were fully assimilated into Western society by Duncan and Sir Henry Wellcome, the wealthy pharmaceutical entrepreneur, who wrote the baldly racist The story of Metlakahtla. 

The Library’s stereocard would make an excellent research project. It would be wonderful to discover the identities of the young women, and the name of the photographer. How does this image fit into the story of Native photography? Is it in fact an example of a native photographer documenting the independent and stylish youth of his community? 

Tools for analyzing photography:

• Look Back, See Further: Studying photographs and drawing connections between primary sources from the Library of Congress and local collections.
• TPS Guide to Analyzing Photographs and Prints.
• Inquiry in the Upper Midwest, Photographs of Native Americans.
• In Our Hands teachers guide. 

Benjamin Haldane Resources:

• Exhibition of photography from the Tongass Historical Museum. http://ketchikanmuseums.org/virtual_exhibit/vex21_ketchikan_is_capturing_time/498B088E-E8A0-42BC-8447-921595576297.htm#:~:text=Benjamin%20Alfred%20Haldane%20(1874%2D1941)&text=Benjamin%20Alfred%20Haldane%20is%20known,that%20differed%20from%20colonial%20viewpoints.
• Askren, Mique̕ l Icesis. From negative to positive : B.A. Haldane, nineteenth century Tsimshian photographer
• Askren, Mique̕ l Icesis. Re-Developing the work of B.A. Haldane, 19th Century Tsimshian Photographer. https://www2.unbc.ca/sites/default/files/events/45874/public-presentation-miquel-dangeli-re-developing-work-b.a.haldane-19th-century-tsimshian-photography/2018-02-14-miqueldangeli-b.a.haldanephotography.pdf

Some secondary sources on Metlakatla:

• https://www.metlakatla.com/ Official website of the Metlakatla Indian Community. 
• http://www.sitnews.us/Kiffer/Metlakatla/080706_metlakatla_alaska.html History of Metlakatla
• The Metlakatla Experiment. https://bcanuntoldhistory.knowledge.ca/1850/the-metlakatla-experiment

The Library has several resources on Metlakatla, but be warned, these are definitely from a Western colonialist viewpoint, and are full of offensive language and images. 

• Arctander, Jno. W. The apostle of Alaska; the story of William Duncan, of Metlakahtla. [New York, Chicago, Fleming H. Revell co, 1909] Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/09014199/.
• Davis, George T. B. Metlakahtla: A True Narrative of the Red Man. Chicago: Ram's Horn Company, 1904. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/94222972/.
• Map of Metlakatla https://www.loc.gov/resource/gmdtitlecolmaps.ak-051/?sp=14&r=0.688,0.253,0.25,0.115,0
• Case, W. H, photographer. Rev. Wm. Duncan. United States Metlakatla Alaska, ca. 1900. [Between and Ca. 1930] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/99614791/.
• Old Russian church and fort at Metlakatla, Alaska. , ca. 1899. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2022641080/.

  6 - 8    9 - 12    Art/Music    Social Studies/History    UArts