Page 55 - YGARTUA: Magnum Opus - volume three
P. 55

continue on through Paul in a larger                          singular achievement. Never before have

           format and adorn the walls of patrons                         we seen the Indians of North America

           all over the world–bringing awareness                         so close to the origins of their humanity,

           about and appreciation, encouraging the                       their sense of themselves in the world,

           education  of informing  the  public  the                     their innate dignity and self-possession.

           importance and value of our natives and  These photographs comprehend more

           their folkloric customs.                                      than an aboriginal culture,  more than

                                                                         a prehistoric past  - more, even,  than a

          Edward          Sheriff        Curtis,       American          venture into a world of incomparable

           photographer            and        chronicler          of     beauty and nobility. Curtis’s photographs

          Native American peoples whose work                             comprehend indispensable images of

           perpetuated an influential image of                           every human being at every time in every

          Indians as a “vanishing race.”                                 place. In the focus upon the landscape of

                                                                         the continent and its indigenous people,

          The North American Indian was perhaps                          a Curtis photograph becomes universal:

           the most ambitious publication ever  N. Scott Momaday, a leading voices in

           undertaken  by  a  single  man,  and  it  was                 modern Native American literature.

           widely hailed as a landmark in American

           publishing history. In 1911, the New York  It  seems  that  there  is  a  force,  a  guiding

          Herald said that it was the most gigantic                      hand that is instrumental in his search for

           undertaking since the publication of the                      subject matter (since 1970), that inspires,

          King James Edition of the Bible. Taken as                      influences and motivates Ygartua in this

           a whole, the work of Edward Curtis is a                       direction it is interminable.










                                                                      51
   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60