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Section 1: Overview

Edward Curtis and The North American Indian

How did Edward Curtis’s quest to document the cultures and faces of North American Indians create a photographic legacy that defines and influences our perceptions of Native Americans? We will be introduced to photojournalism by considering a range of quotations from photojournalists and examining Civil War-era photographs that ushered in modern photojournalism in America. We will then engage in a deeper study of the photojournalism of Edward S. Curtis, whose photographic and ethnographic quest to document Native American history, peoples, and cultures spanned the early 20th century and produced a 20-volume opus of documentary photographs and accompanying research. We will learn how to examine and analyze photographs closely, and we will demonstrate our understanding by writing and presenting an analysis of a significant Curtis photo.

  • Lesson 1:

    We will examine the ideas and work of famous photojournalists and discuss the unit’s Central Question: How do images change the world?

  • Lesson 2:

    How did new photographic methods change photojournalism in the mid-19th century by allowing images of war to be seen in magazines and newspapers? We will examine a famous photo from the Crimean War and examples of Civil War photography from Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner to learn about the origins of photojournalism. We will consider how new camera equipment influenced photography, photojournalism, and the depiction of wartime images.

  • Lesson 3:

    How and why did portrait photographer Edward Curtis document Native American figures and culture in the early 20th century? We will learn who early 20th-century photojournalist Edward Curtis was and how he engaged in a life-long quest to document American Indian tribes, customs, and figures. To study his approach to photojournalism, we will analyze several of his most iconic photos.

  • Lesson 4:

    Who was Edward Curtis and why did he dedicate his life to documenting Native Americans? We will learn more about the life and work of Edward Curtis by watching and discussing a full-length documentary titled Coming to Light: The Edward S. Curtis Story.

  • Lesson 5:

    How did Edward Curtis’s work advance photojournalism, change our perceptions of Native American culture, and influence other photographers? We will discuss the Smithsonian article about Curtis and his project to photograph Native Americans, then watch and discuss a video to consider the impact of Curtis’s work on our perceptions of Native Americans and on other photographers and photojournalists.

  • Lesson 6:

    How did Edward Curtis combine photographic images, ethnographic research, and personal writing to document Native Americans? We will learn more about Edward Curtis’s work as a photographer and ethnographer and about primary source research by examining information about the publication of the collection and introductory text from Volume 1 of Curtis’s The North American Indian.

  • Lesson 7:

    How do Edward Curtis’s photographic images combine with and complement the ethnographic research and writing in The North American Indian? We will engage in primary-source research by examining an evocative Curtis image, Apache Medicine-Man, and a related text from Volume 1 of Curtis’s The North American Indian. We will practice inquiry-based note-taking and use the information we gain to write a short, research-based analysis of the photograph.

  • Lesson 8:

    How do contemporary Native Americans react to and describe Edward Curtis’s work and its impact on their people? We will examine personal essays by several Native American writers, in conjunction with Curtis photographs they reference in their essays.

  • Lesson 9:

    In a home team, we will present what our expert reading team learned from closely examining a personal essay by a contemporary Native American writer and Curtis photographs associated with that essay. As a home team, we will develop a summary claim in response to the lesson’s guiding question: How do contemporary Native Americans react to and describe Edward Curtis’s work and its impact on their people?

  • Lesson 10:

    How does a selected Curtis photograph depict its subject and influence our perceptions of Native Americans? We will review the task and question for the Section 1 Diagnostic and prepare to write a photographic analysis and present our findings to a student review team.

  • Lesson 11:

    How does a selected Curtis photograph depict its subject and influence our perceptions of Native Americans? We will present our photographic analysis to a student review team for the Section 1 Diagnostic.

  • Lesson 12:

    We will review feedback on the Section Diagnostic. We will use the feedback to make revisions to our work.

  • Lesson 13:

    We will commence an Independent Reading Program in which we choose texts to read independently as we progress through the unit. We will learn how to choose texts, what activities we may complete, about the final task, and about any materials we will use as we read our independent reading texts. We will begin by reading our texts, using Tools to help us take notes and analyze important textual elements.