Monday, May 4, 2009

Apache Warrior

Edward S. Curtis [1868-1952], Portrait of Geronimo, 1905.
Curtis's photographs of American Indians have become iconic images of what many believed at the time to be a vanishing race. In 1906, Curtis was offered $75,000 to produce a 20-volume study of the Indians of North America by JP Morgan. The 20 volumes were to contain 1,500 photogravures. Curtis produced 40,000 photographs and 10,000 wax cylinders of recorded music and stories from over 80 tribes. 
Source here.

Geronimo was a symbol of untamed freedom of the American West. The Apaches were the last Indians to surrender. "No one was their friends except their legs." At one time they ran 80 miles a day to elude American forces.

In 1905, an 80-year-old Geronimo led President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural procession.

An earlier reference to Roosevelt here.