Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher (47 page)

Questions to Curtis from Mazamas on day of summit climb of 1897, and other details
of climb, from Curtis’s unpublished memoir, “As It Was.”

The first death on Rainier, from
Harper’s Weekly,
August 28, 1897, and from
Mount Rainier: A Record of Exploration,
by Edmond S. Meany, Macmillan, 1916.

The record for most climbers, and account of the 1897 climb, from Dee Molenaar,
The Challenge of Rainier,
Mountaineers, 1971.

Statistics on climbs, from
Climbing Mount Rainier: The Essential Guide,
by Fred Beckey and Alex Van Steen, Alpen Books, 1999, and
Mount Rainier: A Climbing Guide,
by Mike Gauthier, Mountaineer Books, 2005.

Summit, and aspects of the climb from Camp Muir to top, from the author’s climbs of
Rainier, retracing Curtis’s route to the top.

Curtis meeting distinguished men on Rainier, his rescue, from his own account, as
told in letter to Leitch, identifying the famous men he rescued on Rainier by directing
her to a picture, from the Harriman expedition of Grinnell and Merriam, cited above.

Grinnell background, from
Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of
the New West,
by Michael Punke, Smithsonian Books, 2007.

Merriam background, from
The Last of the Naturalists: The Career of C. Hart Merriam,
by Keir B. Sterling, Arno Press, 1974.

Curtis’s methods, and description of his personality at that age, from William Phillips
recollection in his unpublished memoir, in Gidley,
Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated,
and Curtis explanation in
Western Trail
magazine, January 1900.

Alaska, letter, and story, from
Century Magazine,
October 14, 1897. Story behind the approach Curtis took to getting the assignment,
from “Edward S. Curtis Goes to the Mountain,” by Mick Gidley,
Pacific Northwest Quarterly,
October 1984.

Fallout between the Curtis brothers over Alaska, from
HistoryLink.org
essay 8780.

Harriman expedition details, from “North to Alaska,”
Smithsonian,
June 2003.

Description of Curtis as contagious, from Phillips unpublished memoir, in Gidley,
Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated.

Grinnell invitation to Curtis, from Curtis, “As It Was.”

3. THE BIG IDEA

Trip to Browning, Montana, from Burlington Northern online history of the railroad,
and from the author’s trip to Browning, and to the Blackfeet reservation.

Descriptions of buildings in Browning, from
Among the Blackfeet Indians of Montana,
by A. C. Haddon, as recorded in
Edward Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field,
by Mick Gidley, University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

Grinnell on Curtis’s method, from “Portraits of Indian Types,” by George Bird Grinnell,
Scribner’s,
March 1905.

Holy Family Mission, from Browning, Montana, website:
www.browning montana.com/mission.html
.

American Indian policy, assimilation, role of agents and missionaries, from
Now That the Buffalo’s Gone,
by Alvin Josephy, University of Oklahoma Press, 1982.

Details of Sun Dance, including recordings, from
NAI,
Vol. VI, and from Curtis’s letters to Leitch, SPL.

How to talk to Indians, from Grinnell, “Portraits of Indian Types,” and from Curtis’s
unpublished memoir, “As It Was,” UW Library, Special Collections.

Sweat bath, hearing music and birds, from Curtis letter to Mrs. Gardner, circa 1937,
on file at UW Library, Special Collections.

Curtis with Grinnell, from UW Library, Special Collections. Random writings of Curtis,
from draft of “As It Was.”

Blackfeet as likeable people, and their rituals explained, from
NAI,
Vol. VI.

White Calf and wig must be “ethnologically accurate,” from Curtis, “As It Was.”

San Francisco interview, from
San Francisco Sunday Call,
October 14, 1900.

Curtis on the Hopi and Snake Dance, from Curtis, “As It Was.”

Grinnell on Curtis the artist, from
Century,
October 14, 1897.

Descriptions of Hopi country, land and people,
NAI,
Vol. XII.

Other descriptions of Hopi country, from the author’s visits to the Hopi Nation in
Arizona.

Curtis’s advice on subjective pictures, from
Western Trail,
January 1900.

Such a big dream, as quoted by family members, in
Curtis’ Western Indians,
by Ralph W. Andrews, Bonanza Books, 1962. Same words also used by Florence Curtis
Graybill in her memoir of her father,
Edward S. Curtis: Photographer of the North American Indian,
by Victor Boesen and Florence Curtis Graybill, Dodd, Mead, 1977. Earlier quote in
this chapter on Curtis being single-minded, from his sister Eva Curtis, also came
from this memoir.

Curtis “spending all his time” on Indian project, his letter to Hodge, September 15,
1903, in Frederick Webb Hodge Collection, Braun Research Library, Southwest Museum
of the American Indian, Los Angeles. Hereafter referred to as Hodge papers, Southwest
Museum.

Indian population, from census of 1900, and speculation on vanishing, from
American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492,
by Russell Thornton, University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.

4. INDIAN NAPOLEON

Description of football game, from
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
November 21, 1903.

Roosevelt visit, largest crowd in history of state, from
Seattle Times,
May 25, 1903.

Population of Seattle, cars and streetcars, from
Seattle Mail and Herald,
December 19, 1903, progress issue.

Joseph’s activity in last four years of his life, from
Chief Joseph,
by Chester Anders Fee, Wilson-Erickson Press, 1936.

More on Joseph, from
Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce,
by Kent Nerburn, HarperCollins, 2005, and
Chief Joseph, Yellow Wolf and the Creation of Nez Perce History in the Pacific Northwest,
by Robert Ross McCoy, Routledge, 2004.

Edmond Meany background, and his quotes and letters between Curtis and Meany (extensive
correspondence), from The Papers of Edmond Meany, UW Library, Special Collections,
hereafter cited as Meany papers.

“Old Chief Likes City,” from
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
November 22, 1903.

Significance of the game,
Seattle Times,
November 21, 1903, and more details of the game from
One Hundred Years of Husky Football,
edited by Karen Chave and Steve Rudman, Professional Sports Publications, 1990.

Curtis writing on Joseph, from
NAI,
Vol. VIII.

Joseph’s speech in Seattle, from Nerburn,
Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce.

Joseph’s death, and Curtis letter to Meany on the death, from Meany papers, letter,
October 13, 1904.

Buffalo Bill quote on Joseph, from Nerburn,
Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce.

Havasupai, from the author’s visit to the village of Supai, near the Grand Canyon,
and from Curtis’s writings on the tribe,
NAI,
Vol. II.

“Strangest dwelling place,” from
NAI,
Vol. II.

Description of Walpi and Hopi reservation, from the author’s visit to Walpi.

Apache, from Curtis, “As It Was,” and from the author’s visit to the White Mountain
Apache reservation, Arizona.

Apache dialogue, bribe attempt, from Curtis writings on file at the Seaver Center,
Los Angeles County Museum of History, box 1.

Seattle Times
profile of Curtis, from November 15, 1903.

Prettiest children contest, from
Ladies’ Home Journal,
September 1904.

Alden Blethen background, from
HistoryLink.org
, essay 1681.

Account of Chief Joseph reburial, from Curtis, “Vanishing Indian Types,”
Scribner’s,
June 1906. Quotes about the digging, from Curtis’s letters to Leitch, SPL.

Description of marble memorial at Joseph burial site, from the author’s visit to Chief
Joseph’s grave on the Colville Indian reservation, Nespelem, Washington.

Account of potlatch, from “Vanishing Indian Types,” and from
NAI,
Vol. VIII.

Cardozo, from
Sacred Legacy,
edited by Christopher Cardozo, Simon & Schuster, 2000.

5. WITH THE PRESIDENT

Curtis at Roosevelt home, from Curtis’s unpublished memoir, “As It Was,” UW Library,
Special Collections.

Sagamore Hill descriptions, from Sagamore Hill National Historic Site,
www.nps.gov
.

Curtis on Roosevelt, on Roquefort dressing, on feeling at home in Oyster Bay, from
“As It Was.”

T.R. quote on Alice, from
Hail to the Chiefs: My Life and Times with Six Presidents,
by Ruth Shick Montgomery, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1970.

How Curtis won contest, from “Curtis Goes to Oyster Bay—Seattle Man Will Make Photographs
of President Roosevelt’s Boys,”
Seattle Daily Mail,
undated clipping on file at UW Library, Special Collections.

Smithsonian rebuke, Doubleday meeting, from “A Seattle Man’s Triumph,”
Seattle Times,
May 22, 1904.

T.R.’s view on Indians in general, from
The Winning of the West
, originally published in 1894, reprint, University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

T.R. comment on “dead Indians,” from
Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia,
Roosevelt Memorial Association, 1941.

Curtis’s orotone finishing process, from promotional brochure, Curtis studio, on file
at UW Library, Special Collections.

Curtis’s work habits, from his letters to Leitch, SPL.

Mathew Brady and his life quest, from
Mathew Brady and the Image of History,
by Mary Panzer, Smithsonian Books, 2004.

Acoma description, from two visits by the author. Spanish battle detail at Acoma from
The Last Conquistador: Juan de Oñate and the Settling of the Far Southwest
, by Marc Simmons, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.

Acoma, quote on two religions, “Indians of the Stone House,” by E. S. Curtis,
Scribner’s,
February 1909.

Hopi Snake Dance and camera, from
Seattle Times,
May 22, 1904.

Curtis spirituality, from letter to Hodge, October 28, 1904, Hodge papers, Southwest
Museum.

Curtis on the Navajo, from
NAI,
Vol. I.

Canyon de Chelly description, from the author’s visit.

Canyon de Chelly history, from National Park Service,
www.nps.gov
.

Curtis letter to Meany, October 13, 1904, from Meany papers.

Curtis letter to Hodge, October 28, 1904, from Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

Curtis and incident with expert at the Cosmos Club, as told by Curtis in
Seattle Mail and Herald,
May 13, 1905.

Geronimo biography, from
Geronimo: His Own Story,
by Stephen Melvil Barrett and Frederick W. Turner III, originally published in 1906,
reprint, Penguin, 1996.

Bird Grinnell on Curtis, from Grinnell, “Portraits of Indian Types,”
Scribner’s,
March 1905.

Grosvener letter, February 18, 1905, quoted in Gidley,
Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated.

Curtis letter to Roosevelt, December 15, 1905, and reply, December 16, 1905, from
Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, Library of Congress.

6. IN THE DEN OF THE TITAN

Morgan letters, contracts, from Edward S. Curtis papers, Morgan Library archives.

Morgan Library, plan and details, from Morgan Library,
www.themorgan.org
., and from “Let There Be Light and Elegance,”
New York Times,
October 29, 2010.

The Curtis plan, outline, from Curtis papers, Morgan Library archives.

Morgan background, from
Morgan: American Financier,
by Jean Strouse, Harper Perennial, 2000.

Railroads, and how they changed the lives of Indians, from
They Built the West: An Epic of Rails and Cities,
by Glenn Chesney Quiett, Appleton-Century, 1934.

Belle da Costa Greene, from
An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene’s Journey from Prejudice to Privilege,
by Heidi Ardizzone, Norton, 2007, and from Strouse,
Morgan: American Financier
.

Rave at Waldorf-Astoria, from
Craftsman,
March 1906.

Curtis-Morgan encounter, from Curtis-Leitch correspondence, SPL. Additional details
from UW archives, and notes of Florence Curtis Graybill in the Curtis family files.

Headline, Morgan money, from
New York Press,
March 26, 1906.

Roosevelt letter to Curtis, February 6, 1906, from
Letters of Theodore Roosevelt,
Harvard University Press, 1952. Curtis letter to Roosevelt asking him to write introduction,
August 17, 1906. Roosevelt’s reply, August 28, 1906.

7. ANGLOS IN INDIAN COUNTRY

Curtis desire to get Apache secrets, from his unpublished memoir, “As It Was.”

Curtis description of Myers, from Curtis-Leitch correspondence, SPL.

How Curtis gets to Apache country, from his “Vanishing Indian Types,”
Scribner’s,
May 1906.

Harold Curtis quotes, on being in the field with his father for the first time, from
Gidley,
Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field.

Description of White Mountain Apache reservation and surrounding area, from the author’s
visit.

Curtis letter to Hodge, June 9, 1906, Hodge papers, Southwest Museum.

Curtis on being rejected, from “As It Was.”

Descriptions of Goshonné in Apache country, from Curtis’s account in “As It Was” and
from another personal account on file at UW, undated, apparently written much later.
Also from Phillips account in Gidley,
Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field.