Tribute to Native Americans [Native American Heritage Month - November, 2011]
Collective Research by the 7th Grade Class
The 7th grade class was asked to do collective research at the Library of Congress web site to pay tribute to the Native Americans and in keeping with Native American
Heritage Month [November]. They went online at:
to collect photographs and information about the Native Americans that Edward Curtis documented in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
This tribute to the Native Americans is also a classroom exercise to create greater awareness of the utilization of the Library of Congress web site to study:
American History,
Arts and Culture,
Government, Politics and Law,
Maps and Geography,
News and Journalism,
Religion and Philosophy,
Science and Technology,
Business,
Sports and Leisure,
World History and Cultures.
About the Curtis Collection:
The Edward S. Curtis Collection offers a unique glimpse into Curtis' work with indigenous cultures. The more than 2,400 silver-gelatin photographic prints were
acquired by the Library of Congress through copyright deposit from about 1900 through 1930. About two-thirds (1,608) of these images were not published in Curtis'
multi-volume work, The North American Indian. The collection includes a large number of individual or group portraits, as well as traditional and ceremonial dress,
dwellings and other structures, agriculture, arts and crafts, rites and ceremonies, dances, games, food preparation, transportation, and scenery. The portion of the
collection that is cataloged online represents those photographs for which copy negatives or transparencies exist.
The teacher [Mr. Chambers] is also a documentary photographer:
and his recent project, Just Words is a "take" on the Curtis Collection as a tribute to the
Native Americans. The namesake of the project is a play on the "White man's" broken promises, and the words seen as a part of the art reflect his emotional states or
reactions to the mistreatment and near annihilation of the indigenous population by his Anglo Saxon Ancestors. He hopes to begin to find closure for his haunted
existence with this attempt as a political statement through the Arts.
Click on names below to open the students' research papers in PDF format. |