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'''Ethical Dispute Curits' work has provoked a number of critical responses regarding the ethics of being a photographer. 'The North American Indian' is a seminal and controversial blend of documentary and staged photography — one which contributes to much of the foundational imagery and, often-stereotypical, understanding possessed by white America about native tribes that the United States eradicated over a century of colonization. Curtis had been known to stage photographs and, at times, add props or accessories. Curtis took on his freedom of ethnography, both imposing and reinforcing white notions of Native American appearances and culture.

The Curtis exhibition The Curtis exhibition at the Muskegon Museum of Art has raised compelling questions around the individual and institutional tendencies to justify the art that people find interesting. There are 723 portfolio images lining the walls of the Musekegon’s galleries — as well as a 20-volume edition gathering 1,500 additional photos and ethnographic research by Curtis in cooperation with tribes west of the Missouri River. They managed to chronicle what Curtis called, “the lifeways and mores of all the tribes who were still relatively intact from the colonialism and the invasion of Anglo culture.” The Muskegon Museum is in possession of the collection because of Lulu Miller, the first female director of the adjacent Hackley Library and second director of the Muskegon Art Museum (appointed in 1916, being the second woman in the US to run an art museum). In 1908, as her first acquisition for the library, Miller sourced $3,000 to purchase a subscription to Curtis’s series, which was issued in 20 volumes and would ultimately take 30 years to complete. That sum is around $80,000 today. The Muskegon Museum of Art owns one of the estimated 225 sets of The North American Indian, and The Curtis exhibition is one of very few that has put the collection on display in its entirety. The final volume arrived in late 1930, bracketing Miller’s career with the library and museum, and in the 1970s was transferred from the library to the purview of the art museum for conservation efforts.

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According to the narrative presented by the museum, by the end of The North American Indian, Curtis was basically penniless and died in obscurity, as popular interest in his project waned while his own obsession mounted. In his later years, as he became more aware of the struggles of the people he was photographing, his work might be seen as an early attempt at activist or social practice art, before there was any notion of such a thing. These works, also on display, showcase Native Americans living in a more anglicized context, wearing Depression-era clothing rather than traditional garb, and reflect the ways in which there was, by then, little remaining of the “lifeways and mores” that Curtis found so initially fascinating. The fact that he continued to pursue Native Americans as subjects outside of the exoticized trappings of their traditional culture demonstrates a real transition in Curtis’s work.

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Today Today, the preponderance of technology has made it possible for people to self-document, and there is less a need to rely on an external, paternalistic, or authoritative record. In this, Curtis’ access to photography tools and training can justifiably be recognized as a "product of his time". Guest curator Ben Mitchell, who worked on the exhibition for some two years said, “I think that these images clearly show someone who began to understand more deeply the importance and uniqueness of the American Indian cultures. You can find this in his writing, that he came to understand that white America had something really poignant and important to learn from Native American culture, especially the depth of the spirituality. And I think about the times that we live in right now, in a time of name-calling, when our major political leadership is scapegoating people who are not white. Deportation is up 38% in just the last four months. The point is, I think, that Curtis, through The North American Indian, realized that white America had something to learn.” The museum has gone to great lengths to ensure the subject matter was appropriately handled, including engagement with the local Little River Band of Ottowa Indians, located in Manistee, Michigan. Tribal Chief Larry Romanelli served as an advisor to the exhibition and appeared with other Native American participants in panel discussions and programming that accompanied the exhibition. His view of the exhibition is positive and echoes a sentiment presented in some of the texts accompanying Curtis' photography: Curtis captured humanity and heritage that is significant to the descendants of Native American tribes, which would likely have otherwise been lost forever.