show. “We have to look at these critically,” says Pahn, “and think about the biases that the photographers brought with them as they took those images.” The value of images in the archives are
not only what they show, but that they are
stepping stones along the evolution
of photography. Despite the widely held yet false belief by non-Native people that many American Indians in the 19th century thought the camera was a “shadow catcher” that could remove an individual’s spirit, the archive has many images from photogra- phy’s earliest days. Among these are rare portraits of Ameri-
can Indians. The daguerreotype of Wa-o-wa- wa-na-onk, also known as Peter Wilson, set in an expensive leather case is an exceptional example. Like many who had daguerreotype portraits made, Wilson was an important lead- er. He was born on the Seneca Nation's Buffalo Creek Reservation (which was abandoned in 1845) in western New York state and advocated for Indian and treaty rights. The daguerreo- type process was popular in America from 1840 to 1860. Using a wooden box camera, the photographer captured the image directly onto a silver-coated copper plate. After open- ing the lens cover to expose the plate to light, the daguerreotype was created by holding it over hot mercury until an image appeared. Many of the first photographers in Europe and America died of illnesses related to the danger- ous chemicals used in making such images. In the 1850s, the ambrotype (a cased im-
age exposed on glass) and then the tintype (a cased, metal-coated image) portraits were less expensive to make and quicker to capture
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 37
Top: This albumen print by war photographer Alexander Gardner shows the Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke) chiefs who signed the Treaty of 1868 with the U.S. government at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. The treaty was intended to bring peace with the Lakota people and established their reservation in the Black Hills in Dakota Territory. From left to right: U.S. lawyer H.M. Matthews, Mountain Tail, Pounded Meat, Black Foot, Winking Eye, White Fawn, White Horse, Poor Elk, Shot-in-the-Jaw, Crow (or Crane) and Pretty Young Bull. William T. Sherman Collection. P15385
Middle: The cracked ambrotype portrait of Chief Okemis of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) was made in Cheboygan, Michigan, in 1858. Wounded in battle during the War of 1812, Okemis signed the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw, in which tribes ceded 6 million acres in southern Michigan to the United States. He was almost 100 years old when he was photographed. Donated by Sarah Imhof. P12521A
Bottom: Cased in leather, this daguerreotype of Cayuga tribal chief Wa-o-wa-wa-na-onk, also known as Peter Wilson, was made in the 1850s. Handwritten inside the case is “Wa-o-wa-wa- na-onk to his friend P.E. Thomas—Sa-ga-oh.” Wilson was a signatory to the 1838 Second Buffalo Creek Treaty, which attempted to relocate the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) nations from New York state. However, he later said the treaty was fraudulent. He earned a medical degree from Geneva Medical College in 1844. P25296A
PHOTO BY PHILIP E. THOMAS
PHOTO BY HENRY H. SMITH
PHOTO BY ALEXANDER GARDNER
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