The eagle  is the master of the skys and is used as a symbol
to  represent courage, but it is particularly important as a sign of wisdom.

The mission of the Smoki Museum of American Indian Art & Culture is to instill an understanding and respect for the indigenous cultures of the Southwest.

Knowledge of and insights into those cultures is a prerequisite for respect.  This section attempts to capture some of that base.

Much of this material is still being developed - check later to see what is added.

The following describes the topics included.  Click on the title and you will jump to the more detailed content:


Time Line for Innovation in the Southwestern US

Every generation feels overwhelmed by new technology leading to the idea that earlier generations were technologically challenged.  But those earlier generations each had their own new technology which provided a basis for the next generation’s progress. 

Edward S. Curtis:

One example of generating insights into indigenous cultures is the Museum's new exhibit featuring some of the photogravures taken by Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952).  Almost a century ago, Curtis used his camera to capture the cultures that he feared were being lost through government policy and the pressures of non-Indian immigration.  The Indian cultures were more tenacious than he expected, but his pictures and commentary offer insights into a life style that evolved through  religious beliefs  and centuries of experience.  

TIME LINE - Southwestern US

 

Every generation feels overwhelmed by new technology leading to the idea that earlier generations were technologically challenged.  But those earlier generations each had their own new technology which provided a basis for the next generation’s progress. 

The intent of making this list is to provide a context for appreciating items found in museums including the centuries of prior development that enabled the development of the items currently on display.  But a key conclusion is that human ingenuity is a natural trait that allows continual progress in dealing with complex challenges.

 For this list, the years are in red. In 1927, archaeologists setup a general list of time periods called the Pecos Classification System that suggest when there were major changes in life style.  Over the years, a few modifications have been made leading to the classification periods as shown below which are listed in green.  This system was strongly influenced by study of the Anasazi or Ancestral Pueblo cultures which inhabited the Northern and Eastern areas.  The term “Anasazi” was commonly used by archaeologists but appears to have been based on the Navajo word for ancient enemy.  Therefore, the term “ancestral or ancient puebloans” is considered a more appropriate description.  Other archaeologists later added separate time periods for the Hohokam and Mogollon who lived in the southern areas and noted variations for the groups that lived in Central and Western Arizona. Periods for these other classifications are also listed in green.   Different groups are identified in brown.  The names for these groups were usually added by someone other than the people themselves.  In some cases like "Anasazi" by another native group.  In several cases by the Spanish after they inhabited the area and, in a few cases, by archaeologists.

Technologiescal innovations are identified in blue.

12000 BCE         People from Asia cross the Bering Strait via a land bridge into Alaska

12000                  Paleo Period [Paleo is derived from the Greek word “palaois” meaning ancient – little is known about this culture except for what is mentioned below.]

10000-9500  The Clovis people arrived in the Southwest.  They seemed to rely on gathering wild food and capturing small animals.  At some point probably during this time period, they developed a long leaf-shaped fluted type of point for spears and for knives – these 2 to 5 inch points were chipped from flint and allowed hunting of large animals like mammoths.

                                            The Folsom people developed new technology to kill faster animals like bison, deer, ducks, etc. including atlatls and thinner points that could be tied to lighter spears.  Remnants of some sites suggest that they carefully planned their hunts.

8000               Archaic Indian Culture [Often combined with Paleo except that more archaeological evidence is available after 8000.]

5000               People started living in villages rather than family groups.

                                            The Cochise People developed grinding stones, choppers, scrapers and seed processing implements that were needed for limited agriculture as well as grinding wild grasses into flour.  Jewelry such as beads were made from bone.

                            Maize or corn first appeared in Mexico

3500                 Maize or corn was raised domestically in several areas in Mexico.

                2500/1500      The first corn was grown in southwest US.  It is likely that people experimented with growing corn from Mexico for centuries, but the first clear signs of ongoing agriculture involved a variety of corn that also was seen in the US Midwest.  In other words, the latter variation may have been better suited to the southwestern climate than the Mexican type.  The distinction between experiments and final success make it hard to set an exact date.

                1200                   Basketmaker Culture I – As agriculture became more common, people lived in one location longer and developed storage materials like baskets.  Many suggest that these changes reflect gradual evolution in the Archaic Culture and should not be considered as a separate culture.  The latter group suggest dropping Basketmaker I from the list.

                1000/750        Communities developed that were dependent on cultivating corn and squash. People began to stay in the villages and travel to hunt or collect plants rather than having the village follow the game.  They appear to have dug pits and lined then with stones for grain storage.  It appears that eventually these storage pits were expanded into pithouses, that is, that the storage pits preceded the houses and may have suggested the idea of making houses in pits but this interpretation is difficult to validate.                   

                                            The first appearance of baskets is difficult to identify due to natural deterioration over time. Manos and metates for grinding corn also were refined.

                300                    Agriculture evolved to include varieties of corn and squash and careful selection of locations apparently for maximum moisture and control of insects.

200 BCE          The Hohokam Pioneer Culture

                150               A distinct Mogollon culture appeared in southeast Arizona and southern New Mexico.  As with the Hohokam, they may have descended from the Cochise people or immigrated from other areas such as Mexico.

                200              The Ancestral Puebloans [Anasazi] began to make thick pottery by placing clay over baskets probably to keep the baskets from leaking.  Eventually, they made pottery with just clay so it appeared red or brown in color.  They were small bowls or jars without decoration.  They appear to have been useful for cooking and for storage to avoid damage from rodents or other animals.

               300               While the Puebloans improved their baskets, the Hohokam began making more refined pottery.  Extensive trade with the people living to the south  brought shell-based jewelry to the area.  

                                        They also built extensive canals to irrigate a variety of agricultural crops including cotton, tobacco, agave, and wild plants as well as corn, squash, and beans.  Most of these crops were acquired as a result of the  trade with people living to the south.  Their irrigation system became the largest in North America at that time, but it was also very sophisticated.    They used dams of  logs and brush to divert the water and headgates that controlled the speed and direction of flow.  They also planned the direction and size of the canal to help control the amount and speed of water flow.  The slope was kept at a very slight downhill amount suggesting the development of surveying devices.  To reduce water loss by absorption, they created deep, narrow canals and often plastered the bottom.    Finally, they added special structures to maintain water in the outlying areas farther from the flowing water.

                                        They also followed the southern practice of building ball courts, excavated oval structures that could also be used for ceremonies and dancing . 

        More structured religion and government appear to have evolved for all groups.

               400               The Mogollon people develop particularly artistic pottery with this artistry continuing to evolve over the next 400 years

500               Basketmaker Culture III with a continued refinement of baskets            

                        The bow and arrow was developed allowing hunting at a greater distance. 

                        Pithouses became larger and deeper often with above ground alcoves.

550               Hohokam Colonial Period with the development of small colonies in nearby regions

                                       Larger communities of approximately 75 people or more developed such as one on the rim of Chaco Canyon.          

               600               The Yuman speaking people or Patayan [or Hakataya] appeared along the Colorado River area.   The term Patayan comes from the Yuman word for old people and the term Hakataya is the Yuman term for the Colorado River.  About 200 years later, they began to spread throughout the central and western parts of current day Arizona.  As they spread out, each group seemed to evolve their own life styles.  Most focused on hunting and gathering and developed methods for quickly assembling dwellings from native shrubs.  In some areas, they built pithouses or long houses consisting of a series of rooms in a line.  At the end of the long house was a pithouse that could have been used for storage or for ceremonial purposes.  Their sites did show signs of growing corn and plain pottery, but frequent movement seemed to limit development of more refined tools or ornaments.   

                                    The group that remained in the Colorado River area were refered to as the Patayan people and did more farming, taking advantage of the annual inundation of the River.  They are known for the development of  "intaglios," or "geoglyphs," –an unusual form of  art.  They scraped away a thin blanket of dark soil to reveal an underlying layer of lighter soil, and they shaped the scraping into a form which typically measured more than 30 feet in length. The images included human figures, mountain lions, and geometric shapes and are found throughout the river area.

                                    Another Yuman-speaking group settled in the central Grand Canyon area spending part of the year in the Canyon farming and part on the rim hunting.  Eventually, they became known as the Havasupai or “people of the blue green waters.”  Another group lived along the western end of the Canyon along streams and washes that provided routes into the Canyon area.  They were eventually known as the Hualapai or “people of the pines.”  Four other groups roamed what is now central Arizona from the Colorado River to the Mingus Mountains and from the area below the Grand Canyon to the Hohokam area.  These groups collectively became known as the Yavapai or “people of the sun or of the east” although they operated as several distinct family groupings.

                                     About the same time a different group settled in the Verde Valley and near Flagstaff.  The Spanish later gave them the name Sinagua, that is, lacking water, because they developed effective dry-land farming techniques.  Some of their sites dated from about 600, the same date as the Colorado River Yuman first appeared.

                                      A final group was simply called the Prescott Culture.  These people lived in the area that is now central and western Yavapai County surrounding the current city of Prescott and initially lived in pithouses and small pueblos.  The earlier pueblos were made from mud and clay or caliche with stones added to later ones.  The earliest settlement has been dated to 620.  This group was viewed as a distinct culture because they created a unique black on gray pottery which was actually a form of brownware.  Most of this pottery appears to have been made around 1075 to 1300. 

                                    They, like the Sinagua, are grouped with the Patayan groups because of location and the time period when they seemed to appear, but they showed more similarity to the Puebloans and the Hohokam than to the Yuman-speaking groups.

750           Pueblo I –  The development of above ground stone structures 

                                    Ancestral Puebloans [Anasazi] developed increasingly sophisticated rectangular living structures initially made of poles and thatch covered with mud and later made of masonry and later stone and masonry; these above ground structures or pueblos probably allowed better storage of food stuffs with less rot and rodent damage; this storage was needed because of increasingly effective agriculture; large kivas built mostly underground are included in some sites.

                        Canals were built by groups other than the Hohokam to aid agriculture.

                        Turkeys appear to have been domesticated.

                                        Earlier pottery designs had been limited and similar to basketry designs but now became more elaborate and more widely distributed over the surface of each piece.  On some pots, the upper area was corrugated, bands were added around the necks, and black on white coloring appeared.

                                        During this period, the Hohokam people refined their pottery and developed a way of adding red coloring to their pottery using iron-based stains [hematite].  They added mosaics and a variety of jewelry.  They expanded the number of ball courts evolving a distinctive oval shape suggesting they had evolved distinct games or ceremonies.  The Hohokam spread their communities along most river ways in all directions until they came to a location inhabited by someone else. Establishment of a large number of colonial sites gave this period its name for that tribal group.  Burials suggested that there was a social hierarchy.

                                        In all areas, the size of communities continued to grow with some having enough rooms for over a hundred residents. It appears that these larger communities developed during time periods when there were no droughts. 

900                 Pueblo II  -- expansion of the size of pueblos –

                                         The Hohokam settled down since they had already expanded to the ends of their river-based territory making this the Hohokam Sedentary Period. 

                                        As the climate shifted from wet to dry periods, Hohokam settlements were moved to accommodate the size of the rivers.

                1000             Most Ancestral Puebloans lived in small communities with a series of masonry rooms in a line or L shape and an underground kiva nearby, but, in a few areas, multi-story communities began to be constructed.

                                        The Mogollon culture shifted into a variety of regional variations with the best recognized being the Mimbres culture.  The Mimbres people developed a very artistic type of black and white painted pottery and some red on cream designs.  The designs often were similar to those found in Mexico and were very elaborate.  Their villages used large structures with four sides and sharp angles for corners.

                1050              In Chaco Canyon, a series of multi-storied carefully designed communities were constructed.  The walls used a new technique that included masonry with rubble as its core and added small, shaped stones as its outer surface.  This design made the walls strong enough to reach four stories and could be arranged in a curvilinear pattern.  The roads were not just pathways but carefully engineered and following directions that seemed to have religious significance.

                                        Pottery was further refined with the addition of black on red and more detailed black on white designs. Corrugations became more extensive and carefully sculpted.

                                        The Hohokam continued to refine jewelry and other crafts including developing etching with acid as part of shell carving.  They traded with settlements in Mexico for copper bells which seemed to be popular as funeral offerings.  Platform mounds were added to villages apparently as a location for ceremonial activity or some other religious purpose.  Gradually, homes were placed on tops of these mounds and walls were added around these structures.  The mounds were surrounded by compounds and isolated homes where most of the population lived suggesting that the mounds were residences for the elite or those with special religious responsibilities such as rain seeking priests. 

                1054-76              In 1054, a supernova formed which was apparently as bright as a full moon for a few weeks and was visible during the day.  It slowly faded over the next six years, but in 1064, Sunset Crater erupted.  In 1066, Halley's comet was visible, and in 1076, the sun apparently formed an unusual number of black spots.  This sequence of unusual events must have suggested some sort of spiritual message.

                                        The Sinagua seemed to recognize that soil laced with volcanic ash retains water and yields better crops.  They appeared to have greatly expanded farming in the area where the ash from the Volcano had settled. 

                1100             Pueblo III reflected larger pueblos and cliff dwellings.  This same time overlapped with the Hohokam Classic Period and their use of compact, multi-storied buildings.

                                        Soil and water control features such as check dams and terraces and ground walls to prevent run-off appeared during the drought times and reached a peak with the fifty year drought in the 1100’s.  Terracing and irrigation systems became very sophisticated during this period.  Multi-colored or polychrome designs as well as more use of black appeared on pottery.

                1150              Stable large pueblos, cliff dwellings and kiva towers were built particularly in areas that could sustain a larger population because of reliable sources of water.  This increase in size of pueblos also applied to the Sinaqua and Prescott Culture.

                        The Sinagua built catch basins and large pottery to capture rainwater.

                1200             Settlements were increasingly concentrated in areas that provide protection from attack and seem to have been carefully arranged so that each village could watch out for its neighbors.  By this point, several communities appeared to have over a thousand inhabitants. An extensive collection of cliff dwellings including a square tower of apartments was built in Mesa Verde.

                                        The Hohokams built structures that had as many as four floors built to align with astronomical observations and often included thick walls limiting access to use of a ladder.  In these communities, trade shifted from an emphasis on the south to an emphasis on the pueblos to the north.   Cremation became less common with inhumation, that is, burial in a specific position in a shallow grave.  The reason for this cultural change is not known.

                1275                     Serious droughts had occurred in 1090 and again in 1130 in several parts of the Southwest, but the most extensive was in the late 1200s and lasted for at least 25 years.   This last drought seems to have coincided with social change and increased conflicts between groups.  One of these factors or their combination seemd to result in movement out of the areas previously occupied by the Anasazi, the Sinagua and the Prescott Culture.

1350              Pueblo IV 

                                        There were some significant changes in religious practice at the same time when the weather was less consistent.  Previous religious practices may have lost favor if they were not consistently associated with bringing appropriate weather.  One such religious change was the use of Katsinas [or Kachinas] that provided new intermediaries with the gods.  Some practices like use of tower kivas disappeared.

                                       By this time period, the Pueblo people moved from cliff dwellings and large pueblos to their current locations at the Hopi mesas, the Zuni, Acoma and Laguna Pueblos on hills in central New Mexico and 16 pueblos along or near the Santa Fe River.  Towns increased in size to a few thousand residents.  The Mogollon people appeared to move to the Hopi and Zuni areas.

                                       Similarly, the Hohokam people moved from their traditional cities possibly because periodic changes in climate resulted in drastic changes in river flow.  Floods destroyed their canals and droughts left the canals ineffective.  It is not clear whether it was the climate or other factors that lead to the breakup of cities, but the Hohokam moved to smaller villages in the desert or to more dependable streams.  Decades later they seem to reappear as the Pima and Tohono O’odham people.

                                       There seemed to be mass production and exporting of well-made orange and yellow ware pots many with multiple colors.  A glaze was added by use of high temperature fires.     

                1400             Athabaskan [or Athapaskan] speaking people [originally from Western and Central Canada] gradually worked their way to the Southwest. Initially, they relied on hunting and gathering and raiding to survive.

                1540              Spanish priests and soldiers explored the southwest looking for the Seven Cities of Cibola, thought to be cities of gold.   A number of horses escaped during this Spanish exploration and several tribes captured them and became excellent riders.

                        The Spanish initially called the Athabaskan groups the Apache.

1600              Pueblo V         

                                        The Spanish ruled the southwest until the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 which was carefully planned despite the long distances between pueblo villages.  Long-distance runners enabled communication. The Spanish regained control by 1692.

                1650             Another group of Athabaskan people settled near some of the puebloans who were refugees from the Spanish.  The two groups became allies in resisting the Spanish and Ute raiders from the North. The two groups planned an ingenious network of villages and defense outposts that were placed in optimal locations to support defense, observation, water, food, and communication.  The Spanish called this Athabaskan group the Navajo. The Navajo acquired Churro sheep from the Spanish, learned to raise the sheep and to weave.

1700              The Navajo based their economy on raising livestock and trading woven cloth.

1821                Mexico declared independence from Spain.

1828                Gold was discovered in New Mexico leading to a continually escalating influx of miners that eventually extended into Arizona and California.

1848                The US won a war with Mexico and received part of present-day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

1854                The Gadsen purchase added 45,000 acres to this Territory.  In addition to miners, several immigrants came to this new part of the US including some from the South who brought slaves.

                1862                The government encouraged immigration from the Mid-west to offset the slave owners. While the farmers among the Puebloans and the Pima tended to avoid conflict with the new settlers, the Apaches, Pai tribes, and the Navajo responded with occasional raids and attacks.  Over the years, several army officers noted that these tribes had developed excellent fighting techniques and strategies. For the Apaches, Mangas Coloradas, became a leader of the resistance after suffering the experience of being whipped in a mining camp.  He was captured in 1862 and killed in 1863. 

                1863                After conflicts with the Army, many Navajo were imprisoned and eventually were forced to walk 300 miles to Bosque Renondo.

1868                The Navajo signed a peace treaty and were allowed to return to their old lands.                        

                                            The Hualapai began raiding settlers and wagon trains after one of their leaders was murdered in 1865.  A temporary peace was worked out, but another of their leaders was killed.  A new leader, Sherum, took over and led excellent strategic campaigns against the Army, but eventually in 1868, an epidemic of whooping cough and dysentery combined with the large size of the Army and forced their surrender.  In 1875, many were forced to march to the desert in California leading to several deaths.  A year later the Hualapai were allowed to return to their current reservation.

                1871/3             When Mangas Coloradas was killed, his nephew, Cochise, took over as the primary chief.  Cochise had initially resisted fighting the Americans, but after he was lied to and his family was taken prisoner by the Army, he decided to fight, and he became a very effective leader.  After working out a settlement with the army, he surrendered in 1872 and died in 1874.  At that time, Geronimo became a leader of the group that wanted to resist Army control and like his predecessors managed to resist capture even though greatly outnumbered.  He surrendered a couple of times, but escaped until 1886 when he was talked into a final surrender and sent to prison in Florida.  Later, he was allowed to return to Oklahoma but not Apache lands.

1870/71         The White Mountain Apaches were moved on to a reservation at Fort Apache.  

                1872                The Dilzhe’e Apache and the Yavapai were forced onto a reservation in Rio Verde where the two tribes developed successful farms.  Business men who supplied reservations with food became concerned that this reservation did not need their food. To avoid losing income, they convinced the government that the healthy lifestyle on this reservation might make the Apache a threat.  In response, the government ordered in 1875 that all residents be moved 180 miles to a reservation at San Carlos in the desert.  Hundreds died during this march and during the subsequent 25 years on the desert reservation.  Some hid in the mountains and avoided this march, while throughout the 1890s other people simply walked off the reservation and returned to the areas where they used to live. 

                                            Before reservation life, the Yavapai women had become adept at making attractive, strong but lightweight baskets which they used for trading with other tribes.  The Apache women had also developed good basket making techniques and distinctive designs.  Being forced onto the same reservation allowed these two groups to share their expertise.  On the reservation, many began to wear clothing that matched that of the civilians they saw.  The women, in particular, developed colorful dresses that were popular for several years.

                1890                The Navajo became very successful at raising life stock with the average family owning 100 head of cattle, 300 head of goats, and over 100 head of horses.

                1900                The Apache and Yavapai still on the reservation in San Carlos were allowed to leave and return to the areas where they previously lived.  Some stayed there, but the majority of the Apache and some Yavapai returned to the Verde Valley area.  Another group of Yavapai went to the Fort McDowell area while a third group of Yavapai went to the Prescott area.  Settlers had taken the best land, but the Apache and Yavapai lived where they could and took jobs like housework, laundries, farm work, mining, road construction and as cowboys.  

                             Small reservations were created in the Fort McDowell area in 1903, in Camp Verde in 1909 and in Prescott in 1935.  Tribal members developed good relationships with local residents and received support that led to pressuring the government to expand the size of the Verde Valley and Prescott reservations and stopping a plan to flood much of the Fort McDowell area.

                                            Over the next several decades, many tribes developed reputations for outstanding artwork and crafts.  Baskets had become popular across the country and Apache and Yavapai women were encouraged to trade their baskets for food and supplies.  Eventually, the women began to sell them, and the quality of the baskets warranted good prices.

                                            Trading posts developed throughout the Navajo reservation and the managers developed a preferred rug design and encouraged local women to weave rugs based on that design.  Many women excelled at this work, and the rugs sold well.   At the same time, the Navajo men developed a reputation for making high quality jewelry, and some tribal members also produced excellent paintings and sandpaintings.  Similarly, the people from the Pueblos developed a reputation for making high quality pottery as well as jewelry and paintings, and the Hopi added a reputation for quality Katsina dolls.  In all these areas, the extensive history described above provided a base for skill and artistry.

Bibliography

The following web pages include a series of time lines and articles describing the history of the Southwest. [Note other web references mentioned on these pages.]  This list is not exhaustive but offers a range of interpretations of development of the southwest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Arizona#Prehistory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Timelines_of_North_American_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecos_Classification
http://www.nmculturaltreasures.org/HTML/timeline.htm
http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/departments/espm/env-hist/espm160/outlines/2.1.htm
http://cpluhna.nau.edu/Research/research.htm  [see also table of contents]
http://cpluhna.nau.edu/People/people.htm
http://inquiryunlimited.org/timelines/histNatAm.html
http://www.ppsa.com/magazine/NMtimeline.html
http://www.lapahie.com/Timeline.cfm
http://www.desertusa.com/ind1/du_peo_past.html
http://www.comp-archaeology.org/USAChronology.htm
http://phoenix.gov/PUEBLO/dfindex.html
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_p036/rmrs_p036_277_281.pdf
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/westweb/ancient/chronol.html
http://www.nativeamericans.com/Natives.htm

Barnett, Franklin, 1981.  These Were the Prehistoric Prescott Indians: A History of the Tenure of These Pioneers in Arizona.  Reprinted with a new Introduction by the Yavapai Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society in 2006.
Johnson, Ginger, 1995.  A View of Prehistory in the Prescott Region. Smoki Museum.

Edward S. Curtis

 One example of generating insights into indigenous cultures is the Museum's new exhibit featuring some of the photogravures taken by Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952).  Almost a century ago, Curtis used his camera to capture the cultures that he feared were being lost through government policy and the pressures of non-Indian immigration.  The Indian cultures were more tenacious than he expected, but his pictures and commentary offer insights into a life style that evolved through  religious beliefs  and centuries of experience.  Curtis was a self-taught photographer who had moved to Seattle  with his parents when that city was still a frontier town.  In 1897, he went to the Klondike and took pictures depicting the hardships of the gold rush prospectors, and in 1899, he was appointed the official photographer for a scientific expedition to Alaska. One member of the expedition, George Bird Grinnel, was considered an Indian expert, and he talked Curtis into joining him on a later  trip to Montana to visit some of the tribes there.  These trips helped  him develop the idea of  using photographic reports to document what otherwise might be viewed too simplistically.       

Curtis'  greatest success was in doing portraits, and he won awards for some including ones of the Coastal Salish Indians.     By 1905, his photos had received national recognition, and he was asked by Theodore Roosevelt to photograph his Inauguration and his daughter's wedding.   With such contacts, he was able to get funding to develop a major publication on American Indian culture.  He involved a team of respected authorities, editors and some representatives of key tribes, and began to produce this publication which he called The North American Indian.   He continued to work on other projects like still shots for the Tarzan and The Ten Commandments movies, but he devoted his primary attention to the Indian project.  His team gathered oral histories, detailed tribal summaries, language information, music transcriptions, but the key to the volumes were over 700 large-size photogravures taken by Curtis.  In addition, another 1500 pictures were used to illustrate the text.

 These photos were praised for capturing the daily life and spiritual practices of  over eighty varied tribes. The images offset the widely-held myths presented by western novels including the idea that all tribes were alike.  He also used the oral histories to get subjects to act out scenes reflecting the past often providing appropriate props himself.  He eliminated any non-traditional items such as clocks to insure that his photos only reflected Indian culture.  He was particularly recognized, though, for the way his portraits seemed to capture the strength and spirit of his subjects communicating respect rather than pity or disdain.  There was some opposition among some members of the tribes who were concerned that  pictures of ceremonies communicated the wrong message to the spirits.    Curtis usually paid the tribe and the subjects of his portraits, but this practice increased the opposition from the more spiritual tribal members.  
Twenty volumes were published between 1907 and 1930.   Each volume included illustrated text and a portfolio of large photogravures but was provided only to those that paid the sizable subscription fee.   It is generally accepted as one of the most extensive and yet valid illustrations of Indian life at that time, but the project ruined Curtis.  By its conclusion, he was physically and emotionally ill, divorced, and in serious financial difficulty.  He moved to Los Angeles and worked in the photography studio of his eldest daughter, tried mining and farming, and watched his life's work be forgotten.    Gradually, after Curtis' death, his work was recognized as an excellent base for those wanting to understand the tribal  traditions  that provided the strength to survive pressures to assimilate.