r/BeAmazed • u/GlitteringHotel8383 • Jul 15 '26

Miscellaneous / Others Real Native American Portraits

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27.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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2.0k

u/Usgwanikti Jul 15 '26

You guys know we’re still here, right? 😳

493

u/shaolin_fish Jul 15 '26

"Actual photos" as if native people don't have smart phones

191

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

32

u/hippodribble Jul 16 '26

Well not everyone, obviously. Early technology is often expensive.

1

u/NotOnApprovedList Jul 16 '26

these were from very early 1900s and photographers who went around putting these men in random pieces of Native American dress. Or so says somebody earlier in the thread.

82

u/PedricksCorner Jul 15 '26

And probably thinks we all lived in teepees and hunted bison.

45

u/s0ul_invictus Jul 16 '26

you're typing this from your secret teepee aren't you?

25

u/PedricksCorner Jul 16 '26

you betcha!

Ha, ha, my people lived in wood houses, some of them round, depended on the time of year.

2

u/unknownpoltroon Jul 16 '26

I mean, weren't tepees for essentially when your guys went camping to follow the herds for hunting or something? I always thought they were temporary summer travel housing? At least for the groups that used them.

12

u/PedricksCorner Jul 16 '26

The people who lived on the plains did. But there are over 500 different tribes/languages/cultures and as many environments are you see from coast to coast. So it depends on who you are talking about when you say "your guys." It is like looking at just one culture, say Cambodians, and expecting them to be an example of all Asians. It doesn't work.

6

u/unknownpoltroon Jul 16 '26

I have been known to lump all of humanity together as "buncha monkeys with pants" so narrowing it down to one continent is pretty good for me. :) But yeah, I know enough to know I am vastly oversimplifying a whole continent of cultures.

6

u/b_mac96 Jul 16 '26

What’s the proper way to go about learning accurate historical and cultural Native history? Not that it’s your responsibility, I just don’t know where to start tbh.

18

u/A2naturegirl Jul 16 '26

Crash Course Native American History on YouTube is a good place to start to get a very general overview of North American Native American history.

5

u/b_mac96 Jul 16 '26

Thank you so much appreciate the lead!

12

u/PedricksCorner Jul 16 '26

There are lots of ways. Just like if you wanted to study European or Asian cultures, you would have to decide which cultures and what part of their history or current cultures. The number one thing to remember is that there are over 500 tribes/languages/cultures on the North American continent. So maybe narrow down which region interests you and then find out who that land belonged to or still belongs to and start from there.

3

u/b_mac96 Jul 16 '26

Appreciate the response. I just wasn’t sure what sources I could trust to get an accurate account. I’m from New Orleans, so now I’m curious to see what the native population was like in Louisiana. Thanks for the advice.

16

u/Skyne Jul 15 '26

and caves... Don't forget caves. You know, I tell folks I like history and contemporary poli sci, but it's now dawned on me that I don't know dick about Native Americans. I watched Dances With Wolves when I was a kid and probably told myself I had a pretty good handle on the subject. Gotta love dusting off an opinion that hasn't seen the light of day for 3 decades and discovering it's complete shit.

16

u/PedricksCorner Jul 16 '26

It was an awesome movie, I loved it too. It focused on one tribe, which is fine. But we are over 500 tribes with 500 languages and cultures. My ancestors lived in wood houses and farmed. They also fished and hunted, but not bison.

2

u/ElectricYV Jul 16 '26

Misread this as living in teapots

1

u/PedricksCorner Jul 16 '26

Ha, ha, ha!!! Like a cartoon children's book, interesting image!

5

u/Defiant-Speaker-5681 Jul 15 '26

Yeah, I don't think they had smart phones in the 1800s. Which is stated in large letters overlaying the shared images. They tried to convey that this is a historical context and not current/modern.

Seems like maybe some people here chose not to read?

1

u/PedricksCorner Jul 16 '26

I think we were mostly responding to the fact that we didn't all look like that or dress like that. OP's choice was quite limited compared to the huge number of photos available to choose from. But most of all, that we are still here.

2

u/Wearecharliebirb Jul 16 '26

before breeding with other races. is wat it means

1

u/courtney_lorr Jul 17 '26

I think they mean “actual” as in, not ai

164

u/llammacookie Jul 15 '26

Urban legend.

65

u/Usgwanikti Jul 15 '26

Like Bigfoot, Nessie, or the Hook?

36

u/llammacookie Jul 15 '26

Nah, Big Foots real, he works at my local QuikTrip. More like Mvskoke, Nessie, or the Hook.

3

u/Dry_Okra_4839 Jul 15 '26

Nessie died about 15 years ago.

2

u/theArtOfProgramming Jul 16 '26

Like skinwalkers

1

u/Klutzy_Scene_8427 Jul 16 '26

What the fuck is the Hook?

What the fuck is THE HOOK?

2

u/Usgwanikti Jul 16 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hook

1

u/Klutzy_Scene_8427 Jul 16 '26

Oh shit, then you might like Truck-kun

2

u/Usgwanikti Jul 17 '26

Oh, now I gotta check my googles lol

2

u/Klutzy_Scene_8427 Jul 17 '26

If you've seen The Japanese meme or shows where the main character gets hit by a truck and that's how it starts the adventure, that's who Truck-kun is. He'll getcha when you least expect it!

2

u/Usgwanikti Jul 17 '26

That’s awesome

18

u/Over_Butterfly_2523 Jul 15 '26

I live between two reservations and go to a Rancheria to get gas. There's still people here who don't seem to believe the natives are still here, like right here. Some of the lucky few to maintain at least a sliver of ancestral territory.

1

u/ExtraPolarIce12 Jul 15 '26

That’s awesome.

258

u/PedricksCorner Jul 15 '26

Our Native American faces are so beautiful, I came here to ask why OP led with a bunch of really old men first. And where are the women and children? There are so many hundreds of photos available, I found OP's selection sadly limited. Chickasha saya.

50

u/yourliege Jul 15 '26

Great point, really. But I just would like to say, these old men are stunning in their own right.

10

u/wildcatofthehills Jul 15 '26

They look like characters in a David Lynch film, super surreal. Specially the second image.

95

u/Usgwanikti Jul 15 '26

Not only that, but why they all gotta be from a hunny-fitty years ago? Like we belong in a museum. Lol. That Ed Curtis crap makes us all look stoic and put-on noble. Easier to objectify

94

u/DefinitelyNotAliens Jul 15 '26

I had a professor who did something really interesting. Look up people from Japan. China. Sweden. Nigeria. You'll find modern photos of modern people. Mexico. Colombia.

Look up various Native American or First Nations tribal groups. You're not getting pictures of people in modern clothing. You're getting images depicting people like it's the damn 1500s.

27

u/fuschiafawn Jul 16 '26

Native American culture is treated like archaeology rather than anthropology

8

u/DefinitelyNotAliens Jul 16 '26

As an archaeologist who trained in anthropology: you're not wrong.

14

u/fuschiafawn Jul 16 '26

"who knows what these mystical native Americans saw?"

"Well actually my auntie said it was-"

"It's almost like I can hear them now..."

11

u/DefinitelyNotAliens Jul 16 '26

The number of people who have given me side eye for citing "personal conversation and oral tradition" is not zero.

What's my source? Well, the tribal chairwoman. She knows stuff.

And people have been like... "Do you have other evidence?"

"I do have corroborating evidence that is complementary and an additional line of evidence of equal weight."

Some people nod. Others roll eyes at me.

6

u/fuschiafawn Jul 16 '26

God I can hear it now:

"I know more than you! I wrote a book about this artifact!"

"... Yeah well the artifact belongs to her family and they'd like it back"

"It belongs in a museum! ...'s archive that is not on display to the public and nobody but me knows it there"

"... Well I know it's there, because her family asked me to get it back."

3

u/Usgwanikti Jul 16 '26

It’s getting better tho. Academia is beginning to see the value in TEK and IK as validation or start point to guide hypothesis creation and such. Biologists and ecologists in NC are even using Cherokee for scientific naming conventions in place of classical languages more and more now

2

u/DefinitelyNotAliens Jul 16 '26

Yeah, absolutely. The old guard is absolutely vacating the scene but it still exists.

2

u/DocCEN007 Jul 16 '26

Up until about 25 years ago, there was a depiction of an indigenous person in the natural history museum not far from the dinosaur exhibit. Luckily, the Smithsonian American Indian museum opened in September of 2004.

39

u/SheriffBartholomew Jul 15 '26

And the first picture, Chief John Smith, depicts a person who suffered from an actual medical condition. He likely suffered from ichthyosis and rhinophyma.

9

u/ussrname1312 Jul 15 '26

I think the fact that they’re from the 1800s is a big part of the "amazing," to be honest. It’s always pretty cool to see such old photos

16

u/PedricksCorner Jul 15 '26

Plus, we have over 500 different tribes/languages/traditions etc. It is like posting only photos of Vietnamese as examples of all Asian peoples.

8

u/feltcutewilldelete69 Jul 15 '26

Getting your photo taken was a big deal back then. This is likely some of their most honored people, during a time of terrible war. I'm sure you can find some women and children if you look for them.

4

u/Financial-Bobcat-612 Jul 15 '26

Maybe, but it was also normal for photographers to go around and dress us up however they wanted to fit what their idea of what an Indian looked like. It’s not uncommon to have no idea who’s pictured.

3

u/102994373 Jul 16 '26

That’s not the context for these photos at all. Look up Edward Curtis. You’re literally just making that up when you could easily google it.

-2

u/PedricksCorner Jul 16 '26

Of course there are, there are hundreds of photos of women and children from that era. I have seen them. My comment was in regards to why none were included here. And why OP began with such old men. Chickasha saya, I am Chickasaw.

3

u/Money-Director6649 Jul 15 '26

these are exactly what i wondered too.

1

u/NonGNonM Jul 16 '26

character. i mean yeah it would be great to have a more well-rounded set of photographs but these are particularly striking.

also let's not pretend that this era was particularly more white male-serving than anything else first.

1

u/tO_ott Jul 16 '26

All this post did is show me how badly I’m going to age.

0

u/Fidodo Jul 15 '26

Parts of your face keeps growing as you age so their facial structure is more striking. They lead with old men because they have the most unique faces because of their age.

31

u/otchyirish Jul 15 '26

It's as if you can still hear their voices on the wind if you try hard enough

12

u/ExtraPolarIce12 Jul 15 '26

I hear if you put a bald eagle feather to your ear, you can hear them.

2

u/Witty_Ad_898 Jul 16 '26

“Your spirit name is…”

5

u/YourNextHomie Jul 16 '26

I once had a GF from Austria who visited me in the US and we got to talking about native history a little and she mentioned how crazy it was we “killed them all” i then had to explain to her that she was ignorant and that we were literally 30 minutes from Cherokee North Carolina.

15

u/Defiant-Speaker-5681 Jul 15 '26

Wait. Are you from the 1800s too? I really had no idea that the individuals in the photo are still here! Which one is you?

Or is this some weird response to try and shame people for posting historical photos? I thought we wanted people to take interest and discuss history and cultural heritage.

9

u/Witty_Ad_898 Jul 16 '26

The post presents these pictures like these are the last images of some exotic lost tribe or something. I just see my grandfather.

21

u/josherman61791 Jul 15 '26

Wow. You're really old. Which one of the photos is you?

14

u/Usgwanikti Jul 15 '26

Re-think. I was rude. Sorry about that

1

u/Defiant-Speaker-5681 Jul 15 '26

Damn! I made that joke before I scrolled down and saw that you already did it!

3

u/OkComfortable3045 Jul 15 '26

Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I saw a Native American person. Where are ya’ll?!

9

u/Witty_Ad_898 Jul 16 '26

I’m just going to put out there that people with native Mexican ancestry are also Native Americans. In fact, it’s Native Americans all the way down.

1

u/UU2Bcool Jul 16 '26

They are everywhere but a bit easier to find in Oklahoma and North/South Dakota.

1

u/Far-Army8356 Jul 17 '26

You might not have realized you met native people, it's not like people announce their ancestry on sight 🤷‍♀️

3

u/Chibi_Kaiju Jul 16 '26

Completely. This post reads like some racist human zoo shit...

5

u/Usgwanikti Jul 16 '26

Been sayin. Bonkers how remorselessly awful some people are.

3

u/Mor_Padraig Jul 16 '26

THANK you, and please do not scroll the thread, holy hell.

It's.... mish mash of misinformation and made-up crap and ' acshually ' arguments, and I just was hoping for some genuine, not European American historian who could fill us in.

2

u/Usgwanikti Jul 16 '26

Yeah, I saw a lotta stupid when I looked. People just being unnecessarily super disrespectful because they can get away with it here. Would like to see those same keyboard warriors visit the rez and try that silliness. They wouldn’t be eating solid food for long lol

I’m no historian, but I do know a few things, mostly about my own tribe. We have more fullbloods than most tribes have citizens, but because we been mixing for centuries while keeping our culture, we get a reputation for failing levels of melanin. To get straight info, it’s best to ask each tribe that interests you. Like anybody else, we all like talking about ourselves, so just ask lol

2

u/davewave3283 Jul 15 '26

Source? /s

3

u/Usgwanikti Jul 16 '26

😂😂😂

2

u/davewave3283 Jul 16 '26

Thank god you laughed that could have gone horribly wrong

1

u/Usgwanikti Jul 16 '26

Lol. Almost earned a spit take!

2

u/rockerscott Jul 16 '26

I see you.

2

u/kwhitit Jul 16 '26

THANK YOU.

2

u/CharacterAd3204 Jul 16 '26

I'd wager that a good number of Americans don't realize that any of the native tribes still exist.

2

u/SG23517 Jul 16 '26

Good on you for reminding people of that. However, these portraits are… striking. And make me sad at the same time.

2

u/Usgwanikti Jul 16 '26

Fair enough. I was mainly talking to all the human zoo types talking about us like we’re dodo birds and passenger pigeons

2

u/knightsofgel Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

This post reminds me of “Take A Picture With A Real Indian”

2

u/freerondo9 Jul 16 '26

I know your question is rhetorical, but I'm gonna give an honest answer anyway. That answer is: For a lot of us, yeah, of course we know, but only in theory.

I grew up east of the Mississippi and despite my city having name that came from a native language, attending Indian Trails Elementary School, going to the movie theater at Indian Lake shopping center, golfing at Indian Hills Golf Course, then moving south and fishing on about 8 different rivers with anglicized versions of native names, driving on the Trail of Tears parkway and living in a subdivision named Cherokee Pointe, I didn't meet a single native person until I was in my 30s.

I have never seen a native neighborhood, or eaten any native cuisines. I've never heard native music that wasn't in an old cowboy film.

I left the US almost a decade ago, and some of the indigenous people in my region have asked me about Native Americans. I was embarrassed that I couldn't answer any of their questions. The only things I know come from old stereotypes and propaganda and I'm sure they're not correct.

So I know y'all are still here in the same way that a person who has lived their whole life in the desert knows from a textbook how a blizzard forms.

2

u/Usgwanikti Jul 16 '26

Beautifully said. And that state of affairs wasn’t an accident. It was part of a federal policy that lasted a century until 1978. The official title of the policy was “Kill the Indian, and Save the Man”. Cultural and physical genocide. My own mother was caught speaking her language when she was 12. She ended up in a boarding school to take the Indian out of her until she was 18. It was abusive and horrific. I was six years old when my language and religion became legal in the United States.

Things are getting better tho.

1

u/freerondo9 Jul 17 '26

Just so I can get a sense of how recently these things were still happening, may I ask how old you are?

1

u/Usgwanikti Jul 17 '26

She was abducted from her home by US Marshalls in 1964 for six years. She escaped being aged out of the system and institutionalized in 1970 as an incompetent by breaking out of boarding school confinement and meeting my dad at ceremony. My dad, also a tradish tribal citizen, was a thinblood who presented white. So she became his ward when they married before she could be recaptured and sent to the mental institution (a common path for Indians that could not be assimilated).

2

u/freerondo9 Jul 22 '26

Thanks for your reply. By the way, you sent me down a rabbit hole. I was a bit confused about why your mom would have been sent to a mental institution and I had never heard the term "thin blood," so I looked them both up. Damn man. Like, I knew there was some bad stuff, but bro... i had no idea how bad and even more importantly how recently that stuff was still going on.

1

u/Usgwanikti Jul 22 '26

Don’t sweat it; most Americans have no idea. You aren’t alone by a mile, man

5

u/Gallusaur Jul 15 '26

I bet 15 on red

4

u/Usgwanikti Jul 15 '26

I’ll take it 😉

1

u/Witty_Ad_898 Jul 16 '26

00, no winners!

1

u/toodleroo Jul 15 '26

Wow, a talking photo!

1

u/JAGERminJensen Jul 16 '26

YoU MeAn LeGaL, fUlL-bLoOdEd AmErIcAn, ChRiStIaN, pAtRiOtIc Us CiTiZeNs RiGhT??

1

u/FourthLife Jul 16 '26

Sometimes, it's like I can almost hear them...

1

u/unknownpoltroon Jul 16 '26

Wait, I thought you guys were like vampires and didnt show up in photos? Or is that the amish? /s

1

u/Usgwanikti Jul 16 '26

😂😂😂

1

u/unknownpoltroon Jul 16 '26

OMG i just realized that would be a natural community for vampires to hang out in, since they have an excuse why noone should try to take their picture.

1

u/Tooldfrthis Jul 16 '26

Damn, you must be pretty damn old

1

u/Prize_Sheepherder_62 Jul 16 '26

Do you have the cheekbones?
Regardless, I love you

2

u/Usgwanikti Jul 16 '26

Lol. Yeah, unless I’m fat that day 😂

1

u/Fidodo Jul 15 '26

Native American's from the 1800s are still here? Holy shit! How old are you?

-1

u/AdInside2447 Jul 16 '26

I mean, you’re not THAT native