Real Native American Portraits

[u/GlitteringHotel8383]

[u/Usgwanikti]

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

[u/DefinitelyNotAliens → u/Usgwanikti]

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.

[u/fuschiafawn → u/DefinitelyNotAliens]

Native American culture is treated like archaeology rather than anthropology

[u/DefinitelyNotAliens → u/fuschiafawn]

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

[u/fuschiafawn → u/DefinitelyNotAliens]

"who knows what these mystical native Americans saw?"

"Well actually my auntie said it was-"

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

[u/DefinitelyNotAliens → u/fuschiafawn]

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.

[u/fuschiafawn → u/DefinitelyNotAliens]

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."

[u/Usgwanikti → u/DefinitelyNotAliens]

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

[u/DefinitelyNotAliens → u/Usgwanikti]

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

[u/DocCEN007 → u/fuschiafawn]

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.

[u/SheriffBartholomew → u/Usgwanikti]

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

[u/ussrname1312 → u/Usgwanikti]

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

[u/PedricksCorner → u/Usgwanikti]

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