page_title: Wild Westing
section_title: Vanishing race
hierarchical_section_title: Wild Westing / Vanishing race
caption_attribution_description: English: Text from http://lcweb2.loc.gov. Image from http://lcweb2.loc.gov and converted to PNG format. TITLE: The vanishing race--Navaho CALL NUMBER: Illus. in E77 .C97a [Rare Book RR] REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-USZ62-37340 (b&amp;w film copy neg.) RIGHTS INFORMATION: No known restrictions on publication. SUMMARY: Photograph shows Navajos on horseback riding away from photographer. MEDIUM: 1 photomechanical print&#160;: photogravure. CREATED/PUBLISHED: c1904. CREATOR: Curtis, Edward S., 1868-1952, photographer. NOTES: Original photogravure produced in Boston by John Andrew &amp; Son, c1904. Curtis no. 984. Title from item. Also available as a platinum photographic print (Prints &amp; Photographs Division call number: PH - Curtis (E), no. 1). DLC Published in: The North American Indian / Edward S. Curtis. [Seattle, Wash.]&#160;: Edward S. Curtis, 1907-30, Suppl. v. 1, pl. 1. SUBJECTS: Indians of North America--1900-1910. Navajo Indians--1900-1910. FORMAT: Book illustrations 1900-1910. Photogravures 1900-1910. REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Rare Book &amp; Special Collections Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA DIGITAL ID: (b&amp;w film copy neg.) cph 3a37704 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a37704 CONTROL #: 2004672872 Above text from http://lcweb2.loc.gov
context_page_description: Wild Westing was the term used by Native Americans for their performing with Buffalo Bill's Wild West and similar shows. Between 1887 and World War I, over 1,000 Native Americans went "Wild Westing." Most were Oglala Lakota from their reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, the first Lakota people to perform in these shows. During a time when the Bureau of Indian Affairs was intent on promoting Native assimilation, William Frederick Cody used his influence with U.S. government officials to secure Native American performers for his Wild West. Cody treated Native American employees as equals with white cowboys.
  Wild Westers received good wages, transportation, housing, abundant food, and gifts of cash and clothing at the end of each season. Wild Westing was very popular with the Lakota people and benefited their families and communities. Wild Westing offered opportunity and hope during time when people believed Native Americans were a vanishing race whose only hope for survival was rapid cultural transformation.
context_section_description: During the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was an explosion of public interest in Native American culture and imagery. Newspapers, dime-store novels, Wild West shows, and public exhibitions portrayed Native Americans as a "vanishing race." Their numbers had decreased since the Indian Wars, and survivors were struggling with poverty and constraints on Indian reservations. American and European anthropologists, who represented a new field, historians, linguists, journalists, photographers, portraitists and early movie-makers believed they had to study western Native American peoples. Many researchers and artists lived on government reservations for extended periods to study Native Americans before they "vanished." Their inspired effort heralded the "Golden Age of the Wild West."  Photographers included Gertrude Käsebier, Frank A. Rinehart, Edward Curtis, Jo Mora and John Nicholas Choate, while portraitists included Elbridge Ayer Burbank, Charles M. Russell and John Hauser.
caption: In the late 19th and early 20th century, public expositions portrayed Native Americans as a "vanishing race." Photo of Navajos by Edward Curtis.
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