Spirit Capture: Photographs from the National Museum of the American Indian

This work brings together two hundred of the most compelling images from the NMAI collection with essays from native American historian, anthropologists, and curators. Natasha Bonilla Martinez describes the sometimes intrusive tactics of filed photographers, who, in quest of authenticity, shot forbidden ceremonies or coerced unwilling subjects to pose. Richard W. Hill Sr., shows how formal portraits of once-feared native leaders such as Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph, and the Red Cloud effectively transformed their subjects into tamed icons. Linda Poolaw takes a personal approach to a selection of photographs by her father Horace Poolaw and others, speaking to their subjects and evoking the texture of their lives.