The Face Pullers: Photographing Native Canadians, 1871-1939

Kerry Abel is a professor of history at Carleton University. She is the author of Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History, co-editor of Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects, and co-editor of Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History.

Since the days of Edward S. Curtis, Americans have been fascinated by
photographs of “The Indian.” Canadians are less familiar with the
fact that Native peoples north of the border were also photographed
extensively for an eager audience. In The Face Pullers, archivist Brock
Silversides has assembled a collection of these images from a variety of
archival sources. Although the subtitle suggests the photographs
represent Native Canadians generally, they are actually specific to
central and southern Saskatchewan and Alberta. It is a handsomely
reproduced, valuable, and evocative collection.

Silversides provides a brief introduction about the photographers, the
historical context, and the technology and technique of photography
during the period. There is also a sampling of various descriptions of
Native responses to the idea of photography, drawn from documentary
sources. The photographs are grouped into four thematic sections
arranged roughly chronologically; some photos have brief explanations
with their captions. Perhaps a specialist looking for a discussion of
the latest theory on the cultural meaning of visual imagery will be
disappointed with the text, but for the general reader it is a
sufficient frame to establish the context of the photos and to raise
some questions about the problem of interpreting this kind of historical
imagery.

Interpretation is not left entirely to the audience, however. The
author argues that the earliest images are the closest to representing
the reality of prairie Native life, because the first photographers to
visit the prairies did not yet know what to expect in this “new “
country and tended to provide more candid shots than ones arranged to
suit the audience’s (or the photographer’s) preconceptions. This
early phase, according to Silversides, soon gave way to images presented
to support the predominant theory that Indians were a vanishing race. In
turn, that phase evolved into “inventing the Indian” through the
production of photographs that had market appeal because they
substantiated popular stereotypes and beliefs. The interpretation is a
compelling one, although it is not always clear why the author sees some
of the photographs as representing “reality” while other similar
ones represent invented tradition.

Ultimately, the photographs will speak directly to the reader. Some are
works of art, others mere curiosities. They provide interesting
ethnographic information about material culture (clothing, tools,
housing) as well as about artistic traditions. But they also record the
attitudes of non-Natives toward their subject, and the exploration of
that attitude is probably the most useful aspect of the collection. It
is well worth consideration.