Label Text:
Rose and Hopkins, proprietors of a Denver photography studio, posed this Ute Indian couple in native attire. Jui and Tan-Nah hold, respectively, a pipe and piece of cloth, likely props, and stand in a studio setting before a painted backdrop.
Photographers accompanying geological surveys of the American West, and independent photographers such as Rose and Hopkins, took portraits of Native Americans and captured scenes of their communities. Throughout the nineteenth century, artists attempted to record disappearing traditional cultures while catering to the curiosity of consumers who considered Native Americans “primitive.” Despite the artists’ honorable intentions to preserve endangered ways of life, staged studio portraits such as this are not objective representations and often reinforce narrow and inaccurate stereotypes. Rose and Hopkins use “Squaw” in the title to mean “Wife,” but the word has multiple historical connotations, some of which are offensive.
MD, 2011
Tags:
portraits; indigenous people; black and white Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2004.160 |
