"Bear's Teeth - Arikara" by Edward S. Curtis, 1908

Presented is a fine photogravure portrait of Bear’s Teeth of the Arikara tribe by Edward Curtis. The image is Plate 154 from Supplementary Portfolio 5 of Edward Curtis' epic project The North American Indian. The caption, written by Curtis, for this image is as follows: “A member of the Night order of the medicine fraternity.” This photogravure was published in 1908 and was printed by John Andrew & Son, in Boston.  Edward S. Curtis created one of the most enduring and iconic visual records in the history of the photographic medium. He was an award-winning artist, a consummate craftsman, a visionary, an intrepid entrepreneur, and was highly regarded as a respected ethnographer and publisher. Curtis began photographing Native Americans in the mid-1890s and selling these images in his successful downtown Seattle studio. One of his earliest models was Princess Angeline, the aged daughter of chief Sealth, the Suquamish Indian after whom Seattle is named. At the National Photographic Con