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This collaborative project sought to organize and execute a series of public film screenings of a restored version of Edward Curtis’s film, accompanied by a live arrangement of the long-lost original score and a song and dance performance by Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) descendants of the original film actors. Through on-stage and well as supplementary programming (exhibits, symposia, panel discussions), the project approached the film from two distinct but overlapping perspectives: As a scholarly recovery and restoration of the original melodramatic contexts and content of the film and musical score. As an indigenous re-framing of this material given unique Kwakwaka’wakw perspectives on the original film, its specific cultural content, and its historical context of production.  Curtis’s photos and film are typically evaluated and critiqued as inauthentic and romanticized portraits of what Curtis assumed were “vanishing races.” While not dismissing this view outright, we complicate it by suggesting that when resituated within their original genre and informed by current indigenous perspectives, Curtis’s images can be seen as documents of a unique intercultural encounter between the photographer and the First Nations who worked with him to realize the pictures. The resulting images are thus both colonial (mis)representations and portraits of ancestors, documents of cultural survival as well as historical loss. We were correct in expecting that audiences would be large and highly receptive to the events, especially as the archival film footage, the historic musical component, and the First Nation's cultural protocols supplemented and informed one another to a significant and unprecedented degree.

In the Land of the Head Hunters had limited screenings in 1914 and 1915 and was then lost until the 1970s, when it was re-edited and released as “In the Land of the War Canoes” (see “Film” pages on this website). Until now, “War Canoes” has been the only version available to viewers and scholars to use in their appraisals and analyses of Curtis’s film.  In 2006, the U’mista Cultural Centre was approached by two scholars with dramatic discoveries. Dr. Brad Evans (Rutgers University) had examined the original, silent cut of the film (via the black and white, 16mm copy at the Field Museum in Chicago from which “War Canoes” was made), which retains Curtis’s melodramatic narrative structure and intertitles. Meanwhile, Dr. Aaron Glass (then at the University of British Columbia) located John Braham’s musical score (at the Getty Research Library in Los Angeles), some original Curtis wax cylinder field recordings (at the Archive of Traditional Music in Indiana), and original film posters (in a private collection). In addition, the UCLA Film & Television Archive (Los Angeles) uncovered three fragmentary nitrate reels from the original film—complete with extensive tinting and toning as well as whole scenes absent from the Field Museum copy. None of this material had been presented publicly since 1915.  It is rare and highly significant to be able to reunite such an early silent film with the music commissioned for it, not to mention the First Nations music that was intended to inspire that. Though other films and musical pieces of the time included “Indian” imagery, Curtis’s was the first to include significant Native participation. Our project restores a number of important, historical elements to better contextualize Curtis’s original vision for his film: its title, intertitles, narrative structure, colors, music, and advertising materials. Doing so should make possible the restoration of Curtis’s and the Kwakwaka’wakw’s motion picture to its proper place in film history. At the same time, the participation of today’s Kwakwaka’wakw guarantees that their ancestors’ contribution to the original film—as actors, designers, consultants, and musical sources—will be appreciated by event audiences. Furthermore, it gives the Kwakwaka’wakw an opportunity to educate the public on their contemporary and colonial experience.

Hutłilaxda'xwla yaxs laxdamułasan's k'walsk'wal'yakw'wała yaxwa ka'e Edward Curtis ka sabadzwegile's… “Listen, everybody, about the time our old people danced for Edward Curtis so that he could make a film…” La'misan's Kwakwaka'wakw laxan's gweła'asi  laxux da U'mistax olak'ala amya'xalax i'ax'ine'yas Edward Curtis la'e sabadzawegila xan's k'walsk'wal'yakwi laxa k'wisała 'nala.  La'ma'as ikamas xan's ni'noka'yi le'gan's 'namaxas dłu' dukwamxda'xwax.  La'misan's ugwaka k'odła'nakwala le'gan's dukwalax yaxwała'ena'yasan's k'walsk'wal'yakwi dłu'wi da ik sixwa laxa xwak'wana.  Yu'am i'al'stsa k'walsk'wal'yakwi yaxus gaxex xit'saxalasu'wa.  La'misux 'namaxas gaxs łaxwe'yasan's k'walsk'wal'yakwi la'ex 'wi'la dłidłagad laxan's gwaya'ya'elasi. The Kwak'wala speaking peoples—the Kwakwaka'wakw, represented by the U'mista Cultural Society—are indeed indebted to Edward Curtis for his work in documenting some of our traditions in this early film.  To see our old people as they looked in those early days is very special.  We continue to learn by watching the dance movement and the expert paddling in the film.  The young people you see in this live performance are descendants of the people you see in the film.  Because they have all been initiated and named in our ceremonies, they bring a true spiritual connection with them in their singing and dancing.  Chief William T. CranmerChair, U'mista Cultural Society

Chronological survey of books about Edward Curtis Scholarly discussions of Curtis’s film Resources on the Kwakwaka’wakw and the potlatch prohibition Related documentary films Links to related pages Resources on the history of Native Americans in Film Filmography: Fictional and Nonfictional Representations of Native Americans in Film up to 1914 Chronological survey of books about Edward Curtis: (* indicates recommended volumes for scholarly content) 1915 Curtis, Edward, In the Land of the Head Hunters. Indian Life and Lore Series. World Book Company. [reprinted in 1992] http://www.archive.org/details/inlandofheadhunt00curtrich 1962 Andrews, Ralph, Curtis’s Western Indians: the Life and Works of Edward S. Curtis. Bonanza Books. 1970 Curtis, Edward, The North American Indians. [Reprint of the entire series by Johnson Reprint Co.] 1971 *McLuhan, T.C, Touch the Earth: A Self Portrait of Indian Existence. Promontory Press. 1972 Fowler, Don, In a Sacred Manner We Live: Photos of the North American Indian. Barre Publishers. *Coleman A.D. and T.C. McLuhan, Portraits from North American Indian Life by Edward S. Curtis. Promontory Press. [reprinted 1992] Brown, Joseph Epes, The North American Indian: A Selection of Photographs by Edward S. Curtis. Aperture. [reprinted 1988] 1976 Curtis, Edward (Gifford, ed.), The Portable Curtis: Selected Writings on Edward S. Curtis. Creative Arts Book Co. *Graybill, Florence and Victor Boesen, Edward Sheriff Curtis: Visions of a Vanishing Race. Houghton Mifflin. Rice, Leland, Edward S. Curtis: The Kwakiutl, 1910-1914. From the Estate of Edward S. Curtis. Collection of Randee and G. Ray Hawkins. University of California Fine Arts Gallery. 1977 *Gidley, Mick, The Vanishing Race: Selections from Edward S. Curtis’s North American Indian. Taplinger Publishing. [reprinted in 1987] Boesen, Victor and Florence Grabill, Edward S. Curtis: Photographer of the North American Indian. Dodd, Mead & Co. 1978 Bierhorst, John and Edward Curtis, The Girl who Married a Ghost and other Tales from the North American Indian. Four Winds Press. 1979 Varley, Christopher, Edward S. Curtis in the Collection of the Edmonton Art Gallery [exhibition catalogue]. 1980 *Holm, Bill and George Quimby, Edward S. Curtis in the Land of the War Canoes. University of Washington Press. 1982 *Lyman, Christopher, The Vanishing Race and Other Illusions: Photographs of Indians by Edward S. Curtis. Pantheon Books. 1985 *Davis, Barbara, Edward S. Curtis: the Life and Times of a Shadow Catcher. Chronicle Books. 1987 reprint of Gidley 1977 1988 reprint of Brown 1972 1989 Curtis, Edward, Photographs by Edward S. Curtis with Northwest Coast Indian artifacts from the Florida State Museum. [exhibition catalogue]. 1992 facsimile reprint of Curtis 1915 (Ten Speed Press) reprint of Coleman and McLuhan 1972 (BBS Publishing Corporation) 1993 Curtis, Edward, Native American Wisdom (miniature edition). Running Press. Cardozo, Christopher, George Horsecapture, and Edward Curtis, Native Nations: The First Americans as Seen by Edward S. Curtis. Calloway Editions (Bulfinch Press). Northern, Tamara and Wendi-Starr Brown, To Image and to See: Crow Indian Photographs by Edward S. Curtis and Richard Throssel, 1905-1910. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. [exhibition catalogue] Pritzer, Barry, Edward S. Curtis. Crescent Books. Rh Value Publishing, Edward S Curtis American Art. Gramercy. 1994 Lawlor, Laurie, Shadow Catcher: The Life and Work of Edward S. Curtis. Walker. Lowry, Shannon, Natives of the Far North: Alaska’s Vanishing Culture in the Eyes of Edward S. Curtis. Stackpole Books. Brayham, Angela, Art of Ethnography: A critical analysis of Edward S. Curtis' The North American Indian. Unpublished dissertation. 1995 Beck, Tom, The Art of Edward S. Curtis. Chartwell. Hausman, Gerald and Bob Kapour, Prayer to the Great Mystery: Uncollected Writings of Edward S. Curtis. St. Martins Press. 1996 Cardozo, Christopher, Edward S. Curtis: Native Family. Calloway Editions (Bulfinch Press). Cardozo, Christopher, Edward S. Curtis: Chiefs and Warriors. Calloway Editions (Bulfinch Press). 1997 Cardozo, Christopher, Edward S. Curtis: Hidden Faces. Calloway Editions (Bulfinch Press). Cardozo, Christopher, Edward S. Curtis: The Great Plains. Calloway Editions (Bulfinch Press). Day, Sara,  Heart of the Circle: Photographs by Edward S. Curtis of Native American Women. Pomegranate Artbooks, Adam, Hans Christian. The North American Indian: the Complete Portfolios. Taschen. [reprinted 2006] 1998 *Gidley, Mick, Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated. Cambridge University Press. 2000 Horse Capture, Joseph, Christopher Cardozo, and N. Scott Momaday, Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian. Simon and Schuster. [reprinted 2004] Curtis, Edward, Ghost Dance: Exhibiting paradox: Edward S. Curtis photogravures, selections from the Grinnell College art collection. [exhibition catalogue]. 2001 Kennedy, Martha H., Martha A. Sandweiss, Mick Gidley and Duane Niatum, The Plains Indian Photographs of Edward S. Curtis. Worswick, Clark, Edward Curtis: The Master Prints. Arena Editions. Philip, Neil, Weave Little Stars into My Sleep: Native American Lullabies. Clarion Books. *Makepeace, Anne, Edward S. Curtis: Coming to Light. National Geographic Books. Green, Malcom, Catherine Henry and Edward Curtis, Native Americans Taschen. 2003 Curtis, Edward, Songs of the Earth: A Timeless Collection of Native American Wisdom. Courage Books. *Gidley, Mick (ed.) Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2004 Cardozo, Christopher, Harman Lomawaima and Anne Makepeace, Edward S. Curtis: Great Warriors. Bulfinch. reprint of Horse Capture, Cardozo and Momaday  2000. 2005 Cardozo, Christopher, Louise Erdrich, and Anne Makepeace, Edward S. Curtis: The Women. Bulfinch. Philip, Neil, In a Sacred Manner I Live: Native American Wisdom. Clarion Books. 2006 Gulbrandsen, Don. Edward S. Curtis: Visions of the First Americans. Chartwell Books. Upham, Steadman and Nat Zappia, The Many Faces of Edward Sherriff Curtis: Portraits and Stories from Native North America. University of Washington Press. reprint of Adam 1997 2007 Wiggins, Marianne, The Shadow Catcher; A Novel. Simon and Schuster. 2008 Cheuse, Alan. 2008. To Catch the Lightning: A Novel of American Dreaming. Naperville, IN: Sourcebooks Landmark. Scherer, Joanna Cohan, Edward Sheriff Curtis. Phaidon Press. 2012 Egan, Timothy. Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Scholarly discussions of Curtis’s film: Bunn-Marcuse, Kathryn (2005) “Kwakwaka’wakw on Film.” In Ute Lischke and David McNab (eds) Walking a Tightrope: Aboriginal People and Their Representations. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. Evans, Brad (1998) “Commentary: Catherine Russell’s recovery of the Head-Hunters.” Visual Anthropology 11(3):221-41. Gidley, Mick (1998) Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Griffiths, Alison (2002) Wondrous Difference: Cinema, Anthropology, and Turn-of-the-Century Visual Culture. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. Hearne, Joanna (2006) “Telling and retelling in the ‘Ink of Light’: documentary cinema, oral narratives, and indigenous identities.” Screen 47(3):307-26. Holm, Bill and George I. Quimby (1980) Edward S. Curtis in the Land of the War Canoes: A Pioneer Cinematographer in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Morris, Rosalind (1994) New Worlds from Fragments: Film, Ethnography, and the Representation of Northwest Coast Cultures. Boulder: Westview Press. Quimby, George (1990) “The Mystery of the first documentary film.” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 81 (April):50-53. Rony, Fatimah T. (1996) “Gestures of self-protection: the picturesque and the travelogue.“ The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle. Durham: Duke University Press. Ruby, Jay (2000) Picturing Culture: Explorations of Film and Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Russell, Catherine (1999) “Playing primitive.“ Experimental Ethnography: The Work of Film in the Age of Video. Durham: Duke University Press. Scandiffio, Theresa (2001) “Choreographing the Past: Edward S. Curtis’ In the Land of the Head-Hunters.” MA thesis, Graduate Programme in Film and Video, York University, North York, Ontario. Wakeham, Pauline (2006) “Becoming Documentary: Edward Curtis’s In the Land of the Headhunters and the politics of archival reconstruction.” Canadian Review of American Studies 36(3): 293-309.   Resources on the Kwakwaka’wakw and the potlatch prohibition: Assu, Harry with Joy Inglis (1989) Assu of Cape Mudge: Recollections of a Coastal Indian Chief. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Boas, Franz (1966) Kwakiutl Ethnography. Helen Codere (ed). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Bracken, Christopher (1997) The Potlatch Papers: A Colonial Case History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Cannizzo, Jeanne (1983) “George Hunt and the invention of Kwakiutl culture.” Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 20: 44-58. Clifford, James (1997) “Four Northwest Coast Museums: Travel Reflections.” In Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Codere, Helen  (1950) Fighting with Property: A Study of Kwakiutl Potlatching and Warfare 1792-1930. Monographs of the American Ethnological Society #18. New York: J.J. Augustin Publisher. Cole, Douglas and Ira Chaikin (1990) An Iron Hand Upon the People: The Law Against the Potlatch on the Northwest Coast. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre. Curtis, Edward  (1915) “The Kwakiutl.” The North American Indian Vol. 10. New York: Johnson Reprint Corp. Reprinted 1978. Drucker, Phillip (1940) Kwakiutl Dancing Societies. Berkeley:  University of California Press. Duff, Wilson (1964) The Indian History of British Columbia. Vol 1: The Impact of the White Man. Victoria: Provincial Museum of British Columbia. Fisher, Robin  (1977) Contact and Conflict: Indian-European relations in British Columbia, 1774-1890. Vancouver:  University of British Columbia Press. Ford, Clellan (1941) Smoke From Their Fires: The Life of a Kwakiutl Chief. New Haven: Yale University Press. Galois, Robert (1994) Kwakwaka’wakw Settlements, 1775-1920: A Geographical Analysis and Gazetteer. Vancouver: UBC Press. Glass, Aaron (2004) “’The Thin edge of the wedge’: dancing around the potlatch ban, 1922-1951.” In Naomi Jackson (ed.) Dancing for Rights/Rights to Dance. Banff, Canada: Banff Centre Press. Gough, Barry (1982) “A Priest Versus the Potlatch: the Reverend Alfred James Hall and the Fort Rupert Kwakiutl, 1879-1880.” Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society 24(2): 75-89. Hawthorn, Audrey (1979) Kwakiutl Art. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Holm, Bill (1983) Smoky-Top: The Art and Times of Willie Seaweed. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Jacknis, Ira (2002) The Storage Box of Tradition: Kwakiutl Art, Anthropologists, and Museums, 1881-1981.Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. Jonaitis, Aldona (ed.) (1991) Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch. New York: American Museum of Natural History. LaViolette, Forrest (1961) The Struggle for Survival: Indian Cultures and the Protestant Ethic in British Columbia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Loo, Tina (1992) “Dan Cranmer’s Potlatch: law as coercion, symbol, and rhetoric in British Columbia, 1884-1951.” Canadian Historical Review 73 (2):125-165. Macnair, Peter (1995) “From Kwakiutl to Kwakwaka’wakw.” In R.B. Morrison and C. R. Wilson (eds.) Native Peoples: The Canadian Experience. 2nd ed. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. Masco, Joseph (1995) “’It is a strict law that bids us dance’: cosmologies, colonialism, death and ritual authority in the Kwakwaka’wakw potlatch, 1849-1922.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 37(1):41-75. Raibmon, Paige (2000) “Theatres of contact: the Kwakwaka’wakw meet colonialism in British Columbia and at the Chicago World’s Fair.” Canadian Historical Review 81(2):157-90. Reid, Martine and Daisy Sewid-Smith (eds.) (2004) Padding to Where I Stand: Agnes Alfred, Qwiqwasutinuxw Noblewoman. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Sewid-Smith, Daisy (1979) Prosecution or Persecution. Cape Mudge, BC: Nu-yum-balees Society. Spradley, James (1969) Guests Never Leave Hungry: The Autobiography of James Sewid, a Kwakiutl Indian. New Haven: Yale University Press. Webster, Gloria Cranmer (1992)  “From colonization to repatriation.” in Gerald McMaster and Lee-Ann Martin (eds.) Indigena: Contemporary Native Perspectives. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre.   Related documentary films: - In the Land of the War Canoes. [with 2 short documentaries following.] Edited by Bill Holm and George Quimby. 1973. [Milestone] - The Shadow Catcher: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian. By T.C. McLuhan. 1974. [Mystic Fire Video] - Potlatch! A Strict Law Bids us Dance. By Dennis Wheeler.  Produced by U’mista Cultural Society. 1975. [U’mista Cultural Centre] - Box of Treasures. By Chuck Olin. Produced by U’mista Cultural Society. 1983. [U’mista Cultural Centre; Documentary Education Resources] - Shooting Indians: A Journey with Jeffrey Thomas. By Ali Kuzimi. 1997. [Mongrel Media] - Coming to Light: Edward S. Curtis and the American Indian. By Anne Makepeace. 2000. [National Geographic Films] - In Search of the Hamat’sa: A Tale of Headhunting. By Aaron Glass. 2004. [Documentary Education Resources; Royal Anthropological Institute; IWF]   Links to related pages: Links on Edward Curtis: Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian American Memory from the Library of Congress Edward Curtis, Shadow Catcher - American Masters Links on Kwakwaka’wakw culture: U'mista Cultural Centre The Story of the Masks Kwakwaka'wakw Kwakiutl First Nation Portal Websites   Resources on the history of Native Americans in Film: Aleiss, Angela (2005) Making the White Man’s Indian: Native Americans and Hollywood Movies. Westport, CT: Praeger. Bataille, Gretchen and Bob Hicks. (1990) “American Indians in Popular Films,” in eds. Paul Loukides and Linda K. Fuller, Stock Characters in American Popular Film. Bowling Green State Univ. Press. Bataille, Gretchen and Charles L. P. Silet (1985) Images of American Indians on Film: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing. Bataille, Gretchen and Charles L. P. Silet (1980) The Pretend Indians: Images of Native Americans in the Movies. Ames, Iowa: The Iowa State Univ. Press. Buscombe, Edward (2006) ‘Injuns!’: Native Americans in the Movies. Cornwall, UK: Reaktion Books. Deloria, Philip J. (2004) Indians in Unexpected Places. Lawrence, KS: Kansas Univ. Press. Griffiths, Alison (2002) Wondrous Difference: Cinema, Anthropology & Turn-of-the-Century Visual Culture. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. MacDougall, David (1998) Transcultural Cinema. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. Rosenthal, Nicolas (2005) “Representing Indians: Native American Actors on Hollywood’s Frontier. The Western Historical Quarterly 36.3 (2005): 31 pars. 24 Mar. 2008  http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/whq/36.3/rosenthal.html . Ruby, Jay (2000) Picturing Culture: Explorations of Film and Anthropology. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. (Includes a documentation of meetings between Curtis and Robert Flaherty.) Russell, Catherine (1999) Experimental Ethnography: The Work of Film in the Age of Video. Durham: Duke Univ. Press. Simmon, Scott (2003) The Invention of the Western Film: A Cultural History of the Genre’s First Half-Century. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. Toby, Fatimah Tobing (1996) The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle. Durham: Duke Univ. Press. Verhoeff, Nanna (2006) The West in Early Cinema: After the Beginning. Amsterdam: Amsterdam Univ. Press. Weatherford, Elizabeth (1981) Native Americans on Film and Video. New York: Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation.   Filmography: Fictional and Nonfictional Representations of Native Americans in Film up to 1914 Annie Oakley (Edison, 1894) Buffalo Bill (Edison, 1894) Buffalo Dance (Edison, 1894) Indian War Council (Edison, 1894) Sioux Ghost Dance (Edison, 1894) Eagle Dance, Pueblo Indians (Edison, 1898) Indian Day School (Edison, 1898) Wand Dance, Pueblo Indians (Edison, 1898) War Dance, Pueblo Indians (Edison, 1898) Esquimaux Game of Snap-the-Whip (Edison, 1901) Esquimaux Leap Frog (Edison, 1901) Esquimaux Village (Edison, 1901) Indian Dances and Customs (Edison, 1901) Moki Snake Dance by Wolpi Inidans (Edison, 1901) Panoramic View of Moki-Land (Edison, 1901) Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Parade (Biograph, 1902) Club Swinging, Carlisle Indian School (Biograph, 1902) Firing the Cabin (American Mutoscope and Biograph, 1903) Kit Carson (American Mutoscope and Biograph, 1903) A Midnight Phantasy (American Mutoscope and Biograph, 1903) The Pioneers (American Mutoscope and Biograph, 1903) Settler’s Home Life (American Mutoscope and Biograph, 1903) Brush Between Cowboys and Indians (Edison, 1904) Indiens et cow-boys (Pathé, France, 1904) Moqui Indian Rain Dance (Biograph, 1904) Kanaka Fishermen Casting a “Throw Newt” Hilo, Hawaiian Islands (Edison, 1906) Life of a Cowboy (Edison, 1906) Native Canoes (Edison, 1906) The Call of the Wild (American Mutoscope and Biograph, 1908), dir. D. W. Griffith The Girl and the Outlaw (Biograph, 1908), dir. D. W. Griffith Hiawatha (Joseph K. Dixon, 1908) Indian Communication: Sign Language of the North American Indian (Joseph K. Dixon 1908-1913) Kentuckian (American Mutoscope and Biograph, 1908) The Red Girl (Biograph, 1908), dir. D. W. Griffith The Redman and the Child (Biograph, 1908) The Aborigine’s Devotion (World Film Mfg. Co., 1909) Comata, the Sioux (Biograph, 1909), dir. D. W. Griffith The Indian Runner’s Romance (Biograph, 1909), dir. D. W. Griffith Leather Stocking (Biograph, 1909), dir. D. W. Griffith The Mended Lute (Biograph, 1909), dir D. W. Griffith The Redman’s View (Biograph, 1909), dir. D. W. Griffith A Western Hero (Pathé, France, 1909) The Broken Doll (Biograph, 1910), dir. D. W. Griffith That Chink at Golden Gulch (Biograph, 1910), dir. D. W. Griffith Fighting the Iriquois in Canada (Klaem, 1910) Her Indian Mother (Kalem, 1910) Indian Western (Selig, 1910) A Mohawk’s Way (Biograph, 1910), dir. D. W. Griffith Over Silent Paths (Biograph, 1910), dir. D. W. Griffith Ramona: A Story of the White Man’s Injustice to the Indian (Biograph, 1910), dir. D. W. Griffith Red Girl and the Child (Pathé, 1910), dir. James Young Deer Red Eagle’s Love Affair (aka The Love of a Sioux) (Lubin, 1910) Romance of the Western Hills (Biograph, 1910), dir. D. W. Griffith The Song of the Wildwood Flute (Biorgraph, 1910), dir. D. W. Griffith Stolen by Indians (Champion, 1910) The Twisted Trail (Biograph, 1910), dir. D. W. Griffith White Fawn’s Devotion (Pathé, 1910), dir. James Young Deer Captain Brand’s Wife (Selig Polyscope, 1911) The Chief’s Daughter (Biograph, 1911), dir. D. W. Griffith The Curse of the Red Man (Selig, 1911) Eskimos in Labrador (Edison, 1911) The Last Drop of Water (Biograph, 1911), dir. D. W. Griffith Little Dove’s Romance (New York Motion Picture Co./Bison, 1911) Old Indian Days (Pathé, 1911), dir. James Young Deer On the War Path (Kalem, 1911) Red Deer’s Devotion (Pathé, 1911), dir. James Young Deer A Redkin’s Bravery (New York Motion Picture Co./Bison, 1911) The Squaw’s Love (Biograph, 1911), dir. D. W. Griffith Tangled Lives: A Strange Culmination of the Seminole War (Kalem, 1911) An Up-to-Date Squaw (Pathé Freres, 1911) Was He a Coward? (Biograph, 1911), dir. D. W. Griffith The Battle of the Red Men (New York Motion Picture Co./101-Bison, 1912), dir. Thomas Ince Blazing the Trail (New York Motion Picture Co./101-Bison, 1912), dir. Thomas Ince Buck’s Romance (Selig Polyscope, 1912) Ceremonies of the Hopi Indians (McCormick, 1912) Custer’s Last Fight (New York Motion Picture Co./101-Bison, 1912), prod. Thomas Ince The Fall of Black Hawk (American Film Manufacturing Co., 1912) For the Papoose (Pathé Freres, 1912) A Frontier Soldier of Fortune (Comet, 1912) The Indian Massacre (aka The Heart of an Indian) (New York Motion Picture Co./101-Bison, 1912), prod. Thomas Ince The Invaders (New York Motion Picture Co./Kay-Bee, 1912), prod. Thomas Ince Iola’s Promise (Biograph, 1912), dir. D. W. Griffith The Life of Buffalo Bill (Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill Film Co., 1912) The Massacre (Biograph, 1912), dir. D. W. Griffith For the Papoose (Pathé, 1912), dir. James Young Deer Snake Dance of the Hopi Indians (McCormick, 1912) The Spirit Awakened (Biograph, 1912), dir. D. W. Griffith i (Biograph, 1912), dir. D. W. Griffith The Tourists (Biograph, 1912), dir. Mack Sennett War on the Plains (New York Motion Picture Co./101-Bison, 1912), prod. Thomas Ince The Wild West Circus (New York Motion Picture Co./101-Bison, 1912), dir. Thomas Ince The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (Biograph, 1913), dir. D. W. Griffith Camping with the Blackfeet (Edison, 1913) The Cliff Dwellers (Kalem, 1913) Hiawatha (Gaumont/Fort Deifaince Film Co., 1913) Indian and Ceylonese Types (Éclair, 1913) Injuns (Powers Picture Plays, Universal, 1913) Maya, Just an Indian (Frontier, 1913) A Pueblo Legend (Biograph, 1913) dir. D. W. Griffith Arctic Hunt (Frank E. Kleinschmidt, 1914) The Death Mask (aka The Redskin Duel) (New York Motion Picture Co./Kay-Bee, 1914), prod. Thomas Ince The End of the Robe (Kalem, 1914), cast Mona Darkfeather The Gambler of the West (Klaw & Erlanger, 1914) In the Days of the Thundering Herd (Selig Polyscope, 1914), cast includes Princess Red Wing The Indian (Klaw and Erlanger, 1914) The Indian Wars (Buffalo Bill Cody, 1914) In the Land of the Head Hunters (Edward S. Curtis, 1914) The Squaw Man (Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Co., 1914), dir. Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel Strongheart (Klaw and Erlanger, 1914) The Virginian (Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Co., 1914), dir. Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel White Dove’s Sacrifice (Sawyer, 1914) For an annotated list of silent films having substantial American Indian content, see the website established by the Library of Congress’s Motion Picture and Television Reading Room.

For the past decade, Washington State photographer Sharon Eva Grainger has been working closely with the U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay, BC to document the daily and ceremonial lives of Kwakwaka’wakw community members. One of her projects has involved collaborating to re-stage historic photographs by Edward Curtis. For each photo-shoot, Grainger discusses the Curtis image with her models and asks them how they wish to be dressed and posed. This exhibit brings together twenty of Grainger’s images with the original Curtis photos. Beyond the clear visual and historical resonance, all of these portraits reveal the subtle social relations behind the photographic encounter. They suggest that we might re-view Curtis’s work as the result of similar processes of negotiation—as products of both colonial romanticism and Kwakwaka’wakw self-assertion. Organized by Sharon Eva Grainger, Aaron Glass, and the U’mista Cultural Centre for the public presentation of Curtis’s 1914 film, "In the Land of the Head Hunters." Click here for a Bio of Sharon Grainger

Original advertising for the film describes it as a “drama of primitive life on the shores of the North Pacific.” The action takes place just before the time of the “first exploration” of the Coast; an early scenario featured Vancouver’s ship encountering the Indians, though that scene did not make it into the final film. Nowhere in the film itself or in its advertising materials were the Kwakwaka’wakw identified by name or the location specified as Canada; the film is presented as depicting only a generalized tribe from the Pacific Coast. The story overlays three plot elements onto each other: a melodramatic love triangle; an equally melodramatic series of aboriginal battles (from which the “Head Hunting” title is drawn); and a sampling of Kwakwaka’wakw ceremonial performances. The hero, Motana, falls in love with “the maid of his dreams,” Naida, while on a kind of vision quest that entails praying, dancing, and hunting. Unfortunately for him, Naida is betrothed to an evil sorcerer. After completing his quest, Motana embarks on a battle to win Naida by killing the sorcerer, and the two are married with great ceremony. As might be expected, the sorcerer’s equally unsavory brother, Yaklus, is outraged. He takes his revenge by ransacking Motana’s village, killing the hero’s father (Kenada), and stealing Naida for himself. Strangely, the most magnificent Kwakwaka’wakw dance ceremonies in the film come in celebration of Yaklus’s success in war. But then Motana and his crew stage a dramatic rescue of Naida from the bedside of Yaklus. A remarkable canoe chase ensues, at the end of which the sorcerer’s brother meets his doom in “the deadly gorge of Hyal.” Yaklus’s canoe is capsized in the waves, his men perish, and his dead body washes up against the rocks.  

In preparation for the gala release of In the Land of the Head Hunters in 1914, Edward Curtis commissioned an original orchestral score, which we now believe to be the earliest surviving complete score for a silent feature film. The project to restore the film was driven in large measure by the discovery of this score at the Getty Research Institute. As part of his larger ethnological salvage project, Curtis routinely made wax cylinder recordings of Native American music with his photographic subjects (a large number of these are preserved today at the Archive of Traditional Music at Indiana University, Bloomington). The volumes of his North American Indian book series frequently include transcriptions of these, many produced by the ethnomusicologist and composer Henry Gilbert. Around 1910, Curtis made a number of recordings of Kwakwaka’wakw songs (see "Music Samples" section), some of which are transcribed in Volume Ten, The Kwakiutl.  In 1911-1912, Curtis produced and toured “The Vanishing Race”—what he called a “Picture Opera” or “Musicale”—a commercial entertainment featuring an in-person lecture by Curtis set to a dissolving slide show enhanced by short motion pictures, elaborate stage sets, and fancy lighting effects. To accompany his show, Curtis commissioned Henry Gilbert to write a musical score based on the wax cylinder recordings he had made among various groups; these included a series of pieces based on Northwest Coast music. Though intended to raise funds for the book project, the Musicale was a financial failure, and Curtis and Gilbert had a falling out over long unpaid bills.  Thus, in 1914, Curtis could not rely on Gilbert to compose an ambitious score for Head Hunters. Instead, he turned to John J. Braham, a New York-based conductor and arranger long associated with American Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions (see “Braham bio” below). Braham was also a composer who had, in fact, just completed a score for a 1913 film version of Hiawatha, a story that directly influenced the narrative of Head Hunters. Perhaps based on exposure to this film, Curtis commissioned Braham to score his own film, and it is likely that Curtis maintained his practice of supplying Braham with the wax cylinder recordings of Kwakwaka’wakw songs to “inspire” the film score. The film’s premiere screenings were heavily advertised at the time as featuring “Native music symphonized,” one component of the larger claim to cultural authenticity based on the use of an all-Native cast and on-location shooting. However, it seems as if this particular pronouncement was a hollow promotional tool, as there is little if any trace of the Kwakwaka’wakw sources in Braham’s final score for Head Hunters. Nonetheless, Braham’s score clearly embodies Curtis’s ambitions for his film in its blending of melodramatic, pop-culture musical clichés—the familiar thrum of the “tom-toms”—with “high-art” aspirations.  Though the film may have received limited distribution in 1915, we do not know if the score traveled with it. By the time the film was located and re-edited into In the Land of the War Canoes in the 1970s, the score was presumed lost. Within the two decades after Curtis’s death in Los Angeles in 1952, various area archives obtained portions of his estate. The Getty Research Institute acquired many boxes of sheet music composed by Henry Gilbert for the Musicales. In amongst these were a couple of files labeled “The Head Hunters,” containing Braham’s score for the film, which Aaron Glass discovered during his dissertation research. This project marks their restoration and public presentation for the first time since 1914. Both John Braham's original 1914 manuscript score for Head Hunters and David Gilbert's 2008 transcription are available in complete form through the Getty Research Institute's online library.

  * Click here to download the audience program (.PDF, 920KB)   June 5-6, 2008: The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (co-presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Autry National Center) June 5th world premiere screening/performance. Score performance by the UCLA Philharmonia (conducted by Neal Stulberg) Two-day public symposium, “Documents of an Encounter.” June 7th: additional dance performance at the Autry National Center June 10, 2008: The Moore Theatre, Seattle (co-presented by Seattle Theatre Group, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, and the Seattle International Film Festival). June 22, 2008:  The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, Vancouver, BC (co-presented by the UBC Museum of Anthropology, the UBC First Nations Studies Program, and the UBC Centenary 2008). June 22nd screening/performance. Score performance by the Turning Point Ensemble (conducted by Owen Underhill) June 24th panel discussion at the Museum of Anthropology. November 9, 2008: The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (co-presented by Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian) Score performance by the Coast Orchestra No Kwakwaka'waka performance November 13, 2008: Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ)  Symposium - "Moving Pictures: The Celluloid Archive, Indigenous Agency, and the Work of Edward S. Curtis." (Download the event poster). November 14, 2008: The American Museum of Natural History, New York City (co-presented by the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, Rutgers University, and New York University). Score performance by the Coast Orchestra Limited Kwakwaka'waka performance only November 16-17, 2008: The Field Museum, Chicago Limited Kwakwaka'waka performance only No live score performance (recorded music by the Turning Point Ensemble) November 22, 2008: American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting (Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival), San Francisco Informal screening and discussion of the restored film and score (on DVD) with project co-producers Brad Evans and Aaron Glass Open to conference registrants only

The Kwakwaka’wakw, Curtis, and the Making of Head Hunters In the Land of the Head Hunters has always been known as “Curtis’s motion picture,” but as part of the impetus behind the current project is to reverse this narrative by putting the Kwakwaka’wakw back at the head of this story, it makes sense to start with them. The Kwakwaka’wakw and their Film The Kwakwaka’wakw (then denoted by English writers as Kwakiutl) first began to accommodate Curtis and his photographic apparatus at Fort Rupert, British Columbia, sometime around 1910. By that time, they already had a substantial history with anthropologists, colonial agents, and early tourists coming to take their pictures. Though the Hudson’s Bay Company operated a trading post in the area since the 1850s, reserves  (reservations) were set up in Kwakwaka’wakw territory in the 1880s, around the same time that missionaries and settlers began to arrive in significant numbers. Fort Rupert, the center of this activity, became a focal point for visiting ethnographers hoping to cash in on the Kwakwaka’wakw’s growing reputation for dramatic ceremonial culture and resistance to assimilation efforts. George Hunt, the son of the local trading post factor, played a key role in brokering a number of important anthropological endeavors, most famously through his work for Franz Boas. Hunt acted as guide, translator, and object and text collector for Boas (as well as numerous other museum ethnographers) for over 50 years. He also worked with Boas to coordinate a group of Kwakwaka’wakw (many of whom were his immediate and extended kin) that lived and performed at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. By the time Curtis arrived in Ft. Rupert in 1910, it was logical that he seek out Hunt. As Holm and Quimby (1980) have made clear, George Hunt and his relatives were absolutely essential to the production of Curtis’s film. Hunt himself acted as a production assistant, directing actors and working as a translator. He and his family produced many of the props, sets, and costumes. Many of his relatives acted in the film (see below). Though there are few archival records on the subject, it is clear that the featured selection of cultural practices in the film emerged through the collaboration between Curtis, Hunt, and the Kwakwaka’wakw actors. For instance, an early script included a scene with the highly prestigious Hamat’sa or “Cannibal” Dance, yet this was not included in the final film, likely due to Kwakwaka’wakw input in the matter (Motana occasionally dances like a Hamat’sa, but it is not presented as such). Also, the spectacular group dance featuring numerous costumed figures circling the fire together is a complete fabrication, likely invented on the spot by the actors in order to provide Curtis with a dramatic tableau while not transgressing any ceremonial protocol. One imagines Curtis presenting Hunt with his melodramatic script, and the two men then working together to determine the specific content of scenes. As we discuss elsewhere, it is highly significant that the film was made during the potlatch prohibition, when under ceremonial contexts the Kwakwaka’wakw would have been arrested for performing many of the dances pictured in the film. From both the Kwakwaka’wakw and local Indian Agents’ points of view, the film—a clearly non-ritual and “modern” endeavor—offered an opportunity for income during lean economic years. But for the Kwakwaka’wakw, an additional motivation must have been the opportunity to enact—and thus keep alive—ceremonial and artistic traditions that were otherwise threatened by the active assimilation policies of the Canadian government.   The Kwakwaka’wakw Cast (This information is drawn from Holm and Quimby (1980), based on identifications made by Kwakwaka’wakw in the early 1970s)    “Motana” = Stanley Hunt [George Hunt’s youngest son] “Naida” = Strangely, three actresses portrayed Naida: Margaret Wilson (pictured in the character card at the film’s opening). [George Hunt’s granddaughter; the daughter of Charlie Wilson and Emily Hunt Wilson] Sarah (Abaya) Smith Martin [at the time, married to David Hunt, George’s eldest son; later married to Mungo Martin] Mrs. George Walkus (Gwikilaokwa; from Smith Inlet) [she also played the daughter of the sorcerer] “Yaklus” and “Waket” = Bulóotsa (possibly a Brotchie?; from Blunden Harbour) “Kenada” = Paddy Maleed (Kimgidi; from Blunden Harbour) [relative of Johnny Malidi] “Sorcerer” = Kwa’kwaano or Haéytlulas, also known as “Long Harry” (a song composer; from Blunden Harbour and Ft. Rupert) Others featured: Francine Hunt (Tsukwani; George Hunt’s second wife; from Blunden Harbour) [she prepared many of the costumes; in the film, she dances, digs for clams, and is one of the captives] Bob Wilson (son of Charlie Wilson; brother of Maggie Wilson and Helen Knox) [he worked on the set; in the film, he drops a paddle in a scene on the rocks] Helen Knox [a young girl at the time] Jonathan Hunt [an assistant on set]   Controversy Over the Curtis Photographs and Film Curtis, today, is both a revered and controversial figure. His photographs of Native Americans remain extremely popular, as attested to by the ubiquity of his work in newly minted catalogues, coffee-table books, and picture post cards of the kind available in museum gift shops across the globe. But he has come under intense criticism, as well, for the manner in which he consciously erased all signs of modernity from his Indian pictures. A most telling example comes in his image “At Piegan Lodge,” where Curtis etched out an alarm clock sitting between two chiefs, effectively freezing them in a pre-modern, timeless past. Such images give sense to the manner in which Curtis has sometimes been criticized as the most well-known promoter of false stereotypes about Indians. One of his most well known photographs is titled “Vanishing Race-Navaho,” which has come to stand for the larger misguided presumptions underlying that infamous phrase and the cultural salvage agenda that it implied.  But, as evidenced by the current vibrancy of indigenous life across North America, any news of “vanishing” was wildly premature if not implicitly racist in overtone. In the Land of the Head Hunters is similarly vexed. On the one hand, its emphasis on “head hunting” was clearly sensationalistic, as was the implication that the film represented “primitive life on the northwest coast” as if that was still the life being lived in 1914. Nothing, of course, could have been further from the truth. But on the other hand, the film was quite unlike the hundreds of other Indian pictures that had been made in the preceding twenty years (see next Film sections). Those films almost invariably used the conflict between whites and Indians as an easily recognizable plot device, so when Head Hunters took out all of the whites, it was charting unfamiliar terrain. Perhaps the boldest move was to entwine Kwakwaka’wakw ceremonies into the fictional plot, making them a central part of the motion picture. While one might read this as Curtis’s shot at ethnographic pretension, it is also of great significance that Head Hunters presents such scenes at a time when agents of the Canadian government were actively trying to suppress ceremonies under the potlatch prohibition (in fact, arrests were made under this law in 1914, the same year that the prohibition was extended to even further limit ceremonial dancing). In choosing to stage themselves for Curtis’s camera, the Kwakwaka’wakw helped ensure that the resulting film would be more than a simple colonial document of stereotyped, celluloid “Indians.” In the end, In the Land of the Head Hunters cannot be judged as simply another instance of Curtis’s efforts to document the “vanishing race.” The film was a joint project from the beginning, a meeting of Edward Curtis and the Kwakwaka’wakw in the shared enterprise of making a motion picture. As such, Head Hunters not only throws new light on the development of the motion picture industry. It also documents the extensive and complex engagement of the Kwakwaka’wakw—and by implication other First Nations—with the most modern of twentieth-century representational forms: the movies.

1914: The World Film Corporation In the Land of the Head Hunters opened simultaneously at the Casino Theatre in New York and the Moore Theatre in Seattle on December 7, 1914 (Curtis was present in New York). Seattle newspapers spoke of subsequent San Francisco and Los Angeles engagements, though no evidence of these has yet surfaced. Despite gala events and positive reviews, the film’s reception clearly did not live up to Curtis’s expectations. It has long been thought that after running twice daily at each location for a week, the film then disappeared from sight. We now know that its failure was not quite so immediate. The World Film Corporation distributed it throughout 1915 and 1916. Newspaper searches reveal that, at the very least, it showed again in New York, in Lima, Ohio; Lowell, Massachusetts; Oakland, California; Placerville, California; Fairbanks, Alaska; and Eau Claire, Wisconsin. World Film Corporation receipts from the first year of distribution, up to and including December 25, 1915, have Head Hunters making a paltry $3,269.18, near the bottom of their list.  Disappointed in its box office failure, Curtis abandoned the film as a fund-raising enterprise.     1924: The American Museum of Natural History In 1923, when Curtis was in Los Angeles working for Cecile B. DeMille on The Ten Commandments, P. E. Goddard of the American Museum of Natural History began a correspondence with him concerning the purchase of In the Land of the Head Hunters, which Goddard acknowledged as having “a good deal of ethnological interest” (August 17, 1923). These inquiries led to the sale of Curtis’s sole remaining negative copy of the film (which he edited down according to the museum’s wishes), as well as his relinquishing of the copyright to it, for the sum of $1,000. In a letter dated October 16, 1924, Curtis writes of having shipped the six reels of film and signed over the rights to the museum. Though the correspondence remains, little is known of what happened to the film itself. Because of the highly flammable character of early 35mm nitrate film, it may have been destroyed for safety reasons. The museum has no current record of it.   1947: Hugo Zeiter and The Field Museum  The next time the film surfaced was in 1947, when a 35mm nitrate copy was donated to Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History by an eccentric collector from Danville, Illinois, named Hugo Zeiter. By then, it had been largely forgotten. Zeiter, who passed away in December 2007 at the age of ninety-two, had three great loves: Indians, circuses, and old films. When he died, he still had a collection of over 900 old movies—even after having given away most of his valuable 35mm nitrate films in the 1940s. He recalled having received his copy of In the Land of the Head Hunters from a friend who used to pull film out of an old dumpster outside a movie house in Chicago. Zeiter did not, at the time, realize that his film was actually Curtis’s In the Land of the Head Hunters. In his correspondence with the Field, he referred to the work as “The Vigil of Motana,” the title on the cue card from the opening frame of the first extant reel. By the time it got to Zeiter, only four of the original six reels remained. He sent these four to the Field via Railway Express on March 5, 1947, asking in return only for a 16mm copy, if one were made. In the correspondence, mention is made of the film’s extensive coloring, which greatly interested the film buff Zeiter. By contrast, the Field’s interest was ethnographic. Its anthropological staff quickly determined that portions of the film had “great merit as scientific record,” for its representation of “characters, costumes, utensils and weapons, houses and scenes are authentic, and could no longer be duplicated” (Miller to Gregg, March 18, 1947). Clifford Gregg, Director of the Field, wrote personally to Zeiter, explaining that “[q]ualified anthropologists of the museum staff viewed the pictures [stills taken from the film] and are of the opinion that portions of the sequence are irreplaceable photographic records of sufficient importance to warrant making a copy.” But at the same time, he noted that the friable nature of the 35mm nitrate made it “best to dispose of the nitrate base print immediately instead of wasting time in a fruitless effort to save it” (Gregg to Zeiter, March 20, 1947). The transfer copy they planned to make of the film would no longer have the “dyed parts” that interested Zeiter. At the end of March, Zeiter was leaving for Okinawa, where he was to work for the Civil Service, Department of the Army. He wrote to the Field asking if they could keep the 35mm nitrate print in storage instead of destroying it, and Gregg assured him that it would be preserved. One record indicates that the nitrate print once caught fire while being projected; perhaps for this reason, it was eventually destroyed.   1973: In the Land of the War Canoes The version of Curtis’s motion picture familiar to viewers today is called In the Land of the War Canoes. It was restored by art historian Bill Holm and museum anthropologist George Quimby in the late 1960s. Quimby had been a curator at The Field Museum in the 1940s, when Zeiter donated his copy to the museum. He brought a copy of the Field’s 16mm duplicate with him when he moved to the Burke Museum at the University of Washington in 1965, and he and Holm began setting the grounds for restoration work in the summer of 1967. The restoration was undertaken with extensive support from the Kwakwaka’wakw, with whom Holm had been working. It was released in 1973 through the University of Washington Press. Holm and Quimby published a seminal volume describing the film and their project, Edward S. Curtis in the Land of the War Canoes: A Pioneer Cinematographer in the Pacific Northwest (University of Washington Press, 1980). Around 1990, War Canoes was picked up by Milestone Film, its current distributor (since 2004, it has received additional distribution by the Royal Anthropological Institute in the UK and Europe). As Holm and Quimby make clear in their volume, a number of significant changes were made to the film in the process of their restoration. Foremost among these were the change in title, the replacement of the original silent film intertitles (many of which contained character dialogue), the rearrangement of the opening sequence and some subsequent scenes, and—in the absence of the original musical score—the addition of a soundtrack of sound effects and Kwak’wala-language dialogue and songs recorded by Kwakwaka’wakw community members. In an innovative move, the newly recorded soundtrack literally gave “voice” back to the Kwakwaka’wakw of the time, who imagined the dialogue of their silent actor/ancestors (much like the actors had imagined the past practices of theirs). These changes were undertaken to make the film less objectionable to modern viewers and more narratively coherent—recall, the film at that point was missing two of the original six reels. But they also had the effect of shifting the focus of the film from Curtis’s melodramatic sensationalism to the ethnographic significance of Kwakwaka’wakw traditions—from “head hunting” to “war canoes.” Playing up its status as a visual record of (re-enacted) nineteenth-century cultural forms, and building on the interest declared by past museum curators, Holm and Quimby suggested that Curtis’s was the first feature length documentary film. For film historians, however, such changes present obvious problems. Even with these limitations, the film was still recognized as a landmark of early cinema. In 1999, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-film-preservation-board/documents/land_head_hunters.pdf

The current restoration project began as the result of a number of discoveries by project co-coordinators Brad Evans and Aaron Glass. First, attention was brought to the film’s original silent film intertitles, still held by the Field Museum and the Burke Museum. The original musical score, composed in 1914 by John Braham, was discovered in the archive at the Getty Research Library. Additional reel fragments of an original 35mm nitrate print were found at the UCLA Film & Television Archive; these had been donated sometime in the 1970s by the film collector David Shepard but remained unidentified in the nitrate storage vaults. These additional reels confirm the original length of the film to be six reels, and indicate the nature of the missing scenes from reels four and five. They also contain the original color tinting and toning that so many viewers prior to 1947 had commented upon. To as great an extent as currently possible, this restoration will give us access to the motion picture as viewers would have seen it in 1914. The original title, intertitles, shot sequences, color process, orchestral score, and publicity material have all been reactivated. Film Restoration Process None of the two sources for surviving footage from IN THE LAND OF THE HEAD HUNTERS was even close to being complete.  Only an approximate total of three reels of scenes from the original six reels was represented by the Field Museum footage.  The UCLA material added the better part of another reel of missing footage, primarily from the final reel.  The UCLA footage was copied wetgate to 35mm negative, yielding an image vastly superior in quality to the Field Museum footage (copied "dry" to the lower-gauge 16mm sixty years ago). Prior to its being copied, few repairs were made to the Field nitrate, which was splicey, fragile, water-damaged, and decomposing.  This resulted in numerous onscreen jumps and misregistrations, some of which were adjusted on-the-fly during printing by the optical printer operator.  Extensive repairs and the benefit of improved printing techniques during the intervening years yielded a cleaner and steadier image from the UCLA nitrate, which also is in pretty much the same poor condition as was the Field’s.  However, even if a perfect condition nitrate print of HEAD HUNTERS had survived the years, evidence suggests it never originally looked all that good, due to ragged editing and poor camerawork that resulted in frequent image pull-down and second framelines. For this restoration, a few short shots were lengthened, some out-of-frame shots re-framed optically, and when Field and UCLA footage overlapped, intercutting of portions of shots from each was performed to secure as complete a final product as possible.  Even so, many frames were removed to eliminate the worst jumps and splices for a smoother overall presentation. Because many of the intertitles were short or badly degraded, all titles were re-created digitally.  Missing main and end titles were re-created in the manner of other World Film Corporation releases of the time.  Missing intertitles were derived from plot synopses and other sources.  Images from approximately fifty missing shots were obtained from single frames submitted to the Library of Congress for copyright purposes.  A tinting scheme for the entire film was derived from the UCLA nitrate.  Tinting of the screening print was effected through dye-bath immersion.  Toned and combined tinted-and-toned shots were replicated through flash-printing onto color stock. Even with lengthened titles and frame representations of missing shots, the restoration/reconstruction of IN THE LAND OF THE HEAD HUNTERS remains at only approximately two-thirds of its presumed original length.  The restoration was undertaken by UCLA Film & Television Archive.  Optical work, printing, and tinting was performed by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory; processing and color printing by YCM Laboratories; and titles by Title House Digital. Jere Guldin, film restorerUCLA Film & Television Archive

Since its re-release in the 1970s, In the Land of the Head Hunters has most frequently been understood as an example of documentary realism, a predecessor to later ethnographic travel films like Robert F. Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922) and Martin and Osa Johnson’s Simba, The King of Beasts (1928). While it certainly makes sense to establish this connection—we know, for example, that Flaherty and his wife were treated to a private screening of Head Hunters at Curtis’s New York studio in 1915—our restoration of Curtis’s film brings to light its significance in the context of the then emerging feature film industry. Very much an original work, In the Land of the Head Hunters was an attempt to combine high art and anthropology, to turn ethnographic spectacle into mass entertainment. Curtis intended his film to attract large audiences in an effort to raise much-needed funds for his “serious” life’s work—the North American Indian book series (his major patron, J. P. Morgan, had passed away in 1913 leaving Curtis strapped for cash). Neither like the many Indian-themed movies of its time, nor like the famous ethnographic documentaries that would follow it, Head Hunters is rightly understood as the meeting of two dramatic traditions, the emergent Hollywood film industry and the longstanding Kwakwaka’wakw tradition of dramatic public as well as ritual performance. It reminds us that from a very early date, neither was impervious to the other.   Curtis and Hollywood In the Land of the Head Hunters opened at a time of rapid change in the motion picture industry—a period marked both by technical innovations and by a transition towards longer feature films with more coherent fictional narratives. Film historians point to D. W. Griffith’s landmark The Birth of a Nation (1915) as the first major Hollywood film to realize cinema’s popular and artistic potential. Though Curtis’s film was undertaken on a much more modest scale, its significance can best be understood by keeping the mass cultural appeal of Hollywood movies like Griffith’s in mind. Later in his career, Curtis actually ended up in Hollywood as an employee of Cecil B. DeMille, where he worked in 1923 as a cameraman and still-photographer for the blockbuster production of DeMille’s The Ten Commandments. His foray into filmmaking had ambitions to reach the same kind of mass audience, but at the same time it held itself aloof as a work of high art.   “Indian Pictures” When it was first screened in 1914, In the Land of the Head Hunters entered into a field crowded with “Indian pictures.” From the beginning, Native Americans were not merely represented by the motion picture industry, but played a central role in its emergence. One of the first studio short films was the Edison Company’s twenty-second Sioux Ghost Dance (1894). Filmed at Edison’s studio in West Orange, New Jersey, it featured Oglala and Brulé Sioux who were touring in Brooklyn at the time with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. This short was followed by hundreds of others featuring Native American actors, many of whom had been involved with Buffalo Bill while others were brought in specially for the occasion.   Learn about the early filmography   The Innovation of Head Hunters What Head Hunters brought to this mix was a desire to elevate the Indian movie to a new level of artistry, as well as a desire to portray Native American life outside the stereotypes established for it by the prior two decades of filmic representation—not to mention the even longer history of Native American representation since the 1830s in dime novels and Wild West shows. The mere fact that Curtis chose a picturesque but not stereotypical First Nations group—lacking the ready-made Indian icons of feathered headdresses, horses, tomahawks, and tipis—suggests his desire to avoid those clichés, even as he indulged in others (head hunting, sorcery, vision quests). Perhaps this denial of audience familiarity also in part explains its box-office failure. Technically, Curtis’s film is remarkable not only for the quality and originality of its production, but also for the hyperbole of the advertising for it, which was clearly aimed at distinguishing it from other films in the market. Everything about the film—from the identity of its actors to the source for its musical score—were vigorously claimed to be “authentic.” It was a six-reel film, which was fairly long for the time, and it was shot entirely on location in British Columbia. It featured innovative moving camera shots. Its sequencing demonstrated Curtis’s basic understanding of principles of narrative continuity. The original advertising for the film stressed the significance of what was called “the Hochstetter process,” supposedly a natural color process that had been used in the making of the film. Although technical analysis indicates that it had, in fact, been tinted and toned in the standard way in the studio, the coloring of the Kwakwaka’wakw costumes and homes, as well as of the pacific coast landscape, is quite complex for the time. In terms of its portrayal of indigenous life, In the Land of the Head Hunters differs significantly from previous examples of the genre because of its combination of fictional and non-fictional elements. Whereas “Indian pictures” followed standard plot lines—ranging from cowboy and Indian spectacles in the mold of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, to more delicately framed interracial love stories (known as “squaw romances”)— Head Hunters withdrew all traces of contact with whites or modernity. There is still a love story; only it is between the Native Americans themselves. And there is warfare, but not the standard fare with frontiersmen or cowboys. Moreover, at a time when the Canadian government had prohibited the performance of many ceremonial rituals in an attempt to force assimilation, the film portrays most such rituals in accordance with Kwakwaka’wakw protocols. It might be argued that by removing the film’s narrative from the historical moment of its production, Curtis denied the modernity of its actor/participants. However, in asking them to be movie actors in the first place, Curtis complicated his other claims to documentary realism and proved that Native people could perform their past as a way of imagining a cultural future. There is no clearer hallmark of modern consciousness. Curtis brought to his film his own aesthetic proclivities, commercial ambitions, and racialized cultural imagination. For their part, the Kwakwaka’wakw contributed their significant artistic and dramatic talents as well as editorial input. Although Curtis retained control over its initial structure and shape, the film is best appreciated as an intercultural co-production, the first of its kind at this scale and in the cinematic medium. The peculiar history of In the Land of the Head Hunters suggests its potential for contemporary relevance and continual re-imagining by film historians, students of cultural and colonial representation, and Kwakwaka’wakw communities alike.

This exhibit features the reflections of twenty artists, scholars, and community leaders in the Pacific Northwest, each responding to an Edward Curtis photograph they selected. In the diversity of perspectives, we find nuance regarding Curtis’s images and their complex relationship to First Nations cultures. Developed by the Museum of Anthropology and the First Nations Studies Program at The University of British Columbia for the public presentation of Curtis’s 1914 film, In the Land of the Head Hunters. [Unless otherwise noted, all Curtis images are from his The North American Indian (NAI) book series] (A version of this exhibit was installed in the venues for the 2008 public event series that made up the core of the Head Hunters project, and a condensed version is published in our 2014 edited volume.)  

Selections from the wax cylinder recordings made by Curtis in 1910 in Fort Rupert, BC (courtesy Archive of Traditional Music at Indiana University, Bloomington): Selection 1: “Hamatsa song of Motana.” (2.7MB) This is a very old song originally belonging to a famous 19th century Hamat’sa (“Cannibal”) dancer named Mudana, from the Awikinuxw people of Rivers Inlet. It was this man whose name inspired that of the hero of Curtis’s film, “Motana.” Songs such as this are often composed for new dance initiates, and then travel with the prerogative as it is handed down to subsequent generations. This song was still remembered and performed in Ft Rupert into the 1950s, and is known by a few song leaders today in essentially the same form as it was recoded in 1910. (See notation and transcription published in Curtis’s The North American Indian Volume 10 [“The Kwakiutl”], page 311)     Selection 2: “Wild Man of the Woods—Paqusilahl song.” (1.1MB)This is a song that once accompanied a Bak’was (or Wild Man of the Woods) dancer (such as the one pictured in this Curtis photo). The dancer, embodying the reclusive forest spirit, moves slowly over the ground, pausing to pick up cockle shells—his favorite food. Dances and songs such as this are the hereditary wealth of specific families, and ceremonial performance of them in a potlatch is limited to those with genealogical rights. (See notation and transcription published in Curtis’s The North American Indian Volume 10 [“The Kwakiutl”], page 319)     Selection 3: “Bear Song, Winter Dance—Nane song.” (1.1MB)This Nan (Grizzly Bear) Song would have accompanied a single dancer dressed most likely in a full-body bear-skin with a carved mask and claw gauntlets (such as the one pictured in this Curtis photo). Hereditary song and dance privileges such as this (called dlugwe’ or “treasures”) are displayed by families at their potlatches in order to publicly establish their cultural wealth. The wedding scene adapted by Curtis in his film, in which a Bear dances on a canoe prow along with other figures, would have been one context in which families displayed such a prerogative (perhaps as part of a marriage dowry for the groom’s family). (See notation and transcription published in Curtis’s The North American Indian Volume 10 [“The Kwakiutl”], page 320)     A recording of the “prelude” of John Braham’s score for Head Hunters (recorded by the Turning Point Ensemble in Vancouver, BC on August 8, 2007 at the University of British Columbia; score courtesy Getty Research Library): Selection: Braham’s “prelude” (8.3MB)In silent movie days, the orchestra or accompanist would have played such a “prelude” after the house lights dimmed but before the film screening began. Like an symphony overture, it contains musical themes that recur throughout the entire film score, and functions as a preview of sorts.     Selections from Braham’s score (as prepared and synthesized by David Gilbert, UCLA; score courtesy Getty Research Library): Selection 1: "Warriors" (1.4MB)Selection 2: "Naida" (1.2MB)Selection 3: "Hunting Sea Lions" (1.1MB)Selection 4: "Dance and Wedding" (2.2MB)      Selection of songs recorded by the Gwa’wina Dancers and friends, Alert Bay, BC (courtesy Gwa’wina Dancers and U’mista Cultural Society): Selection 1: “Hamat’sa – Lawisala” (8.4MB)(From the compact disk “Rising from the Ashes”) This is an example of the third song in the cycle of four songs used to initiate Hamat’sa (“Cannibal”) dancers. The songs increasingly calm or tame the dancer, and the lyrics signal specific choreographic gestures unique to individual dance prerogatives. This particular song originally came from the Awikinuxw people and belongs to Kwaxsistala of the Dzawada’enuxw people from Kingcome Inlet.Selection 2: “Dzunuk’wak’ala” (3.4MB)(From the compact disk “Laxwe'gila (Gaining Strength)”) Dzunuk’wa, often known as the “Wild Woman of the Woods,” is a giant residing in the forest realm. Like Bak’was (the “Wild Man of the Woods”), she is occasionally represented by masked dancers embodying specific family rights, typically granted in an ancestral encounter with the spirit being. This particular song was composed by Chief Waxawidi around 1995 for Lalakanx’idi (Chief Peter Cook) of the ‘Namgis Band from Alert Bay. Selection 3: “Nan – Grizzly Bear song.” (3.7MB)(From the compact disk “Rising from the Ashes”) Though Grizzly Bear is a common family crest, often appearing on totem poles, it can also be represented through masked dance as a hereditary privilege and form of wealth. This Nan song is very old and belongs to T’lakwadzi (David Sawyer) of the Mamalilikala Band of Village Island.

Film music as such hardly existed in 1914 and special music composed for a particular film was rare. A sure method for matching a score to a projected moving image had yet to evolve. Furthermore, silent film was silent: each film screening with live music became a singular performance.   The music for In the Land of the Headhunters, composed by John J. Braham and preserved in the Curtis materials at the Getty Research Institute, includes a manuscript full score mostly in Braham’s hand and a set of instrumental parts made by a copyist at the Arthur Tams agency in New York. From his experience in the live vaudeville and operetta tradition, Braham wrote music in the way he was familiar, as a string of set musical numbers to accompany a series of scenes. The score consists of 62 musical numbers. Braham must have had access to a scenario or outline of the film narrative since several of the movements have titles or notations referring to the action. During rehearsals, seven of the numbers were deleted entirely while others were shortened and altered in other ways to fit the film. The members of the orchestra marked these changes into their parts thereby providing us with many unique keys to the action of the film and how the music accompanies it. Braham did not conduct the performances nor do we know if he was present, but his nephew, William Braham, played percussion in the orchestra for the New York premier. The instrumental parts do not match exactly the existing manuscript score and so intervening material may exist. For now, the instrumental parts represent the primary source for the music as performed at the Casino Theatre in December 1914.   Restoring the music for In the Land of the Headhunters began with assembling a full score from the separate instrumental parts and noting the clues in them to the film’s narrative. “Watch for fall,” for example, alerted the percussionist to the scene where the Sorcerer is thrown from a cliff, and “Girl in boat” to the appearances of Naida in her canoe. Although the restored score provides keys to the progression of the plot along with the repetitions and breaks the orchestra made during the Casino Theatre performances, it can only be an approximation. Some performance materials are obviously missing (the conductor’s score and the piano parts, for example), all of the changes made in 1914 may not have found their way into the existing documentation, we lack sure knowledge of performance practice of the era, and the film that survives is not totally complete. Today, matching the film’s music to the projected play will largely depend on the conductor, as it did in the era in which the film originated. Although the publicity material claimed the score was influenced by the Kwakwaka’wakw music recorded by Curtis and played to inspire Braham, one would be hard pressed to identify any relation between the two musics. Curtis’s cylinders are as authentic as any recording of a living tradition can be; Braham’s resulting music is set squarely in the self-conscious art music tradition, fitting the cultural importance of the event as envisioned by Curtis. Braham employs the musical signs of the Western cultural stereotype of the noble American Indian. Simple, regular dance rhythms contrast with the irregular beating and flexible tempo accompanying the singing on Curtis’s cylinders. Braham also imbued his score with the Western musical forms and compositional techniques with which he was most familiar. The opening seven notes of the overture provide a motif that reappears throughout the score and from which Braham develops other musical ideas. Some of these ideas he attempted to associate with characters and action in the film, although the scheme is not totally realized and was further disrupted by the realities faced during rehearsals and performance. Nevertheless, Braham produced music not lacking sophistication and reflecting his long experience as a figure, albeit minor, in the golden age of English and American operetta.   David Gilbert, Librarian, UCLA Music Library

John J. Braham(Born England c.1848, died Brooklyn, N.Y. 28 Oct 1919)  John Joseph Braham came to America from England in 1859, and in 1862 appeared as a violinist at the Canal Street Theatre in New York. After touring as a virtuoso, he accepted the post of musical director of Pike's Opera House in Manhattan, and later conducted the orchestra at the Howard Athenaeum in Boston. He was in charge of music at several New York and New England theaters, and in 1878 conducted the first American production of H.M.S. Pinafore at the Boston Museum. He was closely associated with the Gilbert & Sullivan operas throughout his life, working primarily with the D’Oyly Opera Company. Braham also enjoyed some success as a composer, especially for vaudeville as well as popular and comic song. He collaborated with Edward Rice on the music for a Hiawatha play or pageant, and then wrote the score for the 1913 film, Hiawatha: the Indian Passion Play. Edward Curtis commissioned him to produce the score for In the Land of the Head Hunters in 1914. When Braham died in 1919, he was eulogized by Rice, who declared that the Gilbert & Sullivan operas would never have attained their huge popularity in America were it not for the judicious changes made by Braham before their presentation.   Links: This site, on the history of the D’Oyly Opera Company, includes a more detailed biography of Braham: http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/whowaswho/B/BrahamJohn.htm The following site has information on the historical significance of Boston’s Howard Athenaeum (AKA the “Old Howard”): Old Howard This Library of Congress site, “Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music,” contains scans of some Braham compositions and arrangements: Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1870 to 1885

Sharon Eva Grainger, a professional photographer and naturalist, holds degrees in Psychology and Anthropology from Eastern Washington University. With five generations of artists behind her, she has developed a portfolio of images covering indigenous cultures, herbal medicine, and ethnobotany. During her 55 years in the Pacific Northwest, she has developed close ties to the Colville Confederated Tribes of northeastern Washington State, who have shared their culture and lore with her. In addition, she has recently been working in the remote valleys of Mexico’s Copper Canyon with the Tarahumara people as part of the Opening Hearts project, originally sponsored by Lindblad Expeditions (with whom she has traveled the west coast of North America, the Baltic States of Northern Europe, and the waters and lands of Scandinavia).  She is currently involved in long-term collaborative work with the Kwakwaka’wakw in Alert Bay, helping facilitate research through visual as well as audio recordings. Her photographs have become the subject of many exhibitions in the U’mista Cultural Centre.  In the past decade, Grainger has published photographs in the Time-Life book Indians of the Western Range, and the Smithsonian’s Handbook to North American Indians.

Gwa’wina Dancers In the current event series, many of the performers are descendants of the actors or participants in Curtis’s film. At the events, they will discuss Kwakwaka’wakw cultural protocol, the relation of the songs and dances to those pictured in the film, as well as the historical context in which the film was made.   The Gwa’wina Dancers are a professional, adult dance group whose members represent many of the 16 tribes of the Kwakwaka’wakw people. The Kwakwaka’wakw are the Kwak’wala-speaking people of the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. Members of our dance group live and work in the region that is northern Vancouver Island. We come together to perform by invitation or by special arrangement for private events. Since inception in 1999, our group has performed in Canada, the United States, Europe, and New Zealand. All dancers have permission from their Chiefs and extended families to perform the dances and songs we present. Each Gwa’wina dancer is initiated in Potlatch ceremonies, thereby earning the right to perform the dances and songs. The dances are traditional dances, each telling a story or legend that is part of our rich heritage. We faithfully perform each dance as our ancestors did. We sing the songs as they were originally composed, in our Kwak’wala language. For each performance, the Gwa’wina Dancers prepare body and mind to enter the spiritual world that is each dance and song. We invite you to journey with us to that spiritual place and see the world with different eyes. Find out more about the Gwa’wina Dancers.

The following are descriptions of some of the dances that were performed during the 2008 event series. They are drawn from those pictured in the Curtis film and from the genealogical inheritance of many of the performers:   Galsgamliła “First to Appear in the House Ceremony” – This ancient ceremony comes from the Kwagu’ł of Fort Rupert and is a preview of all of the animals, birds and supernatural beings that will be performed throughout the T’seka “Winter Season”. A noble man enters the house; he is responsible for carrying the sacred treasure box that contains all the spirits of the dances. He sings a sacred song to call upon the spiritual power of the sacred Red Cedar Bark Ceremonies to come forth. He opens the lid to allow the supernatural power contained in the box to be released. Four attempts will be made by the singers to call out the spirits. On the fourth time—four being the sacred number of the Kwakwaka’wakw—the thin veil between the natural and supernatural will unveil itself and share a glimpse of the great ceremonies to come.     ‘Yawitłalał “Welcome Dance” - This dance came to the ‘Namgis tribe as a dowry, through marriage with a tribe from the West Coast. Our tribe has a trade route that we call the “Grease Trail”, which connects to the other side of Vancouver Island. Besides trade, many marriages took place with our Nuu-chah-nulth relatives of Friendly Cove and Kyuquot. Gilakas’la— “Welcome”.   Hamat’sa “Cannibal Dance” - The Hamat’sa is the highest-ranking and most sacred T’seka “Winter Ceremony” of the Kwakwaka’wakw. The Hamat’sa is the reenactment through song and dance of a young man’s possession by the dreaded man-eating spirit Baxwbakwalanuksiwe’, who lived at the north end of the world. Through rituals, song and dance the initiate is purified and tamed, thus bringing him back to his human state. The Hamat’sa dancers that will perform are initiated members of the sacred Hamat’sa secret society.   Tłalkwała “Ladies Dance” - To complete the purification of the feared Hamat’sa, the women are called to dance and cleanse the floor. Women in Kwakwaka’wakw culture are sacred and they carry spiritual and healing powers. They are the life-givers and Chief-makers. Culturally, everything flows through our noble ladies. The women wear button blankets decorated with the crests and history of their families. These blankets replaced furs and cedar-bark robes after European contact. The ladies listen to the words of the song and dance gracefully to the beat, displaying their gift of dance.   Kwan’wala “Thunderbird Dance” – The Thunderbird is the powerful ruler of the heavens. Thunderbird’s preferred food is whales and salmon (especially in the form of Sisiyutł “Double-Headed Serpent”). In many origin stories after the Great Flood, lone survivors prayed to the Creator for protection and were sent Thunderbirds. They would assist man in building his first house for shelter and transform into humans to become first ancestors. When Thunderbirds flap their wings, thunder rolls; when they blink their eyes, lightning flashes; and when they ruffle their feathers it causes dandruff to fall, which is hail.  The Thunderbird dancer will appear in supernatural form and then disappear behind the sacred dance screen. He will return in human form just as the ancestors did when they remained human and began their clans.   Tuxw’id “Warrior Dance” – Tuwx’id translates as “the one who traveled”. This ancient dance comes from the warrior spirit Winalagalis (Causing War Around the World), who takes away the initiates of his dance societies and brings them around the world in his magic copper canoe. Winalagalis bestows a spiritual song on his members, who on their return chant this sacred song to call upon their power. In our winter ceremonies, these dancers are challenged by certain Chiefs to display their spiritual power and prove their worthiness in the gathering. The dancer will make four attempts to show his gift from Winalagalis.   Nan “Grizzly Bear Dance” – The grizzly bear is the protector of the tribes that have the right to wear the bear as their crest. One clan among the ‘Namgis Tribe felt alone and unprotected when their first ancestor, who was a Thunderbird, sent his headdress and feathered clothing back to the heavens and could no longer transform into a Thunderbird. To comfort his people, the Thunderbird-man arranged a marriage for himself with a princess of the grizzly bears to gain their allegiance and protection. As dowry, he received the songs, dances, names and crest of the great bears. The dancer will appear in animal form and then retire behind the curtain. He will return to dance calmly in human form.   Długwala “Wolf Dance” – This dance, also known as the “Supernatural One”, imitates the wolves. In the beginning of time, a ‘Namgis Ancestor named T’sił’walagama’yi went to seek supernatural power. After four days and nights of fasting and cleansing, he received a powerful spiritual gift. He appeared across the Gwa’ni “Nimpkish River”, facing towards his village, riding on the back of a huge supernatural wolf. His tribe tied four canoes together and set out to capture him. After they retrieved him, they paddled him home on the catamaran and then cleansed his father’s house for him to share his treasure. It is said that his dance was so great that it was known throughout the coast and in all realms known to our people. It was famous.   Hamasalał “Wasp Dance” – In Kwakwaka’wakw culture, the wasp is respected for its intimidating and warrior-like qualities. Young warriors will often vision quest and seek the spirit of the wasp in hopes of gaining it as their personal guardian spirit. The dancer aggressively flies around the floor and stings people with its powerful stinger. The victims are paid with property to sooth their wounds and also validate the honor of being bitten by such a small but powerful insect. The dancer will disappear, transform into his human state, and return to conclude his dance.       Me’dzawesu’ “Salmon Dance” - The Salmon Dance is the dance of twins. When twins are born we believe that they are spiritual gifts from the Salmon People. This dance is the birthright of all twins and is danced to celebrate the uniqueness of twins and the greatest of our resources, the salmon. The dancers carry feathers representing twins and the dancers jump during the song ,imitating the salmon during their life cycle while at sea.   Am’lala “Play Song” (Hana’łdaxw’la) - To celebrate the completion of special events, we have play songs that are fun and less serious. Everyone is welcome to join in. This song comes from the ‘Namgis and sings about the accomplishments of our ancestors and their success in the Potlatch.   Halakas’lakala “Farewell Song” ­- This ancient song is said to be thousands of years old. It came to the people of Knight Inlet from a mountain people believed to be from the interior of British Columbia. The story tells of a tribe that came down into the valley of Knight Inlet. These people befriended the inlet people and shared many songs. When these people tried to return to their home over the mountains and glaciers, the weather was not in their favor and they were caught in bad weather. Sadly, the whole tribe died. All that remained were the beautiful songs that they had left behind. This song eventually included Kwak’wala words, and then was transferred through marriage to the Lawit’sis (Turnour Island) people, who own it today. HaIakas’la – “Farewell.”   All dance descriptions written by Hilamas (William Wasden Jr.), the Director of the Gwa’wina Dances and the Cultural Program coordinator for this project.