Wild West Land Blog

‘The Long Walk’ is etched into the memory of the Navajo Nation as a time of death and defeat when many died during the forced migration from their ancestral home of the Canyon De Chelly area of northern Arizona, 300 miles south to Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

Stanley Stewart, writing a travel piece in The Times about this most magnificent part of the American south west, gives a great summary of this period in American history - the 1860s - now looked back on with a sense of shame.

To the Indians of the American Southwest - the Navajo, the Apache, the Hopi and numerous others - the great ellipse of red-rock country between the Rio Grande and the Colorado River is the sacred land of their own beginnings. It was here that the first of their ancestors climbed through the sipapu, the hole in the earth, to emerge in this world.

At the heart of the region is an area known today as the Four Corners, for the four states that meet here - Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. It is one of the emptiest and most dramatic parts of the continent. To the west, it abuts the Grand Canyon.

To the north, it fades towards the surreal rock for­mations of Monument Valley, which have played a starring role in countless films, from John Ford’s Stagecoach to Back to the Future III. And occupying the largest part of it is the Navajo Nation, a swathe of country almost the size of Scotland.

Read the comments written by readers and you understand the mixed feelings today about the ‘genocide’ of the native American tribes during the period of westward expansion. The strongly held views are wildly divergent.

Cowboy Country sits at the heart of this region and I’d highly recommend a first hand visit to many of the sites mentioned. For now though take in this set of Flickr photos by Sublime Dharma of the Canyon De Chelly and Hopi Reservation:

It’s almost a year since I wrote about Annie Oakley, “the first American female superstar” and how she’s been portrayed in the media over the last 100 years.

The post remains the most popular on this blog with many people still interested in finding out just how one of the stars of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show looked all those years ago.

So with a bit of digging over at the Library of Congress archives, I’ve tracked down two new Annie Oakley pictures - the first was taken in 1899 by Richard K. Fox and is titled:

ANNIE OAKLEY - Famous Rifle Shot and Holder of the Police Gazette Championship Medal

The black and white photo does bear some resemblance to the Wild West Show promotional poster. The hat, dress, stockings and footwear certainly match, as does the chest full of medals.

But I can’t help but think the artist who drew the poster used a little ‘Photoshop magic’ - normally associated with modern magazine cover celebrities - long before the age of computer trickery.

The face is a little thinner and the nose a little more prominent, perhaps suggesting feminine beauty was a key ingredient of circus show marketing even back in the 1890s.

It’s circus acts that also form the centrepiece of the next picture, an illustration created by artist Peter Newell in 1894 to illustrate a story published in the March 31st issue of Harper’s Weekly:

The amateur circus at Nutley

Newell’s drawing illustrates an article reporting on an amateur circus performed by the residents of Nutley, New Jersey to raise funds for the establishment of a branch of the Red Cross Association. Their star performer was Nutley’s celebrated resident, Annie Oakley.

A gentleman wearing a hat and spectacles stands before a hoop held by two clowns. The scene depicted in the center of the hoop is of Annie Oakley, standing on horseback, giving a demonstration of her shooting ability. Outside the hoop are other scenes of circus acts such as acrobats, fencing, an animal on horseback, and a dancing bear.

Here’s a close-up view of the central part of the illustration showing Oakley shooting at an unseen target whilst standing on a moving horse.

It’s a truly impressive feat and one I can’t think would be allowed under modern entertainment laws given the potential risks to the audience and performer!

In 1901 Edward Sheriff Curtis set himself an ambitious target - to photograph every Native American tribe west of the Mississippi.

Curtis traveled from Alaska to the Southwest, photographing the Piegan, Blackfoot, Sioux, Gros Ventre, and the Cheyenne, the Hopi, Zunis, Acomas, and Pueblos, among many others… he photographed more than 40,000 Native Americans representing more than eighty tribes.

The project would take him almost thirty years to complete and by the time he died in 1952 Curtis was bankrupt, divorced and had suffered a nervous breakdown. His work “had all but faded into obscurity”.

As Curtis embarked on his mission he soon realised that the great changes taking place in the West was destroying ancient cultures. His work proved popular with many but was often dismissed for the style and settings he shot his subjects in (the photo above shows ‘Old White Man’ from the Library of Congress collection).

In trying to celebrate Native American cultures Curtis often brought artistic flair to those he photographed. The dedicated microsite for the 2002 exhibition at the Peabody Essex museum states that his “photographs reflect both his extraordinary talents as a photographer and his dedication to the people whose majesty he wanted to preserve on film.”

Thomas Haukaas, a Sicangu Lakota Artist & Psychiatrist describes Curtis’s photographs in a brief video on the website. He suggests they were shot in the renaissance style and were overwhelmingly positive images - especially when contrasted with the portrayl of American Indians in traditional western movies.

Curtis was later called ‘Shadow Catcher’ by some of the tribes he photographed and “captured the likeness of many important and well-known Indian people of that time, including Geronimo, Chief Joseph, Red Cloud, Medicine Crow and others.”

Read George Horse Capture’s story on the PBS American Master series site for more info on the project and browse the photo archives at the Library of Congress.

The Times has some very Brokeback style images of the Russian PM holidaying in Siberia, with the comments suggesting he’s becoming a gay icon.

Photographs were published yesterday showing the Russian Prime Minister stripped to the waist riding a horse through rugged terrain during a brief holiday in the Siberian region of Tuva. Wearing only green fatigues, his eyes hidden behind reflective sunglasses, Mr Putin also showed his gentler side as he fed the horse from his hand after the ride.

Beautiful Flickr group showcasing the work of over 350 photographers who enjoy “capturing the colorful, artistic beauty of the Southwest, influenced particularly by the Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California regions, as well as Mexico”.

Dive into the Group pool of photos and don’t forget Louis on TV tonight!

Another great find on Flickr - Denise’s short set of photos taken only 10 days ago on the Park Springs Ranch, Anton Chico, New Mexico.

My favourite picture is ‘Heading out across the Chaperito Trap‘ - certainly beats the London commute any day of the week.