Through a New Lens: Public Lecture Examines Truth, Identity, and History in Native American Photography

By Stephanie Godward, Communications and Marketing Director, College of Arts & Sciences 

The power of historical Native American photography – taken by and of Native people – lies in the truth that it contains a richness that upholds Indigenous traditions, corrects misrepresentations, and insists on Native identities as being both modern and present in today’s world.  

Associate Professor of English and new Director of the Individualized Major Program Frank Kelderman’s research and teachings around Native photography from the 1840s to the 1970s matter especially today for all of these reasons and more. 

"They (the photographs) insist on Native American identities as modern identities – people living in the present. And often enough, they do all of these things at the same time, and that is why they are so special and speak to us so directly,” Kelderman said.  

During an upcoming event at The Louisville Free Public Library’s Bon Air Branch, Kelderman will discuss these topics during the Inaugural Morton Lecture: “Native American Photography: An Untold Story.” All are welcome to join the lecture on Tuesday, May 5 at 6 p.m.  

Co-sponsored by the Thruston Morton Endowment, the Department of English, and the Louisville Free Public Library (LFPL), the Morton Lecture is designed to be an annual public talk where English Department faculty present their scholarship to the greater Louisville community. 

Kelderman hopes to provide the audience not only with increased historical knowledge around important Native American photographers, but with a new lens through which to experience, view, and read the photos as well. 

"It is easy to misunderstand these historical photographs as only stereotypical representations or images of a culture that is not there anymore. I want to emphasize that there are ways for us in the present to engage with these photographs in a way that not only has us learn more about these histories but also refuses a mode of reading where we are fitting these photographs into dominant tropes of Native Americans,” Kelderman said. “Whether it’s Native Americans as a vanishing race, the idea of Native people being outside of modernity – I want people to come away with the sense that there are ways to sit with these photographs and do the work of remixing or refusing those kinds of tropes – and to see that even when these photographs are obviously staged, they can be authentic and candid at the same time.” 

The historical images can simultaneously remind us of violent and cruel moments in history, while displaying life and humor as well. 

“And that these things are happening at the same time,” Kelderman continued. “These are not just historical figures and icons but they are also portraits of families, communities, and Indian nations. I want people to walk away with the tools they need to read these photographs in a way that does not foreclose all of those meanings by incorporating them into a grand narrative.” 

Kelderman’s interest in this research began as a graduate student in Michigan. While completing a project on environmental history and Native American history, he was in the archives and looked at a collection of photographs from Isabella Indian Reservation in Michigan, home of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Nation. 

“The collection included photographs from Native people living on the reservation who were posing in front of their farms, in front of their houses, and they were family photos, photographs of Native people at work, photographs of people just living their lives in their homes,” Kelderman said. “The fact that there was something so ordinary about those photos really struck me as being quite remarkable.” 

During the upcoming event, Kelderman will explore prominent Native American photographers and images. Horace Poolaw, a Kiowa photographer, was one of the first Native American professional photographers. He enlisted in the US Army Air Forces in 1943 to work as an aerial photographer.  

“He is an important reminder of the history of Native people in the US military who did so much for the country and the world.” Kelderman said. “He is also a good example of Native people carving out professional careers against great odds. In the midst of the economic depression, the cards were very much stacked against American Indians, but Poolaw carved out an impressive career as a photographer.”  

And thirdly, Kelderman added, his photographs are incredible.  

“They play with a lot of familiar visual tropes of Native people: men wearing feather headdresses are juxtaposed with modern dress and technologies, and there are lots of cars in his photographs – but never does it feel like Native people are out of place in those settings,” Kelderman said. “His photographs show us people who showcasing community, family life, and Kiowa culture, and they are showcasing Native American identities in the wider Oklahoma and southern plains region. His work is incredible for the way he is able to portray modern Indigenous identities and a vibrant Native family and community, at a moment in history when the odds of that were so low." 

Kelderman will also discuss the work of Francis La Flesche, who worked as the first Native American anthropologist in the Smithsonian in the 1890s. 

“Although he didn’t take the photographs himself, La Flesche staged photographs of Omaha people posing with traditional dress and objects. In some ways these photographs are very typical of the ethnological photographs of that era, which documented Indigenous practices at a time when most Native people were forced to abandon those practices. But for La Flesche, these photographs were an opportunity to show the meaning and beauty of traditional Omaha life. His photographs are visual reminders of what these practices look like, which is so important for Omaha people today,” Kelderman said. 

In some of the photographs, La Flesche’s brother Carey is featured, and the tone shifts. 

"The photographs become more intimate; they become more playful. Carey often poses in a way that refuses the anthropological gaze, so they remind us that when we look at these ethnological archives – they are also family archives,” Kelderman said. “They contain photographs that Indigenous people would also have hung on the wall in their homes, or displayed on their shelves.” 

As the new Director of the Individualized Major Program, Kelderman is excited to help foster and uplift others who are interested in interdisciplinary work, much like the way he has intertwined Native American photography and media into English courses as a professor and researcher. 

“I get to work with undergraduate students who have an independent vision and goals for their own program, who are curious and eager to carve their own path, who are passionate about the work that they do, and who really set out to do original work on their own terms,” he states.