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Home » Public Programs » Online Exhibits » “No, not even for a picture”: Re-examining the Native Midwest and Tribes’ Relations to the History of Photography » “No, not even for a picture”: Re-examining the Native Midwest and Tribes’ Relations to the History of Photography

“No, not even for a picture”: Re-examining the Native Midwest and Tribes’ Relations to the History of Photography

“No, not even for a picture”: Re-examining the Native Midwest and Tribes’ Relations to the History of Photography

This online resource and exhibit was created by two University of Michigan students, working remotely during the spring and summer of 2020. All materials represented in this exhibit are from the Richard Pohrt Jr. Collection of Native American Photography at the Clements Library unless otherwise noted.

Interpretive and creative leads: Lindsey Willow Smith [Undergraduate Student, History and Museum Studies]; Veronica Cook Williamson [PhD Candidate, Germanic Languages and Literatures and Museum Studies]. More information on Lindsey and Veronica can be found on our “About the Creative Project” page.

Project coordinator: Clayton Lewis, Curator of Graphics Material, Clements Library

This project was possible by the generosity of the Frederick S. Upton Foundation

Project consultants: 

Eric Hemenway, Director of Repatriation, Archives and Records, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians

Jakob Dopp, Graphics Division Cataloger, Clements Library

Louis Miller, Reference Specialist, Clements Library

Richard Pohrt Jr., collector

Dr. Arland Thornton, Professor of Sociology, Research Professor, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan

Linda Young-DeMarco, Research Area Specialist Lead, SRC-Family Demography, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan

Dr. Paul Erickson, Randolph G. Adams Director of the Clements Library

Content Warning:

This exhibit includes examinations of racism and colonialist violence against Native peoples including content relating to the boarding school era, the Potawatomi Trail of Death, and the 1862 Dakota Uprising. We have avoided including images depicting physical violence, however, in contextualizing these photographs, we raise and discuss some of the acts of violence committed.