NO. l8 HILLERS-POWELL INDIAN PHOTOGRAPHS STEWARD 3 



1871, he was accompanied by John K. Hillers. Hillers began as a 

 general assistant but quickly mastered photography and remained 

 with Powell during his explorations of the next few years making 

 photographs of all types of subjects. His pictures are on glass nega- 

 tives, each having two exposures 4 by 5 inches suitable for stere- 

 opticons. In spite of the cumbersome equipment and the difficulties 

 of preparing and developing negatives in the field, most of these 

 pictures are every bit as good as modern professional photography 

 and put to shame the efforts of most ethnologists. 



Unlike the collections of specimens and ethnographic notes, the 

 photographs are carefully cataloged as to locality, leaving no doubt 

 about which Indian groups are represented. The catalog does not 

 indicate, however, precisely when or under what circumstances the 

 pictures were taken. The date on all is 1873, but it is entirely possible 

 that many were taken earlier, perhaps starting with the Colorado 

 River trip of 1871. Presumably they were taken during the summer 

 when the type of house, clothing, and other features of native life 

 would have been somewhat adapted to the warm weather and to the 

 nomadic life necessary when gathering seeds. 



The present collection includes all of the Hillers photographs that 

 have ethnographic value. A number of these were reproduced as 

 steel engravings in some of the publications by Powell, Mason, and 

 other persons, but are included here not only for the sake of com- 

 pleteness but to bring out detail not obtainable in the engravings and 

 to call attention to features of ethnographic interest. A few photo- 

 graphs have been eliminated either because of the poor quality of 

 the negatives or because they are virtually duplicates of those included. 



It had been hoped that a description of the museum specimens, 

 which include many objects similar to those shown in the photographs, 

 might accompany these pictures. In view, however, of the dubious 

 provenience of many of the specimens and of the magnitude of the 

 task of describing them, the museum study must be postponed. 



Identification of the objects illustrated in the photographs may be 

 made with reasonable certainty. Until very recent years, the Ute 

 and Southern Paiute and the very similar Shoshoni and Northern 

 Paiute, all occupying the deserts between the Rocky Mountains and 

 California, had been virtually ignored by ethnologists. Although de- 

 tailed monographs by several field workers are now in course of 

 preparation for publication, Lowie's pioneering study of these tribes 2 



2 Lowie, Robert H., Notes on Shoshonean ethnography. Amer. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., Anthrop. Papers, 20, pt. 3, pp. 187-314, 1924. 



