DOI issue:
No. 393 (December 1925)
DOI article:Richmond, Leonard: Indian portraits of W. Langdon Kihn
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21403#0346
INDIAN PORTRAITS OF W. LANGDON KIHN
" MENA-WASECU." STONEY
INDIAN, MORLEY,ALBERTA
BY W. LANGDON KIHN
setting of gay coloured blankets below,
and other native costume. His portraits are
not camouflaged with a multiplicity of
Rembrandtesque luminous lights and
shadows. Therefore his severity of hand-
ling, and economy of detailed forms,
demand artistic caution, since each line
and shadow serve a definite constructive
purpose. His successful interpretation of
the Indian is due to the fact that he lives
from time to time with the different tribes ;
thus not only seeing their mode and manner
of living, but feeling from personal contact
the tragedy that reveals the hopelessness
of their condition as a vanishing race, and—
also tragic—the want of understanding
and sympathy from the so-called civilised
white man. a 0 0 0 a
The uninitiated call the Indian a savage,
but those who have lived long and inti-
mately with him know otherwise. From
the human standpoint he is very little
different irom ourselves. From the poeti-
cal standpoint, oiten superior. Mr. Kihn's
Indian name is Zoi-och-ka-tsai-ya meaning
Chase- enemy-in-the-water. Mr. Kihn's
own woras which appeared in the New
York World are interesting. He says : 0
" Indian lite over the entire West is
340
dying. The Pueblo Indians of the South-
west, with whom I have been living, are
losing their glorious art of pottery making.
The children are influenced by white
school teachers to neglect their customs.
They are wearing, more and more of them,
the hideous clothes forced upon us by
" civilisation." Their love of the dance is
thwarted, repressed at every opportunity.
Indian art, America's most precious herit-
age, is on the point of destruction. And
if once destroyed, it will not grow again.
Future generations, more intelligent than
we, will regard us as fools, too busy with
building bathrooms to see beauty. a
41 The Akomas are very hospitable to the
white man when they see that he does not
intend to exploit them in any way. This is
quite an unusual occurrence, for his white
brother, who professes such love, is nine
times out of ten out for the cash in some
way or other. 0000
" I found them to be honest, much more
so than the white men with whom they
come in contact. They are more interesting
to me than white men, for they are funda-
"WIYA-SHA." INDIAN WO-
MAN OF NORTHERN ALBER-
TA. BY W. LANGDON KIHN
" MENA-WASECU." STONEY
INDIAN, MORLEY,ALBERTA
BY W. LANGDON KIHN
setting of gay coloured blankets below,
and other native costume. His portraits are
not camouflaged with a multiplicity of
Rembrandtesque luminous lights and
shadows. Therefore his severity of hand-
ling, and economy of detailed forms,
demand artistic caution, since each line
and shadow serve a definite constructive
purpose. His successful interpretation of
the Indian is due to the fact that he lives
from time to time with the different tribes ;
thus not only seeing their mode and manner
of living, but feeling from personal contact
the tragedy that reveals the hopelessness
of their condition as a vanishing race, and—
also tragic—the want of understanding
and sympathy from the so-called civilised
white man. a 0 0 0 a
The uninitiated call the Indian a savage,
but those who have lived long and inti-
mately with him know otherwise. From
the human standpoint he is very little
different irom ourselves. From the poeti-
cal standpoint, oiten superior. Mr. Kihn's
Indian name is Zoi-och-ka-tsai-ya meaning
Chase- enemy-in-the-water. Mr. Kihn's
own woras which appeared in the New
York World are interesting. He says : 0
" Indian lite over the entire West is
340
dying. The Pueblo Indians of the South-
west, with whom I have been living, are
losing their glorious art of pottery making.
The children are influenced by white
school teachers to neglect their customs.
They are wearing, more and more of them,
the hideous clothes forced upon us by
" civilisation." Their love of the dance is
thwarted, repressed at every opportunity.
Indian art, America's most precious herit-
age, is on the point of destruction. And
if once destroyed, it will not grow again.
Future generations, more intelligent than
we, will regard us as fools, too busy with
building bathrooms to see beauty. a
41 The Akomas are very hospitable to the
white man when they see that he does not
intend to exploit them in any way. This is
quite an unusual occurrence, for his white
brother, who professes such love, is nine
times out of ten out for the cash in some
way or other. 0000
" I found them to be honest, much more
so than the white men with whom they
come in contact. They are more interesting
to me than white men, for they are funda-
"WIYA-SHA." INDIAN WO-
MAN OF NORTHERN ALBER-
TA. BY W. LANGDON KIHN