DOI Heft:
No. 393 (December 1925)
DOI Artikel:Richmond, Leonard: Indian portraits of W. Langdon Kihn
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21403#0351
INDIAN PORTRAITS OF W. LANGDON KIHN
"NAPOLEON MAQUINNA." CHIEF
OF NOOTKA INDIANS, VANCOUVER
ISLAND : DIRECT DESCENDANT OF
FAMOUS CHIEF MAQUINNA. (WEAR-
ING CEREMONIAL HEAD-DRESS OF
CARVED AND PAINTED WOOD)
BY W. LANGDON KIHN
mentally real, closer to the earth. And they
have no false amusements, for they dance
everything, when their ' moral ' pale
friends will let them. 000
" I have seen many of their dances—
the corn dance, the Comanche dance, the
grass and the buffalo dance. In the North
only the drum is used with the singing.
In the South-west they have rattles also.
And the South-western Indians till the
soil, raise corn and wheat, herd sheep and
cattle, while in the North-west cattle and
horse raising is the main industry. a
" They have an optimistic soul, are like
children, forget their troubles—put them
aside quickly—and they are happiest when
dancing. Talking of their condition, they
are melancholy ; they realise that they will
not last much longer. Exploitation of their
lands, even on the reservations, where they
are persuaded to sell to white men, and the
continual nagging in the schools are de-
stroying little by little what remains of
their primitive virtue. 000
" The native Akoma pottery is among
the finest in the world. It is all made by
hand, without a potter's wheel, and the
decoration is wonderful—conventional de-
signs of gods that symbolise natural forces.
" The North-western Indians still shoot
with the bow and arrow. They used to live
in tepees, you know, and they still do in
summer. In winter they use shacks and
log cabins. The adobe hut is the house of
the New Mexican Indian. It is made
of clay mud mixed with straw. The roofs
are flat. Many of the houses don't need
windows—there is no rain." 0 0
Mr. Kihn in his Indian portraits con-
veys to us the actual people ; not depicting
his subjects as seen through the rose-
coloured glasses of the sentimentalist. For
this we owe him much gratitude. He has
also painted several landscapes of Indian
territory, treated with the same instinct
for decoration and clear frank expression
as seen in his portraiture. All his pictures,
quite apart from their undoubted aesthetic
qualities, contain enough material truth to
be of genuine help to scientists and eth-
nologists, a 0 0 0 a
Mr. Kihn has exhibited his pictures
recently in the leading Galleries and
STONEY INDIAN MEDICINE-MAN OF
ALBERTA. BY W. LANGDON KIHN
345
"NAPOLEON MAQUINNA." CHIEF
OF NOOTKA INDIANS, VANCOUVER
ISLAND : DIRECT DESCENDANT OF
FAMOUS CHIEF MAQUINNA. (WEAR-
ING CEREMONIAL HEAD-DRESS OF
CARVED AND PAINTED WOOD)
BY W. LANGDON KIHN
mentally real, closer to the earth. And they
have no false amusements, for they dance
everything, when their ' moral ' pale
friends will let them. 000
" I have seen many of their dances—
the corn dance, the Comanche dance, the
grass and the buffalo dance. In the North
only the drum is used with the singing.
In the South-west they have rattles also.
And the South-western Indians till the
soil, raise corn and wheat, herd sheep and
cattle, while in the North-west cattle and
horse raising is the main industry. a
" They have an optimistic soul, are like
children, forget their troubles—put them
aside quickly—and they are happiest when
dancing. Talking of their condition, they
are melancholy ; they realise that they will
not last much longer. Exploitation of their
lands, even on the reservations, where they
are persuaded to sell to white men, and the
continual nagging in the schools are de-
stroying little by little what remains of
their primitive virtue. 000
" The native Akoma pottery is among
the finest in the world. It is all made by
hand, without a potter's wheel, and the
decoration is wonderful—conventional de-
signs of gods that symbolise natural forces.
" The North-western Indians still shoot
with the bow and arrow. They used to live
in tepees, you know, and they still do in
summer. In winter they use shacks and
log cabins. The adobe hut is the house of
the New Mexican Indian. It is made
of clay mud mixed with straw. The roofs
are flat. Many of the houses don't need
windows—there is no rain." 0 0
Mr. Kihn in his Indian portraits con-
veys to us the actual people ; not depicting
his subjects as seen through the rose-
coloured glasses of the sentimentalist. For
this we owe him much gratitude. He has
also painted several landscapes of Indian
territory, treated with the same instinct
for decoration and clear frank expression
as seen in his portraiture. All his pictures,
quite apart from their undoubted aesthetic
qualities, contain enough material truth to
be of genuine help to scientists and eth-
nologists, a 0 0 0 a
Mr. Kihn has exhibited his pictures
recently in the leading Galleries and
STONEY INDIAN MEDICINE-MAN OF
ALBERTA. BY W. LANGDON KIHN
345