Ceremonial Bathing

• Main Author: Curtis, Edward S., 1868-1952
• Other Authors: John Andrew & Son
• Format: Still Image
• Language: English
• Published: 1915
• Subjects: Indians of North America > British Columbia; Clayoquot Indians > Rites and ceremonies; Clayoquot women; Shamans; Indian; haida
• Online Access: http://cdm16118.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/p16118coll16,271

In 1906, Edward S. Curtis received funding from J.P. Morgan to begin work on "The North American Indian," a twenty volume set of photographs and text documenting Native American tribes throughout the western United States. The eleventh volume, featuring the Nootka, Clayoquot and Haida tribes, was published in 1916. "The subject of this plate is a female shaman of the Clayoquot tribe. The ceremonial washing of shamans is much like that of whalers and other hunters, consisting mainly of sitting or standing in water and rubbing the body with hemlock sprigs in order to remove all earthly taint, which would offend the supernatural powers." Harriet Bullitt Master images photographed at 300 ppi, 48 bit color, and saved as TIFF files. Adobe Photoshop used to crop, resize and convert to JPEG format. Master image file size: 306,759,120 bytes. Published No Copyright - United States This item was published prior to 1923 and is in the public domain. No known copyright restrictions identified by the library at the time of scanning in March 2018.