Isletan Images: A Photographic History of the Pueblo in the 19th Century

FAIN: MI-50105-07

Pueblo of Isleta (Isleta, NM 87022-1270)
Henry J. Walt (Project Director: January 2007 to April 2011)

Implementation of a traveling exhibition and a publication on traditional life and change at Isleta, using early photographs to show how outsiders saw the pueblo and how historical information can be gleaned from the photographs.

The Pueblo of Isleta seeks $357,568 to develop a multilingual exhibit of Isletan Images. This traveling exhibit will use photographs, oral narratives from Isletan elders, as well as ethnohistoric documentation to tell the story of a year in the life of Isleta in the 19th century. The Isletan year was based on a fixed cycle of ceremonial events that unfolded as a series of ritual re-enactments of renewal. The late 19th century was also a critical moment in Isleta's history; a time when monumental changes were occurring that would quickly transform the self-sufficiency and cohesiveness of Isletan life. It is this chronicle of the yearly cycle and the dramatic historic events that transected it that we will bring to life. The exhibit will consist of approximately 120 photographs taken by Charles Lummis, Adam Vroman, Edward Curtis, George Wharton James and many other renowned photographers. The humanities themes of the cycle of ritual life and historic change will be communicated through the photographs as well as maps, 3 multi-media displays and 11 comprehensive text panels. The exhibit will open in the fall of 2009 at the Pueblo of Isleta and will travel to confirmed venues at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, California; the Arizona State University Museum of Anthropology in the Phoenix metropolitan area; the Arizona State Museum in Tucson, Arizona; and the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.