Figure 6

Citation

Morris (Lawrence, Kansas). “Kritkahock George and William Polack, Pawnee father and son.” Date: circa 1885. Greg French Collection. Mirror of Race, 22 Jan. 2021, mirrorofrace.bc.edu/items/show/105. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Title

Kritkahock George and William Polack, Pawnee father and son

Subject

Kritkahock George and William Polack, Pawnee father and son

Creator

Morris (Lawrence, Kansas)

Date

Date: circa 1885

Type

Studio Portrait

Identifier

Figure 6

Rights Holder

Greg French Collection

Original Format

Cabinet photograph

Factual Commentary

This portrait is a visual echo of the two previous ones, though it is not a double exposure but rather a father and son from the Pawnee tribe. Like the double exposures, it too marks a cultural transition in identity, but here between generations rather than in a single person. Native Americans are precisely that: <i>native</i> to this land. In a nation of immigrants, they are the exception. And yet, in the harsh irony of history, the son has, in a sense, immigrated to “America” (itself a European name for the so-called New World) by adopting Western dress. For many Native Americans, this cultural colonialism was not a choice, it was forced upon them, though that does not seem to be the case here. Despite all the suffering that transition caused to so many, these two men, at least here, seem entirely self-possessed, in stances that mirror one another.