Portraits of the Dispossessed by Zeyd Anwar

The term “Indian” is said to have been coined by none other than Christopher Columbus, the Italian voyager who used the term to refer to the original inhabitants of the American continent. After a ten-week expedition across the Atlantic, Columbus in 1492 believed he had landed in the Indies, in the pursuit of eastern riches.

Contrary to popular opinion, Columbus was not the first European to discover the Americas. That honour belonged to Leif Erikson, a Norse explorer from Iceland. Erikson discovered the Americas approximately half a millennium before Columbus, and possibly founded the L’Anse aux Meadow site in Newfoundland. During the years of settlement in Newfoundland, the Nordics faced constant threats of attack from the Natives, whom they referred to as the Skraeling. The colony was eventually abandoned and Europeans did not settle in North America until the late fifteenth century.

The return of the Europeans to the North American continent was to have devastating impacts on the Native Americans that lived there. Disease, warfare and superior technology led to a decimation of Native American populations. While population records of indigenous populations did not exist at the time of discovery, models suggest that a population of sixty million people existed on the American continent in 1492. By the beginning of the 1600s, this figure was estimated to be four million. For historian Raphael Lemkin, the expansion of European colonial powers into North America, and the subsequent establishment of colonies was tantamount to genocide, involving a two-stage process: first, the destruction of indigenous populations, second the imposition of European way of life.

Today, the current population of Native Americans in the United States is six point seven nine million, around two-point zero nine percent of the population. There are currently five hundred and seventy-four federally recognised tribes in the United States.

8 July, 2021

A Native American, 1925 / Harris & Ewing photograph collection / Library of Congress

Native Americans, between 1923 and 1925 / Harris & Ewing photograph collection

Native Americans, February 1923 / Harris & Ewing photograph collection / Library of Congress

An elderly Native American woman, 1870 / S.J. Morrow, Yankton, Dakota

Unidentified Native American man / Schreiber & Sons, photographers, 818 Arch St., Philadelphia

A group of Native Americans / Harris and Ewing / Library of Congress

Native Americans with a bicycle, 1938 or 1939 / Harris & Ewing

A Native American woman, April 1924 / Harris and Ewing / Library of Congress

Native American women, April 1924 / Harris and Ewing / Library of Congress

Native American woman, between 1921-1923 / Harris and Ewing / Library of Congress

Unidentified Native American soldier in Union uniform, between 1861 and 1865 / Harris and Ewing / Library of Congress

Charles Curtis (centre) and Native American (right), 1929 / Harris and Ewing / Library of Congress

Native American baby, 1929 / Library of Congress

Woman wearing native american clothing in an automobile, 1923

Two tipis on beach with Native Americans in foreground / Clarke / Library of Congress

Native American man, half-length portrait, facing front, approx 1836 / Eaton, E. L. (Edric L.) / Library of Congress

Portrait of two Native American women seated outside of tipi, between 1860 and 1890 / Library of Congress

Sun Flower, Native American man, half-length portrait, facing left, 1899 / Heyn Photo / Library of Congress

Native Americans during a mathematics class at Indian School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1901 / Francis Benjamin / Library of Congress

Two Native American women, posed, on Mackinac Island, 1903 / Francis Benjamin / Library of Congress

Native American at the White House, 1921 / Harris and Ewing / Library of Congress

Native Americans at the White House, 1929 / Harris and Ewing / Library of Congress

Two native american men, one in traditional dress, 1923 / Library of Congress

Native Americans in traditional clothing, 1923 / Library of Congress

Native Americans in front of tipis, 1923 / Library of Congress

Native Americans at U.S. Capitol, 1936 / Harris and Ewing / Library of Congress

Thurlow Lieurance with three Native American Indians, one of whom plays a courting flute, date unknown / Library of Congress

Native American men and a boy posed outside of Carlisle Indian School, 1890 / Library of Congress

Native American woman from Plains region, half-length portrait, facing right, with baby on her back, 1901 / Library of Congress

Chief Crane, Potawatomi, holding a tomahawk and an unidentified Native American man in delegation to Washington, D.C., between 1855 and 1865 / Library of Congress

Male Native American students in physical education class, Carlisle Indian School / between 1901 and 1903 / Francis Johnston / Library of Congress

Native American seated on the edge of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, between 1909 and 1932 / Library of Congress

Calvin Coolidge and a group of Native Americans at the White House, 1925 / Harris and Ewing / Library of Congress

Native American in traditional clothing, 1923 / Library of Congress

A group of Native Americans (possibly Winnebago) wearing blankets, with some standing before a log fence and others sitting, with a canopied shelter in background, 1862 and 1868