“Corn Dance,” Entering the Kivi, Santa Domingo c. 1900

Adam Clark Vroman made this photograph, “Corn Dance, Entering the Kiva, Santa Domingo” at the turn of the 20th century. It depicts a sacred ritual of the Pueblo people in New Mexico. Vroman was part of a wave of photographers who documented Native American life. This image shows participants in the Corn Dance, an important ceremony for ensuring successful crops. But consider the politics of this imagery. What does it mean for an outsider to capture and frame a culture's most sacred traditions? The photograph’s context is crucial. It was made during a time of intense pressure on Native American communities to assimilate, and the institutional history of photography, anthropology, and ethnography were all involved in shaping this image and its reception. Were these images a form of preservation, or a kind of cultural appropriation? Understanding this requires that historians look into archives, personal papers, and institutional records. Art always exists within larger social, economic, and political structures.