Gezicht op een begrafenisceremonie before 1890

This photograph of a funeral at Fort Wrangell was produced by William Henry Partridge, likely in the late 19th century. It's presented here as an illustration in a book titled "Indian Beliefs". The image shows a long procession of mourners and canoes on the water. The photograph is not simply a neutral record; it's an image mediated by the cultural lens of its time. In this period, the representation of indigenous peoples was often intertwined with colonial narratives and assumptions about their culture and beliefs, as is revealed in the adjoining text. To fully understand the photograph, we must turn to anthropological and historical research. How did outsiders represent indigenous death rituals? What power dynamics were at play when these images were created and circulated? Only then can we begin to understand the complex social and institutional context that shaped this image and its meanings.