"In 1900 the American Indian was the country's great race problem. The Eastern tribes had disappeared and the Western ones were going. The Indian baffled the white man as he incited his curiosity. He had been conqueted and was expected to take on the ways of the master race. He was romanticized and libelled . . . called "The Noble Savage" by one, "dirty and treacherous" by another. Pioneers imitated his way of life, wore his deerskins, hunted as he did; and boys played "Indian" in the back yards. Words like tomahawkm warpath, paleface and Happy Hunting Ground crept into the language. The profile of the brave appeared on coins, and busts of chiefs appeared as sculpture. And having made his free use of the Indian's life, the white man told him to live with white ways. The Indian, a bronze enigma in all the commotion, only wrapped his blanket tighter and walked away into the shadows. Into this situation, Edwards S. Curtis thrust the steady eye of the camera. He saw the Indian gaining nothing from the white man but disease and vice, as a race vanishing rapidly from teh face of the earth. And there was something he could do about it -- live with the Indian as brother-man, make complete and truthful camera impressions supported by word records of myths, legends, language and music before the last crest of eagle feathers disappeared into the dark arroyo. This is the fascinating story of that thirty-year effort."-- front flyleaf.