An illustrated lecture titled “The Vanishing Race and Other Illusions” will analyze the depictions of Native North Americans in historic art forms and the ideas behind them at 7 p.m. today in the Tarble Atrium.

Don Holly, an associate professor of anthropology, will present the lecture, which is free and open to the public.

“The Vanishing Race and Other Illusions” will analyze paintings, photographs, and films from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that portray Native Americans.

Many of these works of art inaccurately portrayed Native Americans, Holly said.

Artists reflected a romanticized view of Native Americans that non-native society had at the time, Holly said.

Non-natives had largely overtaken Native Americans’ territories and confined them to reservations by the late 19th century, he explained.

Non-natives no longer had to fear the resistance of “heathen” tribes and could now view them in a different light, he said.

“Now that we had safely conquered (the Native Americans), we could kind of romanticize them and turn them into these noble savages,” Holly said.

Some of the artworks Holly will discuss depict Native Americans as a vanishing race.

Haggard and somber individuals were often chosen for photographs, reflecting the view that these individuals were the last of their kind, Holly said.

“The Vanishing Race-Navajo,” by Edward S. Curtis, which captures a group of Native Americans riding off into the distance on horseback, is one photograph Holly said he will discuss.

The photograph illustrates the prevailing contemporary view of Native Americans as a disappearing race, Holly said.

However, Native Americans were not disappearing at the time.

Holly said he will also discuss how most artists of the period were reflecting the idealized view of how Native Americans were thought to live at the time rather than depicting how they truly lived.

Several other photographs were altered to reflect this idealized view of Native Americans.

Holly said hints of modern society, such as rifles and clocks, were removed from photographs to support the idea of Native Americans as a primitive race.

These depictions tell us more about non-native society of the time rather than about Native Americans, Holly said.

“Every picture is kind of a self-portrait,” Holly said. “It tells you about the artist; and, so, this tells us more about what we thought about Native Americans at that time.”

Holly said society still views Native Americans as being “static in time,” and that Native Americans who do not live a traditional lifestyle today are seen as being “unauthentic.”

This is reflected in the artwork of today, which still depict Native Americans in a romanticized fashion, he said.

Michael Watts, director of the Tarble Arts Center, said he believes that how people viewed Native Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries still lingers today.

This is one important reason Holly was approached to present his lecture, Watts said.

“The Vanishing Race and Other Illusions” is part of the Tarble Arts Center’s exhibit “Our People, Our Land, Our Images: International Indigenous Photography,” which is currently being presented in the Brainard Gallery and Northwest Main Galleries of the Tarble Arts Center through March 4.

The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Tim Deters can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].