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Cat heri ne Russell ' s r ecover y of t he head‐huntersBrad Evans

a

a Dept. of English, University of Chicago, Chicago, 60637, U.S.A.

Available online: 17 May 2010

To cite this article: Brad Evans (1998): Catherine Russell's recovery of the head‐hunters, Visual Anthropology, 11:3, 221-241

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08949468.1998.9966752

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mnrufiuiugy, voi. 11, pp . ztl-ZiZ © iyy8 OIJA (Overseas Publishers Association)Reprints available directly from the publis her Am sterdam B.V. Publish ed un der licensePhotocopying permitted by license only under the Harw ood Academic Publishers imprint,

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COMMENTARY atherine Russell s Recovery ofthe Head-Hunters

In an insightful Visual Anthropology article based on the restored version ofEdward Sheriff Curtis's 1914 motion picture, In the Land of the Head-Hunters,

1

Catherine Russell suggests that the original version is "a lost film," visible onlythrough "fragmentary glimpses made available in the 'restored' film" producedby the an thropologists Bill Holm and George Qu imb y in 1973 [Russell 1996: 56].

What is left of the original, however, still survives in the archives of Chicago'sField M useum ; a view ing of it forces us to qualify Russe ll's contextualization ofthe original film, particularly her claim that it marks an instance of wha t film his-torian Tom Gunn ing has called the "cinema of attractions" [Gun ning 1990]. Thefollowing shot analysis, which compares the original to the 1973 restoration,highlights the extent to which numerous aspects of dramatic coherence inCurtis's original film have been disrupted by the Holm/Quimby remake. Alsopublished here for the first time are the original intertitles with wh ich C urtis nar-rated w ha t he tellingly called his "m otion picture dram a" [Curtis 1915: vii].

In 1973, the anthropologist Bill Holm and curator of ethnolog y G eorge Q uimbyre-released one of America's earliest 5-6 reel feature films, Edward S. Curtis'sIn the Land of the Head-Hunters, A Drama of Primitive Life on the Shores of the North

Pacific. The film had been virtually lost to the public since Curtis first showed itover a period of months in early 1914. It played at the Moore Theater in Seattlefrom December 7 to 15, 1914, and around the same time in New York at theCas ino T heater [Lee 1980: 74; Ho lm and Qu im by 1980: 109; Da vis 1985: 61].Perennially strapped for the money needed to complete his monumental series ofphotograph books, The North American Indian, Curtis sold his unc ut master printand negative to the reluctant American Museum of Natural History for $1500 in1927 [Gidley 1982]. The anthrop ologist Franz B oas, affiliated w ith the m use um atthe time, was interested, though apparently but mildly so, in acquiring someethnographically valuable footage from the drama regarding the dances andrituals; he shot his own footage am ong the Kwakiutl (Kwakw aka'wakw ) severalyears later. What happened to the film next is unclear, but a nitrate copy of it

came into the archive of Chicago's Field Museum from the private collection ofHu go Z eiter, of D anville, Illinois, in 1947. Ho w Zeiter obtaine d the copy remainsunclear; indeed, it is not even certain that Zeiter's copy was the original, thoughthat seem s likely. I am currently una wa re of any othe r copies of the original filmwhich may exist beyond the copy at the Field Museum, from which Holm and

222

VtSUUl d



222 Commentary

Quim by w orked. My wo rk is based on a 16m m w orking copy of the footage h eldby the Field M useum , of which a video copy has also now been mad e.

The Holm/Quimby restoration of the Head-Hunters, along with its sub sequentreissue by New York's Milestone Film and Video in a series of early explorationfilms including the Johnsons' Simba (1928) and Po nting 's 90° South: With Scott tothe Antarctic (1933), has brought Curtis's motion picture drama to an audience

that is probably larger than that it attained when originally released in 1914[Doh erty 1993]. But the film as recons tructed in 1973 is significantly cha nge dfrom the Curtis original—changed in ways which not only flag the disjunctionbetween ethnographic and film-history projects in the brightest of colors, butwhich lead to conclusions like Russell's about the film's narrative incoherence.As Tom Gunning noted wh en viewing In the Land of the Head Hunters with me atthe Field M useu m, recovering the original 1914 film is exciting because , contraryto the expectations set up by the Milestone release, Curtis's film does not fit themo ld of a "cinema of attractions." Indeed, the Curtis original is rema rkable for itsnarra tive coherence. In addition to show ing us objects of anthropological interestin motion (w hich is as far tow ards praise as some com me ntators are willing to goafter seeing the M ilestone edition [McLuhan 1975]), Cu rtis's original adv anta -

geously uses the medium of film to tell a familiar story of warfare and romancein a narratively harmo nious way.

Holm and Quimby have signaled a number of the changes they made toCurtis's original in a companion volume, in which they docum ent both their ow nresearch a nd the reaction of contemporary Kw akiutl to it. As they m ake clear, thefilm's new emphasis is on ethnographic veracity and the "magnificent culturalheritage of the Kw akiutl Indians " [Holm and Quim by 1980: 17]. They substitutethe t i t le In the Land of the Wa r Canoes, Kwakiutl Indian L ife on the Northwest Coast

for the original's attention-grabbing Head-Hunters, A Drama, in an attempt torelieve an "undue emphasis on what was actually a minor if visible and spectac-ular a spect of Kw akiutl life" [ibid.: 65]. They ad d a so undtrac k that is notable forits mono-tonal (and somniferous) drone of ocean waves, seagulls, oar strokes,

and non-subtitled Kwakiutl chants performed in part by elderly survivors of theoriginal film. They extend certain scenes by add ing frames from a duplicate ne g-ative in order to make up for missing footage, thereby dragging twenty-nineminutes of film (viewed at 24 frames per second instead of the original silent-filmspeed of 16fps) out to forty-seven minutes, an addition of nearly four minutes(8 percent) to the original. They do not reproduce coloring from the originalnitrate copy, nor do they use the original musical score, written by JohnJ. Braham (which is, to my knowledge, still lost). And, most significantly, theynote that they have rewritten the original intertitles, though they do not includethe originals or say why they were changed.

As significant as the changes they do note are those which go unnamed.Recovering the original intertitles already vastly changes one's perception of

Curtis's original project. Not only do the Curtis originals prove him a betterwriter than his successors, but they prove him a better storyteller. His intertitlesare more numerous, explicit, and colorful. In its original state, the drama is flu-ently narrated by 47 intertitles; the remake has compressed this information intoa mere 18 intertitles, leaving large narrative gaps between scenes. The original



in 1914) they excise the dram atic tension Curtis ha d built into the original. In theshot preceding that of the dummy, the anthropologists cut out the first fewseconds of a shot showing a precarious ledge on which two warriors will soon befighting. In the original, one senses a struggle going on off-screen before seeingthe comb atants enter dan gerously into the frame; in the restoration, one only getsthe spectacle of two men fighting on the ledge, followed by the mismatched fall

of the dum my . Thou gh seemingly m inor, these editorial decisions change the feelof Cu rtis's film. W hile it may be true tha t Curtis did no t deploy m any of the con-tinuity principles by 1914 which had become standard in Hollywood (like close-ups an d cross-cutting), Holm and Q uimby 's changes hide those that he did use.The restored version belies the fact that the original version of Curtis's filmexhibits a remarkable degree of dramatic coherence given his limited resourcesboth with regard to funding and to personnel. In particular, we should note thatthe original film is very attentive to mo vem ent and framing— to th e orchestrationof a vibrant "pho to d ram a" [Curtis 1915: vii].

These changes lead us to question just what Holm and Quimby were up to.Altho ugh yo u can m ake a case, as Russell does, that the rem ade version— with its"many layers and fragmentary survival," its reconstitution (through the sound-

track and the acknowledgments at the head of the film) of the relationshipbetween the original film and the Kwakiutl actors—might be considereda "repossession of Headhunters by and for those whom it was ostensibly 'abou t'"(indeed, that it might even be a "model for a post-colonial, postmodern form ofethnographic representation") you have to wonder if Holm and Quimby werenot simp ly incom petent in film techniqu e [Russell 1996: 72-73, 56]. It seem s o ddindeed to suggest that a version which flattens the cadences of the fictionalplot—its swings between intimacy and warfare, silence and ceremony, ritual anddrama—is som ehow recuperative. Having been able to compare it to the original,my sense of the rem ake is that it has robbed the original film, and those w ho per-formed in it, of vitality. Wh ile the acting remains the same, the profilmic app ara-tus framing Curtis 's "d ram a" gives way to stasis and equ ilibrium, to the steady

hand of ethnographic authority. If anything, Holm and Quim by's version framesthe original Kwakiutl actors as more palatable ethnographic objects, more easilydisassembled into representative parts—canoes, costumes and rituals.

But judging the film's political merits or demerits is not ultimately the point.Rather, what we need to recognize is the extent to which the "restored" versionradically distorts th e achievement of Curtis's original film. In the Land of the Head

Hunters wa s a fairly accom plished feature film in 1914, a rich dram a of action an dromance with the ad ded novelty of live Canadian Indians playing "themselves"in an unspecified ethnographic past. It is not part of the "cinema of attractions,"but rather is a narrative film with a story to tell. Holm and Quimby's remakehides this fact. The editing of the restored version disguises the narrative coher-ence of Curtis's original, the new soundtrack betrays its dramatic intentions, and

the new intertitles deaden its linguistic flare. And finally, despite Holm andQuimby's new title, the original film seems not so much interested in ethno-graphic objects as in primitive people—not so much in war canoes as in thedrama of head-hunting.

t x^uinrttcruui y



Note. The shot analysis which follows is rather cursory, but I felt that it was important tobe able to locate the original intertitles in the Ho lm /Qu imb y restoration. Shot descriptionsare kept to a minimum unless they differ between versions. I have numbered the inter-titles for easy reference: all material in BOLD (except the numbers) appears in print in thefilm. Editorial comm ents are indicated by brackets.

IN THE LAND OF THE HEAD-

HUNTERS (1914)1. PART I—THE VIGIL OF MOTANA

1. Principal characters of the play

Kenada, Chief of Watsulis VillageMotana, Son of KenadaWaket, Chief of Paas VillageNaida, Daughter of WaketYaklus, Warrior-Chief of Yilis VillageThe Sorcerer, Brother of YaklusThe Sorcerer's DaughterA Young Slave

2. "Go my son, the time has come toprove your manhood. Buildmountain prayer fires to call thespirits. Go far to the forest islandof the dead that those of the spiritworld give yo u power. Capturethen the wha le and the sea lion toprove your courage. Go my son."

3. Naida, Daughter of Waket.

Still shot of Naid a in profile, the sam eone that Quimby and Holm use tostart the ir version . This is the first

visual (non-text) shot in the original.

4. Motana lands on an island to buildhis first prayer fire. In a dreamappears a maid.

IN THE LAND OF THE WAR

CANOES (1972, Milestone)Restored version ope ns with

"spectacular scene of great canoes,racing past the viewer with drivingpaddles" [Holm and Quimby1980: 65]. Th e sho t ap pea rs afterintertitle 23 in o riginal.

[Extensive credits, including namesof Kwakiutl consultants, not listedhere.]

[Stills of the p rincipa l charac ters takenfrom The North American Indian arereproduced, w ith identificationappearing as a subtitle.]

Motana, son of KenadaNaida, daughter of WaketKenadaThe SorcererYaklus, brother of T he Sorcerer

No intertitle

No intertitle

[This shot appears along with theother stills at the beginning ofthe Holm and Quimby version.]

1. Through fasting and hardships, Motana,the son of a great chief Kenada, seekssupernatural power. In his vision-sleepthe face of a maiden appears to him. It isNaida, the daughter of chief Waket

KjumnKmury £/LD



Three sea lions on a small sea island, No shotwaves splashing u p a gainst it. [It isquite possible that this shot is out ofsequence: it is the same island thatMo tana will visit after intertitle 10]

Camera cuts in and frames three sea No shotlions from the right. Sea lions jumpinto water.

Motana dance s aroun d a praye r fire Samewith heavy smoke and lies down infront of the fire.

Slightly shifted camera angle. Motana Samesees the vision of Naid a ap pearing inthe smoke.

5. It is Naida, the maid of his dream. Hegives her a love token .

Motana descend s a steep hillside;sees Naid a app roaching in canoe;gives her a "love token." Can oe exitslower left.

Reverse angle of Motana in silhouette; SameNaida paddling off into the sunlight.

Back to original camera angle. Motana Samedips behind boulders and paddlesoff in his own canoe.

6. Motana overtakes Naida, and as they No intertitle

walk along hand in hand they arewatched by the jealous Sorcerer, towhom Naida has been promised byher father, Waket.

Motana and Naida walk hand in hand. SameThe Sorcerer hides in the bush esclose righ t.

Montana and Naida lie dow n together. Same

Close shot on the Sorcerer crawling Sameout from behind the bushes.

7. "Oh that I might go with you walkin g No intertitle

hand in hand along that misty path ofcopper." [Fig. 1]

Motana and Naid a walk along the Sameshore towa rds camera. Naida gets incanoe and Motana helps.

2. Motana leaves his vigil and woosNaida. She is promised to an oldsorcerer who watches the lovers fromhiding. Motana vows to win Naida's

hand. [Fig. 2]

Same



Commentary 227

8. "It is a tribal law that in the vigil nothought may be given to women. NowI must renew my vig il. First I wil l visitthe Island of the Dead."

Motana waves good-bye and finishescasting Naida's canoe off from

shore.

Another sh ot of Mo tana in silhouettewatching Naida pad dle intosunset.

No intertitle

Motana enters a clearing in the forest,stoops to look at som e skulls, andexits bottom right.

Again, Motana emerges from theforest, center, this time in ferns up tohis waist. Exits botto m left.Sequence ends on ferns.

Same [no visible cut from previou sshot]

Same

3. He resumes his spirit quest at theisland of the dead. Then testing hiscourage and skills h e harpoons thesealion and w hale.

Same

Begins the same, but Motana does not exit.Cut to next shot wh ile Motana stillcenter screen.

Motana enters from the bottom right,still in the ferns, into the "house ofskulls."

Unidentified (but ominous-looking)carved totems.

Motana approaches totems.

Cut to Motana peering at the totemsand then at the heads.

Cut to Motana, adorned w ith numerousskulls, performing a ritual dance.

9. Through the night he sleeps in thegruesome house of skulls.

Motana is sleeping in front of the

Same

Same

Same

Same

Same

No intertitle

Sametotems with skulls around him.After som e time, he p rops himselfup and starts to talk to them.

10. With his slave he goes in quest of sea No intertitle

lions.

Motana and his slave approach the Samecamera in a small canoe.

Approach ing the island of the sea Samelions.



228 Commentary

" O h that I might go with

you "walkingThahcJ iJThahd^loni^

that misty path of copper ."

Figure 1

^ ~ ~ i l e av e s h is v i ;

N a i d a S h e is p r o m i s e d

M o t a n a v o

Figure 2



Commentary 229

Motana leads h is pursuers

into the roaring gorge of Hval.

where drowns th e fearful

Yaklus.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figures 1-4 Comp arison of the original intertitles with those Holm and Quim by g ave to the

1973 remake. (Copyright 1974 by the Burke Museum; reproduced by permission of the University

of Washington Press.)



230 Commentary

Motana o n top of the island with hisharpoon in hand.

No shot

No shot

11. After weeks of preparation Motanaemerges from the forest and leads awhaling expedition.

Motana, stan ding on the carcass ofa whale with his harpoon in hand.

Motana gets off the wha le and into oneof the canoes.

12. Awarding the portions.

Shot of the w hale carcass on the beach.

In one of the lighter episodes of thefilm, cut by Holm and Quimby,Motana ap pears crawling out of themou th of the whale [Fig. 5].

Same

Three sea lions on a small sea island,waves splashing up against it [sameas Head Hunters after intertitle 4].

Camera has moved ahead right; three sealions jump into the water [same as Head

Hunters].

No intertitle

Same

Same

No intertitle

Same

No shot

Figure 5 Motana emerging from the mouth of the whale. Holm andQuimb y cut this light-hearted

shot from the restored version, perhaps b ecause the actor too clearly addresses the camera, in viola-

tion of the rules of ethnographic objectivity. (Copyright 1974 by the Burke Museum; reproduced by

permission of the University of Washington Press.)



Commentary 231

13. The Sorcerer and his assistant magi-cians plot to destroy Motana: andthey sen d a messenger for theSorcerer's daughter.

The Sorcerer and his magicians talkaround a fire.

Naida receives the Sorcerer's messenger.

A character identified by Holm andQuim by as Naida, but possibly themessenger because of her white robeand direction of entry into shot,chooses a piece of jewelry.

14. "Get a lock of M otana's hair and withit we will make magic to destroyhim."

The three magicians, pictured again atthe fire in the w oods , are joined by

the messenger and N aida.Conversation.

15. For his final invocation to the gods,Motana again builds the sacred fireon the heights.

Motana climbs a steep hill.

Motana, on the top of the hill, makes

a prayer fire and lies down.

16. The Sorcerer's Daughter resolves tospare the handsome youth and makehim love her.

The dau ghter arrives, kneels besidethe sleeping Motana, and gentlywakens him.

17. "Depart I am not thinkin g ofwo me n, but of the spirits "

Same frame as before; Motana sendsher away. She exits bottom left.

She return s, cuts a lock of his hair aridsteals his necklace.

18. Motana discovers the theft.

Motana awakens, discovers the theft,and exits bottom left.

4. The jealous sorcerer plots to destroyMotana and send s his daughter tofind him and get a lock of h is hair.

Same

Same

Same

No intertitle

Same

5. Motana has again bu ilt his fire on theheights where h e fasts and dances,still seeking spirit power. TheSorcerer's daughter re solves to sparehim and win his love, but he spurnsher and she returns to her father withMotana's hair and neckring.

Same

Same

No intertitle

Same

No infertile

[No visible cut from previou s shot]

Same

No intertitle

Same



232 Commentary

19. The Sorcerer determines to destroythe life of Motana by evil magic.

Back to the Sorcerers. The Dau ghterreturns and gives Motan a's things to

her father.

20 . "Let Motana rot as his hair rots withthese toads."

The sorcerer attaches the ha ir to a stickwith a numbe r of toads and placesit over a smoking fire.

21 . Motana, after many trials and manydangers, returns triumphant to hisfather.

1. Motana arrives alone in a canoe, fromupper left m oving bottom right

2. He is seen from the shore by a solescout.

3. A crowd gathers on the shore aroundthe scout, facing upp er left in thedirection of Motana's canoe.

4. Back to Motana's canoe, which passesthe camera, leaving a shot of Motana(waist up) standing in the canoe.

5. The crowd rushes out into the water(facing left) to greet him.

6. A n excited Kenada welcomes his son(not pictured) by pra ncing to the left of

the Raven's beak entrace to his house.

No shot

6. The plotters, anticipating Motana'sdeath, "mourn" him as his hair,stuffed in the bod ies of toads, smo kesover their fire.

Same

No intertitle

[No visible cut from previous shot]

7. Motana returns to his villag e to ajoyous welcome by his tribesmen.

[The position of shots throughout thisscene has been chan ged. I haveconcorded the two by numbering theseshots with reference to the original. Often,images have been flipped from the 1914version, thus violating screen direction.]

Same

Same

6. An excited Kenada welcomes his son[The imag e has been flipped from the 1914

version, Kenada here on the right (not

left) of the R aven 's Beak.]

5. The crowd rushes out into the water togreet him

[The imag e has been flipped from the 1914version, leaving the crowd facing right—away from Motana. Thus the remakeviolates screen direction.]

6. Repeat excited Kenada [Again, theimage has been flipped.]

3. A crowd gathers on the shore.. .[The image has been flipped, leaving the

villagers looking for Motana in thewrong direction. This violates screendirection.]

1. M otana in his canoe [repeat ofearlier footage.]



Commentary 233

No shot

No shot

No shot

22 . Kenada brings the head of theSorcerer and d emands Naida.

Two big war canoes land. Kenadaproclaims victory, wav ing he ads. Head sare enthusiastically accepted by Naid a'sfather, Waket, and two w omen . Theyexit. Kenad a's w arriors celebrate intheir canoes.

23 . The bridegroom's party starts to thewedding.

1. o tana w ith m emb ers of hisvillage load the great wa r canoes anddepart.

2. Unidentified characters see canoes andexit left.

3. The three war canoes with costumeddancers in the bow approach from thedistance, center, and exit right as theypass the camera.

4. The canoes enter the screen distantright and advance to pass the

3. Repeat crowd gathering [still a flippedimage.]

6. Repeat Kenada [still a flipped image.]

4. Motana in canoe finally makes it toshore.

8. The joy of Motana's return changes toa call for war when the witchcraft ofthe sorcerer is made kn own . Kenadaand h is warriors attack and destroythe sorcerer and his assistants andbring their heads to Waket, Naida'sfather, asking for her marriage toMotana.

[Holm and Quimby probably are correctwhen they speculate in their companionvolum e that footage is missing here, butcomplicate this lacuna in their versionby announcing an attack by Kenada onthe Sorcerer that never occurs.]

Same

[Head-hunting may not have been a bigpart of Kwak iutl life, but it is a very bigpart of Curtis's film.]

9. Waket accepts the proposal andKenada and his tribe come for thebride in their great canoes. TheThunderbird, the Wasp, and the

Grizzly Bear dance in the p rows.

[Holm and Quimby write that what fol-lows is the "most exciting scene in thefilm"; 1980: 77]

1. Same

2. Same

4. Out of sequence. Positions of shots 3and 4 are reversed.

3. Out of sequence. Positions of shots 3and 4 are reversed.



234 Commentary

camera on th e left. Focus is on theThund erbird dan cing in the lead canoe.

5. The Thunderb ird's canoe is picturedalone center, pointe d left. As it driftsforward, a second canoe comes intoview.

6. A gain, the three war canoes approachfrom center, som ewh at closer. Theyadvanc e slowly until they are over thecamera.

7. Two of the canoes (w ith Bear and a lit-tle of the Thunderbird) are shown overtop of the camera.

8. The Bear's canoe shown alone.

24. The wedding.

Waket accepts a dowry of blankets.

Jump to men distributing the blanketsfrom the pile to Waket's tribesmen.

25 . Waket's dance of acceptance.

Large ceremonial gath ering; Waket, left,conducts the dance. Camera pa nsslowly right.

26. A rival chief's spokesman accepts achallenge to drink fish oil.

Men adv ance to spoon out boiling oil;a contestant is doused with the oil.

A lone chief, who chugs an enormousladle full of oil.

A ceremonial dance; as many as thirtyparticipants wh irl in heavy robes.

27. Enraged by the death of his brother,the Sorcerer, Yaklus runs "Pahupaku"(mad for blood and heads). Now is hereally Yaklus, the short life bringer.

5. Same

6. Same

7. Same

8. Same

10. Kenada distributes blankets to thechiefs of the bride's tribe, and her

father leads a dance of acceptance.Same

Same

No intertitle

Same

11. A contest of drinking candlefish oildevelops b etween the speakers of thetwo chiefs, and the dance privileges

to be give n in the dowry aredisplayed.

Same

Same

Same

12. Motana and Naida return wit hpomp to Kenada's village, butYaklus, brother of the slainsorcerer, learns of h is brother'sdeath and g oes to war for revenge.He attacks who mev er he m eets, firsta party of fishermen and then agroup of clam diggers.



commentary lib

Yaklus gathers his warriors. They departwith spears and bows and arrows.

28. By ancient custom a war party

destroys whomever it meets, friendor foe. Yaklus first sights anddestroys a fishing party.

The camera mounted in the stern ofYaklus' canoe shows his men rowingvigorously. They attack a canoe offishermen.

29. Next they attack a party ofclam-diggers and carry away theyoung women for slaves.

Clam diggers in the foreground; tw o w ar

canoes approach. The women r un away.The canoes land and w arriors runafter them.

Reverse angle of the canoes beached. Twowarriors return with heads and slaves.As they depart, a warrior shakes theheads in the sky.

30. A band of travellers are now sightedand destroyed.

A small canoe with six travellers pulls infrom around a small cliff on the left.They disembark, and the camera p ansright to show them climbing up thehillside.

Yaklus' wa r canoe approaches fromaround the bend. He and his men jumpout and climb up the hill.

From just below a ledge, two men arepictured in combat.

Shot of the ledge, looking over th eprecipice to the ocean. After a fewseconds, two combatants enter theframe from the left, one m an clearly on

the edge and about to go dow n.

No shot

[Holm and Quim by note that the return ofthe bridal couple has been lost, butinclude m ention of it in their intertitle.]

Same

No intertitle

Same

No intertitle

Same

Same

No intertitle

The first p art of the s hot is cut. All that isshown is the canoe landing as the menbegin to disembark.

Same

Same

No pause on the em pty ledge. Twocombatants enter the frame directly.Finishes same.

Newly filmed shot from base of cliff ofdum my going over the edge into theocean.



236 Commentary

31 . Yaklus, with his fiend-like warriors,attacks and destroys the village ofMotana.

Camera again in the stern of canoe

pictures men row ing in an arc towardsthe village. They land . Two scouts aresent up the beach.

Kenad a, before the Raven 's Beak, fends offnum erous arrows before being shot and

dying.

33. The Sing-Gamble game at the villageof Yaklus is interrupted. Thevictorious war-party i s sighted.

Sing-gamblers shown. A messengerarrives from the right. They all exit left.

Gamblers running towards the camera.

A hilltop. Gam blers enter left and look ou tat the ocean.

From the right, Yaklus' two canoesapproach. Warriors wave heads. Theyare greeted in much the same way thatKenada had been greeted by Waketearlier (after 22).

13 . Finally Yaklus attacks Kenada's vil-lage. In the bloody battle the oldchief is slain and Naida taken cap-tive. Motana escapes, wounded , witha handful of his tribesmen.

Same

Shot from across the beach, shows thescouts advancing to the homes.

Tight focus on the tw o scouts as theycrouch before th e Raven 's Beakentrance.

From lower on the beach, the warriors areshown advancing towards the home.

A side entrance to the home. Yaklus'

warriors enter with machetes.

Distant shot of smoking ho use. Yaklus andhis wa rriors exit from th e side exit.

32. Death of Kenada.

Raven's Beak entrance; Kenada comes outof the house.

Yaklus and his warriors shoot arrows andlance spears.

Same

Same

Same

Same

Same

No intertitle

Same

Same

Same. [Quimby and Holm say that theyshortened this scene, but it is not

evident from the version I used.]

14. The people of Y aklus' village aregambling when the warriors aresighted returning with heads andbooty. They boast of their trophies ina dance.

Same

Same

Same

Same



Commentary 237

34. In honor of the victory, Yaklus gives adance.

Warriors dance around fire with heads.

35. In concealment are dancers clothed asmythic animals and m onsters.

A line of drummers in the foregroundbefore a proscenium . The curtain falls toreveal masked dancers.

Masked figures dance together in a circle,camera elevated.

Standard elevation, masked dancers, stillcircling.

36. Thunderbird Dancer.

Thunderbird dances alone on a stage.

37. End of Reel Three

38. Part our

39. Fire Dance. The Fire Dancer hates fireand destroys it with bare hands andfeet. Attendants restrain him.

Fire dancer.

40 . Bear, Wolf Mou ntain Goat, Wasp andDog.

Costu med figures dance in circle.

[Intertitle 44 probably should go here;footage is evidently missing.]

A lone figure approach es from the distancein a canoe.

Canoe lands and wou nded passenger getsout. Motana arrives on the scene andmotions.

No intertitle

Same. [Quimby and Holm comm ent: "Onlya very few people recognized the signifi-cance of the action; war custom s are a thingof the remote past" [96].]

15. The killing of the enemies brings onthe Winter Ceremonial pow er of thewarriors. The ceremony of First-Appearance-of-Masks-in-the-Houseis followed by the performance ofthe masked dancers.

Same

Same

Same

No intertitle

Same

No intertitle

No intertitle

16. The Fire Dancer destroys the firewith bare hands, wh ile hisattendants try to restrain him . TheBear, Wolf Moun tain G oat, Wasp,

Dog, and Deer perform.Same

No intertitle

Same

17. Naida's slave escapes from Yaklus'village and, although wounded byan arrow, makes his w ay to Motana.Hearing that Naida has survived, heand his warriors paddle to her rescue.

First part is cut. Canoe is picked up inmid-screen, and finishes the same.

Same



238 Commentary

41. "Who will help rescue my wife?"

Men arrive. Motana talks to them a ndthey exit left, etc....

42 . Motana creeps up to the house of

Yaklus.

Motana gets out of the canoe at the base ofthe steps to Yaklus' house. He goes u pthe steps.

Motana approaches a door from aroundthe corner. He en ters a side door andgoes com pletely into the hou se [Fig. 6].

Shot from the interior of the door openingand M otana entering. He closes the do or

behind him. Darkness.

43 . Naida steals the knife of the sleepingYaklus that she may kill her captor.The com ing of M otana stays her hand.

No intertitle

Same [no visible cut from previous shot]

18. Reaching Yaklus' village, M otanarescues his wife. Yaklus pursuesthem and follows Motana's canoeinto a surging gorge where his canoecapsizes and he and h is warriorsdrown. [Fig. 4]

Same

Begins the same, but stop s just afterMotana sticks his head into the door.

The door is already half way open, andMotana en ters. End same.

[Elimination of repeated action (temporaloverlap) between two shots]

No intertitle

Figure 6 Motana entering the house of Yaklus to rescue his bride. This example of temporal over-

lap was corrected (eliminated) in the 1973 version. (Copyright 1974 by the Burke Museum;

reproduced by permission of the University of W ashington P ress.)



\uimmeniary

1. Naida rises from her bed. Motanaarrives, takes her knife, and they exittogether.

2. Yaklus sleeping. He wa kes up , calls hismen, and they all exit together.

3. Motana and Naida run hand in hand

along the beach (ocean on the left)toward the camera, exiting bottom left.

4. M otana's men wa it for him in thecanoe. Motana and Naida arrive fromthe distance, get in the canoe, and allpush off.

44. Though wounded by an arrow hecontinues his flight.

[intertitle out of sequence, probablyshould appea r between 40 and 41]

Continuation of previous shot, with canoe

pa dd ling off into the ocean. -

Yaklus and his men appear on the beachfrom the opposite direction (ocean onthe right).

Reverse ang le (ocean on the left). Moremen arrive. They get a canoe andpaddle off.

45. Motana leads his pursuers into theroaring gorge of Hyal, where drow nsthe fearful Yaklus. [Fig. 3]

1. Shot of waves crashing into the rockyleft w all of the gorge.

2. Two canoes advance from distant cen-ter between hills. Lead canoe passes thecamera lower left.

3. A different shot of wav es crashingagainst the rocks of the gorge.

4. The second canoe enters the rocky areaof the gorge, passing cam era lower left.

5. Two canoes follow each other intonarro w rocky straits. Lead canoe exitssafely, but that of Yaklus is caught inth e surf.

6. T he chasing canoe is capsized. The menare wash ed away.

Same

3. Out of sequence . Positions of shots 2and 3 are reversed.

2. Ou t of sequen ce. Positions of shots 2

and 3 are reversed.

4. Same

No intertitle

No shot

Same

Same

[In the scene that follows, Holm andQuimby lose much of Curtis's dramatictension by omitting shots and changingthe sequence.]

No shot.

2. Same

Out of sequence. Positions of shots 3 and 4are reversed.

Out of sequence. Positions of shots 3 and 4are reversed.

5. Same

6. Same

zsv



24U commentary

7. Shot of drowned man floating in surf. No shot

8. Drowned man again , closer. 8. Same

9. Another drowned man in surf, this 9. Sametime face down against the rocks.

10. Waves crashing against rocks. 10. Same

11. Motana, standing, and his men and 11. SameNaida shown safe in their canoe,looking back left into the gorge.Motana sits down.

46 . The End Nointerti t le

NOTE

1. I would like to thank Chicago's Field Museum for allowing me access to the originalversion of Curtis's film, and particularly to Carolyn Blackmon, former Director of the

Education Department, for her gracious help with this project. Many thanks also to

Tom Gunning for sharing his expertise in film history and excitement about Curtis'sHead-Hunters.

REFERENCES

Curtis, Edward Sheriff1915 In the Land of the H ead-Hunters. New York: World Book Com pany.

Davis, Barbara1985 Edward S. Curtis: The Life and Times of a Shadow Catcher. San Francisco: Chronicle

Books.Doherty, Thom as

1993 The Age of Exploration: The Hollywood Travelogue Film. Cineaste, 20(2): 38 -40 .Gidley, Mick

1982 From Hopi Snake Dance to The Ten Commandments ': Edward S. Curtis as

Filmmaker. Studies in Visual Comm unication, 8: 70-79.Gunning, Tom

1990 The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde. In

Early Cinema: Space-Frame-Narrative. Thomas Elsaesser and Adam Barker, eds.

Pp. 56 -62 . London: British Film Institute.Holm, Bill, and George Irving Quim by

1980 Edward S. Curtis in the Land of the War Canoes: A Pioneer Cinematographer in the

Pacific Northwest. Se attle: University of Washington Press.Lee, William B eachum

1980 The Nature of Reality in Ethnographic Film: A Study Based on the Work of

Edward Sheriff Curtis." Dissertation. Los Angeles: University of California atLos Angeles.

Russell, Catherine1996 Playing Primitive: In the Land of the Headhunter s " and/or War Canoes."

Visual Anthropology, 8: 55-77.



Commentary 241

FILMOGRAPHY

Curtis, Edw ard Sheriff1914 In the Land of the Head -Hunters. 29 mins. at 24 frames per second (fps): silent,

b&w. (Both a 16 mm work ing copy a nd a video of Cu rtis's original film are cur-rently held by The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.)

Holm, Bill, and George Q uimby

1973 In the Land of the War Canoes. 47 m ins.: sou nd , b&w. Restoration of Cu rtis [1914].(Currently distributed on video and laser disc from Milestone Film, New York[1992].)

McLuhan, T. C.1975 The Shadow Catcher: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian. 88 mins. :

sound, color and b&w. Documentary. Originally copyrighted 1974 by ShadowCatchers, Inc. and South Carolina Educational Television Network. (Currentlydistributed on v ideo by M ystic Fire Video, Inc., Ne w York [1993].)

Brad EvansDept. of English

University of Chicago

Chicago 60637, U.S.A.

Response

The discovery of Edward Curtis's original version of In the Land of the Head

Hunters is a great moment in the growing understanding of early ethnographicfilmm aking. It wa s with both pleasure an d su rprise th at I read the description ofthe film, which is indeed far mo re coherent and fluid a narrative than H olm andQu imb y's reconstruction had led us to believe.

In my article in Visual Anthropology on Curtis's film and its reincarnation as In

the Land of the W ar Canoes, I described the 1914 original as "lost" and proceededto construct a fantasy film from the remnants available in the 1973 version. As anattempt to theorize an experimental form of intertextual ethnography, my articlewas less concerned with the authenticity of either film than with the historicalperspective set up by the incoherence of the restored, text. It was the very lack ofa document that provided the possibility of a film style that was not subject toconventions of narrative subject-positioning.

Given the new archival evidence, I would have to revise my assessment ofCurtis's original film as an instance of a "cinema of attractions," althoughI would still point out that it looks that way through the prism of Holm andQuimby's version. The real question that emerges now is why Holm andQuimby destroyed the narrative continuity of the film (and why Milestone

released their version when the original was not very lost at all). I would agreewith the suggestion that the hand of ethnographic authority deflates the dramaof War Canoes. The evidence of Curtis's original intertitles certainly indicates that,in the 1914 version, th e natives were play ing full-blown characters. This is one of

evans, brad-catherine russell´s recovery of the head-hunters

Documents