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Lyon, Luke (1988)

History of Prohibition of Photography of Southwestern Indian Ceremonies.

In Reflections: Papers on Southwestern Culture in Honor of Charles H. Lange, Anne van Arsdall Poore, ed. Pp. 238-272. Papers of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico. Santa Fe: Ancient City Press.

A pdf is available here.

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Indian Snake Dance Series in Moki Land (1901) – James H. White and Frederick Blechynden

The Snake Dance ceremony at Wàlpi in 1889 photographed by Ben Wittick (1845-1903) from a position and angle very similar to one adopted by White and Blechynden to shoot their films. However by 1901, the number of non-Native spectators had increased greatly.

Not viewed. Durations and technical characteristics not verified.

Background: This series of five films was made at the Hopi village of Wàlpi in August 1901 by director James H. White and cameraman Frederick Blechynden, who were working for the Edison production company.

The Library of Congress (LoC) holds 16mm copies of paper prints of these films (originally submitted for copyright purposes). They are reported to be of “relatively poor quality” (Lyon 1988).

Content: this has been described by Pierre-L. Jordan (1992):

    • Panoramic View of Moki Land (37 secs) – panoramic shot from left to right across an arid landscape showing buttes and cliffs
    • Parade of Snake Dancers before the Dance (42 secs) – about 50 dancers, ceremonially dressed, enter the plaza. Shot from above from a single camera position. In the background, there are evidently many non-Native spectators.
    • The March of Prayer and Entrance of the Dancers (86 secs) – group of 12 dancers, members of the Snake Society led by their chief, enter the plaza. From roughly the same camera position as the previous shot
    • Line-Up and Teasing the Snakes (70 secs) – snakes are taken out of a jar and teased by the dancers with sticks. Again shot from above.
    • Carrying Out the Snakes (58 secs) – final stage of the ceremony in which the dancers pick up the snakes and carry them out of the plaza.
  • The LoC also holds a 16 mm negative of a separate film, also produced by the Edison company in 1901, entitled Moki Snake Dance by Walpapi Indians. This was evidently shot at Wàlpi in the same year as the series of five films, presumably by the same film crew.
  • This separate film is 50ft long, i.e. it must have had a duration of around 50 seconds. Given the general title, it seems likely that it was a compilation based on the other films, perhaps aimed at a more popular audience.
  • Texts: Lyon 1988: 261; Jordan 1992: 108-117.
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a) 60 mm film

This gauge was used for a brief period in the early history of cinema by operators of the Chronophotographe, a camera devised by the French camera engineer Georges Demenÿ for the then emergent cinema entrepreneur, Léon Gaumont.

Among the few operators to use this model of camera was Oscar Depue, who whilst working as a cameraman for the celebrated travel lecturer, Burton Holmes, shot a number of films of ethnographic interest, including footage, now lost, of the Hopi Snake Dance and a Navajo Tournament in 1898.

Although Depue devised a new and much larger magazine for the camera, which  increased the running time of a roll of film considerably, he gave up on it in 1902 on account of the difficulty of getting hold of the 60mm stock. 

© 2018 Paul Henley