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Cocopah Indian Home, Delta of the Colorado River, Lower California
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Cocopah Indian children. Delta of the Colorado River, Lower California, Mexico
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This set of photographs by Frederick Monsen focuses on Native Americans of the Southwest in mostly candid views taken in Pueblo communities, approx. 1886-1911. Photographs include portraits, ceremonies, dances, pueblos, livestock and scenes of daily activities. A smaller portion of the collection consists of landscapes, cliff-dwellings, ruins, gold miners, wagons and scenes of pioneer life in the West. Some photographs were made by Monsen while he was with U.S. Geological Surveys (including the Brown-Stanton survey of 1889), and others during his own photography trips. The majority of Native Americans pictured are Hopi and Navajo, but there are also Paiute, Apache, and Pueblo Indians. There are a few views of Mojave Indians of Southern California, and natives of Baja, Mexico. There are several views of Indian children, shown with and without clothes, in their daily activities. Scenes of non-Indian Western life include men in covered wagons on trails, gold prospectors and stagecoaches. There are many artistic landscape views of canyons, buttes and mesas; Death Valley; salt beds; ancient ruins; cactus and other desert plants. Unusual subjects of note are three photographs of skeletons in the deserts of Arizona and one view of the covered bodies of prospectors being carried on burros. The prints are all signed by Monsen and have typed or handwritten captions on the back, written by Monsen.
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Old Navajo man taking shelter against a sandstone wall, with a dog at his feet
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Old Navajo man seated under rock ledge and partial shelter made of brush. A dog laying near his feet.
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Navajo girl and a younger child standing in front of a wood and brush shelter
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Young Navajo girl standing with a small child in front of a wood and brush shelter.
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Andraes Canyon. Home of the Ancient Desert Indians of the Colorado Desert, California
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Landscape view of pool of water, palm trees, boulders, brush and mountains.
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The Colorado Desert, Southern California
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Desert landscape view of sand dune and brush. San Jacinto Mountains in background.
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