I have no idea what was in R. Carlos Nakai's mind when he composed, and gave the title to this piece. Anyhow, "sounds good to me," as they say. It's from his Sundance Season CD, released in '86 on the Celestial Harmonies label. (3:24)
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Adam Clark Vroman, the white guy above the music selection, was a professional photographer who was active in the Southwest during the turn-of-the-century, and who worked with the Santa Fe Railway during part of this period, mostly at the Hopi villages in northern Arizona, and the Pueblos of New Mexico. * * * * * * *
From DWELLERS AT THE SOURCE - Southwestern Indian Photographs of A.C. Vroman, 1895-1904 by William Webb and Robert A. Weinstein
In spite of Indian bans on certain types of photographs, some white men continually sought ways to photograph forbidden subjects. They seemed to be indifferent to the affront and disrespect their conduct indicated to sensitive Indians.
This curious white insensitivity to the Indian, the failure to render him the respect to which any human being is decently entitled, mars the photographic work of many of Vroman's contemporaries. Although these photographers produced images of high documentary quality, almost all of them seem to show overconcern for the spectacular, the picturesque, and the romantic. The search for the romantic, and for "typical" white values in Pueblo Indian life, tended to obscure opportunities readily available for any photographer to present these Indians honestly: they were to ready to cast them in preconceived molds to please dominant white attitudes about Indians.
By contrast the profound human concerns and exceptional insights displayed in Vroman's Indian photographs establish the special worth of his work. Consider these Indians, too often betrayed and mistreated to give their trust to any white man, cooperating with Vroman to produce photographs of empathy, mutual trust, and mutual respect. This why one finds in his Indian photographs consistently strong evidence of a remarkable human relationship between the photographer and his Indian subjects, all the more remarkable in that it existed in the early 1900's, when the patronizing view of the American Indian was solidly established among white Americans. Vroman's determination to photograph and present the human values of Southwest Indians, to affirm them with grace and strength in his work, was unique.
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Continued from DWELLERS AT THE SOURCE
Study the faces in Vroman's Indian portraits; try to discern even one instance where suspicion or hostility is betrayed in a glance, a posture, or a gesture. In an almost uncanny way, every subject in these photographs appears to relate sympathetically to the photographer, to participate actively, as if it were just as important to the Indians that the photograph be a success as it was to the photographer. In this atmosphere of relaxed confidence, possible only where mutual respect is operative, Vroman penetrated beyond the surface to present an image of the people's innermost selves.
Vroman consciously avoided the use of the Indian's hard lives to create stereotypes, to deeped racial myths, or to degrade the Indian's social and economic position any further. In "The Moki Pueblos" (Photo-Era, February, 1901)he wrote, "The Indian is a sympathetic fellow, appreciates kindness, and never forgets a friend. I have no liking for the man who has been among the Indians and says that 'all good Indians are dead Indians,' and for those who have never been among them and hold such opinions, a summer's outing among the Pueblos will, I am sure, bring on a change of heart."
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In addition to photographing the Southwest tribes, Vroman spent time in California making a photo record of the California Missions. The brass at the Santa Fe Railway must have been impressed with the missions, for they adopted their general architectural features in many depots and Harvey Hotels, in what became known as the "Mission Revival Style." The depots in San Juan Capistrano, San Diego, and elsewhere, along with many Harvey hotels such as the Alvarado and Casteneda in New Mexico, are just a few of the examples of this architectural style the railway utilized to further its Southwestern corporate image.
The song was written about 1939 by Leon Rene, and the hit record by The Ink Spots came on the charts the following year. Here it's cowboy Gene Autry, from a compilation CD titled Gene Autry, with 25 cuts, released by Chakra Music Licensing in '92. (2:36)
