Seri Indians at Bahia Kino on the Sonoran Coast of Mexico
Album of 179 original photographs compiled by a well-to-do couple from Evanston, Illinois, including a rare series depicting Seri Indians at Bahia Kino on the Sonoran coast of Mexico. In addition to the Seri photographs, notable images include: Nogales border crossing, the Arizona Biltmore Hotel soon after it opened in 1929, western mining scenes (likely Arizona), Guaymas (Sonora) streetscapes, and snapshots made at a Wyoming dude ranch. The album opens with five photographs of the Illinois couple's stylish roadster, which bears a 1928 Evanston, Illinois license plate.
The highlight of the album is a remarkable series of 35 original photos of the Seri people at Bahia Kino on the Gulf of California coast of Sonora, Mexico. Like the Apache and Yaqui, the Seri fiercely resisted subjugation by the Spanish and the Mexicans over several centuries. The present photographs are candid, sensitive depictions of numerous Seri, including men, women and children. There are also images of their characteristic ramadas near the shore, sea turtle fishing practices, fishing rafts, and the like. One image depicts an aged Seri man wielding his bow and arrow, others show young children playing and shyly posing for the camera, while another set of images focuses on a group of striking bare-breasted Seri women. Several coastal scenes among the Seri images show nearby Tiburon Island, adjacent to Bahia Kino, pinpointing the locale to the traditional sea turtle fishing waters of the Seri. In the late 1920s the population of Seri was falling, going below 200 by 1930.
The Seri people, traditionally inhabiting the coastal deserts and islands near Bahia Kino in Sonora, Mexico, have established a deep connection to a part of coastal Sonora, including Tiburón Island, San Esteban Island, and the nearby mainland areas such as Desemboque. Known for their seafaring skills, they practiced turtle fishing and crafted tools from natural resources, relying on hunting and gathering to sustain their isolated communities. In the early 20th century, waves of outsiders, particularly miners and settlers attracted by Sonora's mineral wealth, encroached on Seri lands, threatening their resources and cultural continuity. These intrusions brought challenges and forced adaptation as the Seri resisted pressures to assimilate. In the 1970s, photographer Graciela Iturbide documented the Seri, portraying their traditional ways of life amid the stark desert landscape. Iturbide's photographs capture the dignity and strength of the Seri people as they continued to navigate the complexities of modernization and outside influence.
According to Bernard L. Fontana (Univ. of Arizona Library):
.... ironically, the Seri Indians finally became integrated into Mexican national culture in the second half of the [20th century] without ever having become agriculturalists. Quite simply, they relinquished their subsistence economy for a cash economy based on the sale of hand-crafted products to tourists. Their transition was from hunting and gathering to comercialism. Ironwood carvings - "sculptures" is a better word - baskets, necklaces made from seashells and other products of the Seri environment have made it possible for many Indians to earn considerable cash, more than they could have earned as unskilled farm or ranch workers - Tales from Tiburon: An Anthology of Adventures in Seriland (1983), page 6.
The present photographs, dating from the late 1920s, present the Seri in a moment of transition and offer a fascinating contrast to Iturbide's late 20th-century images of Seri people, particularly in terms of their interactions with outsiders, clothing, and living conditions.
In addition to the outstanding group of Seri images the album contains six photos of Nogales, Mexico (including views of the border crossing showing a car bearing a special license plate of the Nogales Presidencia Municipal - likely the Nogales mayor's car - suggesting our Evanston vistors were being escorted as VIPs); six of Guaymas, showing the central plaza with Templo de San Fernando, the Hotel Albín, street scenes, buildings, a barber shop, and the like. Several of the Guaymas images were taken from onboard a boat looking back at the shore.
Arizona photographs include: Albert Chase McArthur's famed Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, incorporating Frank Lloyd Wright's textile block system; mining scenes in an unidentified part of the state.
There is also a small group of ranch scenes at what appears to be a Wyoming dude ranch.
Collector Edward H. Davis photographed the Seri in the 1930s, another body of images for comparison. Davis visited the Seri and wrote about his encounters ("Savage Seris of Sonora"). As a collector of Native American materials for the Heye Foundation / Museum of the American Indian from 1917 to 1930, Davis was able to gain a certain level of trust among the Native American communities he visited. The San Diego History Center houses the Edward H. Davis Collection of Indian Photographs and Drawings (5000 images, most dating from 1903 to 1947), along with 62 notebooks and field notes. However, the bulk of his papers are housed at Cornell University (Edward H. Davis Papers, 1910-1944, Collection no. 9166).
See "William Neil Smith and the Seri Indians: Photographs, Letters and Field Notes" by David Burckhalter, Journal of the Southwest (Spring, 2013), which includes a remarkable series of mid-20th century photographs of the Seris made by a young University of Arizona anthropologist, who as late as 1947 was dispelling persistent myths of cannibalism and infanticide among the Seri to the Associated Press.
For historical background on the Seri resistance to Spanish incursions going back to the 17th-century, see Thomas E. Sheridan: Empire of sand : the Seri Indians and the struggle for Spanish Sonora, 1645-1803.
Rarity
Original photographs of the isolated and remote Seri people are very rare in the market.