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Real Indians

Artist (American, Tlingit/Nisga’a, born 1955)
Date1977 (printed 2007)
Mediumpigment print
DimensionsImage: 9 × 9 in. (22.9 × 22.9 cm)
Support: 10 × 10 1/2 in. (25.4 × 26.7 cm)
Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Patrick Nagatani, 2016
Object number2016.4.1
DescriptionOne-story building on diagonal at back of composition with several doors and windows and prominent text and graphics at top, including man on rearing horse and “THIS IS IT! MOST INTERESTING SPOT” … “WHERE REAL INDIANS TRADE”…. At left, man with crossed arms, long dark hair with headband, and moustache leans against the side of an old car parked in gravel lot in front of building.
Text Entries
Made when the artist was in his early twenties, this self-portrait marked a defining moment in Larry McNeil’s creative practice. At a time when Native artists were asserting their right to define and give voice to indigenous culture, the young photographer juxtaposes himself, a real Indian, with the exaggerated advertising at the Santo Domingo Trading Post. “Even as a young photographer I recognized the humor and irony this photograph represented,” McNeil writes. “After all, it is kind of funny.”
The photograph was made at what is known as the Santo Domingo Trading Post at Kewa (formerly known as Santo Domingo) Pueblo, north of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It has been featured in many postcards and guidebooks and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. The signs were intended to attract tourists to the trading post and gas station, but residents of the pueblo were also regular customers and kept it in business after Route 66 was re-routed to the east of this site.
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