Women and Warriors of the Plains: The Pioneer Photography of Julia E. Tuell [Hardcover]

Dan Aadland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1996

In 1901, Julia Tuell married a man who taught on several Indian reservations. While raising her children and doing the myriad tasks expected of a woman, she found time to become a photographer. This is a collection of her photographs, accompanied by text from Dan Aadland.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the waning days of the reign of Native American tribes, Julia Tuell photographed the Cheyennes in Montana, the Sac and Fox in Oklahoma, and the Lakota in South Dakota. She owed her nomadic existence to her husband's job as a schoolmaster on reservations. Her art she owed to her own talents and the trust extended by various tribes, who allowed her to chronicle even sacred religious ceremonies such as the Sun Dance and an animal dance called the Massaum. Her photographs are often strikingly beautiful compositions, but part of what makes the plainer ones memorable are the small acts of daily life among women: grinding berries, scraping and staking out hides, carrying a baby strapped into a decorated cradle board. Dan Aadland, a friend of Tuell's youngest son, provides historic context and some illumination in the occasionally fawning accompanying text.

About the Author

Author Dan Aadland ranches and writes in south-central Montana. An avid outdoorsman who particularly treasures time spent in the saddle under Montana's big sky, Aadland holds a PhD in American Studies and has been a Marine officer and a teacher. On the ranch owned by their family for more than a century, he and his wife, Emily, have raised three sons, along with many of the ground-covering horses that are a family legacy. His many equine articles have appeared in magazines such as Equus and Western Horseman. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 182 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan General Reference (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876057482
• ISBN-13: 978-0876057483
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #886,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a rancher, retired teacher, and former Marine officer, but the role of writer has been my primary preoccupation since I learned to love the written word as a child. Early tastes included the best outdoor writers of the day, and of course Mark Twain, the master. After service in Viet Nam I attended the University of Utah, where I earned an MA in English and a Ph.D.in American Studies and creative writing. Then it was back to Montana for a busy life divided between ranching and teaching high school English and various extension courses for the university system.
But it's been my love of horses, of raising and training them, and my passion for riding a good horse under the Big Sky, that has spawned my best writing--SKETCHES FROM THE RANCH: A MONTANA MEMOIR; THE BEST OF ALL SEASONS: FIFTY YEARS AS A MONTANA HUNTER; and my newest and eighth, IN TRACE OF TR: A MONTANA HUNTER'S JOURNEY.
For that latest work I sought to know Theodore Roosevelt from the perspective of a fellow hunter, rancher, and horseman. I rode where he rode, hunted as he hunted, and found that the century intervening was but a skip in time between hunters' hearts.
--Dan Aadland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A gift from the past, January 26, 2009

By 

Cat Whipple "Author of Indian Kitty Powwow Pr... (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women and Warriors of the Plains: The Pioneer Photography of Julia E. Tuell (Paperback)

As a Native photographer, I pride myself on knowing most of the old time photographers who documented the plains Indians. I had never heard of this woman or this book, so I was suprised to see it in a Mountain Press catalog. I had to order it and find out what it was all about. Imagine my excitement when I opened the book to find photographs of Plains Indians that I had never seen before. It was like a gift from the past. Unlike the posed photographs of Eastman, these photos are more what today we call "candid". Just people going about their daily activities.

Unfortunetly the book is a medium sized paperback, with paper of ordinary quality - meaning the photographs are small, dull and sometimes a bit fuzzy. Which makes to hard to tell whether a photograph is out of focus, or if it's the paper and resolution that makes it look fuzzy. However, it does have some color plates in the center of the book that are very beautiful - although some of those were hand colored and look a bit out of context for these types of photos.

Overall, its a treat to look through the photos; examining the details and faces, outfits and tipis, landscapes and structures of a world gone by but still held close to our hearts. As these photographs aren't widely known, nor the photographer (at least not that I am aware of) I would think this book could use a reprint on high end paper in big format. What a treasure that would be. Still worth adding to your collection in its current form.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding contribution to Native American studies., July 3, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women and Warriors of the Plains: The Pioneer Photography of Julia E. Tuell (Paperback)

An excellent pick, Dan Aadland's Women And Warriors Of The Plains provides a review of the early photography of Julia Tuell, whose black and white portraits of Native American women are accompanied by fine accounts of life with the Northern Cheyenne and others.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Features the pioneer photography of Julia E. Tuell, February 19, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women and Warriors of the Plains: The Pioneer Photography of Julia E. Tuell (Paperback)

Women and Warriors of the Plains features the pioneer photography of Julia E. Tuell, whose black and white photos documented Native American women's lives and times. The Tuells lived among the Sioux from 1912 to 1929, with Julia using her photography to document their rapidly-changing way of life. Her photos are both artistic and historically important documents of early Sioux women's lives.