IN 1903, THE ALREADY-LEGENDARY CHIEF JOSEPH WAS IN SEATTLE TO ADVOCATE FOR THE NEZ PERCÉ, ALSO known as Nimiipuu, or “The People.” A dodgy treaty with the U.S. government had hoodwinked the Nez Percé out of their ancestral homelands, and the weary warrior—after being forced to flee with his tribe and fighting on their behalf for so many years—was intent on fighting only to get his people back to the Wallowa Valley in Oregon. Also in Seattle on that day in 1903 was photographer Edward S. Curtis, who had not yet embarked on his ambitious life’s work, The North American Indian. Chief Joseph walked into Curtis’ studio, and, impressed by the famous warrior’s nobility and integrity, Curtis made a portrait of him that would become iconic. Through the fast friendship between the two, Curtis would come to regard Chief Joseph as “one of the greatest men who ever lived.”
More than 100 years later, photographer Hunter Barnes had his own intimate experiences and profound connections among the . He grew up in the Outer Banks in North Carolina’s Hurricane Alley, geographically and culturally removed from
