IDNO

P.8591.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: “Mersal [sic Mescal] church. Blackfoot. Montana.” [typed text]

Low-lying octangular wooden log building, identified as ‘Mersal Church’, with a wooden? slate roof with a square opening at top, and windows set into two of the visible walls. Two horses graze next to the church, and bushes and trees are in the background. [JD 4/5/2007]

Place

N America; United States of America; Montana; Blackfoot Country; near Browning; Two Medicine River; Little Badger Creek

Cultural Affliation

Native American; Plains Indian; Algonquian; Niisitapi; ?Piikuni [historically Blackfoot; Piegan]

Named Person

Photographer

Horniman, John Eric; Haddon, Alfred Cort

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort; Horniman, John Eric (Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle, 1909)

Date

August 1909

Collection Name

Mounted Haddon Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Context: Mescal is a ‘Native American Church’ that had a spiritual movement, and involved taking Payote drug. [Sherry Farrell Racette, JD 4/5/2007]

Photographer: This negative was previously attributed to 'John Emslie Horniman' (b. 1863 - 1932), but based on the biographies and life dates, it is more likely that the photographer was John Eric Horniman (b. 1889 - 1951), Emslie's son. This has been confirmed by the Passenger lists of the 5th June 1909 from England to Montreal, where the following passengers:
"Dr. A.C. Haddon, 55 years old, Surgeon.
Fanny, wife
Ethel, 25 yrs. old, daughter
Kathleen, 21 yrs. old, daughter.
John E. Horniman, 20 years old, student, single."
See also the self-portrait, N.14632. The Photographer field has been amended accordingly. [JD 8/23/2013]

Publication: In Gidley, Mick, 2003. Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field (University of Nebraska Press), pp.71-72 is the following notation:
Haddon told newsmen in July 1909 that he was preparing to spend about two weeks with Dalby's 'Curtis' party on a research trip among Indians who had gathered for their annual summer fishing season at the mouth of the Fraser River in British Columbia. ... But his biggest adventures - as recorded in the following reminiscence - took place the following month among the Blackfeet in Montana, with Curtis himself present.
On p.74 is the following extract from Haddon's memoirs:
"About fourteen miles south of Browning we pitched our camp on a terrace of the valley of Two Medicine river, immediately above the spot where it is joined by Little Beaver creek."
On p.76 is the following extract from Haddon's memoirs:
"The district which we visited is occupied by the Piegan branch of the Blackfoot nation."
Extracts of the book are available on google preview, http://books.google.co.uk/. [JD 10/11/2013]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 18/9/2008]