by the standards of his time, Curtis was far ahead of his contemporaries in sensitivity, tolerance, and openness to Native American cultures and ways of thinking." Theodore Roosevelt, a contemporary of Curtis's and one of his most fervent supporters, wrote the following comments in the foreword to Volume 1 of The North American Indian: Curtis has been praised as a gifted photographer but also criticized by some contemporary ethnologists for manipulating his images. Although the early twentieth century was a difficult time for most Native communities in America, not all natives were doomed to becoming a "vanishing race." At a time when natives' rights were being denied and their treaties were unrecognized by the federal government, many natives were successfully adapting to Western society. By reinforcing the native identity as the noble savage and a tragic vanishing race, some believe Curtis deflected attention from the true plight of American natives. At the time when he was witnessing their squalid conditions on reservations first-hand, they were attempting to find their place in Western culture and adapt to their changing world. In his photogravure In a Piegan Lodge, published in The North American Indian, Curtis retouched the image to remove a clock between the two men seated on the ground. He is also known to have paid natives to pose in staged scenes or dance and partake in simulated ceremonies. His models were paid in silver dollars, beef and autographed photos. For instance, one of his first subjects, Princess Angelina, was paid a dollar a photo. Curtis paid natives to pose at a time when they lived with little dignity and enjoyed few rights and freedoms. It has been suggested that he altered and manipulated his pictures to create an ethnographic, romanticized simulation of native tribes untouched by Western society. Image gallery Works Books The North American Indian. 20 volumes (1907–1930) Volume 1 (1907): The Apache. The Jicarillas. The Navaho. Volume 2 (1908): The Pima. The Papago. The Qahatika. The Mohave. The Yuma. The Maricopa. The Walapai. The Havasupai. The Apache-Mohave, or Yavapai. Volume 3 (1908): The Teton Sioux. The Yanktonai. The Assiniboin. Volume 4 (1909): The Apsaroke, or Crows. The Hidatsa. Volume 5 (1909): The Mandan. The Arikara. The Atsina. Volume 6 (1911): The Piegan. The Cheyenne. The Arapaho. Volume 7 (1911): The Yakima. The Klickitat. Salishan tribes of the interior. The Kutenai. Volume 8 (1911): The Nez Perces. Wallawalla. Umatilla.