Edaward S.Curtis在1907年到1930年間出版這本北美印地安攝影集，是為了紀錄傳統印地安文化。這套圖書一共有二十冊，內有解說文字及照片圖像。每冊各自擁有完整的大型凹版印刷相片圖檔。 這本北美印地安攝影集追隨十九世紀的歐美傳統，以攝影和以編年史記敘的方式來捕捉美洲印地安原住民族的生活的「他處」。這套書宏大的規模和事後設計重建的影像所造成的驚人效果，都是使它與眾不同的原因。經過西北大學為期兩年的數位化計畫，北美印地安攝影集的數位化版本在2004年出現，也就是Edward S, Curtis開始為這套書做田野調查的一百年後。

Edward Sheriff Curtis published The North American Indian between 1907 and 1930 with the intent to record traditional Indian cultures. The work comprises twenty volumes of narrative text and photogravure images. Each volume is accompanied by a portfolio of large photogravure plates. The North American Indian (1907-1930), this publication follows the nineteenth-century Euro-American tradition of capturing the “otherness” of indigenous American Indian life in photography and narrative chronicles. It is set apart by its ambitious scale, and by the striking effect of its images, which are essentially contrived reconstructions rather than true documentation. Through Northwestern University Library’s two-year digitization project, this digital edition of The North American Indian appears in 2004, one hundred years after Edward S. Curtis began field-work for the publication.