As American Indians stood on the brink of extinction, their ancient cultures collapsing under the country's westward expansion, Edward S. Curtis determined to capture their ways of life through photography. He sacrificed his health, his marriage, and his fortune to the creation of a vast pictorial history of the traditional lives of more than 80 tribes, including the Hopi, Navajo, Eskimo, Piegan, Crow, Suquamish, and Kwakiutl.