A remarkable publishing coup, Prayer to the Great Mystery presents 93 newly discovered photographs taken by Curtis and culled from a recently found cache of archival Curtis prints at the Library of Congress, as well as 150 photographs which have appeared only in the limited sets of The North American Indian and never in modern book form.

The 243 images gathered by preeminent Curtis collector Bob Kapoun reflect Curtis's inspired attempt to preserve the pristine quality of 19th-century Indian tribal life before the onslaught of American expansion.

Accompanying the photographs is a newly presented text of myths, abridged from the 20 volumes of Curtis's The North American Indian, and edited by Indian ethnographer Gerald Hausman. Prayer to the Great Mystery is a stunning account of a rich but vanished era in history, and a seminal book in understanding our rich Native American legacy.

"A handsome postscript to the photographer/ethnologist's career". -- The Seattle Times/Post Intelligencer