This series contains 37 albumen prints that were shot by Alexander Gardner in April and May 1868 during the Fort Laramie Treaty peace conference held in Fort Laramie, Wyoming. The photographs depict scenes at Fort Laramie including images of troops and buildings, as well as scenes shot near Fort Laramie including Fort David A. Russell and landscapes in the region. The bulk of the photographs in this series depict men, women, and children from the Lakota, Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke), Northern Tsitsistas (Northern Cheyenne), and Northern Inunaina (Northern Arapaho) tribes. These photos depict outdoor group portraits; photos of encampments; domestic scenes such as butchering cattle; and transportation such as crossing the North Platte River by ferry, as well as other scenes. Individuals depicted include Spotted Tail (Sicangu Lakota), Fast Bear (Sicangu Lakota), Yellow Bull [Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke)], and Grey Eyes (Lakota), among many others. One photograph of note is image P15390, which depicts the Indian peace commissioners in the council with the Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho tribes. Individuals depicted in this photo include General William T. Sherman, Colonel Samuel F. Tappen, General William S. Harney, John B. Sanborn, General Christopher C. Augur, General Alfred H. Terry, and Ashton S. H. White. There are also 3 restricted images in this series depicting American Indian tree burials.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William T. Sherman collection of Alexander Gardner photographs, P#####; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William T. Sherman collection of Alexander Gardner photographs, P#####; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Includes American Horse (the Cheyenne) (third from left), James Atwood is 4th from left. Jules Seminole is standing on far left. Cf. negative Number 49809.
Local Numbers:
NAA INV.06650600
Local Note:
Deteriorating Image
Original number 30981.
Two Moons' name name written on label pasted to negative. Identification verified in Bureau of American Ethnology Negative 260-a.
American Horse identification from Bureau of American Ethnology Negative 344-C.
James Atwood identified by Ernest King, N. Cheyenne on visit to NAA 5/20/75.
Black and white gelatin glass negative
Place:
DC? -- Washington?
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Collection Citation:
Photo Lot 80, Charles Milton Bell photographs of Native Americans, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Ledger drawings
Date:
1891 February
Scope and Contents:
29 drawings and 34 pages of typed explanatory text, formerly bound together, now disbound, plus an identifying title page handwritten by Albert Gatschet and one drawing on ruled paper. The explanatory text was transcribed from Gatschet's notebook, No. 2016-b, with corrections by Gatschet. T.p. inscribed: "Crayon Pictures of Cheyenne Ceremonial Customs and Implements. Drawn by Wuxpais or Daniel Littlechief, son of the present headchief of the Cheyenne Indians of South Dakota, at the Pine Ridge Agency. Explained by notes obtained from the same Indian by Albert S. Gatschet." The last drawing in the volume is signed "T.D. Little Chief," but cannot be identified as a drawing by Daniel Little Chief. Subjects include ceremonial items, name glyphs, painted tipis, and illustrations of Cheyenne customs. A nearly identical set of drawings by Daniel Little Chief is located at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Information provided by Candace Greene.
Biographical / Historical:
Daniel Little Chief, a.k.a. Wuxpais (?-1906), was a Northern Cheyenne warrior whose band of Cheyenne were sent south to the Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation in Indian Territory after their surrender, traveling there between 1878-1879. In 1881 this band moved north to the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota. In 1891 Daniel Littlechief inherited the role of head chief from his father and remained in South Dakota until his death in 1906. For more information see "American Indian Painters: A Biographical Dictionary" by Jeanne Snodgrass 1968, New York: Museum of the American Indian.
Albert S. Gatschet (1832-1907) was educated in his native Switzerland and in Germany (University of Bern [Ph.D., 1892]); University of Berlin. Early in his career, he pursued antiquarian research in European museums and wrote scientific articles. Among his interests was the etymology of Swiss place names. After coming to the United States in 1869, he worked on the American Indian vocabularies collected by Oscar Loew, of the United States Geological Survey West of the 100th Meridian (Wheeler Survey). Eventually John Wesley Powell employed him as an ethnologist with the United States Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Regions. When it was founded in 1879, he joined the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology and continued there until he retired in 1905. For the Powell Survey, Gatschet researched the ethnography of the Klamath in Oregon and the Modoc in Oklahoma. He also collected Native American material objects and investigated special problems for Powell's classification of the American Indian languages north of Mexico, working on languages of the Southeast, including groups forcibly settled in the southern Plains. He not only visited well known tribes but also searched out small groups, including the Biloxi and Tunica. He also worked with the Natchez, Tonkawa, Chitimacha, and Atakapa in the United States and Comecrudo and several other small groups in northern Mexico. Through library research, he studied the Timucua, Karankara, and the Beothuk. During the later part of his career, Gatschet was assigned comparative work on all the Algonquian languages. Although the project was never completed, he collected much about many of the languages, especially Peoria, Miami, and Shawnee. In addition, he worked with members of diverse tribes of the eastern United States. For more information, see NAA finding aid located at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/guide/_g1.htm#jrg575
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2016-a
Varying Form of Title:
Crayon pictures of Cheyenne ceremonial customs and implements / drawn by Wuxpais or Daniel Littlechief ... ; explained by notes from the same Indian by Albert S. Gatschet
Place:
United States South Dakota Pine Ridge Agency.
United States South Dakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Indian Peace Commissioners in council with the Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho. The Commissioners are from left to right: Colonel Samuel F. Tappan, General William S. Harney, General W.T. Sherman, John B. Sanborn, General Christopher C. Augur, General Alfred H. Terry, and Ashton S. H. White (secretary).
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William T. Sherman collection of Alexander Gardner photographs, P#####; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
MS 2016-b Explanations of ethnographic pictures referring to the Cheyenne tribes at Pine Ridge Agency, by Daniel Littlechief, and Grammatic analysis of the story "The wolf and the fox"
Creator:
Gatschet, Albert S. (Albert Samuel), 1832-1907 Search this
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
February and March, 1891
Scope and Contents:
"Explanations of ethnographic pictures referring to the Cheyenne tribes at Pine Ridge Agency, by Daniel Littlechief," and "Grammatic analysis of the story, 'The wolf and the fox,' written down from D(aniel) L(ittlechief) dictation."
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 2016-b
Local Note:
Autograph document
Place:
D. C. Washington
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Citation:
Manuscript 2016-b, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
This collection consists of seventeen photogravures from Joseph K. Dixon's 1913 published book, The Vanishing Race. These images are part of the larger work of Rodman Wanamaker in his expeditions (1908-1913) to document the lives and cultures of Native American peoples.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of seventeen photogravures from Joseph K. Dixon's 1913 book, The Vanishing Race. Although published in 1913, the 80 photogravures in Dixon's work were taken in 1909. These images are part of the larger work of Rodman Wanamaker in his expeditions (1908-1913) to document the lives and cultures of Native American peoples, whom he viewed as a "noble, though vanishing race." Wanamaker's first and second expeditions (1908 and 1909) both took place in the Valley of the Little Bighorn, Montana, portrayed Native American men and women from throughout the United States, and included extensive photographic and moving picture footage. Wanamaker's third expedition (1913) was broader in scope, visiting and symbolically granting citizenship to over 250 Native American communities across the country. As with the first two expeditions, the third expedition, known as the "Rodman Wanamaker Expedition of Citizenship to the North American Indian," was photographed and filmed by Dixon.
Among the seventeen photogravures in this collection, many of note include portraits of tribal leaders Chief Koon-Kah-Za-Chy (Kiowa-Apache), Chief Two Moons (Northern Tsitsistas/Suhtai [Cheyenne]), Chief Pretty Voice Eagle (Ihanktonwan Nakota [Yankton Sioux]), Chief Plenty Coups (Apsáalooke [Crow/Absaroke]), Chief Brave Bear (Southern Tsisistas/Suhtai [Cheyenne]), Chief Red Cloud (Oglala Lakota [Oglala Sioux]), and Chief Red Whip (A'aninin [Gros Ventre]). Other images include group portraits of the 1909 "Last Great Indian Council," as well as Native veterans of the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn. Image titles created by Joseph K. Dixon.
Arrangement:
The photographs in this collection are organized into folders.
Biographical / Historical:
Rodman Wanamaker (1863-1928) was the sole surviving heir of Philadelphia-based department store magnate, John Wanamaker. Rodman, among his other philanthropic endeavors with the arts, believed that Native Americans were a "noble, though vanishing race," whose lives needed to be recorded before they disappeared. Because of this belief, he funded three expeditions (1908-1913) to "perpetuate the life stories of the first Americans." In addition, he also strove, and ultimately failed, to create a National Indian Memorial to be situated in New York City which would rival the Statue of Liberty.
Joseph K. Dixon (1858-1926) was born in New York, and received a bachelor of divinity degree from the Rochester Theological Seminary before becoming a lecturer for the Eastman Kodak photographic company in 1904. Two years later he was hired to work in Wanamaker's department store, and by 1908 he was chosen to lead the three Wanamaker expeditions (1908-1913) to document the lives and cultures of Native peoples of the United States. For the remainder of his life, Dixon frequently lectured on and continued to photograph the lives of Native Americans.
Related Materials:
Other photographic collections of Joseph K. Dixon's work and Rodman Wanamaker's expeditions exist in the Smithsonian Institution's National Anthropological Archives, and the Mathers Museum of World Cultures at Indiana University.
Provenance:
Museum Purchase, 2017.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Joseph K. Dixon photographs from the 1909 Wanamaker Expedition, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Northern Tsitsistas (Northern Cheyenne) Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Photographs
Place:
Fort Laramie (Wyo.)
Kansas
Washington (D.C.)
Date:
1866-1868
Summary:
Alexander Gardner (1821-1882) was a photographer best known for his portraits of President Abraham Lincoln, his American Civil War photographs, and his photographs of American Indian delegations. This collection contains 61 albumen prints that were shot by Gardner circa 1866-1868 and held in General William T. Sherman's personal collection. Photographs depict American Indian tribes and Peace Commissioners involved in the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty; photographs shot along the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division in 1867; and photographs of American Indian delegations visiting Washington, D. C. from 1866-1868.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains 61 albumen prints that were shot by photographer Alexander Gardner circa 1866-1868 and held in General William T. Sherman's personal collection. Among the photographs are depictions that were shot in and around Fort Laramie, Wyoming during the 1868 peace treaty negotiations between the U.S. Government and tribal leaders from several American Indian Northern Plains tribes including Lakota (Teton/Western Sioux), Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke), Northern Tsitsistas (Northern Cheyenne), and Northern Inunaina (Northern Arapaho); survey photographs shot in Kansas in 1867 for the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division (later renamed the Kansas Pacific Railway); and portraits of American Indian delegates in Washington, D.C. including Dakota (Eastern Sioux), Kaw (Kansa), Lakota (Teton/Western Sioux), and Sac and Fox (Sauk & Fox) tribes, 1866-1868. Some of the photographs in this collection, particularly those in Series 2, may have been shot by photographers working with Gardner such as Dr. William A. Bell (1841-1921), William Redish Pywell, and Lawrence Gardner (Alexander Gardner's son).
Arrangement:
This collection is intellectually arranged in three series. Series 1: Fort Laramie, Wyoming, Series 2: Kansas Pacific Railroad, Series 3: Portraits of American Indian delegates, Washington, D.C.
The photographs are physically arranged in eight boxes according to the following: size, conservation work, and series. Within each box they are arranged by photo number. The photographs in boxes 1-4 had conservation work performed by a photo conservator in 2014.
Biographical / Historical:
Alexander Gardner (1821-1882) was a photographer best known for his portraits of President Abraham Lincoln, his American Civil War photographs, and his photographs of American Indian delegations.
Gardner was born in Paisley, Scotland on October 17, 1821 to James Gardner and Jean Glenn. He worked in a number of positions including as a jeweler, journalist, and editor before entering the field of photography circa 1855.
In 1856, Gardner immigrated to the United States with his wife Margaret Sinclair Gardner, his son Lawrence Gardner, and his daughter Eliza Gardner and later that year he began working as a photographer in Mathew Brady's gallery in New York. While working for Brady, it is thought that Gardner invented the "imperial print," a large photograph printed on approximately 21 x 17 inch paper that was often enhanced with hand-coloring and ink. Wealthy politicians and businessmen were among the clients who sat for their photographic portraits in the Brady studio and paid as much as $50- $500 per imperial print (today the equivalent of about $1,000 to 10,000).
By 1858, Gardner was managing Brady's gallery at 352 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. When the U.S. Civil War broke out in 1861, Gardner was part of Brady's photography team that documented battle aftermaths and military campsites for the Union. Gardner left the Brady studio circa late 1862 and established his own studio in Washington, D.C. where he continued photographing the war along with his brother James Gardner, and other former Brady photographers including Timothy O'Sullivan.
During the war he documented the remnants of important battle scenes including the Battle of Antietam (1862) and the Battle of Gettysburg (1863). Gardner published 100 of his Civil War images in the publication Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War. The two volume work included photographs shot by additional photographers including O'Sullivan and John Reekie.
In addition to war photography, Gardner was also a portrait photographer and photographed many civilians, soldiers, and politicians in Washington, D.C. Between the years 1861-1865, Gardner photographed President Abraham Lincoln on seven different occasions, including both inaugurations, as well as studio portrait sittings. On July 7, 1865, Gardner was the only photographer allowed to photograph the execution of four conspirators in the President Lincoln assassination.
In 1866, Gardner along with Antonio Zeno Shindler and Julian Vannerson were contracted to photograph portraits of American Indian delegates visiting Washington, D.C. Between the years 1866 to 1868, Gardner photographed many tribes in his studio including Iowa, Sac and Fox, Kaw (Kansa), Dakota, and Lakota. In 1868, Gardner was hired by the U.S. Government to serve as photographer for the peace talks that took place in Fort Laramie, Wyoming. During this trip, Gardner photographed the Lakota (Sioux), Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke), Northern Tsitsistas (Northern Cheyenne), and Northern Inunaina (Northern Arapaho) tribes. Among the government officials at Fort Laramie that Gardner photographed was General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891). Sherman served as a General for the Union Army during the Civil War and later in 1869 became the Commanding General of the U.S. Army under President Ulysses Grant's administration. A member of the Peace Commission established in 1867, Sherman traveled to negotiate treaties with American Indian Plains tribes.
Upon returning to Washington, D.C., Gardner published a set of his Fort Laramie photographs in the publication, Scenes in Indian Country. Members of the Peace Commission were given photo portfolios and it is believed that the photos in this collection may have been from General Sherman's personal set. Gardner went on to become the official photographer for the Office of Indian Affairs in 1872.
In his later years, Gardner also was involved in philanthropic causes, such as helping to establish the Masonic Mutual Relief Association which aided widows and orphans of Master Masons. He also founded the Saint John's Mite Association which provided aid to the poor in Washington, D.C.
Alexander Gardner died in Washington, D.C. in 1882.
Related Materials:
Alexander Gardner photographs are housed in many archival and museum repositories. Photographs from the Scenes in Indian Country series are also held in the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Missouri Historical Society, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the St. Louis Mercantile Library in Missouri.
Provenance:
The photographs in this collection were originally owned by General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) and may have been part of a portfolio of photographs that Alexander Gardner gifted to Sherman and other Fort Laramie Treaty peace commissioners. Photographs were then donated to the Museum of the American Indian (MAI) by Sherman's son P(hilemon) Tecumseh Sherman (1867-1941) in May 1932 and by Sherman's granddaughter Eleanor Sherman Fitch (1876-1959) in March 1942.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Some images restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William T. Sherman collection of Alexander Gardner photographs, P#####; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
A different pose is reproduced in Frink & Barthelmess, Photographer on an Army Mule, Norman, 1965, ff. page 104 with caption "White Bull, who served with Miles in 1877 and later enlisted in Casey's scouts. He was a medicine man and, after the Northern Cheyenne reservation was established in 1884, became one of the tribal judges."
"White Bull was one of the Northern Cheyenne who surrendered to Miles at Fort Keogh in 1877. He was held by Miles as a hostage for the surrender of others, and a few days later he was the first of thirty Cheyennes recruited by Miles for scout duty. He was in the group on Muddy Creek when Lame Deer tried to kill Miles.
White Bull scalped Lame Deer and his nephew, who were both killed by soldiers at that time. ...In his late years he was still an important personage among the Cheyennes, as indicated by the fact that Christian Barthelmess, in identifying the photograph he took of this old warrior, wrote his name: 'Jutch [Judge] White Bull'.
Local Numbers:
OPPS NEG.56082
Local Note:
Grinnell (The Fighting Cheyennes, 287) says that White Bull, who was a medicine man, made the war bonnet that Roman Nose (Bat) wore when he was killed with the Cheyennes fighting against the army scouts at Beecher Island in 1868."- Photographer on an Army Mule, page 111.
Photo with caption: "Christian Barthelmess called this 'the start of Casey's scouts'. Lt. Casey sits on log in center. Standing from left, Bull Sheep, Zachary Rowland, Hollow Wood, Sweet Medicine, unidentified Indian. On Lt. Casey's left stands 'Old Bill' Rowland, whom Barthelmess called 'the last of the old-time river trappers'. Rowland was also an interpreter, and aided George Bird Grinnell in his research among the Cheyennes. Indians seated right include Hairy Hand and Wolf Name. Photograph taken in 1889 at the scouts' camp on the Yellowstone, west of Fort Keogh."
"Elk River, his name, which was also borne by a member of the Southern Cheyenne tribe, was the Cheyenne name for the Yellowstone. For years Elk River was a familiar and respected figure around Fort Keogh...Elk River was in Dull Knife's village when it was destroyed by Mackenzie 1n 1876...
John Stands-in-Timber in August, 1962, told Father Peter Powell:...'Elk River was old when he enlisted in the scouts [i.e. Casey's scouts] and was said to be nearly a hundred when he died, about 1908'...He first enlisted as a scout in 1879, in Montana, under Miles, after which he went to Indian Territory. He re-enlisted on returning north...
The book Horse Catcher by Mari Sandozis based upon the lives of this man and his counterpart among among the Southern Cheyennes." -- Photographer on an Army Mule, pages 109-110
Local Numbers:
OPPS NEG.56072
Local Note:
Erroneously labeled as Sioux on face of original print.
Elk River is also mentioned in Grinnell's The Cheyenne Indians II, and The Fighting Cheyennes.
Man on far left wearing buffalo overcoat, Muskrat cap, 1884 Mills belt and saber. Others with 1880s campaign hats, five-button blouses, trousers, some with late pattern gauntlets. Photo possibly taken before 1890 as these are standard issue items not Indian Scout patterns authorized in Special Order number 10, 1890, by the Adjutant General's Office. It could be after 1890 but prior to the issue of the authorized Indian Scout uniforms. --Information from James Nottage, June 1973; see Guides to Photo Collections, "Military Uniforms." (PJR)
"Left: Mrs Henry Little Coyote, first wife of Henry Little Coyote, Keeper of Is'siwun, the Sacred Buffalo Hat, from 1959 to 1065. She was the mother of Eugene Little Coyote, and the paternal grandmother of Joseph Little Coyote, now (1971) a member of the Northern Cheyenne Chiefs' society and the Kit Fox Society of the same tribe. Right: Mrs Thomas (Bessie) Sioux. Cheyenne name: Appears Out of water Woman. She and Thomas Sioux had one natural daughter. Then they adopted Henry Sioux, who still resides (1971) at Lame Deer, Montana. Information from Josie One Bear Stands in Timber. Verified by Henry Sioux and Wesley Little White Man, Lame Deer."--identification obtained by Father Peter J. Powell, at Lame Deer, Montana, November, 1971.
Lieutenant Edward W. Casey, center and Robert N. Getty left.
Biographical / Historical:
Barthelmess at Fort Keogh during 1888-97 period.
Concerning the estimated date: According to R.M. Utley (Last Days of the Sioux Nation, pages 257-8), Lt. Casey was killed on January 7, 1891 by Plenty Horses (just after the Wounded Knee massacre).
Local Numbers:
OPPS NEG.56088
Local Note:
Photo with caption: "The scouts in column, Casey, center, Getty left. Army reports of the period said these and other Indians showed 'remarkable aptitude for military service, were amenable to discipline, generally of good habits, proud of their occupation'."
