A composite image of Indigenous American leaders who visited the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, in its early years. Produced by the school’s official photographer, these cabinet cards were advertised through the school’s student publications and were sold to raise funds for the endeavour.
Founded in 1879 by Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924), the idea for Carlisle was developed whilst he was guarding a group of Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, Arapahoe and Caddo prisoners of war at Fort Marion in St. Augustine. Under the guise of reform, Pratt recognised that re-education camps offered a powerful tool with which to suppress further Native uprising, whilst also tapping into the missionizing evangelism of American Christian society. The schools were essentially boot camps, run under Pratt’s infamous governing principle to “kill the Indian and save the man”. Recruitment was targeted at Nations who were still in conflict with the United States, and as such the assimilationist programme of removing their children from their communities, languages and culture was in many ways another battleground of the Indian Wars.
The present example is one of several variants of this composite photograph produced by Choate over the years he worked for the school, described in the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource as “version 2”. Version 1, in some instances bearing the title “Red Skins” beneath, has been heavily retouched to fill in the space around the vignette portraits with painted in clothing and feathered hair ornaments.
Here is how the picture was described in the August 1881 edition of the school paper, Eadle Keatah Toh: “Mr. Choate continues to add to his collection of Indian photographs, which now number nearly a hundred different ones. In “Noted Indian Chiefs” on a card of cabinet size are grouped the heads of nineteen well known chiefs who have visited the training school since its organization. The centre of this group is Spotted Tail who recently met so tragic a fate, the expression of his face, the haughty pose of his head telling of an unsubdued, imperious nature. On either side of him are American Horse and Iron Wing both Sioux, whose necklaces of wampum and long hair parted in the middle give them an almost feminine look. In marked contrast is the hereditary enemy of their tribe the Ponca chief White Eagle, a face showing more character than any perhaps but that of Ouray whose death was so irreparable a loss to the cause of civilization among the Utes. Then there is the placid face of the Arickaree chief, Son-of-the-Star, the thin visage of Poor Wolf the Mandan chief, made ludicrous by an immense pair of spectacles, of Little Raven, too, the Arapahoe chief and long time friend of the whites, an old man now.”
The key on the verso reads: 1. Spotted Tail, Sious Chief, Rosebud Agency, Dakota. 2. Iron Wing, “ “ “ “ “ 3. American Horse, Sioux Chief, Pine Ridge Agency, “ 4. Red Shirt, “ “ “ “ “ 5. White Eagle, Ponca Chief, Indian Territory. 6. Standing Buffalo, “ “ “ “ 7. Poor Wolf, Mandan Chief, Fort Berthold, Dakota. 8. Son-of the-Star. Arickaree Chief, Fort Berthold, Dakota. 9. White Man, Apache Chief, Indian Territory. 10. Stumbling Bear, Kiowa. “ “ “ 11. Tso-de-ar-ko, Wichita “ “ “ 12. Big Horse, Cheyenne “ “ “ 13. Bob Tail, “ “ “ “ 14. Man-on the-Cloud, Cheyenne, Indian Territory. 15. Mad Wolf, “ “ “ 16. Little Raven, Arapahoe Chief, Indian Territory. 17. Yellow Bear, “ “ “ “ 18. Left Hand, “ “ “ “ 19. Ouray, Ute Chief, Colorado.
The attributions are not universally correct, and in some cases are slightly misleading. According to the cataloguing at U. Michigan: “Left Hand shown in this photograph is not the Southern Arapaho Chief Niwot/Left Hand (approximately 1825-1864?) that likely perished in the Sand Creek Massacre. Poor Wolf (Hidasta) erroneously identified as Mandan … Stumbling Bear (Kiowa) erroneously identified as Apache”.
OCLC finds a copy of Version 1 at U Michigan, there is an unknown version at Library of Congress, both are held by the Cumberland County Historical Society.
