Hurricane Helene update - a note from BIBLIO’s CEO.

Skip to content

Scenes in the Indian Country: Lakota Indian Running Water with Members of the US Indian Peace Commission at the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Signing

Scenes in the Indian Country: Lakota Indian Running Water with Members of the US Indian Peace Commission at the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Signing

Click for full-size.

Scenes in the Indian Country: Lakota Indian Running Water with Members of the US Indian Peace Commission at the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Signing Albumen photograph - 1868

by GARDNER, Alexander (1821-1882, Photographer)

  • Used

Description

Fort Laramie, Wyoming: A[lexander] Gardner. 511 Seventh Street, Washington DC, 1868. Albumen Photograph. Albumen silver photograph mounted on beige board with letterpressed decorative border joined by print attribution and title caption. Image: (9 1/2 x 13 inches). Sheet: (13 1/2 x 19 inches). Frame: (21 1/4 x 25 1/2 inches). A historically important photograph of a Lakota Indian with two members of the Indian Peace Commission at the pivotal Fort Laramie Treaty signing, taken by the renown Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner as part of his "Scenes in the Indian Country" series. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty is one of the most notorious broken treaties by the US Government.

In 1868, Gardner was commissioned by the US Government to photograph the peace talks between the federally-appointed Indian Peace Commission, which included General Sherman, and chiefs of the Plains Indians tribes at Fort Laramie in Wyoming. Gardner's series of photographs, Scenes in the Indian Country, from which this present work comes, includes images of Indian tribal leaders who gathered at Fort Laramie to meet with the Indian Peace Commissioners. This series is considered to be among his most poignant works. In the 1860s, Plains Indians found themselves in the middle of the country with white advancement on both sides. New railway lines were cutting through indigenous hunting grounds, which scattered the game necessary for their survival. In an attempt to end conflict, an unprecedented gathering of tribal leaders from the Northern Plains assembled at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, in 1868. With his wagon serving as a darkroom, Gardner photographed scenes surrounding the treaty negotiations between the US Government's Indian Peace Commission and the tribes who agreed to give up land and move to reservations. Gardner's photographs serve as important documents of the indigenous peoples' presence in the West and their lifestyles, which were rapidly being destroyed by Western expansion and the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. The National Museum of the American Indian has identified the people in Gardner's photograph: "Lakota people and non-Indians at the Fort Laramie treaty signing, 1868. Left to right: unidentified non-Indian man; Leon Pallardy (interpreter); unidentified Native woman; Running Water (Lakota); two unidentified non-Indian men; [Artist and Clerk to the Indian Peace Commission] John D. Howland (standing, in white hat); Peace Commission Secretary Ashton S. H. White (seated, in white hat); and unidentified non-Indian man." However, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in their description of the same photo (P1967.3253) also name "Peter Richard Renshaw, Mrs. Peter Richard (?), and Baptiste Garnier (aka Little Bat)." The US National Archives' description of the Fort Laramie Treaty: "In this treaty [.] the US recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people. In the 19th century, the US drive for expansion clashed violently with Native Americans' resolve to preserve their lands, sovereignty, and ways of life. From the 1860s through the 1870s, warfare and skirmishes broke out frequently on the American frontier. In 1865, a congressional committee studied the uprisings and wars in the American West. They produced a "Report on the Condition of the Indian Tribes" in 1867. This led to an act to establish an Indian Peace Commission to end the wars and prevent future conflicts. The US set out to establish a series of treaties with Native tribes that would force American Indians to give up their lands and move further west onto reservations. In the spring of 1868, a conference was held at Fort Laramie, in present-day Wyoming, which resulted in a treaty with the Sioux (Brule, Oglala, Miniconjou, Yanktonai, Hunkpapa, Blackfeet, Cuthead, Two Kettle, Sans Arcs, and Santee) and the Arapaho. The goal of the treaty was to bring peace between White settlers and the tribes, who agreed to relocate to the Black Hills in the Dakota Territory. All the tribes involved gave up many thousands of acres of land that had been promised in earlier treaties, but retained hunting and fishing rights in their older territory. They also agreed not to attack railroads or settlers. In exchange, the US established the Great Sioux Reservation, consisting of a large portion of the western half of what is now the state of South Dakota, including the Black Hills, which are sacred to the Sioux people." However, once gold was found in the reservation, General Custer led a group of miners into the territory who eventually demanded further US military intervention, breaking the treaty. Gardner was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1821. In 1850, he and his brother James traveled to the US to establish a cooperative community in Iowa in the Owenite mold. Eventually settling in New York, he found employment with Mathew Brady as a photographer. With the start of the Civil War in 1861, the demand for portrait photography increased, as soldiers on their way to the front posed for images to leave behind for their loved ones. Gardner became one of the top photographers in this field and went on to produce the most memorable photographs of the Civil War. Notably, Gardner photographed the then-newly elected President Abraham Lincoln twice as many times as any other photographer.

Aspinwall, Across the Indian Country: Photographs by Alexander Gardner, 1867-68, Nelson-Atkins Museum. Rowell, "In the 1860s Alexander Gardner Captured a Native Life, Now Lost," National Geographic. Sherman Collection of Gardner Photographs, National Museum of the American Indian. US National Archives, "Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)," archives.gov.
A$14,062.85
FREE Shipping to USA
Standard delivery: 7 to 14 days
More Shipping Options
Ships from Donald Heald Rare Books (New York, United States)

Details

  • Title Scenes in the Indian Country: Lakota Indian Running Water with Members of the US Indian Peace Commission at the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Signing
  • Author GARDNER, Alexander (1821-1882, Photographer)
  • Binding Albumen Photograph
  • Publisher A[lexander] Gardner. 511 Seventh Street, Washington DC, Fort Laramie, Wyoming
  • Date 1868
  • Bookseller's Inventory # 41579

About Donald Heald Rare Books New York, United States

Biblio member since 2006

Donald Heald Rare Books, Prints, and Maps offers the finest examples of antiquarian books and prints in the areas of botany, ornithology, natural history, Americana and Canadiana, Native American, voyage and travel, maps and atlases, photography, and more. We are open by appointment only.

Terms of Sale:

All items are guaranteed as described. Any purchase may be returned for a full refund within 10 working days as long as it is returned in the same condition and is packed and shipped correctly.

Browse books from Donald Heald Rare Books

tracking-