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Collection

Fisk-Chalker family collection, 1849-1898 (majority within 1859-1890)

91 items

The Fisk-Chalker family collection is made up of letters, land indentures, tax receipts, tintype photographs, and a tavern keeper's license, related to the Fisk and Chalker families of Junius, New York; Livingston County, Michigan; and (briefly) Chamberlain, South Dakota. The collection includes five Civil War letters, with content on the Michigan First Regiment of Engineers and Mechanics; and three letters by Sarah J. Fisk Chalker following her arrival on Bailey's Ranch near Chamberlain, South Dakota, January 1890.

The Fisk-Chalker family collection is made up of 36 letters, 10 land indentures, 42 tax receipts, 2 tintype photographs, and 1 tavern keeper's license, related to the Fisk and Chalker families of Junius, New York; Livingston County, Michigan; and (briefly) Chamberlain, South Dakota.

The Correspondence is largely incoming and outgoing letters of John Fisk, his brother Sumner Fisk, his wife Judith "Judah" Fisk, and his daughter Sarah J. Fisk Chalker. Five Civil War date letters include two letters by Sumner Fisk (August 4, 1862, and June 20, 1864), in which he offers news on Seneca County, New York, soldiers Charley Bush and Capt. Ira Munson (probably of the 126th New York Infantry). John Fisk received two letters from Private George Turk of the First Regiment Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, Company A (June 18, 1864, and July 23, 1864), with content on soldiers' pay, camp life, and augmenting his military wages by chopping cord wood for the railroad in Calhoun, Georgia, and Bridgeport, Alabama.

In the early days of January 1890, Sarah J. and John Chalker moved to the newly organized state of South Dakota and settled on the Bailey Ranch on the Missouri River, near Chamberlain. In three letters to her mother, Sarah described their arrival, their house, the terrible "gumbo" mud, and other aspects of the "disagreeable country." She wrote of a visit with "an old squaw and Indian" for meat and coffee in their teepee near the Bailey Ranch stable--"the old squaw smoked while we was in there. She carried her pipe on her back." After a month, they received fewer visits from Native Americans. In summation, she wrote "Mother, I would not live here and make it my home for all the land in Dakota." John and Sarah returned to live in Putnam, Michigan.

The Documents series includes 10 land indentures dating between 1849 and 1884 (bulk 1849-1851) largely for property in Seneca and Ontario County, New York. Forty-two receipts for John and Judith Fisk's property taxes in Putnam, Michigan, 1865-1892, and John Fisk's Junius, New York, tavern keeper's license (May 1, 1854) complete the series.

The collection's photographs depict the parents of Sarah J. Fisk and of John G. Chalker. One tintype portrait shows John S. and Judith "Judah" Fisk and another tintype shows Abner and Deliah Patterson Chalker.

Collection

John P. Cook Photograph Collection, ca. 1870s-1915

9 photographs

The John P. Cook photograph collection contains 9 photographs associated with U.S. Army officer John Pope Cook, including 7 images given to Cook by Dakota Territory-based Indian trader Charles Philander Jordan.

The John P. Cook photograph collection contains 9 photographs associated with U.S. Army officer John Pope Cook, including 7 images given to Cook by Dakota Territory-based Indian trader Charles Philander Jordan.

Among the photographs that were given to Cook by Jordan are a heavily retouched cabinet card studio portrait of Sitting Bull and a stereograph view on a cabinet card-sized mount captioned "No. 45 Spotted Tail's Tepee," both taken by photographer W. R. Cross; a studio group portrait of Red Cloud and Charles P. Jordan on a mount of Washington, D.C.-based photographer John Nephew bearing the verso inscription "To my most esteemed friend Gen. John Cook. C. P. Jordan July 9/89"; and five studio portrait photographs taken by John Alvin Anderson of six of Jordan's children born to his Lakota wife Julia Walks First Jordan (1859-1913; a niece of Red Cloud's, also known as Winyan Hoaka, True Woman, Weah-Wash-Tay, The Beautiful One), identified through verso inscriptions as "Mary J. Jordan," "Everard Cady Jordan," "Collins Custer Jordan," "Edwin E. & Wm Ward Jordan," and "Ella Adaline Jordan." The date and location of the portrait of Red Cloud and Jordan may point to the possibility of that image having been produced while the subjects were in Washington, D.C., during the 1889 Sioux Land Commission negotiations.

Also present are two photomechanically-illustrated postcards that date to the early 20th-century. One postcard bearing an advertisement for the Northern Pacific Railway was postmarked June 11, 1915 and addressed to John P. Cook's daughter Nina Cook in Frontier, Michigan, with the message "Dear Nina: I am on my way wish you were with me love Fred." The second postcard bears a profile view of the U.S.S. Nebraska and appears to have been postmarked August 1, 1910 and was addressed to Cook at his residence in Ransom, Michigan, with the message "Dear cousin sorry to make you all wait so long for ans (sic) to your kind letters but can't be helped this is a photo of one of the ships with the Atlantic fleet."

Collection

Olga and Jesse Smith collection, 1898-1924 (majority within 1909-1914)

72 items

The Olga and Jesse Smith collection is made up of photographs, correspondence, and other materials revolving around this couple's work at the Ironwood and Ponca Schools for Native Americans, in South Dakota and Oklahoma, respectively.

The Olga and Jesse Smith collection is made up of photographs, correspondence, and other materials revolving around this couple's work at the Ironwood and Ponca Schools for Native Americans, in South Dakota and Oklahoma, respectively. The largest portion of the collection dates during their time at Ironwood School, 1909-1912, and the Ponca School, 1912-1914.

The centerpiece of the Smith collection is a photograph album, apparently kept by Olga Smith. Consisting of 304 mounted snapshots, this album is divided roughly into two parts: photos from South Dakota and photos from Oklahoma. The first images were taken in and around the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Their subjects include the Ironwood and Upper Cut Meat Day Schools, portraits of school children and other male and female members of the Lakota tribe, Native Americans in tribal costumes and on horseback, an excursion to the Badlands, and other subjects. Photographs taken in Oklahoma include views of the Ponca School and its school children, and other portraits.

This photograph album is valuable in its entirety, and for many of its outstanding individual images. Some of the most impressive photographs are casual portraits of Native Americans, snapshots of a Catholic "Indian Funeral," views of school buildings and grounds, and Native American rituals and encampments. The album also provides insight into what the Smiths deemed important enough to photograph and retain.

The collection also contains 39 loose photographs and images, including tintypes, real photo postcards, picture postcards, a cyanotype, studio portraits, and other miscellaneous photographs. These include family photographs, portraits of Native Americans (some in full regalia), Ponca and Ironwood schools and schoolchildren, images of Native American women cooking out-of-doors, a Rosebud Reservation hotel, a cemetery at the St. Francis Mission, and a several commercial picture postcards of locations on reservations in Oklahoma and North Dakota. See the Additional Descriptive Data for a more thorough list of subjects and names represented in the photograph album and loose photographs.

A small group of 10 letters accompanies the Smith collection. These include six letters and postcards from Olga to her parents and sister at Anderson and Graysville, Indiana, 1909-1910. Two of Olga's letters provide extensive details on life in Cut Meat on the Rosebud Reservation in February 1909. These letters describe the surrounding area, the school, the responsibilities of the Smiths' students, interactions with Native Americans, language barriers, the daily routine, and carriage and train travel. One of these two letters was printed in an Indiana newspaper. In the remaining four letters, Olga provides further insight into life on the reservation, pleads with her parents to visit, and offers advice on how to smuggle a child onboard a train without paying their fare. Smiths' daughter Mildred wrote a letter to her grandparents, in which she discusses her pets and expresses hope that they will come to visit (dated June 1909). Finally, two 1912 letters from Ironwood students to Jesse Smith in January 1912 discuss their chores and school attendance, and a single telegram to Jesse Smith in October 1914 regards his transfer to "Kiowa Schools," Oklahoma, to serve as supervising principal.

A selection of miscellaneous materials completes the Olga and Jesse Smith collection. Six of these nine items relate to the Smiths' school administration and their own efforts to learn and retain Sioux names and vocabulary. These include pages of typed names, titled "Indian Names That is Good for the Soul and Body," and "Sioux Indian Words from Memory"; two pages hung in the Ironwood school by Olga Smith, which list the female students cleaning and sewing responsibilities for two weeks; and a 55-page typed list of Native American names (possibly students). This last item contains approximately 1,450 names. Other miscellaneous materials include a commencement program for Olga Byrkett's graduation, 1898; a card with a hand-drawn teepee and tent which advertises a Progressive Dinner Party given by the Mission Ladies at Colony, Oklahoma, December 1916; and a Grand Secretary's Certificate for Jesse W. Smith, Master Mason, Ponca, Lodge No. 83, December 1924.

Collection

South Dakota Photograph Album, 1905-1906

approximately 110 photographs in 1 album.

The South Dakota photograph album contains approximately 110 photographs showing scenes in and around Chamberlain, South Dakota.

The South Dakota photograph album contains approximately 110 photographs showing scenes in and around Chamberlain, South Dakota. The album (26 x 33 cm) has black cloth covers and most images have manuscript captions. Four loose photographs inside the front cover include an image of a storefront of the "Lanphere Land Company"; a man with several girls on a parade float with the sign "The Master-Builder"; a building being constructed; and a view of Chamberlain replete with tipi encampments and grazing horses in the foreground. Subsequent images of interest include street views of Chamberlain, landscape views, shacks representing mining claims, the interior and exterior of a tent restaurant, railroad trains and bridges, picnickers, teams of surveyors and railroad workers, and buildings of the "Chamberlain Indian School."

Collection

Thomas Downs papers, 1862-1938

1.75 linear feet

The Downs papers consist of assorted material relating to Thomas Downs of Connersville, Indiana, focusing on the period between 1903 and 1911, when he was employed as an Indian agent to the Ute, Winnebago, Yakima, and other Native American nations in the western United States.

The Downs papers includes a portion of the personal and professional correspondence of Thomas Downs of Connersville, Ind., focusing on the period between 1903 and 1911, when he was employed as an Indian agent to the Ute, Winnebago, Yakima, and other Indian nations in the western states. While there is comparatively little information on Native Americans or Native American cultures, per se, Downs' letters do provide a glimpse into the mind of one Indian agent during the first decade of the 20th century, and documentation of the strained relations between Native Americans and the federal government and the cold reality of reservation life.

There are three topics within the Downs Papers which stand out as being of particular interest. First, there is approximately a dozen letters sent to Downs and other Indian service officials relating to the "rebellion" of Ute Indians at Thunder Butte in November, 1907. These letters, along with several newspaper clippings and a memoir written in about 1911 by Florence Downs Reifel (apparently from Downs' notes) provide a sense of how the situation unfolded and the pressure Downs must have felt to resolve the crisis quickly, if harshly.

The second topic relates to Downs' 1909 inspection tour of the Round Valley Indian School in Covelo, Calif., and the reservations at Neah Bay and Yakima, Wash. Throughout the year, Downs was accompanied by his wife, Mary Jane (Jennie), and although all of the letters are signed "Pa and Ma," they were actually written alternately and independently by Thomas and his wife. Jennie Downs' letters are not particularly informative, though they contain a few useful observations on the conditions of life on the reservation and at Indian schools. Thomas' letters are somewhat more detailed, providing a good impression of the Yakima reservation, in particular, which was then being placed under a comprehensive system of irrigation. On a side note, three of Downs' letters include amusing comments on the difficulty of train travel amidst the crush of visitors to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909.

Finally, there is a small, but interesting group of letters pertaining to Thomas Downs' efforts to enroll the Winnebago Indians in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska during October and November, 1909. These include a sad letter describing the scattered and depressed condition of the Winnebagoes in Wisconsin, and a far more optimistic assessment of their kin at the Winnebago Agency in Nebraska, who had taken up farming and other "industrious" habits.

Also noteworthy are three bound "journals" kept in Indian Service notebooks and a photocopy of a fourth. Notebook 2 (Box 5) includes notes taken by Downs in the field at the Yakima Reservation in 1909, describing the status of individual Yakima (and mixed blood) men and women. Notebook 3 (Box 5) includes what appear to be essays or speeches by Downs, including one dealing with racism and citizenship, comparing the social conditions of African-Americans and Native Americans. The fourth journal, present only in photocopy (filed under correspondence for the year 1911), includes an exceptional account of the protracted illness and death of Thomas Downs, as well as an excellent Downs-eye view of the Thunder Butte incident.

The remaining correspondence in the collection includes several touching letters dictated by Thomas Downs to Florence Downs Reifel in December, 1910, when Thomas was too ill to write for himself. These copies include a dramatic letter addressed to Downs' sister, Eliza, with whom he had broken off relations 45 years previously. Through this letter, Downs hoped to mend some family fences before his death, and although Eliza's acceptance of the olive branch -- and her forgiveness (1911 January 7) -- eventually came, it seems probable that it would have arrived after Downs was too ill to read it.

Downs' children and grandchildren are less well represented in the collection, except as recipients of letters. There are some juvenile writings of his daughters, Florence and Susan Jane, and sparse materials relating to the children's education, including grade school report cards and a few miscellaneous letters from George Downs, written while in college at Purdue and medical school in Ann Arbor. Of a more personal nature are two lovely mother's day letters from Jane Reifel to her mother, Florence (1921 May 8, 1938 May 7), extolling Florence's virtues as a mother. Jane admits to having been a rebellious youth, but confesses that she now realizes how Florence's mothering had made her a solid person, unlike her social-seeking cousins. Box 3 also includes a hand-drawn mother's day card from Jane. On an entirely different note, Box 3 contains two "mash cards" -- one a calling-card-sized card printed with the words "May I C U Home?" -- with the answers "yes" and "no," printed on the ends of the card, presumably to be used by the young woman to signal her reply. The other card, "Cigar Flirtation," describes the sexual code of cigar smoking. Finally, two undated letters from Thomas Downs to his son-in-law, Jesse Rhoads, outline his specifications for a house being built for the family, including a photograph of the house and a rough floor plan.

The Downs Papers includes a large number of deeds, accounts, receipts, banking records, canceled checks, and other financial miscellany (Box 4), some leather wallets and a silver match case engraved "Capt. T.D." (Box 7), along with a few obituaries and biographical essays on Thomas Downs, his sons William (who died at 16) and George, and other family members.

Collection

Thomas M. Bridges Crow Creek and Fort Hall Reservations Collection, ca. 1850-1918 (majority within 1892-1899)

approximately 242 photographs in 5 albums, 13 loose photographs, and 2 pieces of realia

The Thomas M. Bridges Crow Creek and Fort Hall Reservations collection contains approximately 242 photographs in 5 albums, 13 loose photographs, a Catlinite pipe bowl, and a ball headed war club. These materials were associated with Dr. Thomas Miller Bridges, a physician and surgeon who was employed on Native American reservations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Thomas M. Bridges Crow Creek and Fort Hall Reservations collection contains approximately 242 photographs in 5 albums, 13 loose photographs, a Catlinite pipe bowl, and a ball headed war club. These materials were associated with Dr. Thomas Miller Bridges, a physician and surgeon who was employed on Native American reservations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Photographs

Volume 1: This album (18.5 x 29.5 cm) has pebbled black faux leather covers with “Photographs” stamped in gold on the front and contains 51 photographs, all of which pertain to Crow Creek Reservation and primarily date to ca. 1892-1896. Detailed printed captions have been cut and pasted beneath every image in the album. Several captions have dates that were crossed out for unknown reasons. A handful of images also have numbers inscribed next to them. It is uncertain who took the majority of these photographs, though at least one photograph included in this album (a studio portrait of “White Ghost,” Yanktonai chief) has shown up elsewhere on mounts produced by a photographer based in Chamberlain, South Dakota, named H. B. Perry. It is possible that Perry produced a substantial number of the photographs in this album. Dr. Bridges may have also contributed many photographs.

Items of particular interest include:
  • Portrait of Anna Lee Bridges at 18 months old
  • Group portrait captioned “With the Sioux, an Indian’s home” that shows Dr. Bridges standing outside of a home next to a Native American family
  • Group portrait of Crow Creek Agency employees including William Fuller (carpenter), R. Ryerson (blacksmith, miscaptioned as “N. Ryerson”), Joseph Wertz (miller), S. M. Childers (farmer), and Dr. Bridges
  • Multiple views of Crow Creek Agency buildings including the physician’s residence, Grace Howard Mission School, church and parsonage (William Fuller also appears in this image), hospital, aspects of the Crow Creek Indian School complex (including the girl’s and boy’s buildings, school rooms building, and dining room), and trader’s store
  • Group portrait of five men holding various tools captioned “the blacksmith and his helpers”
  • Two photographic reproductions of oil-on-canvas paintings by agency carpenter William Fuller, including a depiction of a scaffold burial overlooking Lower Brule Reservation painted ca. 1882 and a bird’s-eye view of the Crow Creek Reservation painted in 1893
  • Image captioned “A war party of Sioux Indians, So. Dak., 1893” that is possibly related to Sun Dance-Fourth of July celebrations
  • At least four images related to beef issue on Crow Creek Reservation
  • Three images documenting the transportation and assemblage of 500 wagons that were granted for issue at Crow Creek Reservation
  • Group portrait of members of the Crow Creek Indian Police
  • Group portrait of three men identified as “Burned Prairie,” “Robt. Philbrick” (Robert Philbrick, also known as Tahcaduzahan/Swift Deer), and “Wounded Knee” who are described as “Judges of the Court of Indian Offenses, Crow Creek Indian Agency, S.D.”
  • Group portrait of Crow Creek Agency employees including Robert Smith (blacksmith), Iron Shield (policeman), Dr. Bridges, Joseph Sutton (farmer), J. F. Geigoldt (issue clerk), J. C. Fitzpatrick (chief clerk), Fred Treon (U.S. Indian agent), and Thomas Stevens (assistant clerk)
  • Studio portraits of “‘White Ghost’, Chief of the Yanktonai Sioux” and “‘Iron Nation’, Chief of the Brule Sioux,” both of whom can be seen wearing mixtures of western and traditional clothing and holding objects such as a turkey feather fan, rifle, and pipes
  • Group portrait of two women wearing dentalium shell earrings (one of whom carries a child on her back) identified as “Fire Tail” and “Visible Lightning” posing outside of a tipi next to an empty chair draped with a blanket
  • Outdoor portrait of a man identified as “Two Crow” seated outside of his log cabin home
  • Outdoor portrait of a man identified as “Talking Crow” holding a rifle and wearing a feather headdress, arm bands, and otter fur breastplate fitted with mirror discs while sitting on a horse dressed in a buffalo scalp horse mask (images of horses wearing these masks are exceedingly rare)
  • Outdoor portrait of “‘Bull Ghost’, a sub-chief of the Yanktonai Sioux” seated before a tipi on a blanketed chair wearing a mixture of western and traditional clothing including an otter fur turban, hair feather, moccasins, and wool leggings while holding a tobacco bag, tomahawk, and pipe
  • Group portrait of ten schoolgirls posing with teacher Mary A. Reason
  • Photograph taken outside the home of a medicine man named “Eagle Dog” (possibly the man standing at left wearing a grizzly bear claw necklace) showing pots, pans, chairs, and animal skins drying
  • Group portrait captioned “A dancing party of Sioux Indians” showing nine men gathered around a drum while dressed in traditional clothing including otter fur bandoliers, moccasins, leg garters affixed with dance bells, an otter fur breastplate, and a split horn war bonnet
  • Photograph showing several men on horseback captioned “A band of Sioux, at the Agency, July 4th 1895?” with the year listed in the caption crossed out.

Volume 2:This album (18 x 30 cm) has pebbled black leather covers and contains 5 photographs. While no captions or dates are provided, most of these images were likely taken ca. 1910. Four of the images are outdoor group portraits that appear to have been taken during a lakeside cottage trip to an unidentified location, possibly somewhere near Idaho Falls or Yellowstone National Park. A young girl (likely Berenice Bridges) appears in three photos wearing a white dress, while Dr. Bridges likely appears in two photos sporting a long beard. Several other unidentified individuals (likely including Maggie and Anna Lee Bridges) are also present in these images. The fifth photograph in this album is a group portrait of four unidentified individuals, including three Native American people (two older adults and one child) and a white woman, standing outside of a tipi.

Volume 3: This album (19 x 26 cm) has red string-bound cloth covers with “Photographs” stamped in gold on the front cover and contains 47 photographs, the majority of which document aspects of Fort Hall Reservation and primarily date to ca. 1896-1899. Detailed printed captions have been cut and pasted beneath most images in the album. A handful of images also have numbers inscribed next to them. While some images may have been produced by Dr. Bridges himself, many of these photographs (especially images from regions outside of Fort Hall Reservation) were likely taken by other photographers.

Items of particular interest include:
  • Group portrait of the “Conn. Indian Association Scholars and others,” with missionary, educator, and close friend of the Bridges family Amelia J. Frost identified in the lineup
  • Images of various Fort Hall Agency buildings such as the Fort Hall Indian School, the physician’s and agent’s residences, main office
  • Several pictures of Fort Hall Indian School employees and students including a group portrait of the Fort Hall Indian School brass band
  • Photograph showing a well being bored
  • Several images documenting a train wreck on the O.S.L.R.R. at Ross Fork, Idaho
  • Outdoor portrait of Cahuilla basket maker Ramona Lubo captioned “Ramona at Cahuilla”
  • Photograph of human remains inside of a coffin captioned “Sioux grave, method of bur-ial in the sixties, after the Government stopped bur-ial in trees or on scaffolds”
  • Two photographs, including one captioned “Dress Parade,” that show two unidentified Native American men wearing traditional clothing (the man wearing a bone hairpipe breastplate may possibly be Levi Levering, also known as He’-con-thin’ke or White Horn, an Omaha Indian teacher at Fort Hall Indian School)
  • Three images showing US Army 4th Cavalry Troop F performing drills
  • Group portrait of Anna Lee Bridges with friends “Eulia Churchill” and “Maggie Funkhouser”
  • Group portrait of two white girls identified as “Maggie & Bertie Funkhouser” wearing Native American costumes
  • Group portrait of Fort Hall Agency employees taken in 1899 including W. H. Reeder (carpenter), C. M. Bumgarner (farmer), Dr. Bridges, P. J. Johnson (blacksmith), M. Timsanico (interpreter), Paul Bannock (stableman), W. H. Evans (farmer), E. C. Godwin (clerk), Lieut. F. G. Irwin (acting agent), C. M. Robinson (issue clerk), and Ed. Lavatta (farmer)
  • Four images related to the Warm Springs Indian Agency in Oregon
  • Two views of the San Gabriel Mission Church, one of which was produced by Warren Bros.
  • Two views of Mt. Putnam
  • Group portrait of Native American boys of various ages wearing military-style uniforms captioned “School boys, Ft. Hall Indian School, Idaho”
  • Group portrait showing the family of Old Ocean (Bannock guide said to have aided Lewis and Clark) aged “112 yrs old.”

Volume 4: This album (23 x 26 cm) was produced by the Eastman Kodak Company and has string-bound black cloth covers with “Photographs” embossed in gold on the front cover. It contains 85 photographs, the majority of which document aspects of Fort Hall Reservation and primarily date to ca. 1896-1899. Detailed printed captions have been cut and pasted beneath many images in the album. Dr. Bridges possibly produced all or most of these images and captions himself.

Items of particular interest include:
  • Several views of various Fort Hall Agency buildings
  • Several views related to travels in Teton Pass, Jackson Hole, and Snake River in Wyoming
  • View of the “Conn. Indian Association Mission School” with an additional manuscript caption stating “Miss [Amelia] Frost’s first mission"
  • Several group portraits of Native American and white cowboys
  • Outdoor portrait of an unidentified Native American man on horseback wearing a split horn bonnet
  • Two images related to Fort Hall Agency beef issue
  • Image showing several people examining an older Native American woman captioned “Granny Pokibro, on parade”
  • Multiple images that include Anna Lee Bridges
  • Several images showing members and officers (including Lieut. Holbrook and Capt. Hatfield) of US Army 4th Cavalry Troop F
  • Three photos of Omaha Indians including two portraits of an unidentified Omaha man (possibly Levi Levering) wearing a feather headdress as well as a group portrait showing Levi Levering sitting beside his wife Vena Bartlett Levering while she holds their infant child
  • Group portrait of three members of the Fort Hall Reservation Police crossing Snake River
  • Images of geysers, waterfalls, and other scenery likely taken at Yellowstone National Park
  • Two solo portraits (including a man identified as “F. M. Parsons”) of men standing at the top of the Malad Divide
  • Portrait of a young child identified as “Little Bill Mo-cats Jr.”

Volume 5: This album (18 x 29 cm) has black pebbled faux leather covers and contains 54 photographs primarily related to Fort Hall Reservation ca. 1896-1899. Detailed printed captions often including sequential numbers have been cut and pasted beneath most images in the album. Some album pages have missing photographs with captions still present. Dr. Bridges may have produced many of these images and captions himself.

Items of particular interest include:
  • Three group portraits of a Fort Hall Agency employee picnic held near the head of Ross Fork Creek in 1898
  • Image showing “Bannock and Shoshoni Indians horse racing” far in the distance
  • Image of hay being stacked at Fort Hall Agency
  • Several views of various Fort Hall Agency buildings including the carpenter’s residence, physician’s residence, and agent’s office
  • Outdoor portrait of an unidentified Bannock girl on horseback captioned “No. 67. Bannock Indian Girl, showing squaw saddle”
  • Group portrait taken in 1899 of Levi Levering (far right) and Rueben P. Wolfe (far left), both Omaha Indian teachers employed at Fort Hall Indian School, posing with their wives Vena Bartlett Levering (second from right holding infant) and Rose E. Cordier (second from left, also known as Rose Wolf Setter and Rose C. Setter)
  • Group portrait of two white girls dressed as “Imitation Indians”
  • Group portrait of several Omaha Indian men likely visiting Fort Hall Reservation dressed in “handsome native dress of buck-skin & beads”
  • Two halftone reproductions of photographs taken by Lee Moorhouse in October 1898 of infant Cayuse twins Emma and Edna Jones (also known as Tax-a-Lax and Alompum) in cradleboards (miscaptioned in album as “Umatilla Indian twins”)
  • Image of a scaffold burial captioned “a man and his wife buried in 1872, this negative was made in 1886”
  • Photos of a Chinese merchant and a Chinese grave at Fort Hall Agency
  • Eight images documenting a rabbit drive
  • Portrait of Old Ocean “age 112”
  • Three images of buildings in Salt Lake City, Utah, identified as the “Mormon temple,” the “Bee-hive,” and “Eagle Gate”
  • Portrait of an unidentified man standing inside of the dispensary at Cheyenne River Agency, South Dakota
  • View of an uncovered sweat house
  • Six images showing various buildings, issue day, and hay work scenes at San Carlos Agency, Arizona
  • Photograph showing a man and dog outside of a building captioned “Pump house, Lower Brule, S.D.”
  • Image of a building with a sign above the front entrance reading “Govt. Trading Post.”

Loose Images: Also present are 13 loose photographs. Items of interest include an unmounted photographic reproduction of a ca. 1880 lithograph depicting a group of Native Americans preparing a scaffold burial with a typed caption on the verso reading “Scaffold burial, as practiced by the Crow Indians, elevating the corpse to the scaffold. (Copied by permission, from the 1st annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology)”; an unmounted group portrait of several Mohave people including two women and seven children; an unmounted portrait of an unidentified Native American man seated outside of a dwelling made of mud and straw captioned “An old time medicine man and his hut”; an unmounted group portrait taken outside a Fort Hall Reservation building captioned “School House, teacher & pupils at Ross Fork”; an unmounted view of a building captioned “Fort Hall. Location. The old adobes”; a studio portrait of an adult Anna Lee Bridges wearing a nurses uniform taken by F. R. Lambrecht, likely ca. 1918; and a studio portrait of Berenice Bridges as a child.

Realia

The first piece of realia is a pipe bowl (7.5 x 3.5 x 3 cm) made from Catlinite that likely dates to the 1850s and is most probably of Lakota/Dakota origin.

The second piece of realia is a ball headed war club (54 x 15 x 6 cm) that likely dates to the 1860s and is most probably of Lakota/Dakota origin. The club is made entirely of carved wood. The ball head is painted black and is lacking a spike while the main body is decorated with brass upholstery tacks on one side.

Both of these items were likely acquired by Dr. Bridges as a result of his personal interest in Native American material culture.