06/10/2026
Conflict reshaped the American Plains in the late nineteenth century. On June 24, we offer a collection of original cabinet photographs. These images hold the gaze of the people who fought, resisted, and survived. Taken as a whole, they record a tragedy from its fragile beginnings to its violent end.
The narrative opens in the 1860s with early efforts to maintain peace. An 1860s photograph captures Hunkpapa Lakota chief Bear's Rib. He sought diplomacy with the United States before his assassination in 1862 by fellow Lakota, who saw his concessions as a betrayal of his own people. An 1867 portrait shows Yankton Dakota war leader Flying Pipe during his tenure as a Plains ambassador to Washington.
By 1876, tension exploded in Montana. Government displacement from Fort Laramie following the discovery of gold in the Black Hills drove the Lakota into conflict with neighboring tribes, including the Crow and Arikara. In 1873, Blackfoot leader Crowfoot requested federal aid to remove the Lakota from his territory—a decision that led directly to the 1876 campaign of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry. A uniformed portrait captures Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer shortly before his command fell at the Little Bighorn. Beside him is an 1875 photograph of his brother-in-law, Seventh Cavalry member James Calhoun. Both men died that afternoon along with most of their command.
General Edward Settle Godfrey survived the Little Bighorn to play a devastating role in the final chapter of the Plains conflict. In the shockwaves of the 1876 defeat, the Lakota embraced the Ghost Dance, a spiritual movement they believed would drive out American expansion. The auction includes a portrait of Short Bull, a leader of this movement. Though authorities arrested Short Bull in 1890, lingering military panic over the Ghost Dance led directly to the Wounded Knee Massacre. There, Godfrey commanded U.S. troops in the killing of Lakota leaders, including individuals who rose to prominence at the Little Bighorn. Godfrey's action remains heavily contested and deeply controversial today.
As the frontier closed, photographers documented reservation life and a changing world. A James Mooney photograph shows two children of Comanche leader Quanah Parker on a reservation after the Red River War. An Edward S. Curtis cabinet card captures nine painted lodges of the Piegan Blackfoot. A studio portrait of two Native American cowboys in woolly chaps and leather bracers shows the forced adaptation at the turn of the century. Alongside these ethnographic images is Roland Reed's portrait of Little Bird, posed with proud dignity, a reported infant survivor of the Wounded Knee Massacre, who would soon die of the Spanish Flu.
Collectors of Americana, Western history, and vintage photography can bid on these foundational records on June 24.
We pinned the link to register and view the full catalog in the comments below.
