GARDNER ALEXANDER (1821 1882) From the Fort Laramie series (

Sale 2208 - Lot 106

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Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000

GARDNER, ALEXANDER (1821-1882)
From the Fort Laramie series (Lone Horn, Pipe, Grass and Young Elk). Albumen print, 9x12 inches (22.9x30.5 cm.). 1868

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Additional Details

All of the Native Americans depicted in this image are Dakotas. Grass is specifically an Oglalla.
After his documentary photographs of the Civil War, which he completed alongside Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner was one of the most well known United States photographers of the 19th century. He was then hired as the official governmental photographer of the Fort Laramie Treaty proceedings in 1868. The treaty, also known as the Sioux Treaty of 1868, stopped the U.S. development of the Bozeman Trail, which was to create a path to the gold fields from the northern Platte River to Montana through the northern plains. As Native American tribes throughout the West were rapidly being displaced during this time of westward expansion, the Lakota nation fought against their potential displacement, with the treaty signed by William T. Sherman and the Sioux, Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Crow tribes.

According to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, this particular photograph is of Lone Horn, Pipe, Glass and Young Elk, all of whom were members of the Dakota tribe. It was published in Gardner's "Scenes in the Indian Country" portfolio, which included the images he took during his tenure out west.