1881 Cabinet Card Photo of Two Blackfoot Chiefs
Western America
Cabinet Card Photograph of Native American Indians Identified as Chief Big Nose & Sub Chief Little Plume of the Piegan Blackfoot Indians of Montana by Arthur Canning, Helena, Montana
(1881) Impressive Cabinet Card with Photographic Image of two Native Americans identified as Chief Big Nose and Sub Chief Little Plume of the Piegan Blackfoot Indians of Montana, by Arthur Canning, "Landscape Photographer" of Helena, Montana, Crisp Very Fine.
Portrait Photograph of these two Indian Chiefs on a large Cabinet Card that measures 8" x 5". The original image was taken in 1881 and shows Big Nose at left, wearing an unidentified Silver Indian Peace Medal and holding a large knife handle in his hand, the knife covered in a feathered sheath. Little Plume is depicted in lighter garb, he is wrapped in a blanket, and he holds a rifle in a decorated beaded and fringed scabbard, its butt sticking out of the open upper end. This Cabinet Card Photo was issued by Arthur Canning, "Landscape Photographer" of Helena, Montana, whose maker imprint appears on the back of the card in large brown text. The image is a little faded but remains clear. Pencil notations at the top of the back identify the two Chiefs. A copy of this photograph, perhaps being the original, can also be seen on the Montana Memory Project at https://mtmemory.org/digital/collection/p267301coll3/id/4886/#/
The Piegan (Blackfoot) are an Algonquian-speaking people from the North American Great Plains. They were the largest of three Blackfoot-speaking groups that made up the Blackfoot Confederacy; the Siksika and Kainai were the others. The Piegan dominated much of the northern Great Plains during the nineteenth century.
After their homelands were divided by the nations of Canada and the United States of America making boundaries between them, the Piegan people were forced to sign treaties with one of those two countries, settle in reservations on one side or the other of the border, and be enrolled in one of two government-like bodies sanctioned by North American nation-states. These two successor groups are the Blackfeet Nation, a federally recognized tribe in Montana, U.S., and the Piikani Nation, a recognized "band" in Alberta, Canada.
Today many Piegan live with the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana, with tribal headquarters in Browning. There were 32,234 Blackfeet recorded in the 1990 United States Census. In 2010 the US Census reported 105,304 persons who identified as Blackfeet ("alone" or "in combination" with one or more races and/or tribes.)
View it on
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
Western America
Cabinet Card Photograph of Native American Indians Identified as Chief Big Nose & Sub Chief Little Plume of the Piegan Blackfoot Indians of Montana by Arthur Canning, Helena, Montana
(1881) Impressive Cabinet Card with Photographic Image of two Native Americans identified as Chief Big Nose and Sub Chief Little Plume of the Piegan Blackfoot Indians of Montana, by Arthur Canning, "Landscape Photographer" of Helena, Montana, Crisp Very Fine.
Portrait Photograph of these two Indian Chiefs on a large Cabinet Card that measures 8" x 5". The original image was taken in 1881 and shows Big Nose at left, wearing an unidentified Silver Indian Peace Medal and holding a large knife handle in his hand, the knife covered in a feathered sheath. Little Plume is depicted in lighter garb, he is wrapped in a blanket, and he holds a rifle in a decorated beaded and fringed scabbard, its butt sticking out of the open upper end. This Cabinet Card Photo was issued by Arthur Canning, "Landscape Photographer" of Helena, Montana, whose maker imprint appears on the back of the card in large brown text. The image is a little faded but remains clear. Pencil notations at the top of the back identify the two Chiefs. A copy of this photograph, perhaps being the original, can also be seen on the Montana Memory Project at https://mtmemory.org/digital/collection/p267301coll3/id/4886/#/
The Piegan (Blackfoot) are an Algonquian-speaking people from the North American Great Plains. They were the largest of three Blackfoot-speaking groups that made up the Blackfoot Confederacy; the Siksika and Kainai were the others. The Piegan dominated much of the northern Great Plains during the nineteenth century.
After their homelands were divided by the nations of Canada and the United States of America making boundaries between them, the Piegan people were forced to sign treaties with one of those two countries, settle in reservations on one side or the other of the border, and be enrolled in one of two government-like bodies sanctioned by North American nation-states. These two successor groups are the Blackfeet Nation, a federally recognized tribe in Montana, U.S., and the Piikani Nation, a recognized "band" in Alberta, Canada.
Today many Piegan live with the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana, with tribal headquarters in Browning. There were 32,234 Blackfeet recorded in the 1990 United States Census. In 2010 the US Census reported 105,304 persons who identified as Blackfeet ("alone" or "in combination" with one or more races and/or tribes.)
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
