1881 INDIAN WARS LAKOTA SIOUX SITTING BULL STEREOVIEW PHOTO FT RANDALL DAKOTA #1

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1881 INDIAN WARS LAKOTA SIOUX SITTING BULL STEREOVIEW PHOTO FT RANDALL DAKOTA #1:
$565.81

Exceptionally rare and simply fantastic, ca1881 Native American Indian Stereoview Photograph of the Great Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux Holy Man and War Leader Tatanka Iyotake (Sitting Bull) and his wife taken at Fort Randall in the Dakota territory by Nebraska Photographer William R. Cross.

This fascinating and historically important, Stereoview Photo measures approx. 7\" by 3 7/8\" and is mounted on its original flat, buff colored photographer\'s card mount. The Image is titled in the negative \"Sitting Bull and His favorite Squaw\". It pictures Sitting Bull and his wife seated before a beautiful Lakota Teepee. The Image appears to have been taken in the late fall with the Indian camp situated among barren trees (likely taken in the fall of 1881). Sitting Bull holds a long pipe on his lap and a beautiful, bead decorated Tobacco bag. Both appear proud and stoic in this moving portrait.

The back of the mount carries the mark of the photographer - William R. Cross - along with extensive text describing the series of Views titled \"Pyramid Park, (Known as \"Bad Lands\") D. T. Scenery\".

Sitting Bull (Lakota: Thathaŋka Iyotake) (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement.Before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull had a vision in which he saw the defeat of the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer on June 25, 1876. Sitting Bull\'s leadership motivated his people to a major victory. Months after their victory at the battle, Sitting Bull and his group left the United States for Wood Mountain, North-West Territories (now Saskatchewan), where he remained until 1881, at which time he surrendered to U.S. forces. A small remnant of his band under Chief Waŋblí Gí decided to stay at Wood Mountain.

Hunger and desperation eventually forced Sitting Bull, and 186 of his family and followers to return to the United States and surrender on July 19, 1881. Sitting Bull had his young son Crow Foot surrender his Winchester lever-action carbine to Major David H. Brotherton, commanding officer of Fort Buford in the parlor of the Commanding Officer\'s Quarters in a ceremony the next day. He told the 4 soldiers, 20 warriors and other guests in the small room, that he wished to regard the soldiers and the white race as friends but he wanted to know who would teach his son the new ways of the world. Two weeks later, after waiting in vain for other members of his tribe to follow him from Canada, the Army transferred Sitting Bull and his band to Fort Yates, the military post located adjacent to the Standing Rock Agency, which straddles the present-day boundary of North and South Dakota. Sitting Bull and his band of 186 people were kept separate from the other Hunkpapa gathered at the agency. Army officials were concerned that the famed chief would stir up trouble among the recently surrendered northern bands. On August 26, 1881, he was visited by the census taker William T. Selwyn, who counted twelve people in the Hunkpapa leader\'s immediate family. Forty-one families, totaling 195 people, were recorded in Sitting Bull\'s band.

The military decided to transfer him and his band to Fort Randall, to be held as prisoners of war. Loaded onto a steamboat, the band of 172 people was sent down the Missouri River to Fort Randall (near present-day Pickstown, South Dakota on the southern border of the state). There they spent the next 20 months. They were allowed to return north to the Standing Rock Agency in May 1883. The Stereoview offered here was among the very few taken of Sitting Bull during his time as a Prisoner of War at Fort Randall. It is both exceptionally rare and an important historical artifact depicting the life of this great Hunkpapa Lakota Holy Man and Leader during the early years of his life under the white man\'s control.

In 1881 Nebraska Photographer William R. Cross published a series of twenty-four photographs in such a way as to chronicle the story of Sitting Bull\'s capture and incarceration. Twenty-one of these were published as stereoviews. In the Cross photographs, the Indians are generally depicted as subdued and defeated, now reliant on civilization for their very survival. This theme surely provided much needed reassurance to the general public that Euro-Americans were in control. With Sitting Bull safely ensconced at Fort Randall, news reports and interviews with him quickly confirmed his celebrity status. Sitting Bull himself was reported to have taken advantage of the attention by selling some of his personal artifacts and his autograph for outrageous sums. Cross chose the stereoview as his format for publication doubtless because he knew it would appeal to a wide audience and maximize profits.

The Stereoview offered here is from the series titled \"Pyramid Park, (Known as \"Bad Lands\") D. T. Scenery\" and the descriptive text printed by the photographer William R. Cross on the reverse reads in part \"Also Views of the Wild Sioux Indians, showing their method of living, and modes of burying the dead...\".

This exceptionally rare and fascinating, Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux Indian Stereoview Photograph of Sitting Bull and his favorite Wife is in excellent to near mint condition. The Photo itself is clean and crisp and exhibits sharp focus, strong contrast and rich tonality. The Card Mount is also exceptionally well preserved - clean and crisp and without flaw. We have been unable to find any examples of this important Stereoview of Sitting Bull and believe it to be exceptionally rare!!

An exceptionally rare and historically important, ca1881 Native American Indian Stereoview Photograph of the Great Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux Holy Man and War Leader Tatanka Iyotake (Sitting Bull) and his wife taken at Fort Randall in the Dakota territory by Nebraska Photographer William R. Cross and a fantastic addition to any collection!!!

Click Here to Read a wonderful Treatise of Western Photographer William R. Cross.

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