Discord

Is there blood in the veins of your young men? Rise up against the bloodless conquest that is turning your people into slaves! The red man was made by our Great Spirit to hunt and to fight, to be free as the prairie wind.
    – Sitting Bull to a Crow delegation, 1887


The opening up of the West to American settlement led to frequent conflicts with the region’s Native peoples. Tribal leaders embraced contact at times, for such exchanges made possible trade and political alliances. However, with an ever-growing number of settlers moving west, these relationships increasingly fell apart. Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, Native warriors and the U.S. Army clashed in a series of often well-publicized military engagements. Officials tried at times to reach a diplomatic solution, yet repeatedly U.S. authorities either ignored treaties or imposed their own answer to the “Indian problem.” By the century’s end, most tribes in the West had ostensibly been subjugated and forced onto federally controlled reservations. Non-Native writers, artists, and photographers found this conflict a compelling subject, for many believed—incorrectly—that they were documenting the final hours of a “vanishing race.”



Early Encounters


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Click to enlarge imageKeokuk c. 1790–1848
Thomas Easterly (1809–1882)
Sixth-plate daguerreotype, 1847
Click to enlarge imageOlive Oatman 1838–1903
Benjamin F. Powelson (1823–1885)
Albumen silver print, c. 1863
Click to enlarge imageChristopher “Kit” Carson 1809–1868
Charles DeForest Fredricks (1823–1894), after daguerreotype by an unidentified photographer
Albumen silver print, c. 1863
         
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Click to enlarge imageQuanah Parker c. 1852–1911
E. W. Hamilton (lifedates unknown)
Collodion print, c. 1890
Click to enlarge imageOuray c. 1830–1880
Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94)
Albumen silver print, 1868
Click to enlarge imageWinema 1836–1920
Charles M. Bell (1848–1893)
Albumen silver print, c. 1875
         

Later Conflicts


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Click to enlarge imageGeorge A. Custer 1839–1876
Unidentified photographer
Ambrotype, c. 1860
Click to enlarge imageRain-in-the-Face c. 1835–1905
David F. Barry (1854–1934)
Albumen silver print, 1888
Click to enlarge imageRed Cloud 1821–1909
Charles M. Bell (1848–1893)
Albumen silver print, 1880
         
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Click to enlarge imageSitting Bull c. 1831–1890
Bailey, Dix, and Mead (active 1882)
Albumen silver print, 1882
Click to enlarge imageHenry L. Dawes 1816–1903
Attributed to Samuel M. Fassett (1825–1910)
Albumen silver print, c. 1876
Click to enlarge imagePhilip Sheridan 1831–1888
J. Lee Knight (lifedates unknown)
Albumen silver print, 1872
         
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Click to enlarge imageCurly c. 1859–1923
W. B. Finch (lifedates unknown)
Albumen silver print, c. 1880
Click to enlarge imageGeronimo c. 1823–1909
A. Frank Randall (1854–1916)
Albumen silver print, c. 1887
Click to enlarge imageNelson Miles 1839–1925
David F. Barry (1854–1934)
Albumen silver print, c. 1895
         

Artists and Photographers

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Click to enlarge imageCarl Wimar 1828–1862
Unidentified photographer
Ambrotype, c. 1860
Click to enlarge imageCharles M. Russell 1864–1926
Unidentified photographer
Platinum print, c. 1914
Click to enlarge imageEdward S. Curtis 1868–1952
Self-portrait
Gelatin silver print, 1899
         

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