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


Keokuk c. 1790–1848 Thomas Easterly (1809–1882) Sixth-plate daguerreotype, 1847	Olive Oatman 1838–1903 Benjamin F. Powelson (1823–1885) Albumen silver print, c. 1863	Christopher “Kit” Carson 1809–1868 Charles DeForest Fredricks (1823–1894), after daguerreotype by an unidentified photographer Albumen silver print, c. 1863


Quanah Parker c. 1852–1911 E. W. Hamilton (lifedates unknown) Collodion print, c. 1890	Ouray c. 1830–1880 Mathew Brady Studio (active 1844–94) Albumen silver print, 1868	Winema 1836–1920 Charles M. Bell (1848–1893) Albumen silver print, c. 1875

Later Conflicts


George A. Custer 1839–1876 Unidentified photographer Ambrotype, c. 1860	Rain-in-the-Face c. 1835–1905 David F. Barry (1854–1934) Albumen silver print, 1888	Red Cloud 1821–1909 Charles M. Bell (1848–1893) Albumen silver print, 1880


Sitting Bull c. 1831–1890 Bailey, Dix, and Mead (active 1882) Albumen silver print, 1882	Henry L. Dawes 1816–1903 Attributed to Samuel M. Fassett (1825–1910) Albumen silver print, c. 1876	Philip Sheridan 1831–1888 J. Lee Knight (lifedates unknown) Albumen silver print, 1872


Curly c. 1859–1923 W. B. Finch (lifedates unknown) Albumen silver print, c. 1880	Geronimo c. 1823–1909 A. Frank Randall (1854–1916) Albumen silver print, c. 1887	Nelson Miles 1839–1925 David F. Barry (1854–1934) Albumen silver print, c. 1895

Artists and Photographers


Carl Wimar 1828–1862 Unidentified photographer Ambrotype, c. 1860	Charles M. Russell 1864–1926 Unidentified photographer Platinum print, c. 1914	Edward S. Curtis 1868–1952 Self-portrait Gelatin silver print, 1899

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