Thirty-nine carte-de-visite studio portraits are assembled in this collection of Native Americans. It is divided by tribes of the Northwest Coast and the Plains. There are in addition three unlisted tribes, two of which are possibly of the Northwest Coast. Of the Northwest Coast tribes, the Chief of the Chilicat, Cedakunim, is shown with his son Benjamin.
The Sioux portraits were taken in Sioux City, Iowa, about 1870. There are six photographic prints on original mounts, photographed by Gurnsey and J.H. Hamilton. They have typescript biographical notes by Oliver Lemere inspired by the Minnesota lore of the Dakota War (Indian Massacre) of 1862. The Minnesota Sioux (four Dakota sub-tribes) signed a treaty in 1851, which was perceived as deceptive and inadequate and provoked an attack under the leadership of Chief Little Crow. Some 700 settlers, 100 soldiers, and 150 Sioux were killed before the Sioux were driven out to join the other Dakotas on the Plains.
The images provide information about the saviors as well as details of those who slaughtered during the wars on the plains. It includes a woman named Old Bets who was shown appreciation for her sympathetic assistance to settlers taken as prisoners in the War of 1862 and Winema, called the Woman Chief, who saved the life of Colonel Meacham in the Modoc War.
Other Plains chiefs in the collection include Bitter Man, the Ojibwe (Chippewa) Chief of the Pillager Band in Minnesota, and Joseph Brant, chief of the Six Nations (Mohawk, Cayuga, Onandaga, Oneida, Seneca, and Iroquois).
