The Midway at the World’s Columbian Exposition (or World’s Fair) of 1893 featured a “Bazaar of Nations” with villages “peopled by natives from every clime.” Among the peoples on display at this “bazaar” were American Indians. This photograph shows a group of Plains Indians, one of whom is dressed in a suit and top hat, greeting a visitor. The display of American Indians as an exotic curiosity is especially poignant in view of Wounded Knee, the last military action directed at Native Americans, which had occurred just three years previously, and historian Frederick Jackson Turner’s pronouncement at the 1893 Fair that the frontier was “closed.”

Studio portrait of White Wolf a Comanche warrior wearing an eagle feather war bonnet, which is traditionally more associated with the Sioux and other tribes of the Central Plains, but was also worn by the warriors of Southern Plains tribes like the Comanche. The other aspect of White Wolf’s dress that is distinctively Comanche are the otter fur hair wraps that hang down his front. He is holding a Model 1894 Marlin rifle.

This photographic postcard, meant to be sold as a souvenir, taps into white stereotypes of Native Americans as fierce or savage. The man pictured in the postcard is represented as an Ojibwa Indian, which is a Woodland tribe from the Great Lakes region, but the clothing he is wearing is of Plains Indian origin. Unlike the clothing, the rifle stock club he is wielding could be an authentic Woodland weapon.

In the 1920s, when access to Glacier National Park was primarily by train, a group of Blackfeet Indian “chiefs” would greet new arrivals and offer to sell photographic postcards of themselves. “Chief” Eagle Calf (John Ground) was part of this group. The postcards sold for a nominal price and could be autographed for an additional cost, which is the case with this card. The first pictograph symbol is the sign for chief or man, the second means eagle, and the third is calf, thus Chief Eagle Calf. Our thanks to Lyle J. Heavyrunner, grandson of John Ground (Chief Eagle Calf), for this translation.

Stereograph of American Indians lined up for a performance in a Wild West show, which, based on the date, may have been Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show or another similar traveling show. Wild West shows were a popular form of entertainment in the United States and Europe in the late 19th century and early 20th century. These shows would usually feature trick shooting and riding, dubious reenactments of Western historical events, and Native Americans dressed in full tribal regalia. Wild West shows are also one of the antecedents of contemporary rodeo.

This posed stereograph shows an Oklahoma cowboy sign talking with two Plains Indians. Indian sign language has been a staple of Western films since the beginning of the film industry, but unlike many Western film conventions, Indian sign language is firmly based in fact. There are well over 200 different vocal American Indian languages and dialects. This multiplicity of languages encouraged the creation of sign languages that allowed communication between diverse tribal groups.

This posed stereograph depicts a small Blackfeet village in Glacier National Park. The photograph is very reminiscent of the work of pictorialist photographer Roland Reed who photographed the Blackfeet at around the same time.