Reading Historic Photographs

Thomas W. Kavanagh

All photographs courtesy of the National Anthropological Archives.

Historic photographs of American Indians, long used simply as images or as illustrations, can be sources of ethnographic and historical information, particularly about aspects of material culture. In documenting artifact use and distribution, photographs can supplement museum collections, which often lack that information. Moreover, while an individual photograph is a singular record of a moment in time, a group or series of photographs is a record across time and space, and can expand the information potential of photographic interpretation.
Extracting this information requires that one read the photograph. Reading a photograph involves identifying as many aspects of the images as possible, from the photographer, date, and photographic technology used to produce the image, through its subject(s) and location, to the artifacts represented in the image. This process, particularly that of identifying the artifacts represented in the image, involves a continual cross- reference between photograph(s) and artifacts, often resulting in the revision of attributions of both artifact and photograph.

Photographers of the Pawnee

The earliest photographs of Pawnees are of a delegation to Washington, D. C., in 1857-58, made by the studio of James E. McLees. Their photographs include Tirawahatlashar ' Sky Chief', Pita Reesa ru' 'Man Chief', and Nasharerurera 'Brave Chief.'
In the mid-1860s, at least two photographers in Omaha, Nebraska--Eldric Eaton and a Mr. Hamilton, his first name is unknown--were making photographs of Pawnees. In the fall of 1867, William Henry Jackson, at age 24, bought their studios, including their negatives, which he incorporated into his own stock and sold over his own imprint. It is not known which were their work and which were Jackson's.
After purchasing the Eaton and Hamilton businesses, Jackson and several of his brothers continued to use those existing negatives, as well as producing their own photographs of Pawnees and other Indians. In 1869, Jackson began a life-long association with the U.S. Geological Survey, acting as the Survey's field photographer and later as head of the Washington, D.C. photographic department. While there he published several catalogs of the Department's collections; but in doing so, he included his own work, the Eaton and Hamilton images, and other Survey images, further confusing the attributions.

The Photographs

Tirawahatlashar 'Sky Chief'

Photograph by the James E. McLees Studio, Washington D.C., 1857-58. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 1293.
Sky Chief stands stiffly at attention for the photographer; this is not military bearing, but photographic necessity: the base of the brace holding him still is barely visible behind his feet.
He wears a Army private's uniform frock coat over buckskin leather leggings. The coat has been patched on the left skirt and left sleeve. He holds a brass pipe- tomahawk; the stem of these pipes were often but not always drilled out for actual use as tobacco pipes. The heart design cut-out had been used on tomahawks since the 18th century.
His headdress is unclear, but his hair is fairly short in front; the braids of his scalp-lock can be seen over his shoulder. He wears several ball-and-cone earrings, and has a beaded neckband. On a braided or beaded chain around his neck is a 'peace medal'. Since Spanish times, such medals has been given to the principal political leaders of Indian groups--the "medal chiefs"--as symbols of the status. During American times, however, many individuals were given medals, and their meaning changed from denoting leadership to denoting friendship.
His leather leggings are of a type called bottom-tab leggings: a separate piece of leather is sewn to the cuff of the leggings so that it falls over the moccasins. It appears that a portion of the skin from which each legging was cut has been left to form a decoration above the knee called the 'tail'. The leggings are tied with woven or beaded garters. The wide strips of beadwork are worn so as to come down the front of the legging rather than on the side as in other Plains groups. The glass beads, known as "pony beads," were fairly large, ca. 1/8", and generally came in blue, red, or white. The distinctive pattern will be shown clearer in other photographs. He wears plain moccasins with large turned-down flaps.

Paahukatawa

'Knee Prints By The Bank'
Photograph by William Henry Jackson, ca 1868-71. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 1269.
Paahukatawa, chief of the Skiri Pawnees in Nebraska, sits at the door of an earth lodge. He wears a painted and incised buffalo robe; the pattern seems to be that known as a border-and-box design. He wears a 'split-horn' headdress--buffalo horns split and pared down to lighten their weight--with a trailer of a single row of eagle feathers. The horns are tied to the center of the cap to keep them erect. The cap of his headdress is covered with white ermine tails. The brow band has a triangle design in light colored beads. The trailer is made from wide selvedge trade-cloth; at mid point- -behind his right elbow--are what appear to be two straps for tying the trailer while on horse back.
Around his neck are two "peace medals" struck during the presidency of James Buchanan.
Details of the construction of earth lodges can be seen in the entry way behind him. Large forked poles were sunk in the ground. These supported the roof timbers. Next came a series of smaller posts, with horizontal sticks covered with grass and packed earth. Comparison of this doorway with the lodge in the background shows that the earth lodges were not oriented in the same direction.

Petalesharo II

'Man Chief'
Photograph by the James E. McLees Studio, Washington, D.C., 1858-59. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 1280a.
One member of the 1858-59 Pawnee delegation to Washington was a man named Petalesharo; he is sometimes called Petalesharo II to distinguish him from the man of the same name who stopped the Morning Star sacrifice of 1818. He is also sometimes said to have been the son of the first Petalesharo, but that is unlikely: Petalesharo I was Skiri, Petalesharo II was Chawi.
In this photograph, Petalesharo II wears an otter fur turban with two upright feathers and decorated with cut-out stars. The turban is a plain circlet of fur lacking the head and tail extensions visible in other photographs. Based on analogy with similar turbans, it was probably lined with cloth which extended above the top of the fur [note the white band above the fur]. The two feathers have additional feathers and horsehair decorations.
He wears numerous earrings, including at least a large loop as well as several ball-and-cone earrings. His face is painted with dark, probably red, lines. Around his neck he wears a tightly-tied neckerchief, and possibly a medallion or locket. He also wears a grizzly-bear claw necklace.
Petalesharo's shirt is cloth, probably woolen trade cloth, decorated with strips of design across the shoulders and down the sleeves. Uniquely, these are of cloth ribbon applique rather than beadwork. Both the shoulder and sleeve strips are decorated with hair tassels. The shirt also appears to have fur cuffs.
He holds a long-stemmed pipe decorated with horse hair. He wears several wire rings and bracelets.
He wears bottom-tab leggings tied with wide selvedge trade cloth garters and decorated with hair tassels. This photograph is clear enough to count the beads in his leggings strips: each band is 7 white / 5 color / 7 white / 5 color / 7 white / 5 color / 7 white / 5 color / 7 white. The beading technique cannot be determined.

Petalesharo II

Photograph by William Henry Jackson, ca. 1871. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 1279a.
Some thirteen years after Petalesharo visited Washington, William Henry Jackson took several photographs of him at the Pawnee agency on the Loup River in Nebraska. One is reproduced here.
That view shows Petalesharo standing in front of the door to a frame and clapboarded building. Before this view was taken, the door was covered over with a blanket and the buffalo-robe covered object was added to the view, presumably to disguise the location.
In contrast to the rather formal 1858 portrait, here Petalesharo seems more at ease. This may be due as much to the changing technology--no longer were the subjects required to sit still for relatively long periods--as to the differences in the context of the portraits, i. e., the formal delegate to Washington in 1858, versus the informal--and to the Pawnee, probably surprise--visit of Jackson to the Pawnee Agency in 1871.
Petalesharo wears a split-horn, single trail headdress decorated with ermine tails; it seems to be on slightly crooked. It is decorated with white ermine tails, and a brow band of (probably) blue and white pony beads. Along the lower edge of the trailer is a row of small 'hawk' bells. His face is not painted but he wears masses of ball-and-cone earrings. It cannot be determined if he is wearing rings, but he does not appear to be wearing bracelets. He holds a brass pipe-tomahawk with the heart cut-out.
His shirt is a loose-fitting cotton pull over, with pleated sleeves and cuffs, i. e., the basic Euro-American cloth shirt of the mid-nineteenth century. The shoulders are decorated with short pieces of contrasting ribbons.
In contrast to the rather plain shirt, his bottom-tab leggings are heavily decorated. The beaded strip has a unique reverse color bear-paw design alternating with a triangle/ diamond pattern. A line of four pointed stars are painted on each leggings, and they are tied with beaded or woven garters. In addition, a number of feathers are tied to the leggings. He wears a short breech-cloth of wide selvedge trade cloth.

Raruhc kureesaaru

'His Chiefly Sun' Photograph by William Henry Jackson, ca. 1868-71. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 1285.
His Chiefly Sun, also called Sun Chief, was successor to Petalesharo II as chief of the Chawi, but it is not clear if he was the son or nephew (both called 'son' in Pawnee) of the former chief.
His buffalo robe is painted with five pointed stars; their uniformity suggests that they were probably made with a stencil or cut-out form. The holes along the edge of the robe show where it had been staked out during processing. Chiefly Sun also wears an Army frock coat and a James Buchanan presidential medal. He wears his hair long and flowing. [But don't mistake the buffalo robe fur for his hair.]













Pawnee Family

Photographs by William Henry Jackson, ca. 1868-71. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 1240 and 1239.
In these two views, each one half of stereoscopic negatives, a man, a woman, and a group of children cluster about the entrance to an earth lodge. The woman wears a piece of wide selvedge trade cloth worn full width as a wrap-around skirt folded over a belt. She wears a loose fitting cotton shirt pleated at the shoulder and cuffs. She also carries a flat board style cradle board strapped over her shoulders with a wide leather belt. The cradle is protected from the sun by a blanket draped over it.
The children wear a variety of clothing alternatives; indeed, no two are dressed alike. In the view on the left, the pre-teen age boy on the left wears naught but a wide selvedge trade-cloth breech cloth. He has masses of ball-and-cone earrings and a narrow neck band. His hair has been recently shaved into a roach; the other boys have relatively short hair, but not in roaches. The boy behind him wears a cloth shirt, but no leggings, breech cloth, or moccasins. The boy in the center wears leggings only, while the toddler on the right wears only a woven sash or belt. These two boys also wear medals.
In the second picture, the various people have changed places. The two boys on the left have squatted down. The second boy, practically obscured by the first, holds a strung bow, at least one arrow, and a notched horse whip. The third boy, barely visible in the previous view behind the man, wears a breechcloth and holds a bow--is it strung?--and a handful of arrows. On his left wrist is a small bow-string protector. The woman has moved back into the shadows of the lodge entrance; the selvedge edge of her skirt can be seen, and she rests her hand over the sticks on the left of the door. The man cannot be seen, but there is a leg and moccasin at the far right edge of the view; their owner seems to be sitting next to a wagon parked next to the lodge.
Jackson also took a third view of the same earth lodge with some of the same people; it is not shown here.

Pawnees

Photograph by William Henry Jackson, ca 1868-71. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 1228.
This view is one half of a stereoscopic double negative. It shows six men-- unidentified by Jackson--standing at the entrance to an earth lodge. Prints from the other half of the negative shows a seventh man, dressed in European clothes, standing on the far left. Several other people are barely visible in the entrance way to the lodge.
The man on the far left wears an Army uniform frock coat, a bear-claw necklace and two peace medals. He is the same man as on the far left of the views of the Pawnee family; indeed, it is the same earth lodge [compare the uniquely shaped sticks over the door in these three views.] However, these two latter views were probably not taken on the same occasion as the view of the men. [Note the different distribution of debris, sticks and a corn cob between the views.] It cannot be determined which view came first.
The man to his left holds an Army cavalry saber, also wears a medal, as does the third man in. Several of the men wear variations on the broad line legging strip like those worn by Sky Chief and Petalesharo II in Washington in 1858; the variations include block fields of solid color and/or crosses. The men second and third from the left wear different pattern legging strips; the second from left cannot be distinguished, while the third from left is in bold truncated diamonds. There is a ridged effect to the beadwork which suggests it was done with the "lazy-stitch" technique.
The men third from left, and on the far right wear what appears to be leather shirts; the one third from left is decorated with ermine tails, the one on the far right has shoulder strips decorated with bear-paw designs. The other men wear either cloth shirts or no shirts at all; the man second from the right--possibly the Pawnee/French interpreter Baptiste Bayhylle--wears what appears to be the shirt from a set of long underwear.
The man fourth from left wears a typical otter fur turban, although it seems that the head and tail projections are reversed from others examples in the photographs and from that of Captain Jim's turban elsewhere in this exhibit. He also wears a "hair-pipe" breastplate and holds what appears to be an eagle-wing fan [see the example in the Doctor's Case in this exhibit].

Group of Pawnee Chiefs


Raruhc kureesaaru 'His Chiefly Sun' (Chawi)
Aruusa' Rakit wi'u 'Leading Horse' (Skiri),
Ck ra Rareesaaru 'Lone Chief' (Chawi),
Sitiri¡ra'uusit 'One Aimed At' (Skiri),
Kaat raki Titka 'uc 'Struck with a Tomahawk' (Skiri)

Photograph by William Henry Jackson, ca. 1871. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 1278.
It is not clear if these identifications were meant to be left to right or right to left. Further, although the first name on the list is Chiefly Sun, it is not clear of he is the same man Jackson photographed with the star-decorated buffalo robe.
These five men were photographed at the Pawnee Indian Agency near Genoa, Nebraska, probably at the same time and in front of the same building as in the portrait of Petalesharo II. The buffalo robe is here used as a rug.
There are four visible pairs of leggings. From the left, the first two are bottom- tab style, while the third seems to be of wide selvedge trade cloth. The fourth cannot be fully identified. Two legging strips are in the block-stripe pattern. The second pair is a bold alternating color block pattern. The third, again, cannot be determined. The second man's leggings are tied with finger-woven garters.
All wear cotton calico shirts; the collar ruffles on the center and far right men are unique. The fourth man has painted his face; it was coated with white, and he then ran his fingers vertically down his face, removing several wiggling lines. All of the men wear masses of ball-and-cone earrings.
The hair- and head-dressings are variable. At least the first and fourth man wear feathers in their scalp locks. The second and fifth man wear deer-tail hair roaches in addition to their own hair, and the fifth man wears a finger-woven sash as a turban. The center man's horned headdress is unique in the photographs. The second man carries a quirt or horse whip.

Nasharerurera

'Brave Chief' Photograph attributed to the McLees studio, 1858. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 3924A.
Brave Chief wears an otter fur turban decorated with a front panel--although it cannot be determined whether it is of ribbon-work or painted hide--and head-and-tail projections. The lower edges of the projections are decorated with white beads, and the head projection has row of small cones. An eagle feather hangs down from the otter's nose.
Brave Chief also wears several strands of bead necklaces as well as a bear-claw necklace. He has metal arm bands decorated with ribbons, and holds what appears to be a pipe stem, but it may also be a cane.

Pawnee Women

Photograph by William Henry Jackson, ca. 1868-71. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 1227.
These young women are all dressed in wide selvedge trade cloth wrap around skirts belted at the waist. A belt made from a strip of trade cloth can be seen on the young girl at the far right. She also wears a pull-over cotton shirt with several strands of bead necklaces. The teenager second from the right wears a tailored, buttoned blouse/coat made from wide selvedge trade cloth. She wears several strands of bead necklaces, and her hair is worn in two braids. She also wears what appears to be cloth leggings. The next three women, and the girl on the left, wear industrially produced fringed blankets. Two of the women hold infants, one of whom seems to be wearing a sun bonnet. None of the women wear moccasins.

Group of Kitkahahki Leaders

Photograph by William Henry Jackson, ca 1868-71. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 1296.
Three of the men wear wool blankets, while two wear decorated buffalo robes. The two men on the right wear cloth shirts, as does Human Chief.
Human Chief's leggings have the same bear-claw motif--although in reverse colors--as on Petalesharo II's leggings. Difficult Chief's leggings, with the square cut bottom almost completely covering the moccasins, are of the 'front seam' style more common with the Otoe people to the east of the Pawnee.
Both Stopped with Horses and Human Chief have painted their faces in horizontal white stripes. While Stopped With Horses wears a turban made of a strip of finger-woven yarn--like the reproduction seen in the Man's Life case--Horse Sitting in the West's turban is remarkably like that worn by Brave Chief in Washington 13 years earlier. It could even be the same artifact.
Human Chief has had his hair roached, but it has been growing out for some time.
Difficult Chief wears a pompadour, and has his hair over his ears. Except for Chiefly Sun, Good Chief has the longest hair in any of the photographs.

Group of Pawnee Scouts and Baptiste Bayhylle

l-r Standing, Baptiste Bayhylle, Resa ru' Siriite‚riku "The Heavens See Him as a Chief", Pawnee/French interpreter.
Photograph by William Henry Jackson, ca. 1868-71. Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, 1297.
Because outdoor photography was difficult at best, photographers often used props to give the impression of a scene. These would have been cropped when the image was produced. In the full view of this scene, from which this detail was taken, the basic props of Jackson's studio could be seen, a painted backdrop, a raised dias, and several chairs. But since several of these props would have appeared out of place in a photograph of Pawnees, Jackson has spread some straw and rocks around on his dias to keep the illusion of being outside. However, the upholstered and fringed divan is clearly visible under 'One who strikes the chiefs first'. The edge of the backdrop is visible on the right.
A note on a Smithsonian print of this image implies that these men were brothers, but this is not clear. Sky Chief, on the right, was photographed by the McLees studio in 1858.
These four men show an interesting range of clothing options. The leggings worn by Left his Enemy, on the left, and Night Chief, to his left, are a variant of plain bottom-tab; the principal variation is that instead of being a straight tube, a 'flap' has been left outside the seam. The fact that Night Chief wears garters, and the way that his legging flaps fall suggests that there is a slit cut in the flaps below the knee to allow the garter to pass through. Night Chief's leggings and breech cloth are fastened with a braided yarn belt.
Strikes the Chiefs and Sky Chief wear beaded leggings decorated in the now familiar block-stripe pattern tied with woven or beaded garters. On Sky Chief's leggings however, the pattern has evolved into long narrow diamonds and triangles, a pattern called "hair-pipes" after the long bone beads worn as breast plates.
The moccasins worn by Night Chief, Strikes the Chiefs, and Sky Chief have extremely wide flaps; Strikes the Chiefs has folded his down, but the other two wear theirs up.
The men exhibit different styles of wearing their hair. Left His Enemy has combed his hair into a pompadour, worn over the ears. The ribbon over his right shoulder suggests that he might have long hair in back tied up. Night Chief has had his hair shaved into a roach which he is letting grow out. Strikes the Chiefs has also had had his hair roached, but at some more distant time than Night Chief, and so it is somewhat longer. Sky Chief wears a simple cloth turban.

What can be learned from the Pawnee Photographs

This analysis has demonstrated that for the Pawnee, as with any society, there is a range of variation in the ways individuals participate in the common culture.
The women's clothing--wrap around skirts made of wide- selvedge trade-cloth- -shows the most uniformity. This may be due to sampling error: only 6 women were photographed, whereas at least 20 or more men are here represented, not counting Petalesharo II and Sky Chief, both photographed 13 years apart.
The men show a wider ranger of variation. The block-stripe legging pattern is common, but it is not the only pattern. The bear-paw design shows up several times. Cotton shirts are most common, followed by no shirts at all; there are only two leather shirts. There are no beaded moccasins visible; indeed, going barefoot seems as much an option as going shod.
Several men wear bear-claw necklaces. Together with the bear paw beadwork motif, these reflect the importance of bears as symbols in Pawnee culture. The most common hair-dressing is fairly short; only one person--the young man in the Pawnee family a fully roached haircut; other men have let their hair grow out.
Several men wear wrapped yarn turbans. There are four otter fur turbans visible-- three if the turbans worn by Brave Chief and Horse Sitting in the West are in fact the same. One of these--Petalesharo's--is the simple circlet of fur; the others are the head-and-tail variety.
There are three other headdresses, the single-trailer horned headdresses worn by Paahuka tawa and Petalesharo II, and the horned headdress worn by Lone Chief. This is itself interesting in that the view of Petalesharo painted by Charles Bird King, and as adapted and published by others since [see the Introductory panel to the Gallery], wears what appears to be a classic Plains Indian feathered headdress. Moreover, that image is one of the earliest representations of the classic 'war bonnet' in American art.
Other works on Reading American Indian Photographs
Blackman, Margaret 1981 Window on the Past. The Photographic Ethnohistory of the Northern and Kaigani Haida. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.
Fleming, Paula R. and Judith Luskey 1986 The North American Indians in Early Photographs. New York: Harper and Row.
Kavanagh, Thomas W. 1991 Whose Village? Photographs by William S. Soule, Winter 1872-1873. Visual Anthropology 4(1).
Scherer, Joanna Cohan 1975 You Can't Believe Your Eyes: Inaccuracies in Photographs of North American Indians. Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication 2(2).