Printed Books & Early American Photography, including Selections from the Larry Ness Collection

2 cabinet photographs on cardstock mounts, each with verso studio imprint of W.S. Soule, Fort Sill, Indian Territory. Toning and soiling to images and mounts. Some edge and corner wear to mounts.

Subjects include: Outdoor view of a Cheyenne encampment near Fort Dodge, Kansas, or Camp Supply, Indian Territory, incorrectly identified in period script in lower margin as "Comanche Camp." The man shown to the left of the three Cheyenne Indians is Horace P. Jones, an interpreter at Fort Sill. Note the buffalo meat drying on the poles in the background. (some areas of fading/discoloration to print, making some details difficult to discern). -- Studio portrait of a "Kiowa Brave and Squaw," as identified in period script on mount below image (few areas of fading to print). The portrait features Tom-e-ath-to, also known as Trailing the Enemy, and his wife, daughter of Satanta.

Trailing the Enemy was a leading Kiowa warrior. The curved feather in his hair proclaims him to be a member of the Onde, the highest caste in Kiowa society. Trailing the Enemy happened to be a guest in the camp on the Washita River of the Cheyenne chief Black Kettle, when it was attacked without warning by the 7th US Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Custer at dawn on 28 November 1868. A group of about 30 women and children fled along the river bottom, protected only by Trailing the Enemy with a bow and arrows, an elderly Cheyenne chief named Little Rock with a single-shot fusil, and a teenage boy. Custer's second-in-command Major Joel Elliot led a group of soldiers out of the village, chasing these fugitive women and children. Little Rock had been killed by Elliott's men and some of the Cheyenne women had been wounded when Arapaho reinforcements reached the area, quickly surrounding Elliott's force and wiping them out. Soule's portrait of Trailing the Enemy was made about a year and a half later.

Together, 2 cabinet cards.