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

8 CDVs on cardstock mounts, two with verso imprint of W.R. Cross, Niobrara, Nebraska. The remaining six cartes are uncredited but are attributed to Cross. Some of the subjects and scenes are identified on mount recto or verso. Conditions generally good, with some fading, occasional toning, soiling, and some edge and corner wear to mounts. Some mount edges trimmed and corners clipped.

Identified subjects/scenes include: Spotted Tail. A small photograph on cardstock mount of a young white male subject is affixed to mount verso. -- Outdoor view of "Spotted Tail's tepe on the right hand side," as identified in period script on verso. -- Outdoor view of two women on horseback identified as "Spotted Tail's girls" on verso. Verso with Cross' studio imprint. -- Exterior view of a large group, including well-dressed children, gathered outside of an unidentified structure, accompanied by typed note suggesting that the image may show the school at the New Spotted Tail Agency. Verso with Cross' studio imprint. This is an early print of one of his earliest images. -- Spotted Eagle. -- Outdoor view of "Spotted Eagle's Family" seated before their tepee, as identified on mount recto. -- Goose's Daughter. -- Outdoor view of a mother and child.

Tribal Chief Spotted Tail (1823-1881) was a major figure in Sioux relations with the United States government during the latter half of the nineteenth century. He participated in the Grattan Massacre in 1854, but decided not to join in Red Cloud's War in the late 1860s, having determined that the Indians' armed resistance of white encroachment was largely futile. Instead, he took to speaking and negotiating on behalf of his tribe, including signing the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which established the Great Sioux Reservation. Spotted Tail traveled several times to Washington, DC, mostly in the 1870s, to defend the rights of his people, especially to their land. He met with many important government officials during these trips including Commissioners of Indian Affairs Ely S. Parker and John Quincy Smith, and President Ulysses S. Grant. Spotted Tail was, in the end, shot in the back and killed by Crow Dog, a Lakota sub chief, in 1881 for reasons which have been disputed. Though he certainly made a name for himself in his own right, it is also possible that Spotted Tail was the uncle of the famed warrior, Crazy Horse, as two of his sisters were married to the elder Crazy Horse.