American Historical Ephemera & Photography

7 x 3 1/2 in. stereoview (previously split vertically at center of mat and repaired, toning, spotting, edge and corner wear to mount, penciled notes on verso). Photographer's imprint, photograph title, "146 1st & 2nd Chiefs of the Gros Ventres," and series title, "The Great North-West" on mount recto.

Gros Ventres (Big Bellies), connoting well-fed, hence expert hunters, was the name French traders gave to the Hidatsa tribe in the 18th century. When photographed by Morrow, they had lived for nearly 30 years at Like a Fishhook Village. Their Head Chief Crow's Breast sits at the left, holding a pipe that denotes his primary function as a councilor and peacemaker. Beside him sits Poor Wolf, his adjutant, in whom rested the police functions of the community, and who coordinated defense against nearly annual attacks by Sioux war parties. Poor Wolf holds a gunstock war club with iron blade, symbol of his office. Both men wear the distinctive shirts for which the female couturiers of Fishhook Village were famed, made of soft-tanned bighorn-sheep skins and decorated with broad bands of dyed and plaited porcupine quillwork. These shirts were a coveted article of inter-tribal trade.

[With:] The Museum Review. Vol. 1, No. 6. Bismarck, North Dakota: State Historical Society of North Dakota, June 1946. 8pp., 6 x 9 in. (incomplete issue, 4pp. fully separated, some chipping to edges). Contains printed illustration of Morrow's portrait of Crow's Breast and Poor Wolf.