4 x 2 3/4 in. tintype housed in bifolium paper sleeve with period inked identification in lower margin, "Matches." Pencil inscription to front of sleeve reads, "(Bishop Whipple)," likely referring to Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple (1822-1901), who acted as an advocate for Native Americans.

The young man featured in the image wears a coat with thick lapels and a tie with a stick pin through the knot.

Matches was one of 72 Native American prisoners (32 of which were Southern Cheyenne) taken to Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. He was arrested on 3 April 1875 at the Cheyenne Agency in Oklahoma (then Indian Territory) when he was a young man (source discrepancies suggest he was somewhere between the ages of 19 and 25 years old). He was confined at Fort Marion for 3 years, after which he chose to attend the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. He attended Carlisle from 1881-1886, where he engaged in agricultural work among other endeavors. He returned to the Cheyenne Agency in 1892 and received an allotment of land near the Canton and Watonga areas, eventually marrying but not having children. He passed away in 1914.

Matches is best known for the sketches, or ledger drawings, he produced while a prisoner at Fort Marion. A small sketchbook containing 31 drawings is curated by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. It was purchased from Matches by a woman visiting St. Augustine, sometime between 1875-77.
(Wierzbowski, William. Native American P.O.W. Art from Fort Marion: Matches's Sketchbook, 16-17).