CDV of Metis Sioux Chief with Period Inscription

Albumen carte-de-visite (CDV). [Alberta, Canada?]. Period inscription to mount recto lower margin: “Vindó, mètis Scioux, Chief Kaisens(?). (Canada). Period inscription mount verso: “De la part de Mille Grandin, soeur de Monseigneur Grandin, evêque en Amérique” [From Miss Grandin, sister of Monsignor Grandin, bishop in America].

The Sioux chief is seated and photographed wearing a tall feather headdress. The inscriptions indicate that the image was sent by the sister of Monsignor Vital-Justin Grandin (1829-1902), a Catholic priest, bishop, and missionary. He was a key architect of the Canadian Indian residential school system which he believed was the best way for Indigenous Peoples to “become civilized” and avoid extinction. Modern commentators have widely regarded the system as one of cultural genocide.

[Native Americans, First Nations, Western Expansion, Early Photography, Cabinet Card, Missionaries] [Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, Tintype, CDV, Albumen, carte-de-visite, Salt print, Cabinet Card]