Anonymous sixth plate housed in a pressed leather case, probably late 1860s or early 1870s. The studio portrait depicts a young Pawnee man in a woman's cotton blouse of the type favored by the men of this Missouri River tribe during the 1870s. A shawl drapes his shoulders. Spiraling ribbons of stiff paper or cloth are suspended from tufts of his hair. He displays a file-branded wooden war club. Historically, the Pawnee occupied territory along the Missouri River in northern Kansas and Central Nebraska. They were semi-sedentary agriculturalists living in large, earth lodge villages. During the period of post-Civil War western expansion, many young Pawnee men were employed by the U.S. military, acting as scouts and interpreters. William Henry Jackson photographed many Pawnee during his Omaha years (1867-1870), though apparently preferring paper images. A fine and early photograph.

RESERVE AUCTION

Great tones, some flaking emulsion at the top.