Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952)
View Artist Biography
Title:
Red Cloud's Granddaughter
Date:
1907
Size:
Volume, 12.5 x 9.5 inches
Medium:
Vintage Photogravure
The Grandfather, Red Cloud
In 1868 Red Cloud was at the height of his powers. He’d just won the most significant treaty that the Indians had ever gained with the U.S. The 1868 treaty with the Sioux gave them the Black Hills “For as long at the rivers run and the sun shall shine.” The “Bloody Bozeman” trail and three forts were closed as a result. Edward S. Curtis was born in Whitewater, Wisconsin in 1868. In 1905, Curtis had begun his odyssey to photograph the Indians of the U.S. and Canada. It was 1905 when, Curtis stopped to visit Red Cloud on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation, where he’d been forced to stay for the previous 30 years. Red Cloud, had held steadfastly to his principles. He had honored the treaty with the White Men, even though they had violated every part of it within a few years of its signing. Red Cloud was a man of principle, and when Curtis asked to take the old mans picture, Red Cloud agreed with one condition: that the picture be taken while he closed his eyes and “Dreamed of what life was like before the White Man came.”
That is the picture that Curtis took.
Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY
In 1868 Red Cloud was at the height of his powers. He’d just won the most significant treaty that the Indians had ever gained with the U.S. The 1868 treaty with the Sioux gave them the Black Hills “For as long at the rivers run and the sun shall shine.” The “Bloody Bozeman” trail and three forts were closed as a result. Edward S. Curtis was born in Whitewater, Wisconsin in 1868. In 1905, Curtis had begun his odyssey to photograph the Indians of the U.S. and Canada. It was 1905 when, Curtis stopped to visit Red Cloud on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation, where he’d been forced to stay for the previous 30 years. Red Cloud, had held steadfastly to his principles. He had honored the treaty with the White Men, even though they had violated every part of it within a few years of its signing. Red Cloud was a man of principle, and when Curtis asked to take the old mans picture, Red Cloud agreed with one condition: that the picture be taken while he closed his eyes and “Dreamed of what life was like before the White Man came.”
That is the picture that Curtis took.
Provenance: Original Subscription Set #59. George D. Barron, Rye, NY