JE. Jones Photo Album Documenting the Fort Belknap Agency, Montana,

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Source Cowan's Auctions

circa 1904. Oblong album, 8.5 x 6.25" in half red pebbled leather, cover embossed in gilt Photographs, containing 24 silver gelatin contact prints, each 5 x 7" and titled with a typed, strip paper label, documenting activities surrounding a ceremony held at the Fort Belknap, Montana Ageny for the Gros Ventres and Assiniboine. The images were apparently taken for a July 4 celebration; several show Native Americans posing with American flags. Images include those of Assiniboine Fool's Society and Squaw dances; the Star Dance with Gros Ventre and Assiniboine participants; groups of Assiniboine men getting ready for the dance; building a Medicine lodge; a fine image of American Indians in an early automobile (one poses with an American flag); and several close portraits of various American Indian men and women. Little is known about the photographer, though a similar album is curated at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Jones was almost certainly a government employee, probably with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As the Museum's catalog entry makes clear, Jones must have been seen as some authority figure; how else could he have compelled Native Americans to pose singly and in groups? Several of the photographs included in this album should be considered rare. These include the image of the Fool's Society (a men's society) read more

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