Featured in this lot is this "Mad Bear" Cabinet Card from American photographer David Francis Barry born in 1854 and died in 1934; from the ex-collection of the C.M. Russell Museum and John Kleinschmidt. The cabinet card is wonderfully and professionally crafted original construction that shows a portrait photograph of Mad Bear. Co-Rux-Te-Chod-Ish (Mad or Angry Bear) was born circa 1847 in Nebraska, growing up as a Pawnee tribesman. He entered the U.S. Army at Columbus, Nebraska as an Indian Scout. On 8 July 1869, while chasing after a Cheyenne Dog Soldier near the Republican River in Kansas, he was thrown from his horse and was badly injured when another member of his unit shot him by mistake. Frank North's brother Luther North claimed that, because of the language barrier between the Pawnee and the Army, the name of Mad Bear was confused with the name of another Pawnee Scout, Co-Tux-A-Kah-Wadde (Traveling Bear), who was commended for his actions during the Battle of Summit Springs on 11 July 1869, and Traveling Bear was given a medal mistakenly engraved with Mad Bear's name. In reality, Mad Bear was not present in the fighting at the Battle of Summit Springs, still recovering from his injury, and Eugene Asa Carr's recommendation and the document acknowledging the receipt of the medal (bearing Mad Bear's English name and an "X" mark for his signature) both reference the actions of Mad Bear, not Traveling Bear. Mad Bear was the first Native American to receive the Medal of Honor. Co-Rux-Te-Chod-Ish died on 12 February 1913, at about age 65, and is buried in Oklahoma. The front of the cabinet card is marked as follows: Mad Bear - Best Indians on reservation - D.F. Barry, West Superior, Wis. The back is marked with the company stamp of D.F. Barry and reads as follows: Chief Gall - D.F. Barry, - Photographer, West Superior - Wis. - Photographs of all the noted Indians, - Catalogues Mailed on Application. Provenance: From the John Kleinschmidt collection which was on loan to the C.M. Russell Museum from 1987 to 1993 and included in the "The Cowboy West: 100 Years of Photography 1992-1993 exhibit. The condition of this D.F. Barry cabinet card is well preserved with some wear tot he front of the cabinet card with wear tot he corners and to the back but otherwise shows a well preserved condition. The measurements of this cabinet card is 6 1/2" x 4 1/4". The collective weight of this cabinet card is U4oz.
David Francis Barry (1854-1934) was one of the most noted photographers of the American Indian and U.S. Army participants in the Sioux War of 1876 and is attributed with some of the most recognizable surviving images from this period in the history of the American West. Barry first came to the west in the 1870’s to apprentice under photographer O.S. Goff, who worked as the photographer at Fort Abraham Lincoln. It was from this post the Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led his Seventh U.S. Cavalry division in May 1876 to the battle of the Little Bighorn in southwestern Montana. This is considered one of the largest collection of Barry photographs from one historic Montana family offered for public sale.
