Featured in this lot is this silver gelatin "Chief John Grass," by 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 photograph features a wonderfully and professionally crafted silver gelatin construction that is blind stamped 'Copyright by D.F. Barry' and shows a portrait of Chief John Grass as labeled outside the frame glass. Grass, John (1837/1844-10 May 1918), leader of the Sihasapa (Blackfoot) Sioux, was born at a camp along the Grand River in present-day South Dakota. His father and grandfather were important Sihasapa leaders; no information has been found on his mother. The Sihasapa were probably the last of the Teton Sioux to migrate from the woodlands into the Dakotas and were closely connected to the Hunkpapa and Sans Arc bands. Catholic mission records state that Grass, or Charging Bear, as he was known as a young adult, was baptized when he was three by the peripatetic Jesuit Father Pierre-Jean De Smet. Grass fought in battles against tribal enemies in the 1850s and 1860s. He married Cecelia Walking Shield in a traditional ceremony in 1867; they renewed their marriage in a Catholic ceremony in 1894. The Grasses had four children. Grass appears regularly in the reports of the Standing Rock Indian Agency in North Dakota, to which the Sihasapa were assigned along with bands of Hunkpapa and Upper Yanktonais Sioux, as well as in the records of the commissions who worked to obtain land cessions from the Sioux in the 1880s. Grass counseled peace in the 1870s and gained influence after 1876 as he accepted government policies encouraging farming and education. Recognition of his willingness to cooperate marked him as "progressive," and he was named chief justice of the Court of Indian Offenses for the Standing Rock Agency, a position he held until his death. By the early 1880s Grass's influence increased as the Hunkpapa bloutanka (war leader) Gall came also to accept assimilationist policies. Gall and Grass became close friends and worked to protect the lands and interests of their people. Grass's willingness to cooperate with the government led Agent James McLaughlin to name him head chief of Standing Rock but also placed him and Gall at odds with other leaders, such as Sitting Bull, who remained more suspicious of government intentions. The silver gelatin comes complete with personal correspondence between Mr. John Kleinschmidt and D.F. Barry dicussing the sending and purchasing of this photograph and discussion about similar subject matter as both were historians and (Barry) being a prolific photographer of the Native Americans involved in the history of Fort Lincoln and The Standing Rock Reservation. The condition of this D.F. Barry silver gelatin is good with no obvious signs of damage and shows a good overall condition with some slight wear to the frame. The measurements of this framed photograph is 14 5/8" x 11 7/8" and the visible photograph measures 9 3/8" x 6 7/8". The collective weight of this photograph is 1lb 14oz.
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.
