Original Photograph Of Sioux War Chief, Rain-In-The-Face

ORLANDO SCOTT GOFF

Publication: Goff, Orlando Scott, mid 1870's, Bismarck, Dakota Territory

Original Photograph of Rain-In The-Face, a Sioux warrior who participated in two major defeats by Sioux of U.S.Army soldiers; the Fetterman Massacre in 1866 and the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876. Cabinet Card. Image: 4"x6". Mount: 4.25"x6.5". Photographers imprint on verso: O. S. Goff. Bismarck, D.T. "War Chief Rain-in-the-Face first fought against the whites in the summer of 1866 when he participated in a raid against Fort Totten in what is now North Dakota. In 1868, he again fought the U.S. Army in the Fetterman massacre near Fort Phil Kearny in present-day Wyoming. He again was on the warpath in 1873 when he took part in the Battle of Honsinger Bluff where he ambushed and killed an army veterinarian Dr. John Honsinger, an army Private and another civilian near present day Miles City, Montana. He returned to the Standing Rock Reservation, but was arrested by Captain Thomas Custer in 1874 on orders of General George A. Custer for the murder of Honsinger. He was taken to Fort Abraham Lincoln and incarcerated. However, he escaped (or was freed by sympathetic Indian policemen) and returned to the reservation, then fled to the Powder River. In the spring of 1876, he joined Sitting Bull’s band and traveled with him to the Little Big Horn River in early June." Photographer Orlando Goff moved to Dakota Territory in 1871 and established the first studio in Yankton. In 1873, he moved to Bismarck where he opened a studio. That same year he became the post photographer for Fort Abraham Lincoln in Montana where he took a series of photographs of George Armstrong Custer and his officers. He also took many photographs of Native Americans. In 1877, Goff met with his apprentice David Frances Barry in Bismarck, Dakota Territory. Goff was Barry's mentor, employer, and later, business partner in Bismarck, Dakota Territory. Barry went on to photograph and become friends with Sitting Bull, his son Louie, as well as Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, and Red Cloud. A classic portrait image of the upper half of Rain-In-The-Face's body. He's dressed in a jacket with brass buttons up the front. He has a beaded blanket or cloth across his lap. He wears a peace medal around his neck, wears a single feather, and his hair is braided with ermine or other fur. A clear, sharp image. Minor wear to edges of mount and some rubbing to photograph. A classic image of this well-known, and controversial Sioux warrior and chief. Very good.