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

ORLANDO SCOTT GOFF

Publication: Goff, Orlando Scott, nd (ca 1865), Bismarck, Dakota Territory

4 1/4" x 6 1/2" cabinet card show Indian War Chief Rain-in-the-Face. with photographer's stamp on rear. "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, including taking the first photograph of Chief Joseph of the Nez Pierce in 1877. In 1877, Goff met with his apprentice David Frances Berry in Bismarck, Dakota Territory. Goff was Berry's mentor, employer, and later, business partner in Bismark, Dakota Territory. Berry went on to photograph and become friends with Sitting Bull, his son Louie, as well as Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, and Red Cloud. Extremities of mount show minor wear with corners rubbed with overall age toning.