Frank A. Rinehart Photograph of Blackfeet Indian “Chief Mountain” [SOLD]

Frank A. Rinehart, a commercial photographer in Omaha, Nebraska, was commissioned to photograph the 1898 Indian Congress, part of the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition. More than five hundred Native Americans from thirty-five tribes attended the conference, providing the gifted photographer and artist an opportunity to create a stunning visual document of Native American life and culture at the dawn of the 20th century.

The Indian Congress occurred from August 4 to October 31, 1898 in Omaha, Nebraska, in conjunction with the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition. Occurring within a decade of the end of the Indian Wars, the Indian Congress was the largest gathering of American Indian tribes of its kind to that date. Over 500 members of 35 different tribes attended, including the Apache chief Geronimo, who was being held at Fort Sill as a United States prisoner of war. The tribes in attendance included the Apache, Arapaho,Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Crow, Flathead, Fox, Iowa, Kiowa, Omaha, Otoe, Ponca, Pottawatomie, Sauk and Fox, Lakota, Southern Arapaho, Tonkawa, Wichita, and the Winnebago, as well as Santa Clara Pueblo.

Frank A. Rinehart's photographs of the Indian Congress participants are regarded as one of the best photographic documentations of American Indian leaders around the start of the 20th century.

Chief Mountain-Blackfeet (1848-1942) Ninastoko

Chief Mountain was born on Old Man River in southern Alberta. He became an important warrior at the age of 18.  In 1873 he wounded his leg during a battle with the Crow. As a result he limped for the rest of his life.

He lived a long life during which he met with four presidents—McKinley, Taft, Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson.

In his later life he worked with researchers to record Plains Indian sign languages. He died at the age of 94 near his home in Montana.

The original photograph is stamped in lower left: Copyright 1899, F. A. Rinehart, Omaha.  In lower center is written Chief Mountain—Blackfeet and in lower right No. 793. The photograph is matted with a single cream-colored acid-free mat and framed in a beautiful burl wood frame with UV glass.

Condition: original condition

Provenance: from the collection of a gentleman from Washington