Commentary on "Wife of American Horse, Sioux Indian"

There's only one female portrayed in this collection of Gertrude Käsebier's Sioux Indian portraits, and that is the wife of American Horse, a very artful profile portrait of this woman who would be accompanying her husband during the season of the Wild West. Many of the women were there mending clothing, taking care of the families, making sure that all the beadwork and all the necessary chores were getting done while the men were performing. Why and when this photograph was taken is still a bit of a mystery. We see no women in the group photograph in the studio, and yet her portrait and the later one with her husband, American Horse, are among the most poignant and beautiful that Käsebier is able to capture.