The William F. Cody Archive: Documenting the life and times of Buffalo Bill

Commentary on "The Red Man"

Gertrude Käsebier's photograph of "The Red Man" was considered by the photographer to be the artistic print of the whole project. It was the one image that she would include in exhibitions, think about for salons, and also was published along with her other images with Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen in Camera Work and Camera Notes. The photograph of "Red Man" is one that many people have been researching just trying to identify which Indian this could be. The photograph is so very different, a blanket wrapped around the forehead and the chin of this Sioux Indian man. He's gazing right at the camera, but so very different than the informal and formal studio portraits that we see Käsebier making of the dozen or so Indians from the Wild West show. "Red Man" is also represented in the Library of Congress collection. The only place where I've been able to get an inkling of who this man was, was on the envelope of the original negative that remained in the Käsebier family. It says, "Bear One." But I've not been able to find any additional biographical information on this individual or an indication anywhere in Käsebier's notes and oral history of her family just who this might be.