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

Commentary on "Samuel Lone Bear"

It seems from the photography and from the documents available that Gertrude Käsebier really bonded with the Lone Bear family, and especially younger Sammy Lone Bear, Samuel Lone Bear. And there's one in particular with Sammy Lone Bear standing with the blanket around him with the American flag motif. In this one in particular you can see a little bit of the studio behind him and you see him not looking directly at the camera or Käsebier but off to the side. Sammy Lone Bear developed a long-standing relationship with Käsebier, and he wrote letters over as long a period as twelve years. It's documented in the Everybody's Magazine publication in 1901, and also in some of the documents you find in Käsebier collections at the University of Delaware. It's just one example that we are able to learn about where the Käsebier's and the Lone Bear's, especially Gertrude and Sammy, bonded in a way that appears that maybe Sammy had a little bit of a crush on Gertrude, and she very much enjoyed maintaining the friendship and exchanging gifts along the way.