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

Commentary on "Amos Two Bulls, Sioux Indian"

Gertrude Käsebier photographed Amos Two Bulls in a variety of poses and also treated the images differently. Even this one profile portrait of him, we have several examples toned in different quality, in different shades of blacks and browns. This beautiful sepia portrait is one that has some writing on the reverse, and it says "Sioux Indian, $5." I don't know exactly what that means because it was indicated in much of the documents and research that I've been culling through that she did not intend to sell these photos. We know that she did sell other photographs that were exhibited and from other collections for as much as one hundred dollars in that same time period, but who she was thinking of selling this portrait to, we don't know. We know that she often gave the images away. This beautiful profile of Amos Two Bulls shows that she had that flexibility and she was going to use it.