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Primary sourcePhotograph1885

Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill

Wm. Notman & Son · 1885

A studio photograph of Sitting Bull with showman Buffalo Bill, taken in Montreal in 1885 during Sitting Bull's time with the Wild West show.

This photograph documents Sitting Bull's season touring with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.

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Black and white studio photograph of two men standing in front of a painted forest backdrop. On the left, a older man in a long feathered war bonnet and fringed, beaded buckskin clothing holds a rifle. On the right, a man in a wide-brimmed hat, embroidered jacket, and tall boots rests a hand on his chest.
Wm. Notman & Son, Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill, Montreal, 1885.

About this source

What it is

This 1885 photograph was taken in a studio in Montreal by Wm. Notman & Son. It shows Sitting Bull, dressed in a feathered war bonnet and beaded buckskin clothing and holding a rifle, standing beside William F. 'Buffalo Bill' Cody in performance costume.

Why it matters

Sitting Bull spent a season touring with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, where his fame as a Lakota leader was turned into entertainment for paying audiences. The image, made against a painted backdrop, shows how his identity was staged and marketed to the public rather than recorded as it was in daily life.

Look closer

  • What is real and what is staged in this photograph?
  • Why might Sitting Bull have agreed to appear in a show like this?
  • How does the painted backdrop change how we read the photograph?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake) on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Handwritten manuscript page on lined paper, titled 'Articles of a Treaty' in ornate script, with an opening paragraph naming United States commissioners and Sioux Nation delegates, followed by 'Article I' below. The page is aged and yellowed with visible tears along the top and bottom edges.Document

Primary source

Fort Laramie Treaty

29 April 1868

Colored reproduction card labeled 'Chief Sitting Bull Sioux' showing a man in profile with long braids, two feathers in his hair, a red neckerchief, and a beaded vest with geometric and floral designs.Photograph

Primary source

Sitting Bull Portrait by William Notman

William Notman · 1885

Sepia-toned studio portrait of a man with a long braided hair, wearing a light patterned shirt and a feather headdress, looking directly at the camera with a serious expression against a plain backdrop.Photograph

Primary source

Chief Sitting Bull

David F. Barry · 1884

Scanned page of the 1887 Act titled 'An Act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations', headed 'Forty-Ninth Congress of the United States of America; At the Second Session', with handwritten marks and a 'Public No. 105' stamp.Document

Primary source

Dawes Act

Henry Dawes · 8 February 1887

Black ink cursive signature on white background reading 'Sitting Bull', with a long flourish above the words and a looping stroke descending below the 'g'.Document

Primary source

Signature of Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull

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