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Primary sourceArtifact1888

Sitting Bull Cigarette Card (Allen & Ginter N36)

Allen & Ginter · 1888

A commercial trade card from 1888 showing a portrait of Sitting Bull, issued inside packs of Allen & Ginter cigarettes.

This card shows how Sitting Bull's image was commercialized during his lifetime for advertising.

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Chromolithographed trade card showing a portrait of Sitting Bull, a Dakota Sioux man with a feather in his headdress, long braids, and beaded necklace, captioned 'Sitting Bull, Dakota Sioux'. On the right is a fur pelt with feathered decoration and a headdress of horns at top.
Allen & Ginter, Sitting Bull trade card, American Indian Chiefs series (N36), 1888. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About this source

What it is

This is a chromolithographed trade card from 1888, made by the tobacco company Allen & Ginter as part of a set called 'American Indian Chiefs.' It shows a portrait of Sitting Bull with a feather headdress, braids, and beaded necklace, with a fur pelt and horned headdress beside him. It is now held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Why it matters

Trade cards like this were given out with cigarette packages to collect, and they shaped how ordinary Americans pictured Native leaders at the time. Sitting Bull was famous across the country, and companies used his image to sell products, often without his control over how he was shown.

Look closer

  • Who made this image, and why would a cigarette company want Sitting Bull's picture on a card?
  • What details does the card include, and what might it leave out about his real life?
  • How might Sitting Bull have felt about being used to sell a product?

This artifact 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

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.Photograph

Primary source

Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill

Wm. Notman & Son · 1885

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

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