A Northern Cheyenne Album: Photographs by Thomas B. Marquis

by Margot Liberty (Editor), John Woodenlegs (Commentaries by)

Overview

Rare photographs document the lives of Cheyenne people during the early reservation years

In 1878 the Northern Cheyennes left what is now Oklahoma, where they had been incarcerated, and began an epic journey back to their homeland. They suffered great losses, but a small group of survivors reached its destination in southeastern Montana in 1879 and eventually won the right to a reservation there. A Northern Cheyenne Album presents a rare series of never-before-published photographs that document the lives of tribal people on the reservation during the early twentieth century—a period of rapid change.

Reservation physician and expert photographer Thomas B. Marquis captured Northern Cheyenne life in numerous images taken from 1926 to 1935. After 1960, former tribal president John Woodenlegs and others interviewed tribal elders and, drawing on tape recordings, composed the photos’ lively captions. Margot Liberty, editor of this volume, has added her own descriptions, filling in details of Northern Cheyenne culture and history from a scholar’s viewpoint.

A valuable record of an all-but-forgotten generation, this volume is also an inspiring tribute to the Northern Cheyenne elders whose resilience and adaptability helped ensure the future of their people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806138930
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	07/30/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Margot Liberty, widely known as an anthropologist specializing in Northern Plains Indians and ranching culture, is the author, coauthor, or editor of Cheyenne Memories, with John Stands In Timber; A Northern Cheyenne Album, with photographs by Thomas B. Marquis; Working Cowboy: Recollections of Ray Holmes; A Cheyenne Voice: The Complete John Stands In Timber Interviews; and Songs and Snippets: Poems of Margot Liberty.

John Woodenlegs was President of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe from 1955 to 1968 and the founder of Chief Dull Knife Memorial College, Lame Deer, Montana.