Image From “Rookwood and the American Indian” Gallery
Ohio University Press / Swallow Press

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Photograph by Henry Ulke, 1877, Washington, DC.
(3118) National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Spotted Tail (ca. 1823–81), whose Sioux name was Sinte Gleska, was a member of the Sicangu or Brulé band who now live on Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. He was a political leader and great warrior who fought for peace among his people, as well as peace with the whites who dominated North America. He maintained that negotiation was a better alternative to war.[…]

Laurence chose to paint Spotted Tail in informal attire: a neck scarf and a cavalry shirt; Henry Ulke, the photographer, included Spotted Tail’s English trade blanket of stroud, a fabric manufactured in England and readily recognizable by its undyed, zigzagged white selvage. Stroud was popular as a trade item with Native Americans.