Spotted Tail and Sioux Chiefs with Julius Meyer, Interpreter

Period pencil annotations identify the Sicangu Lakota chief Spotted Tail, seated at right, among a delegation of Sioux leaders photographed with their interpreter, Julius Meyer. The group portrait was made at Meyer’s Indian Wigwam in Omaha, an enterprise that served as both a commercial studio and a key meeting place for visiting Indigenous dignitaries. Such stereoviews were produced for a national audience, with Meyer translating and publishing the names of his prominent sitters to satisfy a public interest in the specific identities of Plains leaders.