Native American Photos Need Help Identifying

[mrchris84]

I have recently bought a photo album off a auction site and these two native American photos were in there with them. The first one is two native American men one who is holding a axe standing with a white man who reminds me of buffalo bill who is holding a rifle and pistol knife in his waist. The other is a group photo of another white man with six native Americans all of them who are mostly wearing Indian peace medals. The photographer name is Hengen & Fichen from Rockville Indiana. If you could tell me anything about the people in the photo, maybe what tribe they could be or anything info at all about the people or the photographer that would be very helpful. The third photo is a separate tintype i purchased but he looks to be a native american sheriff of some sorts, anything about him would be great too. thanks so much and look forward to seeing what you guys come up with.

[dT]

first one .... Hmmmmmmmmmm ...those faces could be Crow or Lakota maybe.
You might want to check into the identity of the white man. He was most likely
an ethnographer or photographer. If you track him down, you might get somewhere.
Look into the name Curtis, but I am not promising it is him.

dT

[grahamew]

They're Pawnee. I'm guessing Oklahoma Pawnee from the mid 1880s, taking part in some kind of Wild West Show. The centre-fringed moccasins had, I guess, spread from tribes they'd come into contact with, though I'd normally associate them with the Kiowa and Comanche.

[dT]

grahamew ... can I ask you? how did you recognize Pawnee?

dT

[grahamew]

When I first saw them, I thought the moccasins signified Comanche or Kiowa or some tribe, like the Kichai, who lived nearby. I assume the central moccasin fringe originated with the Kiowa and spread outwards. I've seen pairs like this belonging to Southern Cheyenne, Osage and Pawnee and I'm not au fait with moccasin style and construction enough to be able to distinguish the particular types. The short feather and hair decorations of some of the men reminded me of the type of decoration I've seen on photos of Southern Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche and Kichai - but also seen on a group of Pawnee that toured with Cody in the mid 1880s, by this time, looking very different to the Pawnee photographed by Jackson 20 years earlier. The real killer though was a message on PlainsIndianSeminartwo that posted this picture: Unidentified and Old Wichita (aka Little Eagle):

[dT]

very interesting - thank you!!