H. G. Klenze, Post Photographer, Fort Assinniboine, M.T.

[mark2dgs]

Great find!

[grahamew]

Looks like it's been cropped. Shame the rest isn't there.

[grahamew]

I know this is kind of drifting into a Cree in Montana thread...

[mark2dgs]

I see my post from yesterday didn't make it through the warp- Oh well.
In the meantime I managed to dig up some more on Henry Gysbert Klenze (1864-1924).
Born to German immigrant parents, raised and educated in Davenport, Iowa. went out west. where he met Barry and learned photography and did a 2 year photographic tour of Montana with him. (Must be lots of photographs out there!)
He also did a lot of photography of the northern pacific railway in 1887, which must have been just after his trip with Barry.
Found a very interesting photograph of railway carts and posing workers and indians dated 1887, by Klenze. Unfortunately I cannot enlarge it. Still looking for more!
He ended up quite wealthy and owned a number of mining claims in the Helena- Butte area. He was a leading man who was well thought of apparently.
He married a widow Marguerite, who had a daughter, whom he adopted. She later became known as Canadian born American writer and feminist Mary MacLane (interesting bio on her too! "The wild woman of Butte")
Haven't found the details yet- but Henry G. Klenze took his own life in 1924, so a somewhat tragic ending for a supposedly well to do and popular man.

[mark2dgs]

All this leads me to give more and more credence to the possible date of 1887/88 for the photograph that started this thread.

[grahamew]

Looks a good bet.

Here's a photo of soldiers from Fort Missoula and Cree during the removal to Canada in 1896 by William Hoblitzel - though to me, the more immediate event it shows is a group of Cree selling polished buffalo horns to the soldiers. The original is in the Mansfield Library of the University of Montana-Missoula:







From the same source, here's another photo of an older Little Bear:

[mark2dgs]

Even more great stuff! likely selling polished horns yes. Likely late 1890s.
Narrowed possible timeframe for first Klenze photograph down even more. Could be winter of 1886/87, where the Crees wintered on a tributary of the Sun river in Montana.
They worked at Fort Assineboine and had good relations with the soldiers there. Post Commander even recommending them.
First report of the killing of Little Poplar by Ward, as early as april 1887.

[grahamew]

digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1420&context=greatplainsquarterly

[grahamew]

I know this is going over old stuff but the photos have gone awol, so here we go...

The Klenze photo:





Little Bear in the centre




Little Bear and Crees in Havre, Montana, 1896, awaiting deportation back to Canada, I think




Lucky Man and Little Bear in Montana. Little Bear is the man in the white blanket; Frank La Roche, 1893.


Cree "Sun Dance" in Montana; Frank La Roche, 1893

This is a series of closer shots from the Havre photo. You can see several of the same faces as in the "Sun Dance" and Klenze photos.


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[mark2dgs]

Great to see these close-up! Thank's Grahamew.