Unknown Indian Delegation

[tgronk]

I am trying to find any information on this photo. I do not know the year or the people. This photo is in the Jesuit archives in St. Louis, MO. A penciled in note thought that the man with the beard sitting in the middle was D. D. Mitchell, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, but I'm not so sure. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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[Henri]

My guess would be Ute.

Henri

[grahamew]

We've had this before somewhere, but can't find it. I think we concluded that it was mixed Ute and Jicariila group

[jeroen]

I can't find it either, but they are Ute and Jicarilla. The man standing far left looks familiar... have to look him up...

[tgronk]

Thank you - based on initial replies, I did find this: www.cowanauctions.com/past_sales_view_item.asp?itemid=46914 - an auction listing for the same photograph, but still with very little information. The photo was labeled with "Utes or Utah Indians & Agents" handwritten on the back. They thought Tomas Chacon (Spanish interpreter) was the older white man in the back row and the group included the Ute Curlwitche.

[grahamew]

I've seen Chacon before. Pretty sure it was with a Jicarilla delegation.

[tgronk]

Here is the discussion thread that people were referring to: lbha.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Indians&action=print&thread=2988

Curious that the SIRIS photo is the same group, but taken at a slightly different moment than the one posted. Also, it is not clear to me if "Lonesome Charley" Reynolds is in fact the man in the photo, per the discussion string.

[grahamew]

That's the one. Unfortunately, this rules out it being Mitchell who died in 1861, didn't he?

[tgronk]

In case this helps anyone: According to the Cowan Auction photo, it is stamped on the back with "N. Brown & Son, Santa Fe." (The Jesuit archives in St. Louis seemed to have an original cabinet card, but I don't think any photographer was stamped on the back - I'll need to check it again.) If this means that N. Brown was the actual photographer of the original image then, according to the biographical sketch in "Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide," N. Brown is Nicholas Brown (and son William Henry Brown) who worked in St. Louis from 1857-66, then in Santa Fe from 1864 till approximately 1870. He opened a shop in Santa Fe on 11 August 1866 and traveled to Fort Union in 1866, Fort Selden in 1867, and travelled "down the Rio Grande" to Chihuahua from 1866-1872. I am no expert on tribes by any stretch, but this would seem to rule out Charlie Reynolds and D. D. Mitchell in the photo, rule in Tomas Chacon, and make it more likely that these are Jicarilla Apache and not Ute. Any feedback is appreciated.

[tgronk]

One more thing: if Tomas Chacon is the same older white man in both photographs from the Cowan Auction, then we know pretty much for certain that the second photo is a Ute delegation from 1868. In that photo, Chacon would be 75 years old. The first photo (the one I originally posted) seems to show a younger man (once again, assuming it is Chacon). I would guess even as much as 10 years younger, unless Chacon aged considerably or was sickly in a few years time. This raises the intriguing possibility that Nicholas Brown took the photo while he was stationed in St. Louis (and helps explain why it is in the Jesuit archives there) and later reprinted it for sale after he moved to Santa Fe.

[swa562]

That photo is sure an old classic.