A new exhibit at NDSU features powerful portraits of Sioux tribal members captured by renowned North Dakota photographer Frank Fiske.
“People of Standing Rock,” displayed in the President’s Gallery in Old Main, features 30 detailed images of men and women, young and old, taken between 1890 and 1920 on Standing Rock Reservation. Among the photographs are Sioux Chief Rain-In-The-Face, who fought Red Cloud Wars and Little Bighorn; Sitting Bull’s nephew, One Bull; police officer Joe No Heart; and Native Americans sitting among Catholic priests who were on a mission trip.
The images, selected from a collection of 6,560 negatives, provide vivid details of how Sioux members looked and dressed, capturing natural adornments such as eagle feathers, elk teeth, cow bone, buffalo horns, fur, prairie chicken feathers, quills, deer hooves, horsehair and bear claws.
An excerpt from a book, which accompanies the collection, describes Fiske’s work as follows: “The photographs in the Fiske portfolios are important windows, historically and artistically, for they show a proud people during a period of difficult and often painful transition. Through the glass of Frank Fiske’s negatives lies an abundance of information and understanding.”
Another excerpt from the collection’s book indicates Fiske was a rarity among American photographers whose work centered on the American Indian. “Unlike most such artists, Fiske was a native of the Dakotas and grew up with many of those people who later became subjects for his camera on the reservation lands bordering the Missouri River. The Sioux Indian people of the Standing Rock agency were friends, neighbors – a part of his life and upbringing.”
Fiske was born in 1883 north of Pierre, S.D., and moved with his family to Fort Yates in 1889. He took over an abandoned photography studio when he was just a teenager.
Fiske’s portraits of the Standing Rock Sioux received not only artistic recognition, but also were used commercially. The portraits appeared on postcards, calendars and even N.D. highway markers. His most active years as a photographer were 1900-1928. Beyond his portraits, Fiske became known for documenting everyday life in central and southern North Dakota, especially the Fort Yates area. Fiske also wrote two books. In 1917, he published “The Taming of the Sioux,” and in 1933, “The Life and Death of Sitting Bull.” He died in 1952.
The portraits in the “People of Standing Rock” exhibit are fine reproductions from the original negatives, which are preserved at the State Historical Society of North Dakota. The North Dakota Heritage Foundation published it in 1983 and the NDSU Institute for Regional Studies purchased the set several years later. In the 1990s John Beecher, former NDSU library director, funded the framing of the collection, completed to archival/museum standards.
John Bye, director and university archivist for the Institute for Regional Studies and University Archives at NDSU, says the exhibit is a great opportunity to see the work of one of North Dakota’s well-known photographers, as well as a chance to study some of the people who called Standing Rock their home. “The viewer has the opportunity to study each person, to appreciate the strength of character of each,” he said.
The President’s Gallery is located on the first floor of Old Main. The exhibit is free and open to the public 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. It is expected to remain open for a few months, as a closing date has not been set. Staff members of the Memorial Union Gallery developed and installed the display.
For more information on the exhibit, contact Bye at john.bye@ndsu.edu or 1-8877. Many of Fiske’s images can be viewed at http://digitalhorizonsonline.org.