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Scarce 4.25 x 6.5 half-length cabinet photo of Chief Rain In The Face in a jacket and tie, signed on the mount in pencil, "Rain in the Face." The cabinet card mount is imprinted in the lower border with a caption, "Chief Rain in the Face," and photographer's credit, "Geo. E. Spencer, U.S. Army Photo, 7420 Ellis Ave. Chicago." The top border is imprinted: "Sitting Bull's Log Cabin now on Exhibition at World's Fair, Chicago, 1893, owned by Sitting Bull Log Cabin Co., Mandan, North Dakota." In fine condition, with minimal foxing to upper left and a minor crease to the lower left corner.
Rain in the Face ostensibly signed this rare cabinet photograph at the 1893 Columbian Exposition (World's Fair) in Chicago, Illinois, where he and others obliged autograph seekers in exchange for a small fee. The Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux chief was a participant in one of the cultural villages on exhibition at the fair meant to represent peoples from around the world. The Indian exhibit included 'Sitting Bull's Cabin,' the actual cabin in which the Sioux chief died. A contemporary description of the Exposition said of the scene: 'Sitting Bull's Cabin was filled with a number of Indians, including Rain-in-the-Face. War dances were given daily.' Acknowledged as the grandest exhibition of its time, the 1893 World's Fair was attended by 27 million people, nearly half of the U.S. population.
Rain in the Face and his band had surrendered in 1880, after which he lived on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. Shortly before his death, he allegedly stated: 'When we were conquered I remained silent, as a warrior should. Rain-in-the-Face was killed when he put down his weapons before the Great Father. His spirit was gone, then; only this poor body lived on.' He died in 1905 on the reservation after a protracted illness.
One of the most feared and respected Native American warriors of the late 19th century, Hunkpapa Lakota warchief Rain-in-the-Face was born in about 1835. His name is thought to have come from an incident when, as a young brave, he was fighting with another boy. The fight was fierce and his face became spattered with blood so badly, it looked like rain on his face, or Itonagaju. He has often been linked to the death of General George Custer, the United States Cavalry hero, at his defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana in 1876. There is much argument about who actually killed Custer, known to the Lakota as the Long-Haired Chief. The general's wife believed that Rain in the Face dealt the death blow and the American poet Longfellow wrote about his deeds in 'The Revenge of Rain in the Face.'
The Collection of Dr. Joseph Matheu.
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