Native American Hero

Kee-Week-O-War-Uxty (Medicine Bull) called John Buffalo. Possibly taken by Edric L. Eaton. Nebraska. 1865.

OCTOBER SUNRISE on Old Indian Creek Trail, 1917, by L.A. Huffman. This magnificent vista was captured on the Spear Brothers Cattle Ranch. The Spear O outfit leased one million acres on the Crow Reservation and ran 50,000 head of cattle. It had 22 "main" ranches in Montana and Wyoming, and 110 cow camps when transit by horse was the only option. Click photo to clarify/enlarge.

This is a photo made of a Huffman print still under glass in its original frame. The original print measured 15 inches wide and was hand-tinted in Huffman’s Miles City studio. Three decades earlier, Huffman and his partner had started the first cattle ranch in the Rosebud Creek area. Huffman knew cattle, horses, and the terrain of Eastern Montana. Text and Photoshop restoration of image by Gary Coffrin.