Indian delegation, 1863

The subjects seated in the front row, left to right, have been identified as Standing in Water, War Bonnet, and Lean Bear, Cheyenne; and Yellow Wolf, Kiowa. In the middle row at left is the Kiowa woman, Coy, beside her husband, White Bull. An unidentified white child stands among the Indians. To the viewing right of the child is Lone Wolf, a Kiowa, and Etta, wife of Little Heart. The gentlemen standing at left in the back row are John Simpson Smith, interpreter and Samuel G. Colley, Indian agent. Standing next to Colley are Miss Geralt and Miss Lisbon. The tall figure at center is Lincoln’s personal secretary, 31-year-old, John George Nicolay. To the viewing right of Nicolay are Miss Kennedy and another Miss Geralt. The four women and the white child were probably family members of visiting diplomats. The bonneted woman at far right has occasionally been identified as Mary Todd Lincoln, but positive identification remains unresolved. Less than two years after this photograph was taken all four of the Indian peace delegates seated in the front row were dead. Yellow Wolf succumbed to pneumonia days later and was buried with his Jefferson Peace Medal in Congressional Cemetery. The noncombatant Cheyennes, War Bonnet and Standing in Water, were slaughtered by Colorado Territory Militia in the Sand Creek Massacre on November 29, 1864. On May 16, 1864, mistaken for a hostile, Lean Bear protested that he had “visited the home of the White father” but fell under a volley from the same militia. Brady negative number 2735, published as a stereoview by E. & H. T. Anthony, New York.