Outdoor view of a Plains Indian tree scaffold burial. Albumen carte de visite on ruled mount. Dakota Territory: Thompson & Scott, ca. late 1870s-early 1880s. Photographer's imprint on mount verso. Mount verso inscribed in brown ink: "Illustrative of the Indian / custom of 'laying away' / their dead; this tree is / not very far from the / Swift Mission, above / the Cheyenne Agency. / I believe it is a / cottonwood."

A somber ethnographic landscape documenting traditional Plains funerary practices in the Dakota Territory. The image captures a large, spreading cottonwood tree set against an open prairie horizon, bearing the carefully wrapped remains of two deceased individuals secured among the upper forks and boughs. At upper left, remains rest on a constructed wooden platform or scaffold support, while another bundle lies cradled directly across a lower thick horizontal branch.

Traditional elevated scaffold and tree burials were deeply rooted in Lakota (Sioux) and northern Plains cosmology, intended to allow the spirit (wanagi) to begin its four-day journey to the spirit world without premature terrestrial disruption, while keeping the physical remains protected from scavengers. Following the establishment of the Cheyenne River Agency (originally located on the Missouri River and later relocated following flooding), traditional aerial burials persisted in rural pockets near Episcopal missions, such as the mission station established by the Reverend Henry Swift in the 1870s, despite intense pressure from federal authorities and missionaries to adopt Christian ground internments.

Thompson & Scott were itinerant and frontier photographers operating in Dakota Territory and western Minnesota during the late 1870s and 1880s, producing scarce stereoviews and CDVs documenting early military posts, agency settlements, and Indigenous cultural traditions. Surviving field CDVs by the partnership documenting specific identified Dakota agency landmarks remain exceptionally scarce.

[Native Americans, Lakota, Sioux, Cheyenne River Agency, Dakota Territory, Tree Burial, Scaffold Burial, Mortuary Customs, Ethnographic Photography, Plains Indians, Swift Mission, American West] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Carte-de-Visite, CDV, Albumen Photographs, Thompson & Scott, Dakota Territory Photographers]

Very good condition with warm, even sepia tones and clear detail throughout the tree branches and wrappings. The card mount is trimmed neatly and retains solid structural integrity, showing light age toning and faint foxing. Mount verso is bold and clear, with only a small ink stain at the lower left corner not affecting the handwritten text.