Grouping of three (3) albumen print cabinet cards featuring Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Bannock Subjects, notably including Ernest Left Hand, identified as a student at the Carlisle Indian School. Views include: 

1. Ernest Left Hand. Cheyenne. Studio bust portrait. Albumen cabinet card. El Reno, Oklahoma Territory: C.C. Stotz, [late 1880s-1890s]. Photographer's imprint to mount recto. Period ink title/identification to mount verso. 

Almost certainly the same person as the young Arapaho man named Ernest Left Hand, who was a student at the Carlisle Indian School from 22 October 1883 until 21 October 1884. His file indicates that he was farming in Geary, Oklahoma, in 1912, just 25 miles away from Stoz's studio in El Reno. (Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center, RG 75, Series 1327, box 3, folder 145).

An important portrait that shows Ernest wearing primarily indigenous clothing, including a fur-trimmed felt hat adorned with eagle feathers, a beadwork vest over a light shirt, multiple shell chokers, and large disc earrings. The Carlisle School focused on forced assimilation, requiring students to take new "English" names, only speak English, practice Christianity, and wear European-style clothing. An alumnus of the school whose founder's motto was, "Kill the Indian, save the man," wearing Native dress is a poignant visual message of resistance. 

2. Spotted Horse. A Bannock. Studio bust portrait. Albumen cabinet card. El Reno, Oklahoma Territory: C.C. Stotz, [late 1880s-1890s]. Photographer's imprint to mount recto. Period ink title/identification to mount verso. 

Frontal bust portrait of Spotted Horse wearing a bone hair-pipe breastplate, otter or beaver fur hair wraps, neckerchief, and face paint across his cheeks.

3. Josephine and sister. Kiowas. Full-length studio portrait. Albumen cabinet card.  El Reno, Oklahoma Territory: C.C. Stotz, [late 1880s-1890s]. Photographer's imprint to mount recto. Period ink title/identification to mount verso. 

A captivating portrait of two young Kiowa women richly adorned in fringed buckskin dresses heavily ornamented with rows of elk teeth and shell beads. Notably, what appears to be an American flag is draped across the lap of the seated subject. 

C.C. Stotz was active in El Reno, Oklahoma Territory around 1890 (c.f. Mautz), capturing exceptional ethnographic portraits of Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and visiting tribal members. Situated adjacent to the Darlington Agency (Cheyenne and Arapaho) and Fort Reno, El Reno was a major center where Indigenous leaders and delegation members regularly posed for territorial photographers in full traditional and ceremonial regalia. 

A beautiful selection of portraits by Stotz. 

[Native Americans, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Bannock, Plains Indians, Oklahoma Territory, El Reno, Darlington Agency, Fort Reno, Elk Tooth Dress, Hair-Pipe Breastplates, Beadwork, Fur Wraps, American West, Frontier History] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Cabinet Cards, Albumen Photographs, C. C. Stotz, Oklahoma Photographers]

Very good condition overall, displaying excellent focus and high contrast. Mounts remain flat, clean, and solid with only minor corner rubbing. Versos are crisp and completely legible.