A grouping of three (3) 1867 outdoor stereoviews by pioneer photographer Carleton Watkins (1829-1916) featuring portraits of native California Indians, including 2 views taken in the Yosemite Valley. Views include: 

1. At the Rancheria, Mendocino County, California. San Francisco: C.E. Watkins, 1868. View and series titles and copyright statement printed to mount recto. Watkins's illustrated imprint to mount verso. 

Conical redwood-bark dwellings (kot) with Pomo women and children seated in a woodland clearing, featuring a young child seated inside a woven carrying basket in the foreground. 

2. Indian Camp, Yosemite Valley, Mariposa County, Cal. San Francisco: C.E. Watkins, 1867. View and series titles and copyright statement printed to mount recto. Verso blank. 

Intimate close-up portrait of an Ahwahneechee / Southern Sierra Miwok or Northern Paiute mother with face tattooing, cradling a swaddled infant wrapped in trade textiles, with traditional woven cooking and gathering baskets arranged nearby. 

3. Indian Camp, Yosemite Valley, Mariposa County, Cal. San Francisco: C.E. Watkins, 1868. View and series titles and copyright statement printed to mount recto. Watkins's illustrated imprint to mount verso. 

Wider camp view depicting two native women seated beneath a tree arbor and brush shelter, surrounded by an extensive array of coiled and twined native basketry, cooking vessels, and carrying gear.

Captured during Watkins' celebrated 1860s expeditions into the Yosemite Valley and the northern California coast, these cards represent some of the earliest and most culturally significant ethnographic photographs produced in California. Rather than staging rigid studio portraits, Watkins documented Indigenous families in their actual living environments, capturing rare visual evidence of traditional cradleboards, shelter construction, and pre-contact basketry styles during a pivotal era of rapid displacement and cultural adaptation. Early 1860s Watkins stereoviews retaining the prestigious 1868 Paris Exposition backmark are exceedingly scarce.

[Native Americans, California Native Americans, Ahwahneechee, Southern Sierra Miwok, Paiute, Pomo, Mendocino County, Rancheria, Yosemite Valley, Mariposa County, Native Basketry, Cradleboards, American West, California History] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Stereoviews, Stereographs, Albumen Prints, Carleton Watkins, Carleton E. Watkins, Watkins Pacific Coast, Paris Exposition 1868, Frontier Photographers]

Strong visual appeal throughout, featuring sharp focal clarity and balanced, warm tones. The square-cornered yellow mounts remain solid and flat with only minor edge bumping and gentle age toning.