Collection Spotlight: Fred Miller photograph collection

Portrait of Shows All The Time and her two children. Fred E. Miller photograph collection, NMAI.AC.108, N13744.

The National Museum of the American Indian is pleased to share with you a newly processed and fully digitized collection of historic photographs. The Fred E. Miller photograph collection depicts Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke) families on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana circa 1898-1910.

Photographed by civil service clerk Fred E. Miller, the photographs reveal an intimate look at the Crow Nation during a period of forced acculturation and the transition from nomadic to sedentary reservation life. By 1883, the Crow peoples had lost millions of acres of land and around the following year all three Crow bands (Mountain Crow, River Crow, and Kicked in the Bellies) were forcibly relocated to the Crow Indian Reservation in south-central Montana.

Portrait of White Hip and Always Takes The Lead. Fred E. Miller photograph collection, NMAI.AC.108, N13667.

Twelve years later, in 1896, Fred Miller accepted a position as a civil service clerk for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and moved to the Crow Indian Reservation. Despite being a government agent, Miller advocated for the rights of the Crow people. For nearly a dozen years, he lived with and photographed the Apsáalooke peoples, learned to speak their language, and was officially adopted into the Crow Nation. He was nicknamed Boxpotapesh, or “High Kicker,” because of his skills at football - a game that he taught to the Crow children. He would also entertain the children with his elaborate ice skating routines on the frozen Little Bighorn River.

Outdoor portrait of Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke) Chief Black Hair (1849-1905) with daughter Mary Black Hair (1896-1953). Fred E. Miller photograph collection, NMAI.AC.108, N13777.

Prior to arriving in Montana, Miller had learned photography in Iowa and operated a photo studio in both Nebraska and Iowa. Despite being a trained professional portrait photographer, Miller’s photographs of the Crow community were very candid and informal in nature. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Miller’s style of photographs appear to be devoid of romanticism or of “dying race” narratives. Rather than people depicted as anonymous archetypes, Miller’s photographs document individuals with names and personal stories. While we can only speculate about Miller’s intentions for photographing, his images capture diverse aspects of day-to-day life of the Crow peoples living on the Reservation. Because of his adoption into the tribe, the Crow permitted Miller to photograph all activities on the reservation, some of which were off-limits for other photographers.

Photograph depicting Chief Medicine Crow [Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke)]. Fred E. Miller photograph collection, NMAI.AC.108, N13649.

According to Joe Medicine Crow (1913-2016), the late Crow Chief and Tribal Historian, Miller did not pose people or dress them up for photographs. Instead, he documented people as he came across them on the Reservation. Chief Joe Medicine Crow further commented, “High Kicker photographed every facet of Crow life during the harsh years of the government’s unilateral acculturation program. His subjects represented all ages from infants to octogenarians, the latter proudly clinging to the last vestiges of their days of glory. The faces vividly reveal sadness, futility and anger, but also happiness, optimism and love.” Among the many faces represented in Miller’s photographs is Joe’s grandfather, Chief Medicine Crow (1848-1922), whom Miller photographed circa 1898-1910.

Outdoor portrait of three generations: grandmother Clara White Hip, her daughter Clara White Hip, and her granddaughter Agnes White Hip. Fred E. Miller photograph collection, NMAI.AC.108, N13729.

Miller’s other photographs include candid family portraits such as a photo of three generations of the White Hip family standing alongside a creek - grandmother Clara White Hip, daughter Clara White Hip, and granddaughter Agnes White Hip. Many other photographs depict Chiefs in traditional regalia such as war shirts and headdresses, as well as women and girls in elk tooth dresses about to partake in special events. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Miller also captured quieter moments, such as his photograph of Points The Gun braiding her hair with the aid of sunlight from a nearby window.

Photograph depicting Points The Gun braiding her hair. Fred E. Miller photograph collection, NMAI.AC.108, N13736.

Before his death in 1936, Miller was working on a narrative about his experiences living among Crow peoples, but unfortunately his writings have since disappeared and their whereabouts remain unknown. Fortunately, his visual record has survived, and can provide a glimpse into various aspects of everyday life on the Crow Indian Reservation at the turn of the twentieth century. Even more importantly, these photographs of Crow ancestors can be shared with descendants and future generations.

Emily Moazami, Assistant Head Archivist

National Museum of the American Indian