The Pioneer Photography of Julia E. Tuell. Life on the reservation. By Brian D’Ambrosio

Photos courtesy of the Blaine County Historical Society and Brian D’Ambrosio.

In the declining days of the sovereignty of Native Americantribes, a young woman with an Eastman Kodak cameraclicked on scenes normally barred to outsiders of the

Cheyennes in Montana, the Sac and Fox in Oklahoma, andthe Lakota in South Dakota. Born Julia Ethel Toops inLouisville, Ky., on Aug. 16, 1886, she owed her nomadic wayof life to her husband’s job as a schoolmaster on reservations. Julia was 16 when she married 43-year-old teacher P.V.

Tuell in Kentucky. The petite teenage bride and serious-look-ing schoolmaster first went to an island in Vermillion Lake,Minn., on the Chippewa Indian reservation and then headedwest to the Sisseton Sioux reservation in eastern SouthDakota. Her earliest extant photos originate from their third reser-vation, the Northern Cheyenne at Lame Deer, Mont., wherethey moved in 1906. On this isolated reservation, Tuell

Strong Left Hand and Cheyenne mother and children with horse travois, 1906, near Birney, Mont. The mother is situated in a common position.Strong Left Hand, a Northern Cheyenne woman, lost her first of seven husbands at the battle of the Little Bighorn. She is reported to haveadmitted scalping and mutilating dead soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry after the battle. Julia Tuell knew her closely.

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became a photographer—a splendid andprolific one, in fact. When she arrived at LameDeer, all Cheyennes older than 30 had livedthrough the era preceding the Gen. GeorgeArmstrong Custer fight (June 25-26, 1876).Many who fought against Gen. George Crookat Rosebud Creek (June 17, 1876) and Custerat the Little Bighorn were only middle-aged. Come 1906, Tuell had begun recordingimages of the Plains Indians. Traditional skillswere still very much a part of Native Ameri-can life and the transition to modern agricul-ture was a struggle to adapt to. AdultCheyennes still intimately used all the skillsrequired for day-to-day survival on theprairie: making jerky, pitching lodges, sewingskin clothing, whittling and sharpening bowsand arrows. Around this time, Tuell purchased an8”x10” glass-plate camera, most likely mailordered directly from the Eastman Kodak

Company. Kodak had introduced large-for-mat roll film two decades earlier. She carriedher bulky, weighty camera and tripod onhorseback, in a buggy, and later in an oldModel T. (Lighter cameras had been intro-duced in the 1870s, and Eastman had intro-duced snapshot cameras that used roll film inthe 1880s.) With several small children in tow, Tuellpreserved intimate details: Cheyenne womenscraping hides and roasting dogs, dogs andhorses hitched to travois (a Native Americansled), chiefs in full regalia, and children atplay. Afterwards she developed the negativesin her improvised darkroom. Another set ofphotos illustrates a Northern Cheyenne med-icine man’s home and family in 1906. Theholy man’s sacred bundle is tied to the polebehind and to the right of a tent. Black-and-white photographs did not satisfy her needfor realism, so she decided to hand tint many

Sioux Chief John Fast Horse and wife, Bessie, at the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, 1912. BELOW: During the 1918 flu epidemic,Tuell worked as a field nurse on the Rosebud Reservation, where the family was then living.

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of her photographs with watercolors. Tuell found it difficult to enter intothe daily lives of the people she pho-tographed. Trust was eventually extend-ed to her by various tribes, whichallowed her to chronicle even sacred reli-gious ceremonies such as the Sun Danceand an animal dance called the Mas-saum. The key person in Tuell’s beinggranted permission to photograph thesacred Massaum lodge, where the holiestrites were offered, was American Horse,the chief she admired and who, in turn,felt affection for her and her family.American Horse knew no English so shecommunicated as best as she could with-out words. She then began learningCheyenne, eventually becoming able toconverse with him. Indeed, even her simplest images are

memorable, especially those depicting thequotidian acts of life among women: gath-ering herbs and flowers, scraping and stak-ing out hides, and carrying babiesstrapped into decorated cradleboards. Shecaptured images of women using stonemortars and pestles to crush and millchokecherries that would be flattened intopatties and dried.

By design, Tuell’s photos lack mysticismor romanticism. She wanted to honestlydepict life as she saw it, capturing details of

Eva White Crow, daughter of Woostahand granddaughter of Dull Knife, in1907, Lame Deer, Mont. She holds herbaby in a beaded cradleboard.Cradleboards could be tied to themother’s back, carried and proppedagainst lodges when the baby requiredsunlight.

The Lakota holy man Black Elk said, “Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.” This 1917 photograph shows painted Sioux atthe Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota assembling for a ceremony which will be performed in a large circle. Painting and dressing were keyelements in many ceremonial activities.

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reservation life, from jerking meat to pound-ing chokecherries to butchering dogs formeat, as well as sacred ceremonies. Her pho-tography is literature, exposing moments intime that deserve safeguarding. Perhaps thatmay even be described as prose. Each picture,filled with the rich details of everyday life,contains a small story in itself. Indeed, atLame Deer from 1906 to 1912, she was pre-sented perhaps the last opportunity to picto-rially preserve the Northern Cheyenne tribein a period of transition. In 1912, the Cheyenne experience of Juliaand her family ended because of that com-mon vulnerability of government service, thetransfer. PV was assigned to teach among theSac and Fox Indians in Stroud, Okla. TheTuells and their children stayed there only oneyear because they disliked the hot, blusteryclimate. Their next home was on the Rosebud

Reservation in south-central South Dakota.Julia, then age 26, would live among the Siouxuntil 1929, the year PV retired at age 70 after52 years of teaching. The Tuells’ experience with the Sioux—primarily the Brule tribe of the Teton Lako-ta—involved three separate schools on theirexpansive reservations. The first was Ring -thunder Day School (until 1916), then theday school in Wood, and finally, from 1925until 1929, the Blackpipe Day School at Nor-ris. The Ringthunder and Blackpipe schoolscontained living quarters for the Tuells, whilethe teaching position at Wood furnishedthem with a lovely home. Julia’s photographyresumed. She also worked as a field nurse onthe Rosebud Sioux Reservation during the1918 influenza epidemic.

On that reservation, Tuell continued herphotographic journaling of teepees, pipes,and sweat baths. Depending on the wealth ofthe family and the times, teepee subsistenceranged from spartan to extremely comfort-able. The pipe was a sacred ingredient of allholy ceremonies as well as the taking of oathsor the setting up of treaties. Most religiousceremonies were preceded by sweat baths.Before a hunt or military campaign, holy menwould occasionally enter the sweat bath withparticipants and consecrate a particularweapon or article of clothing to help toensure success. Tuell continually captured many harsherviews of old and poor women holding theirgrandchildren. Dogs were one domestic ani-mal available to Plains Indians for food. Afterbutchering, usually by strangulation, thewhole dog was roasted in fire so the haircould be scraped off. Then meat was cut intopieces for stew.

Tuell’s work was unknown until heryoungest child, Varble, brought it to the atten-tion of a Bridger High School teacher in thelate 1970s. A custodian at the Montana highschool, Varble was in his 60s and anxious totell about the wonderful photographs hismother had taken of some of the people stud-ied in Montana history. Born on the eve ofthe Civil War, P.V. Tuell died in 1942. Julialived until Jan. 20, 1960. Their last years werespent in retirement in Southern California. Varble Tuell died in 2011 at the age of 97.He spent his final years promoting and publi-cizing his mother’s photography. “She was apioneer woman,” he said in an interviewshortly before his death, “and I am proud tobe her son.” n

Brian D’Ambrosio is a writer, historian,and author living in Helena, Mont., andSanta Fe, N.M. He may be reached atdambrosiobrian@hotmail.com.

By design, Tuell’s photos

lack mysticism or romanticism; she wanted tohonestly depict

life as she saw it.

The dog travois and Sioux at the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, 1918.

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