[NATIVE AMERICAN] Otoe Chiefs & Interpreter Baptiste DeRoin

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Day 2: Early & Historic Americana

By Fleischer's Auctions

Oct 10, 2025

Set Reminder 2025-10-10 09:00:00 2025-10-10 09:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Day 2: Early & Historic Americana https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/fleischers-auctions/day-2-early-historic-americana-19250
Day one of Fleischer's 2025 Fall Premier auction includes early American artifacts, documents, signatures, ephemera, and weaponry. Rare material relating to African American history is featured, as well as fine examples of antique photography. Fleischer's Auctions info@fleischersauctions.com

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• Lot Description

  Full-length seated albumen CDV studio portrait of four (4) Oho chiefs with their interpreter. Omaha, [Nebraska]: Jackson Bro's, ca 1865-1875. Photographer's imprint to verso alongside period ink title: "Otoe Chiefs + interpreter." Modern pencil inscription provides spurious identifications. 

   

  The seated man wearing a pale suit is Baptiste DeRoin (alt. Devoin), also known as Little Iowa or Young Iowa (alt. Ioway, Pah-kho-che ing-e, Pah-ho-cha-inga). The son of John Devoin, who was half French and half Missouria, and his mother, who was half Omaha, one-quarter French, and one-quarter Ioway. Educated at the Pawnee Mission at Belleview, Nebraska, he was able to speak English, Pawnee, Omaha, and French. He married into the Otoe tribe and, by 1869, was employed as its interpreter. (c.f. P.1967.2775 & 
  P1967.2258, Bureau of American Ethnology Collection, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas). 

   

  Three of the chiefs wear the distinctive otter fur hats of the Otoe (Jiwére), and the closely related Missouria and Ioway. The two seated men next to DeRoin have been tentatively identified as True Eagle (Otoe/Missouria) and Bear (Ioway). The third be-hatted man. The man standing next to him has been tentatively identified as Buck Elk Walking (Obahomani, Op-Po-Hom-Mon-Ne) with a distinctive mohawk-esque hairstyle, checked shirt, and large pendant. (c.f. NAA.PhotoLot.176, Item BAE GN 03888B 06614100, National Museum of Natural History and P1967.2778, Bureau of American Ethnology Collection, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas). 

   

  A modern inscription to the verso identifies the seated interpreter as Joe Shaddo (seated far left), the standing figures as Short Bull and Many Horses, and the seated chiefs as Crazy Bear and No Neck. Most of these, however, are from the Sicangu Lakota and related Sioux tribes. 

   

  The Jackson Brothers was the photographic enterprise formed in 1867 by renowned photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942) and his brother Edward. During this era of his career before he received he was commissioned by the Union Pacific Railroad, Jackson would act "as a missionary to the Indians" in the Omaha region, taking portraits of the Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Winnebago, and Omaha people.

   

  [Native Americans, Native American History, American Indian, Indian History] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards, Stereographs]

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