Chief Washakie of the Eastern Shoshone is depicted here in a cabinet card albumen portrait by M. D. Houghton of Rawlins, Wyoming, almost certainly produced in the 1870s or 1880s during the period when Washakie was at the height of his prominence as a diplomatic and military leader. He faces the camera with a composed, direct gaze, his long hair worn loose and parted at center. A large circular shell gorget rests at his throat, and he is wrapped in a boldly patterned blanket with broad diagonal stripes and fringe along the edge.

Washakie holds what appears to be a dark-colored pipe or ceremonial object against his chest with both hands, and a beaded or printed bandolier-style sash crosses his torso beneath the blanket. The studio backdrop is a soft, painterly blur of foliage forms typical of the period.

Washakie (c. 1800–1900) led the Eastern Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming for decades, forging alliances with the U.S. Army and guiding his people through the upheavals of westward expansion. He was awarded a silver saddle by President Ulysses S. Grant and remained one of the most respected Native leaders of the nineteenth-century American West.

The mount recto bears a red ink inscription reading "Woshakie / Chief of the Shoshone." The reverse bears the blind-stamped imprint of M. D. Houghton, Photographer, Rawlins, Wyo.

From the collection of James Lee Soffer