David Standing and John Buffalo, identified in a period inscription as brothers from Eagle Butte, South Dakota, are portrayed together in this cabinet card albumen photograph dating to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. No photographer's imprint is visible on the mount. The olive-green mount is atypical of standard studio stock and contributes to the distinctive character of the image.

Both men wear wide-brimmed cowboy hats and loosely knotted neckerchiefs, and Standing holds a revolver prominently in his right hand. A patterned cloth covers the small table between them, and a framed portrait photograph hangs on the horizontal-board wall behind the pair, with a large map visible to the left. The direct, composed gazes of both subjects give the image a deliberate, self-possessed quality.

Eagle Butte is the county seat of Dewey County, South Dakota, situated within the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. The names Standing and Buffalo are consistent with Lakota naming conventions of the period, and the photograph represents a rare identified portrait of Native men from this community.

The reverse bears a handwritten inscription in ink reading "Brothers of Eagle Butte So Dak / David. Standing / John, [partially obscured] Buffalo." The cabinet card measures 5 x 6 inches.

From the collection of James Lee Soffer