Cabinet card photograph by R. L. Spiker showing a Native American woman seated outdoors against a backdrop of vertical wooden planks, holding a white infant in her lap. The woman wears a patterned dress and is wrapped in a wool blanket with a bold geometric border, her hair parted down the middle and worn in two long braids. The child is dressed in a crocheted bonnet and white gown, swaddled in a knitted covering.

The image captures a striking cross-cultural portrait, with the subjects posed in a quiet, direct manner that suggests both intimacy and formality. The careful placement of the patterned blanket as both clothing and background element enhances the visual composition, framing the figures within a textured and symbolically resonant setting.

R. L. Spiker’s work, though relatively scarce, documents life and people in the American West during the late 19th century, often with an emphasis on Indigenous subjects and regional identity. This photograph offers a rare visual record of a Native woman in a caregiving role for a non-Native child, raising questions about the circumstances—whether familial, adoptive, or occupational—that brought them together. As such, it serves as both a compelling portrait and a culturally significant artifact.