Sitting Crow, identified by ink script on the front mount and confirmed by pencil inscription on the reverse, is portrayed in this albumen cabinet card in a three-quarter seated pose against a plain studio backdrop. The subject wears a dark wool vest over a white shirt with a loosely knotted cloth cravat at the throat, a combination of Euro-American dress that was common in agency-era studio portraits of the 1870s and 1880s. Long braided hair frames the face, and a feathered roach or fur-wrapped headdress with upright eagle feathers crowns the head. Both hands grip what appears to be a rifle or long-barreled firearm resting across the lap.

The reverse bears extensive pencil annotations identifying Sitting Crow as Blackfoot Sioux and placing him among acquaintances described as "our Indian friends at Fort Sully, Dakota, our home for many years." A pencil sketch on the reverse depicts a figure in profile wearing a buttoned coat, along with a separate profile head study, suggesting the card was in the hands of someone who drew from it directly.

Fort Sully was a United States Army post on the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota, serving as a central point of contact between the military and Lakota Sioux bands, including the Blackfoot Sioux, through the reservation period. The reverse is inscribed "Blackfoot-Sioux / Sitting Crow" and "our Indian friends at Fort Sully, Dakota, our home for many years."

From the collection of James Lee Soffer