Two Bears, a Lower Yanktonai Sioux leader, is the subject of this cabinet card portrait made at Standing Rock Agency in 1878. The albumen print is mounted on a plain card with no photographer's imprint visible, consistent with government agency photography of the period produced for documentation rather than commercial distribution. The inscription on the recto, written in period ink, provides a precise identification rarely found on field portraits of this era.

Two Bears wears a heavily fringed hide garment over a striped trade cloth shirt, with multiple strands of beads at the chest and a large circular medallion pendant at his throat. Upright feathers are secured at the crown of his head, and dark facial paint marks appear beneath and around his eyes, adding a formal, ceremonial weight to the seated half-length pose.

Two Bears (Mato-Nonpa) was a prominent Lower Yanktonai chief who maintained a largely cooperative relationship with the U.S. government following the Dakota War era, settling near the Standing Rock Agency and advocating for peace among his people through the 1870s.

The recto mount bears an ink inscription reading "Did at Standing Rock Agency / 1878. Two Bears." The reverse carries a pencil notation reading "Lower Yanktonais."

From the collection of James Lee Soffer