Wife of Gaul, a Hunkpapa Lakota woman connected to the renowned warrior chief Gall (also rendered Gaul), is presented here in a full-length studio portrait on a cabinet card by D.F. Barry, operating from Bismarck, Dakota Territory. Barry was one of the foremost photographers of Plains Indian subjects in the late nineteenth century, working extensively among Lakota leaders and their families during the reservation era of the 1880s. The imprint on the reverse reads "D. F. BARRY, PHOTOGRAPHER, BISMARCK, D.T.," placing the image before Dakota Territory's 1889 statehood.

She stands before a painted woodland backdrop, leaning with one hand resting atop a rustic prop fence of gnarled branches, her gaze direct and composed. She wears a dark polka-dotted dress with wide sleeves, a beaded belt cinched at the waist, and a large woven blanket draped over her shoulders, with long braids adorned at the ends falling across her chest.

Gall was a principal war leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota who fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 and later became a prominent figure during the agency years, making portraits of his family historically significant documents of that period.

A printed label affixed to the front of the mount reads "GAUL'S WIFE." The reverse imprint reads "D. F. BARRY, PHOTOGRAPHER, BISMARCK, D.T."

From the collection of James Lee Soffer