Indigenous Lands

In a clear description by the French anthropologist Jean Louis Berlandier, he spoke of a large assembly of Comanche warriors in 1824 near the Arkansas River. He noted that the Mexican Commissioner Colonel Jose Francisco Ruiz had attended and seen the huge gathering of men in northern Comancheria. At the large camp, Ruiz observed the presence of some 2,300 teepees at the site. Ruiz contended that the meeting was the beginning of a campaign against their strong and traditional adversary, the powerful Osages.
Of the mighty appearance of the Comanches, Berlandier shared that the warriors had painted bodies and their horses were also painted with stripes of red, black, and white. Warriors also had worn the whole scalp of a buffalo with attached horns and even some men wore a lengthy portion of the black ruff from between the horns of a buffalo.
With feathered shields in hand, a few Comanches chose to wear a "bonnet of feathers". As the warriors rode out on their horses at full speed to meet their enemy, a tail of feathers cascaded behind them.
Stunning picture of a magnificent Comanche headdress. Locality defined as Texas and Mexico. The description includes "Cap of skin, covered with red strouding; band at edge of blue and white beads in lazy stitch pendant strings of white weasel strips". Lt. Darius Nash Couch bought and acquired the collection from the widow of Jean-Louis Berlandier. The collector was Lt. Couch, 1853. Photograph courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington D. C.

Portrait of Stella Yellow Shirt and baby, of the Dakota people, 1899.
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Source: Heyn Photo, photographer. Stella Yellow Shirt and baby. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.