Red Cloud's Camp, Nebraska

In May 1874, under the escort of an armed US calvary unit, Tavernier began a month-long journey to the government-run Red Cloud Agency on the Platte River, downstream from Fort Laramie, Wyoming. The artist wrote to his mother, "I will be crossing one of the wildest areas around here, no artist has ever been. .　.　. I　will meet [Red Cloud], one of the most important Indian Chiefs.　.　. . I will see the real wild life." He captured the provisional nature of the camp in a series of sketches, including this work. It is dedicated to "my little friend Woolworth," referring to the camp physician shown seated at his desk and surrounded by medicine bottles, a buffalo hide, and a human skull.

Established in August 1873, Red Cloud’s agency was located on the Platte River in what was then called Wyoming Territory, near present-day Crawford, Nebraska. Agencies preceded reservations; the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty established approximately sixty million contiguous acres in western South Dakota, northern Nebraska, and eastern Wyoming for the Lakota. Red Cloud, the leader of the Ité Šíca (Bad Face) band of the Oglala, waged a successful military campaign against the United States from 1866 to 1868 in response to European immigrants trespassing on Lakota homelands. He was one of the few Native Americans to win a war with the United States, and his fame resulted in many visitors who wanted to meet and spend time with him.

—Dorene Red Cloud (Oglala Lakota)