In honor of Native American Heritage Day, we recognize native people, through the lens of history.  Native peoples have inhabited North America for around 30,000 years.

Boston Public Library has a beautiful collection of historical imagery that includes hundreds of portraits of Native Americans. Taken by Frank A. Rinehart, the images were art of a commissioned body of work in 1898.

These sepia-toned images show peoples from the Sioux, Apache, Kiowa, Arapahoe and Crow tribes. See captions below for each photo.

“Frank A. Rinehart, a commercial photographer in Omaha, Nebraska, was commissioned to photograph the 1898 Indian Congress, part of the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition.

More than five hundred Native Americans from thirty-five tribes attended the conference, providing the gifted photographer and artist an opportunity to create a stunning visual document of Native American life and culture at the dawn of the 20th century. “

-Boston Public Library.