Big Chief, Ponca, from the American Indian Chiefs series (N2) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands 1888

This is "Big Chief, Ponca," a lithograph card made by Allen & Ginter, part of a series of American Indian Chiefs, intended for distribution with cigarette brands. These cards circulated during a time when the US government was actively dispossessing Indigenous peoples of their lands, and forcing assimilation through boarding schools. The romanticized depiction of the Ponca Chief stands in stark contrast to the lived realities of Indigenous communities. It presents a constructed image that diminishes the complex identities and histories of Indigenous peoples. The commercial purpose is clear - to sell cigarettes, leveraging exoticism and the popularity of "Indian" imagery. But look closer. What stories are silenced by this reductive portrait? What does it mean to flatten a person, a culture, into a collectible? Perhaps reflecting on these questions, we can reckon with the legacy of colonialism and its impact on representation.