Quartermaster's Office, Fort Laramie

This photograph, from Alexander Gardner’s series Scenes in the Indian Country, depicts a group assembled outside the Fort Laramie quartermaster’s office. In 1868, Gardner was commissioned to document peace talks with several indigenous peoples of the Great Plains—including the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota. Conducted at Fort Laramie (in present-day Wyoming), Gardner photographed treaty negotiations, commissioners, Fort Laramie staff, and tribal leaders. U.S. Congress established the Indian Peace Commission in 1867 to ease escalating tensions between these groups.