Antique Photo Print - Little, instigator of Indian Revolt at Pine, 1890

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The caption identifies Little as the figure behind unrest at Pine, most likely the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in 1890. That year the Ghost Dance, a religious movement that promised the renewal of Native lands and the return of the dead, spread through Lakota communities and alarmed federal agents and nearby settlers. Tensions there ended in the army's deployment and the killings at Wounded Knee in December. Portraits of Native leaders from this period were often made by studio photographers and reprinted in newspapers, so the word "instigator" reflects how officials and the press framed them at the time, not a neutral account.

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