photo #4946459

For centuries before the arrival of European settlers, the Blackfeet lived across the upper Great Lakes region. But by the 1910s, they had been forcibly relocated to northern and central Montana, where many of them lived in utter poverty. During this time, photographer Roland W. Reed sought to depict members of the nation in portraits that showed them as they once were — before their way of life was all but stamped out forever. In this photo, three men wear traditional ceremonial clothing in defiance of the U.S. government's policy of assimilation.