In 1896, a young easterner named Walter McClintock arrived on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. A forest survey had brought him to Montana, but a chance encounter with a part-Blackfeet scout led him instead to a career as a chronicler of Plains Indian life.
McClintock is now well known as the author of two books about his experiences among the Blackfeet, but only a few of his photographs have ever been published. Lanterns on the Prairie features biographical and interpretive essays about McClintock’s life and work and presents more than one hundred of his little-known images.
Lanterns on the Prairie is a finalist for the 2010 High Plains Book Awards in the nonfiction category. Thirteen books have been selected as finalists for the 2010 High Plains Book Awards. The winners will be announced at The High Plains Book Awards Banquet on Friday, October 8, 2010 in Billings, MT.
Francine Spang-Willis recently reviewed Lanterns on the Prairie for the Billings Gazette.
She writes, “The charm of reading Lanterns on the Prairie is being able to view, through the images selected, the Blackfeet way of life, from McClintock’s perspective. The images reflect his attempt to honor and preserve certain facets of their life, celebrations, ceremonies and their reservation lands.”
Lanterns on the Prairie explores the motivations of the players in McClintock’s story and the historic context of his engagement with the Blackfeet. The photographs themselves provide an irreplaceable visual record of the Blackfeet during a pivotal period in their history.
Steven L. Grafe, Curator Art at the Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, Washington, is author of Peoples of the Plateau: The Indian Photographs of Lee Moorhouse, 1898–1915.
