Which Chosen People?: Manifest Destiny Meets the Sioux as Seen by Frank Fiske, Frontier Photographer

The belief in American exceptionalism reached its apex during the 1800s and was expressed as a God-given passport called "Manifest Destiny". Among its victims were Native Americans. The Sioux resisted, eventually in desperation resorting to Ghost Dancing and claiming that Indians, not the whites, were the chosen people. The military, political, and legal destruction of Indian culture provided precedent and justification for the empire building that accelerated soon after Sioux resistance was crushed. Frank Fiske was a young boy who observed this confrontation firsthand at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, where Sitting Bull was held, then killed. Fiske recorded the story as he grew and also kept the glorious past of the Sioux alive with his spectacular photographs of the people and their traditions. The story presents Sitting Bull’s anger over the notion of American exceptionalism, experienced as profound condescension. He saw broken promises and treaties and these were supported by court decisions and congressional action, adding supposed legitimacy to repeated degradation. Frank Fiske met the great chief and had respect for him throughout his life. Fiske lived with the Sioux and became a leading Indian photographer. His accounts of major events, such as the confrontation following the Minnesota Sioux uprising of 1862 and the story of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, include recollections from Sioux who were involved or had relatives involved whom Fiske encountered. He recorded the stories they recalled in two books and numerous articles in two regional newspaper columns over the years, as well as personal notes maintained in the eight cubic feet of documents maintained by the North Dakota Historical Society that the author relied on as his main sources. Fiske’s photographs feature prominently in this book and his photographic techniques are explained.