I found the photo on a website about William N. Selig, a motion picture industry pioneer from Chicago. Taken in November 1912 at the Selig Polyscope Company studio in Chicago (one of the first motion picture studios in the country), the photo shows Selig shaking hands with Chief John Two Guns White Calf, leader of the Blackfeet tribe.
And the mostly shadowed face just above White Calf’s head? That belongs to my great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs, who is posing as a cowboy.
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| The Montana Cowboy Band and members of the Blackfeet tribe in Chicago, November 1912. |
I first came across a copy of the photo last month at the public library in Havre, Montana, where I was researching newspaper coverage of the band’s trip to Chicago. The photo was accompanied a brief story in the Feb. 22, 1913 issue of the Havre Plaindealer. Some of the faces were difficult to make out because of the quality of the photo. But today, when I spotted the crisp black and white photo online, I could zoom in and get a good look at G. Oliver’s face.
A March 13, 2014 blog post on the Selig company’s website explained that the motion picture producer did not like to be photographed and was surprised to return from lunch to find the costumed ensemble waiting for him in his office. It also said that because Selig insisted on using real Indians and cowboys in his movies, the Blackfeet Indians wanted to personally thank him “for preserving the Blackfoot Indians and their customs forever in a motion picture.”
I am happy that someone captured this meeting in a photo so I could stumble across it more than 100 years later. I am also happy to announce that I completed the draft of Chapter 8 earlier this evening. Yee-haw!
Thanks for your work on your great-grandfather. I'm interested in the Montana Cowboy band, as I have just completed an extensive article on the Original Cowboy Band from its beginnings in Dodge City KS through its various locations in Colorado, including Silverton, Ouray, Idaho Springs, Creede, Alamosa and Pueblo. It inspired a number of other groups, and I was unaware of the Montana band until seeing a photo in the newest issue of True West magazine. I was particularly interested because of the appearance of both a baritone and a bass saxophone - I'm a sax player myself, mostly tenor these days, although I keep my chops up on alto and soprano, and have played both baritone and bass in the past. I was also interested in your mention that your GGF played in the Kalispell Elks band, as I'm a past exalted ruler of the Ouray, Colorado Elks lodge, and the Ouray lodge hired the Original Cowboy Band to represent them at the Grand Lodge convention in Salt Lake City in 1902. Feel free to contact me at jpetteng@hotmail.com.
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