Featured 1894 photo of smiling Kiowa girl

NOTE-I do not own this image, just sharing.
Came across this very striking image yesterday,info below photo:

"The photo is found in the National Anthropological Archives maintained by the Smithsonian Institution. The 14.5×6.5-inch photo was captured in 1894, and it shows a Native American girl named O-o-dee of the Kiowa people in the Oklahoma Territory.
It’s believed that the photo was captured by a photographer named George W. Bretz who ran a photo studio in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. An album of Bretz’s photos, which includes this smiling portrait, was sold at auction in 2019 for $43,750.
As the photo is making the rounds on the Web, people have been commenting on how “modern” and “relatable” the smiling makes the picture look.
“Wow, she could totally be an average high school girl dressed up in traditional clothes,” one commenter writes. “Amazing what a smile can do to modernize a picture.”
“A smile brings a whole new level of humanity to old photos,” one writes."

 

Rare to see a smile on any NA face in photos taken before the 20th C, in my experience. Not that a smile was unknown to First Nation peoples, but that those old pics were rarely if ever 'candid'; all were, to one degree or another, posed shots...Serious Business, not an appropriate moment to appear other than Serious!
This one certainly does have uncommon warmth, as much for her relaxed posture as that smile on her face, which shows no hint of being other than genuine. Very charming.

 

Isn't she lovely? Thanks, Davey!

 

You take the Past and give it a smile- why of course- it's Us ! That makes her about 132 years old.

 

She watches, protective, from her Happy Hunting Ground.
I feel blessed to have seen her beatific gaze; comforted.