Confidence and curiosity, weariness and resignation are written on the faces of the 1858 Upper Sioux (Dakota) delegation to Washington, D.C. They had come to protest the government’s failure to fulfill promises made seven years earlier in a treaty that had stripped the tribe of much of their traditional lands. By the time Alexander Gardner took this image, the delegation members had signed a new treaty they hoped would finally bring the government support that was owed. They left with new hats, clothes, and medals but having relinquished half of their remaining territory for compensation that, although promised, would never come.