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Victoria BrooksAmerican Impressionist

The Gilded Portraits · 32 Women

Their faces were kept.
Their stories belong with them.

Between the 1870s and the 1910s, photographers carried cameras through Native America. The women they photographed looked back with extraordinary presence — but the prints that survive often carry no name at all, only captions like Apache woman or Hopi girl.

In this series, Victoria Brooks paints these women back into the light. Each portrait is worked from a historical photograph in a limited palette of five colors — keeping the antique quiet of the original — then finished with 22-karat gold and silver gilding, so that each woman is framed the way history should have framed her: as someone precious.

Medium

Oil with 22k gold or silver leaf, cradled wood

Palette

Five colors, antique tone

References

Photographs, 1870s–1910s

Red Bird — Zitkála-Šá in oil and 22k gold leaf, by Victoria Brooks
Red BirdZitkála-Šá, Yankton DakotaHer story →

The women

Select a portrait to see the painting and read what is known of her — her nation, her photograph, and where her story can still be followed.

Nowadluk aka Nora — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksNowadluk aka NoraIñupiaq — Seward Peninsula, Alaska20 × 16 in · Oil with 22k gold & silver leaf on cradled woodNowadluk — “Nora” — an Iñupiaq woman of the Seward Peninsula whose Nome studio portraits carried her face far beyond the reindeer country.
Apache Woman — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksApache WomanApache16 × 12 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodHer caption named a people, not a person — one of many Apache women whose faces the archive kept and whose names it let go.
Rachel Standing Soldier — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksRachel Standing SoldierLakota — Standing Rock (Hunkpapa)16 × 12 in · Oil with 22k gold & silver leaf on cradled woodRachel Standing Soldier sat for Frank Fiske at Fort Yates in 1904; her family fills his Standing Rock files, portrait after portrait.
Hopi Girl — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksHopi GirlHopi16 × 12 in · Oil with 22k gold & silver leaf on cradled woodHer whorled hair told the village she was unmarried; the photographers who prized the style rarely recorded her name.
Grandmother — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksGrandmother12 × 9 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodIn many nations the grandmother was the first teacher; the archive that kept her face wrote down only 'old woman.'
Eats No Meat — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksEats No MeatCayuse or Umatilla — Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation16 × 12 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodThe postcard title crowned her “Princess Eat-No-Meat”; the Cayuse-Umatilla woman behind it kept a name the studio never wrote down.
Kaw-tz — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksKaw-tzCaddo Nation16 × 12 in · Oil with 22k gold leaf on cradled woodCaptioned “Kaw-u-tz (Cado)” in 1906, her portrait traveled the world; her name is very nearly the whole of her written record.
Pretty Nose — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksPretty NoseArapaho (recorded as Cheyenne in some archives)12 × 9 in · Oil with 22k gold leaf on cradled woodArapaho woman remembered as a war chief at the Little Bighorn, who lived past a hundred.
Mattie Tom — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksMattie TomSouthern Ute (as captioned)16 × 12 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodHer name survives with the portrait — Mattie Tom, Southern Ute by tradition — though the archives have kept few of her details.
Loti-Kee-yah-tede — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksLoti-Kee-yah-tedeLaguna Pueblo (K'awaika), New Mexico16 × 12 in · Oil with 22k gold & silver leaf on cradled wood“The Chief's Daughter”: a young Laguna Pueblo woman photographed by Carl Moon in 1905, her name remembered as Loti-kee-yah-tede.
Kwakwaka’wakw aka Margaret Frank — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksKwakwaka’wakw aka Margaret FrankKwakwaka'wakw — born at Tsaxis (Fort Rupert), British Columbia; K'ómoks by marriage12 × 9 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodMargaret Frank, Kwakwaka'wakw noblewoman of the Hunt family, film lead at seventeen and lifelong keeper of her people's songs.
Elsie Vance Chestuen — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksElsie Vance ChestuenChiricahua Apache, of Chihenne (Warm Springs) descent16 × 12 in · Oil with 22k gold leaf on cradled woodElsie Vance Chestuen — granddaughter of Victorio — a Chiricahua girl who came of age and died a prisoner of war of the United States.
Estelle Speel-ye aka Stell Walking Antelope — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksEstelle Speel-ye aka Stell Walking AntelopePossibly Yakama or another Sahaptin-speaking Plateau people14 × 11 in · Oil with 22k gold & silver leaf on cradled woodHer portrait endures as Estelle Speel-ye — Stell Walking Antelope — though the archives have yet to give her story back.
Annie Kiowa — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksAnnie KiowaKiowa11 × 14 in · Oil with 22k gold leaf on cradled woodPhotographed in Chickasha in an elk-tooth dress the studio priced at $1,000, she entered the record as “Kiowa Annie” — two words, no more.
Moving Robe Woman — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksMoving Robe WomanHunkpapa Lakota12 × 9 in · Oil with 22k gold leaf on cradled woodTȟašína Máni, the Hunkpapa Lakota woman who rode into the Little Bighorn fight to avenge her brother.
Rose White Thunder — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksRose White ThunderSicangu (Brulé) Lakota12 × 9 in · Oil with 22k gold & silver leaf on cradled woodDaughter of Sicangu Lakota chief White Thunder, photographed at Carlisle in her elk-tooth dress.
Alone aka Chin Chin Wet — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksAlone aka Chin Chin WetWarm Springs — Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon20 × 16 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodChin-Chin-Wet, “Alone,” traveled east with her husband Owl, a Warm Springs scout of the Modoc War, and faced C.M. Bell's camera.
Nowadluk aka Nora "Smiling" — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksNowadluk aka Nora "Smiling"Iñupiaq — Seward Peninsula, Alaska12 × 9 in · Oil with 22k gold leaf on cradled woodIn an age of held breath and solemn poses, Nora smiles — an Iñupiaq woman's warmth breaking through the formality of a Nome studio.
Beautiful Sioux — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksBeautiful SiouxLakota or Dakota (Sioux) — band and community unrecorded20 × 16 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodA young Lakota woman photographed around 1900; the caption kept her beauty and lost her name.
Red Bird — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksRed BirdYankton Dakota20 × 16 in · Oil with 22k gold & silver leaf on cradled woodZitkála-Šá again, at twenty-two — Käsebier's 1898 profile of the woman whose name means Red Bird.
Mother and Child — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksMother and Child20 × 16 in · Oil with 22k gold & silver leaf on cradled woodA mother, a laced cradleboard, a steady gaze — and a caption that said only 'Indian mother and child.'
Pretty Flower — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksPretty FlowerSeneca (Haudenosaunee)24 × 18 in · Oil with 22k gold & silver leaf on cradled woodAh-Weh-Eyu — 'Pretty Flower' — a Seneca woman whose name, for once, the record kept.
Mrs William Tobias — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksMrs William TobiasYakama (per the source note; not independently verified)16 × 12 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodHer caption keeps her husband's name, not hers: “Mrs. William Tobias,” a Yakama woman photographed around 1900.
Zitala Sa — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksZitala SaYankton Dakota12 × 9 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodYankton Dakota writer, violinist, and activist — Zitkála-Šá, whose name means Red Bird.
Lenna Geronimo — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksLenna GeronimoChiricahua Apache (her mother, Ih-tedda, was Mescalero Apache)16 × 12 in · Oil with 22k gold leaf on cradled woodGeronimo's daughter, born a prisoner of war at Fort Marion in 1886, raised free at Mescalero.
Annie — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksAnnieCheyenne (Northern Cheyenne)12 × 9 in · Oil with 22k gold leaf on cradled woodHer photograph was captioned only “Annie” — one name, carefully kept; Huffman's files suggest a Cheyenne woman also recorded as Walk Aslant.
Little Bird — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksLittle BirdOjibwe16 × 12 in · Oil with 22k gold & silver leaf on cradled woodThe 1908 caption reads 'Little Bird, an Ojibwe woman' — a name, or a photographer's title; her face outlived the answer.
Cheyenne Girl — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksCheyenne GirlNorthern Cheyenne20 × 16 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodPhotographed at Fort Keogh about 1880, her dentalium-shell dress speaks for a girl whose name the archive never wrote down.
Gertrude Three Finger — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksGertrude Three FingerSouthern Cheyenne24 × 18 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodGertrude Three Finger sat for W.E. Irwin at Chickasha in a dress sewn with elk teeth — a Southern Cheyenne family's wealth in plain sight.
Louise Red Cloud — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksLouise Red CloudOglala Lakota20 × 16 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodPine Ridge census rolls record a Louise among Red Cloud's daughters; her portrait travels under a caption no photographer signed.
Yellow Eyes — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksYellow EyesHunkpapa Lakota12 × 9 in · Oil with silver leaf on cradled woodAt Fort Yates in 1906, Fiske's caption named her Yellow Eyes — an elder in a dentalium choker, of the generation that knew the free plains.
Pretty Flower with Canoe — gilded oil portrait by Victoria BrooksPretty Flower with CanoeSeneca (Haudenosaunee)24 × 18 in · Oil with 22k gold leaf on cradled woodAh-Weh-Eyu — Goldie Jamison Conklin — afloat in 1908 in a postcard idyll on river country that would be flooded within her lifetime.

Why This Series

“I am passionate about my portraits of Native American women. My goal is to capture their personality and beauty — and to bring their spirit alive.”

— Victoria Brooks

A Present-Day Purpose

These portraits are painted in awareness of a continuing crisis: Native American women today go missing and are murdered at rates far above the national average. Victoria hopes that meeting the women in these paintings — seeing them as individuals, worthy of gold — inspires viewers to learn about the women still being lost.

Learn more at NIWRC.org →

Availability

The Gilded Portraits are available through West Lives On Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and directly from the studio.

Inquire about a portrait