Picture postcards became a part of the U.S. postal system in the 1870s and are one of the most common formats for the imaging of reservation-era American Indians. As portraits, they vary in content and function. Many were mass-produced as souvenirs for visitors to reservations or Wild West shows. A purely commercial enterprise, these postcards repeat the tropes of early frontier photography that capitalized on stereotypes of the “Lone Warrior” or the “Vanishing Race.” Sitters such as Thundercloud were made to wear headdresses, feathers, and breach cloth—generalized markers of “Indian-ness”—even if the dress and accessories were not indigenous to his particular tribe.