Diorama: "Fort Union Trading Post, 1835"

Created for the inaugural installations within the Bureau of Indian Affairs' alcove at the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum, which opened to the public in 1938, this original diorama depicts trading post activities just inside the main gate at North Dakota's Fort Union Trading Post in 1835.

Between 1828 and 1867, Fort Union was the most important fur trade post on the Upper Missouri River. The Assiniboine and six other Northern Plains Indian Tribes exchanged buffalo robes and smaller furs for goods from around the world. Considered a model of cultural peaceful coexistence, the post annually traded more than 25,000 buffalo robes and $100,000 in merchandise. Today, Fort Union is a national historic site managed by the National Park Service.

The painted background of this diorama is a vista of the Missouri River. The sculpted portion of the diorama is a scene within the trading post. There are 15 figures. Two figures (an adult and child) are shepherding an animal through the tall portal; a deerskin-clad frontiersman stands at the gate. Just behind him is an American Indian woman standing and gazing down at the toddler standing in front of her. Inside the portal to the left is a grouping of four American Indians; two are seated on a hide, and two are standing, bargaining over a long bolt of red cloth held by one of the figures. At the right of the diorama is the wooden wall of the inner fort structure; a bearded man in western clothing is standing in a doorway speaking to a bare-chested American Indian who is showcasing wares for trade. Another American Indian is seated on a wooden bench to the left of the doorway; he is loosely holding a rifle across his lap. Two other men stand nearby; a man in a long red coat has his arm outstretched to an American Indian in traditional dress standing opposite. To the right of the doorway, a man in deerskin clothing has tipped his head back to drink from a canteen.