Guests from Pine Ridge

Guests from Pine Ridge. . Based on his friendship with Chief Red Cloud and others, James Cook regularly invited Lakota families from the Pine Ridge Reservation to stay at Agate Springs Ranch. Arriving by wagon and horseback, they made the 150-mile, one-week journey almost every summer. They set up camp along the Niobrara River just east of the ranch house. It was a time to be free from reservation life, to reminisce with Cook, and to practice traditional ways., Lakota visits to Agate Springs Ranch continued through a generation of families from 1888 through the late 1930s., Captions , Center: Encampment at Agate Springs Ranch, circa 1914. By this time, canvas tents had replaced the traditional buffalo hide tipis. , Lower Center: James Cook and Jack Red Cloud, son of Chief Red Cloud, communicated through sign language at this gathering on the front lawn of the ranch house, circa 1898. , Lower Right: Cook family members joined Lakota families at a traditional dance, circa 1916. People from nearby towns and ranches came to the ranch during Lakota gatherings. , Lower Right: Lakota women gathering firewood. Traditional ways involved drying beef for jerky on wooden sticks.