Noted Indian Chiefs

In the Victorian era the public in America wanted to see noted Indian chiefs; the brave faces of the conquered savages. This process of ennobling the victims of your genocide, makes the conquering and exploiting race feel better about themselves and their unmentionable actions.  Can one find a visual connection to exploitative behavior in the product as presented?This lovely collage cabinet card of various Indian chiefs, whose portraits make up the wall of faces was issued by a Pennsylvania photographer.  The Carlisle Indian School was in Carlisle, PA during the mid-1880s when this cabinet card was issued.  The portraits are handsome, the chiefs well appointed, without the headdresses they usually pose in.  But, upon close examination, there is a portrait that appears out of place.  Once noticed it affects all the portraits around it.  Once noticed, the entire collage comes into question, and I began to examine all the faces, one by one.The portrait in question appears fourth down the center column.  This face does not look like a photograph, but a doctored lithograph introduced into the collage.  While the other Native head images are similar and harmonious, this 3/4 non-photographic portrait stands out like a sore thumb.  There is no indication from the names listed on the reverse that he was different in any way.  And yet, that particular portrait looks like a cartoon.  The striking dissimilarities are disruptive to the eye, and unsettling for the entire collage.  I have seen other collages of portrait images, but never another as odd as this.  And, finally I return to the question of a visual referent, and say that sometimes it doesn't turn up, but sometimes it's so obvious it is painfully ever-present.  So, this cabinet photo is commerce not art, racist not benevolent, and finally, ugly, not beautiful.