In 1896, a young easterner named Walter McClintock arrived on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. A forest survey had brought him to Montana, but a chance encounter with a part-Blackfeet scout led him instead to a career as a chronicler of Plains Indian life. McClintock is now well known as the author of two books about his experiences among the Blackfeet, but only a few of his photographs have ever been published. This volume features biographical and interpretive essays about McClintock's life and work and presents more than one hundred of his little-known images.<BR>Lanterns on the Prairie explores the motivations of the players in McClintock's story and the historic context of his engagement with the Blackfeet. The essayists offer vignettes, including McClintock's encounters with such luminaries as Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie, and the Crown Prince of Prussia, and an ill-fated attempt to stage an opera based on Blackfeet musical themes. The photographs themselves provide an irreplaceable visual record of the Blackfeet during a pivotal period in their history.