Jesse H. Bratley was born in Brown Town, Wisconsin in 1867. In 1893 he joined the Government Service to be a teacher. Over the next ten years he taught or presided at schools on several Indian Reservations, including Indian Day School on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, 1895 ??? 1899; Cantonment Boarding School, Oklahoma, 1899 ??? 1900; Havasupai at Cataract, Arizona, 1902 -1903; Hopi Day School, Arizona, 1902 ??? 1903 and Seminole, Florida, 1910. In the 1890s, Bratley introduced sub-irrigation methods, blacksmithing, and other life skills. He took numerous photographs of the Sioux Indians while he taught at the Rosebud Reservation and other Indian day schools.
From the guide to the Jesse H. Bratley Papers and Photographs, 1871-1941, (Denver Museum of Nature & Science, )
