Upham Ledger

[grahamew]

In the collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society are thirteen Plains Indian ledger drawings donated by the widow of Colonel J. J. Upham:

“Here are entered works on pictographic images inscribed by American Indians of the Great Plains onto blank pages of ledger books obtained from U.S. soldiers, traders, missionaries, and reservation employees. Original drawings in pencil, wax crayon and earth colors by a Plains Indian, about 1880-1890. Drawn on discarded sheets of an Indian agent's record forms."

www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records?terms=upham+ledger


34690


34870 The museum caption says this shows two men, but the person on foot is clearly a woman


34866


34869
At first I thought I could make out a name glyph behind the horseman's head, but I think it's writing by the ledger's previous owner.


34867
Is this some sacred power symbol over the first tipi?

Nothing seems to be known about when they were drawn or who drew them.

Upham led a rich and varied military career; after graduating West Point in 1859, he saw action in the Civil War before heading west. He was posted to the frontier at Ft. Gibson, Indian Territory, Mar., 1869; Ft. Smith, Arkansas, to Aug., 1869; Crawfordville, Kansas, to Oct., 1869; Girard, Kansas, to Jan., 1871; — in the field, Mar. to Oct., 1871, — Ft. Scott, Kansas, commanding troops in Southeastern Kansas, Oct. 24, 1871, to Apr., 1873; back to Ft. Gibson, Indian Territory, Apr. 21, 1873, to Aug. 25, 1874; and in the field, Oct to Dec., 1874; on leave of absence to June 23, 1875; on Court Martial to Aug. 8, 1875; on frontier duty in command of Ft. Gibson, I. T., Sep. 8, 1875, to June 7, 1876; on Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition, to Nov. 24, 1876, being engaged in the Action of Indian Creek, Wyoming, July 17, 1876, and at Slim Buttes, Dakota, Sep. 9 10, 1876; on leave of absence to Jan. 24, 1877; under orders of Interior Department to June 26, 1877; on leave of absence, June 26, 1877, to July 4, 1878; absent sick to July 31, 1878; on frontier duty at Camp Brown, Wyoming, Aug. 8, 1878, to Mar. 31, 1880; and Ft. Niobrara, Nebraska to May 31, 1881; on leave of absence, to Dec. 11, 1881; on duty at Infantry and Cavalry School of Application at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., to July 1, 1885; in command of Ft. Sill, Indian Territory , July 15, 1885, to Feb. 11, 1886; on leave of absence, to Aug. 25, 1886; in witnessing the manoeuvres of the French Army, and examining French military schools, to Apr. 30, 1887; in command of Ft. Elliott, Texas (as Lieutenant Colonel of the Third Cavalry), Aug. 24, 1887, to Oct. 5, 1888; on sick leave of absence, to Oct. 5, 1889; in command of Ft. Brown, Texas, to 1891; and finally, he was made Colonel of the Eighth Cavalry in January 1892, although he seems to have been on leave of absence for his tenure, before retiring on 30 January that year and spending his time between Florida and Milwaukee, where he dies in 21 October 1898, aged only 61.

(http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1844*.html; thanks also to Billy Markland and Steve Wilk for answering my questions about Upham on lbha.proboards.com/index.cgi)

Charles Bird King has left us an admiring portrait of Upham in the field in Campaigning With Crook: ‘Right in our front, half-way to the skirmish line, rides the major commanding the battalion ; a tall, solidly-built fellow, with twinkling blue eyes and a bronzed face, barely visible under the mass of blond hair and beard over which the rain is dripping. He is a Milwaukeean and a West-Pointer, a stanch favorite, too ; and today the whole rear guard is his command, and on his shoulders rests the safety of our move.’

Other items collected by Upham were donated in 1900 by his widow to the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the Anthropology Collections Manager, Dawn Scher Thomas, informed me these came from a variety of tribes: Arapaho, Bannock, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Comanche, Shoshone, Crow, Sioux, Plains, Southeast and Plateau.

The WHS haven’t been able to determine much more about the ledger other than “The drawings were acquired by Col. John J. Upham while he was serving with the U.S. Third Cavalry during the Indian campaigns,” although in correspondence with Jon Nondorf, of the Wisconsin Historical Society, I learnt that the names ‘Arapaho’ and ‘Shoshone’ are visible on drawing 34862 :



Note also that the words, ‘the Act of March 3, 1875,’ appear on a some of the pages, therefore dating the works to that year at the earliest.

So what, then, of the visual evidence? In simple terms, the drawings seem less ‘sophisticated’ than those associated with the Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa from this later period (horses only have two legs, for instance), but for every Yellow Nose or Bad Heart Bull, there are plenty of other artists who didn’t draw in a style that lends itself to an easier appreciation by Anglo/Euro/American eyes and while the device of showing both legs of a horse rider is associated with an older style, there is at least one existing Lakota Ghost Shirts featuring figures with the kind of triangular torsos that would be more typical of robes or shirts from the 1830s or 40s.

The series seems to concentrate on the activities of one figure who, in two panels fights people with hairstyles features associated with Crow (or perhaps Nez Percé) Indians in other ledger art. 


34847


34868

However, other common representative conventions of the depictions of the Crow, such as panel leggings or striped breechcloths, are absent. Although the presence of Hudson's Bay blanket leggings likely places the action on the north-central plains. Elsewhere, there are features that I thought I hadn't seen in ledger art before, such as the strange hat/hoods in 34863, 34864, 34865 and 34871:









Notable absences from the set are any representation of white people, dance scenes or courting.

Andy Kraushaar, Visual Materials Curator at the WHS has kindly given permission for the images to be used in this thread in the hope that someone can shed more light on them.

I would think it likely that, based on the evidence of the names, ‘Shoshone’ and ‘Arapaho’, and the fact Upham was posted in 1878 to Camp Brown on the Wind River Reservation, the same year the Arapaho were moved there, that these are Arapaho drawings. Perhaps we have an Arapaho protagonist fighting the Crow or Shoshone, but both tribes did scout together for the army in the post-Little Bighorn campaign against the Lakota and the Cheyenne and then again against the Nez Perce, so maybe ithe images depict scenes from that conflict, although this doesn’t tie in with the story the WHS have that he collected them while serving with the Third Cavalry.

Anyone else got any ideas?

[shan]

grahamew,

thanks for posting those most intriguing ledger drawings, how did you come across them? I spend too uch of my time haunting the web looking for any new images, { I think I must have just about every book published on the subject, } but have never seen seen any of them before. Are they part of any publication, I would love to be able to see them with a higher resolution.

As to the tribal affinities, I suspect at least a couple of the drawings depict the main character fighting with Crow warriors, the hairstyles and the net like attachments they wore at the back of their hair can be seen in a number of the drawings,
and in one in particular the rider on the left has panels on his leggings, whilst the man in the center in that drawing seems to be wearing braids which indicate that he might be a Sioux.

Elsewhere a number of the mounted warriors wear those big German silver discs trailing down the back of their heads that were favored by the Southern Plains Indians, the Southern Cheyenne in particular. But as to those strange triangulated heads--which look a little like arrowheads--- if they are some kind of headgear, then I have to say I've never seen headgear like that anywhere before. In only one one drawing----the one where the triangular shape seems to have slipped back down the neck, is there any sign of a head, which in itself is strange. As to the other strange head shape on the man in the yellow shirt in the second to last drawing, I think that may . . . just maybe his hairstyle shown from behind.

Lastly whilst I'd agree that they don't quite have quite the same level of sophistication we see in many of the Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa drawings, they nonetheless have a definite charm of their own, I particularly like the strange grinning teeth on a number of the ponies that give them the appearance of dragons. Once again thanks for posting them,

Low Dog

[Henri]

Here you are,

www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/results.asp?subject_narrow=Indian+Ledger+Drawings

Henri

[grahamew]

As far as I know, they're not published.

At first glance, I thought they were German silver discs too, but they're just braids which sometimes appear to be wrapped with fur and sometimes with cloth; in 34869, they're wrapped with red and blue cloth.

Henri's just sent me an email containing information from Mike Cowdrey, which I've passed along to the WHS, that seems to confirm they are of Northern Arapaho origin.

"The Arapaho leaders would have had at least weekly contact with Col. Upham or his staff officers, and a politic gift of drawings was typical of the period. Leading candidates for the artist, then, would be Powder Face, Black Coal, Six Feathers, etc., all of whom were ALSO enlisted scouts serving under Col. Upham at Camp Brown/ Fort Washakie."

[grahamew]

To go back to Shan's comments about the strangely attired enemies; no, I haven't seen anything like them either.

Mike Cowdrey also feels the men with the raised forelock are Crow (but possibly Shoshone): "The enemies depicted would reflect the period of Northern Arapaho history, ca. 1865-75, when they were ranging the Powder River and Big Horn Mountains area and in frequent conflict with the Crow and Shoshone. Drawings #34847 & 34868 I believe depict Crow enemies; though a Shoshone identity is possible due to the roached-forelock hairstyle."

However, he can't work out who the men with the seemingly conical heads are. Interestingly, he thinks Drawing 34865 "is the most problematical of the series, as neither of the figures can be Arapaho. It might represent the Arapaho artist's depiction of a deed described by one of his Shoshone co-scouts at Camp Brown."

So, if he's right, it's as Shan suggested above: we seem to seeing the rear view of a Shoshone fighting a member of an unknown tribe. Or is it just a stylized representation of hat? Look at the way the man in the hat (and army coat?) has been drawn:

The hat isn't so much on the head as completely over it, which is what we might be seeing here - and presumably the cones are stylized representations of hoods - though depicted in a style which seems to have been unique to this artist.

Following on from his idea that the man fighting the cone-headed warrior in the picture above is a Shoshone, Cowdrey feels, "Whoever the "cone heads" in this series are meant to represent, they appear to have been enemies of both the Arapaho and the Shoshone. This should narrow the possibilities considerably. Unfortunately, the long, rear-tail-breechcloths on every one of these "cone head" figures are identical to those worn by the artist-protagonist, so I have no idea what was intended. My opinion is that the strange "cone head" figures in this series are conceptually different than the "cone head warriors" depicted on Crow shirts, & buffalo robes of the mid-19th century, and should not be considered as representative of the same group."

So, Nez Perce or another one of the Plateau tribes? Ute? Piegan? Or...? The 'cone head' in this drawing seems to be wearing a stroud shirt with the selvedge at the bottom, but you'd think from the fact the 'cone' appears to be a kind of tribal signifier that it would be recognisible...

[grahamew]

Further information from John Nondorf of the WHS: the writing that can be made out says, for the Arapaho: "Jackets and pants, 50” and “Jeans (?), 617 yards.” The Shoshone received 100 jackets and pants; the jeans number is obscured beneath the drawing.

[grahamew]

I've just reposted the images, which had been wiped out in the Tinypic debacle. I was inspired to do so after reading this from Father Lindesmith's Collection Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame:
father.pdf (4.66 MB), in particular, the piece on the drawing by the Crow artist, White Swan, where it talks about the engagement lower right showing him riding towards a group of men while carrying a US flag.





The museum's interpretation is that White Swan's enemies (identified as Lakota or perhaps Dakota as the dead man is the Yanktonai Little Big Load - in Rod Thomas' excellent book, Bíilaachia–White Swan: Crow Warrior, Custer Scout, American Artist, which also places the events along the Musselshell River, 7 November, 1880) are depicted wearing stylized hoods: "Many wear their high peaked hoods over their heads, while his hangs down his back" - an interpretation that might also fit the stylized headgear depicted in the Upham Ledger.

[shan]

grahamew

Well, what are we to make of this? The men in the circle, and the man White Swan has probably shot in the head all appear to wear very distinctive head gear. At first glance I was reminded of the headgear in the Upham ledger, but on going back to look at those images, I'm not so sure. I tried to blow it up and fiddle with it to get a better look at the detail but to no avail. Excepting for the conical hats the men in a circle, who are obviously trying to defend some elevated position ~ note the hoof prints circling them, have no other defining clothing other than the hats which show some elements of individual decoration. They are all armed with rifles or muskets which may tell us something, though what that might be I don't know.

The man on the horse above White Swan also carrys a lance with an army flag on it, but other than that, its hard to identify tribal cothing or headgear. I know nothing about the battle or skirmish you mention as happening along the Musselshell River, have you any further information.

Finally, I have to say I love the drawings in the Upham ledger, I'm not sure why, maybe because they are so idiosyncratic.

Oh one other thing. I had a website adress for the Pila {not sure if I've spelt that right} site that deals in ledger art, but on trying to open it I was informed it no longer works from that website adress. Do you use them, and if so do you have a current web adress?

Shan - Low Dog

[grahamew]

Hi, Shan. The info about the Musselshell fight comes from Rod Thomas' book on White Swan. The interpretation of that particular part of the image also comes from there but the reference to the hoods comes from the Lindesmith pdf I linked to here: father.pdf (4.66 MB). To be honest, I think both White Swan and the Upham artist are drawing somewhat idiosyncratically. I can't think of anything else they can be other than hoods, until someone produces evidence of conical headgear. The nearest I can think of is the fad for trimming the brims of some hats, pulling the crown up and decorating them with beads or studs and feathers, like this one shown in Arrow's Elk Society Ledger (Southern Cheyenne):



There are some more here: amertribes.proboards.com/thread/3397/steps-seeskoomkee-bannock-shoshone-perce

I lost the ledger site at some point too, but this should work: PILA: plainsledgerart.org/

[wyandotte303]

Grahamew,

When I came across this discussion string yesterday, and then read your description of the Upham ledger, I failed to see that your post was originally from 2010. So when I contacted the Wisconsin Historical Society to speak to the visual arts curator, I was surprised to learn that he was gone. My bad. But I plan to explore the uncharacteristic medium on which these striking twelve drawings have been made. It certainly does not appear to be a typical ledger, or necessarily bound, but something like a set of government agency records to determine annuity payments, which might have been folded like a subpoena for use outside the agency on a reservation. Like everything else about this "ledger," however, it is all speculative.

One thing I want to know is what lies on the reverse side of these sheets—probably nothing. But I believe that it's a mistake to photograph only those pages on which Plains Indian drawings appear and to ignore their physical context—which, unfortunately, is how we generally see them. The cuts, wear spots, printed lines, and blank backsides all tell a story of the document's history—as much as the uncharacteristic left-to-right orientation of this most-intriguing artist's work.

[grahamew]

That should be really interesting. As I mentioned, there is text noting that for the Arapaho, there are "Jackets and pants, 50” and “Jeans (?), 617 yards.” It also points out that the Shoshone received 100 jackets and pants, though the jeans number is obscured beneath the drawing. This identifies the agency, at least. To me, the the artist has used standard hairstyle iconography to identify the enemy as either Crow or Nez Perce on some pages and yet hasn't made used the Shoshone hairstyle on the protagonists, which would tilt this towards being an Arapaho artist. I'd love to find out what you discover.

[wyandotte303]

I plan to see about getting photographs of the entire set of pages, front and back. I'll be happy to share anything new. However, your deduction about the artist's tribal affiliation is very persuasive and may be all we can assume about the artist or the time and place of the drawings. Some artists' styles simply jump out at you, and this is one. Would love to know more about him—and about the baffling conical headgear in the drawings.

[grahamew]

Thanks. I'm looking forward to seeing what you can find out.