Short Bull

[Dietmar]

We have posted some portraits of Short Bull of Ghost Dance fame in earlier threads. I compiled them to start this new thread. Please add whatever you may have.

www.american-tribes.com/Lakota/BIO/ShortBull.htm



Short Bull by Heyn




Johnny Baker in Ghost Shirt, Mrs V. R. Day, Short Bull and wife, V. R. Day


Short Bull & Kicking Bear

[grahamew]

Here's a newspaper sketch from the Glasgow Evening News 7 December, 1891, depicting a dinner held for the Wild West Show by a local restaurateur, John Galloway.



See www.tnais.com/bbis/bb.html

[fillupe]

I've very much enjoyed looking at the 1891 BBWWS at Waterloo photo. Two guys I've been trying to ID in this photo are Charging Thunder and Paul Eagle Star. This photo was taken about a month before Eagle Star was killed, Charging Thunder later (1/1892) had a notable interaction with my Great Grandfather. Thank you very much for this photo!

[waganari]

Regarding the picture of Kicking Bear and Short Bull standing in front of a tree with the question: Spencer, 1891? Or Stillwell?

The exact picture appears in The Tribes of the Sioux Nation, written by Michael Johnson and Jonathan Smith.
Photograph by John Grabill, 1891 (Postcard, author's collection)

[gregor]

This is wht I have on Short Bull (a rough translation from a german text).

Short Bull
(1845 – 1923)

Tataŋka Ptečela or Short Bull was born around 1845 at Pass Creek on today's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. His family - nothing else is known about his parents - belonged to the Brulé Wazhazha band of chief Lips. By reservation workers and ethnologists Short Bull, is described as a friendly, gentle and benevolent personality. Nevertheless, as a reservation Indian, he always represented traditional values of Lakota culture.

1888 and 1889 were hard years for the Lakota. The reservation was haunted by droughts and epidemics, and the Washington government had passed the "General Allotment Act", and the Lakotas lost to two-thirds of its land base. In addition, food rations had been cut. At the beginning of 1889, the Lakotas heard of a prophet and his new religion. For the first time the desperate Lakota drew hope. In March 1889, a council meeting, attended by the chiefs of the Pine Ridge, the Rosebud and the Cheyenne River Reservation, determined eleven scouts who were sent to Wovoka to get to know his teachings. Among the pilgrims who made their way to Nevada in the fall were Short Bull and his friend and brother-in-law Kicking Bear, a cousin of Crazy Horses. After their return in March 1890, Short Bull and Kicking Bear were invited by many Oglala, Hunkpapa and Brulé chieftains to introduce Wovoka’s teachings to their camps. The Brulés Crow Dog and Two Strike were among the first to be introduced into the new religion by Short Bull. Big Road and Little Wound, two prominent Oglala leaders, also supported the new religion.

After the tragic events at Wounded Knee Creek in December 1890, Short Bull, Kicking Bear and another 25 Ghost Dancers were imprisoned in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, in January 1891. In the following weeks, the causes of the events as well as the sanctions for the Lakotas were publicly discussed. William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who had very good relations with General Miles, smelled a chance for his "Wild West" company. Cody offered to take the Ghost Dancers on a European tour. When the imprisoned Indians were offered the alternative "detention or Wild West Show", 23 declared ready to go with Cody. On April 1, 1891 Buffalo Bill left with his "Indians" on the steamship S.S. Switzerland the United States to tour Europe.

From the daily life of Short Bull during this time hardly any details are known. However on this tour, the first detailed report about the Ghost Dance from the perspective of a participant emerged. Short Bull dictated a twenty-page text to the Lakota interpreter George C. Crager (or Craiger), provided by Crager with the title "As Narrated by Short Bull." According to Crager and a census in 1891/92 Short Bull had at that time two wives (Plenty Shell and Comes out) and 5 sons and a daughter living near Wounded Knee. One of his sons was John Short Bull(in 1911: 24 years old). His native Name was Shot-to-Pieces (--> Wounded Knee?)

At the beginning of 1892, some of the Lakota prisoners of war found that the eleven-month absence of their family was punishment more than enough. On March 4, 1892, Cody and 24 Indians, including Short Bull and eleven other Ghost Dancers, sailed on the S.S. Corean home. When Short Bull and Kicking Bear had hoped that they could return to their families, they saw themselves deceived. When the ship docked at Brooklyn Harbor on March 18, soldiers marched up and arrested the 12 Ghost Dance prisoners again. After long public discussions the two "fathers of the Lakota Ghost Dances" were released in October 1892.

Short Bull returned to South Dakota where he settled at Pass Creek. Because of a border clearance, this land was part of the Pine Ridge Reservation since 1890. From then on Short Bull - although Brulé Lakota – was considered an Oglala by outsiders.

About 1902 Short Bull and Kicking Bear visited Wovoka again. In the same year they travelled to Poplar to teach the Assiniboine Fred Robinson the Ghost Dance religion. What makes the conclusion, that both have remained true to the ghost dance.

In 1913 he met his old employer William Cody again, who had founded the "Col. Wm. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) Historical Picture Co.". This company filmed in 1913 the film “The Indian Wars”. Cody also wanted to film the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek at the original battlegrounds. This encountered the resistance of Oglalas. But Cody solved the problem. Over his old employees, including Iron Tail, No Neck and Short Bull, he invited the most ardent people to a meeting and after a big feast he got their consent. Today no complete copy of the movie is known.

In his later years Short Bull was known as Arnold Short Bull. On July 6, 1923 he died in his home on Pine Ridge. Even though he turned to the Protestant Congregationalists in his last years, Short Bull remained faithful to the doctrine of Wovoka all his life.


What else do we know? What is wrong?

Toksha, Gregor

[tankaptechela10]

I really enjoyed these pictures. This is my Great Grandfather, my Father's Grandfather. Most I have  seen, some are new. Thank you for sharing. Was'te!

[grahamew]

Hi

Here's another Short Bull thread to check out - and there's a link in one of the posts too:

amertribes.proboards.com/thread/2742/short-bull-ledger

[grahamew]

Another photo of Short Bull - with added - enhanced - feather!

[toniadawn]

Jun 20, 2011 13:31:57 GMT -5 grahamew said:

This painting by Joseph Scheuerle seems to show Short Bull attired in a similar fashion to that photo above. I wonder if there's a connection.


Weygold, 1909


Second from left, 1895


L. W. Stillwell?


Spencer, 1891? Or Stillwell?




At Pine Ridge, late1890s-1910


With Governor Herreid of South Dakota, 1904


Wild West Show publicity


With the Wild West Show, Antwerp, 1891


Detail from above


In the Wild West Show, with Kicking Bear and Yankton Charlie/Plenty Wolves


With Kicking Bear and other Ghost Dancers at Fort Sheridan. 1891


Detail from above


Heyn

[grahamew]

I'll try to re-post the Short Bull images that Tinypic wiped. Meanwhile, here's one I hadn't seen before - in Belgium with the Wild West Show

[grahamew]

Big Turkey, Short Bull and Francis Bone Shirt, St Francis Mission, Rosebud


By Weygold, 1909


Painted by John Hauser, who tended to base his works on photographs - but I haven't see the basis for this one


Short Bull and others with Governor Herreid of South Dakota






Notice his staff, carved with the head of a Crow

[grahamew]

With Kicking Bear (DeGraff, 1892) - presumably on return from their Wild West Show tour


George Spencer, 1891


George Spencer, 1891




With the Ghost Dance prisoners at Fort Sheridan, 1891. Probably another Spencer.


Painting by Joseph Scheuerle, 1909


Another Scheuerle painting (1909) - dressed, you'll note, exactly in the same clothing he wears in Weygold's photo

[grahamew]

Second from left; ca. 1895






In Antwerp with the Wild West Show, 1891


1891/2





Johnny Baker (in ghost shirt), Ms VR Day, Short Bull and wife (?) and unidentified. I presume this was taken in 1913 when Cody was filming The Indian Wars

[Dietmar]

I wonder if this is really 1895. Remember we had two group photos of the Fort Sheridan prisoners with similar tents and stovepipes in the background.
My guess is, this was taken also in 1891, but I can´t remember where the original information came from.

[grahamew]

I don't remember the other Fort Sheridan photo, but now that you mention it...

Here are a few more:




During the filming of The Indian Wars




With Kicking Bear - another Wild West Show photo



Again, a Wild West Show photo (identified courtesy of Dietmar)