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Post by kingsleybray on Feb 2, 2015 10:50:20 GMT -5
that's the one. What provenance do we have on it - and id's? hconroy says that 3rd from left is Bear's Head, the River Crow chief, and that the pic was taken at Ft Sarpy. That trading post was closed in 1860. So if legit, this is a very early photograph and worth some research.
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Post by grahamew on Feb 2, 2015 12:47:09 GMT -5
I confess, I only have this labelled as Crow group, but a little digging suggests that if it was Pre-1860, it may have been taken on the William F. Raynolds expedition in 1859 by James D. Hutton. Posted elsewhere on the board are two Arapaho groups from this trip. Apparently, not many Hutton images survive. This would seem to conform that it is a Hutton: old.powwow.spb.ru/content/view/144/71/lang,russian/ - you can translate the page. Annoyingly, the web page features a Bierstadt photo of an Oglala camp and it can't be blown up! Aaarrghh! Here's another photo that seems to be from the same session:
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Post by Dietmar on Feb 2, 2015 13:19:29 GMT -5
Wow, some interesting pictures on that Russian site. Have you recognized Sitting Bull the Oglala?
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Post by grahamew on Feb 2, 2015 13:27:05 GMT -5
Beat you to it!
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Post by kingsleybray on Feb 2, 2015 15:31:30 GMT -5
from the journal of Maj. Raynolds, August 22, 1859, at Fort Sarpy: "The chief of the lower band [River Crows], Two Bears, wore moccasins consisting of the paws of a grizzly bear, with the claws and horny portion of the foot preserved."
So, unless these mocc's were a common fashion item among the Crow in 1859, the man in the putative Hutton picture should be River Crow chief Two Bears. What do we know about him?
The two men on the left of the image seem to clearly assume a secondary position to who we think should be Two Bears. So I assume they are fellow River Crow headmen.
Raynolds goes on to describe, in the same journal entry: "The full state dress, used by the chiefs and great warriors on extraordinary occasions, is quite imposing, consisting of moccasins ornamented with beads, leggings of skins, embroidered also with beads and porcupine quills dyed the most brilliant colors, and a large outer covering somewhat resembling the Mexican serapa, but made of skin and richly decorated. Ermine skins are highly prized by them, and almost invariably the serapa is fringed with them. Vermillion is freely used as a war paint, and it is not uncommon to see the entire face as brilliant as the best Chinese pigment can make it."
Clearly relevant to our image.
Two Bears (?) is wearing a very fine pair of leggings with exploit stripes and loose 'cuffs' at the bottom like you see in images from the 1830s.
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Post by hconroy on Feb 8, 2015 12:26:04 GMT -5
Gentlemen: I rediscovered a Catlin charcoal drawing of Chief Red Bear from 1832 in Hoxie's "The Crow". It seems that he would have been somewhat older that Big Shadow. Approximately what year was he was killed in the rearguard action against the Lakota? Bear's Head------Two Bears Big Shadow-------Big Robber It seems that correct translations from Crow to English during the early years would have been quite difficult. Question; did agent Twiss record Big Shadow's death?
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Post by carlo on Feb 8, 2015 13:09:42 GMT -5
Hconroy, Red Bear, aka Sits On The Edge Of A Fortification, was killed in the spring of 1863, in an attack on his Mountain Crow village near the Yellowstone River, west of the mouth of the Bighorn, by a combined force of Oglala and Cheyenne warriors. Twiss did not mention Big Shadow's death in his reports. I'm not too sure about Bear's Head and Two Bears being the same person though.
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Post by hconroy on Feb 8, 2015 16:58:37 GMT -5
Carlo, The picture of the chief with the bear claw moccasins is identified as Bear's Head in the museum at Pryor, MT. I am somewhat new to this but so far I have only read of Bear's Head and Twines-His-Tail being the River Crow chiefs of this particular time period. Perhaps there were others less well known. Could Red Bear have been killed in the Spirit Warrior battle fought on Pryor Creek in 1863? This would have been roughly 22 miles upstream from the Yellowstone.
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Post by carlo on Feb 9, 2015 1:50:54 GMT -5
Yes, the three Crow subdivisions (Mountain, River, Kicked In The Bellies) all had several headmen/chiefs, yet only one was considered the principle leader.
Note that there were several fights and skirmishes between the Lakotas and Crows in the year 1863. Red Bear was killed prior to the large battle at Pryor Creek, which took place in June.
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Post by hconroy on Feb 16, 2015 21:54:28 GMT -5
Carlo, When I first discovered the picture of Bear's Head I thought that he could have been my River Crow ancestor Medicine Bear but the timeline was different. Medicine Bear is mentioned in Mark H. Brown's "Plainsmen of the Yellowstone". Another ancestor is Bear Don't Walk, who reportedly was a scout at Fort Custer. You stated that the Sioux did not record a large battle with the Crows that resulted in Big Shadow's death in 1858. To your knowledge did the Sioux by chance have any other records of his passing?
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Post by carlo on Feb 17, 2015 14:34:24 GMT -5
Not that I have found, hconroy. Accounts in which an enemy's name is specifically mentioned are very rare in any case.
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Post by hconroy on Feb 21, 2015 12:09:12 GMT -5
After reading Raynold's description of the River Crow chief I feel compelled to post this description of his Mountain Crow brethren at Horse Creek. The story is still told of how the delegation went into camp to put on their finery before making their entrance.
Published in the Missouri Republican Nov. 2nd, 1851 by reporter B. Gatz Brown
Sept. 10, Wednesday, 1851 "The cannon was fired this morning and the flag raised for the assembly of the council at 9'oclock. About that hour it was announced that the Crows were coming in, conducted by Mr. Meldrum, their interpreter. Col. Mitchell and party went out and met them beyond our encampment. This is much the finest delegation of Indians we have yet seen, and though they were just from a journey of nearly eight hundred miles they made a most splendid appearance. They were all mounted. Their horses, though jaded and reduced by the long trip, still showed mettle, and many of them were beautiful animals. The Crow Indian rides better than any other. He sits on his horse with apparent ease and even elegance. They were all dressed with more taste, and their dresses, especially the headdresses of the chiefs, made more display than any of the other tribes. They came down the plain in a column, singing their national songs. In front rode the two principal chiefs, each carrying a highly ornamental pipe: behind them the remainder of the party with their arms, and in the rear a few squaws. Neither these men, nor any of their tribe had ever before been so far east of their grounds, and now they were in the midst of their enemies-those tribes with whom they had been at war for unknown years. Their coming was expected, and had called out the Indians from all the surrounding villages. The whole plain seemed with the moving of red skins. Col. Mitchell met them, the chiefs dismounted, made a short speech to the colonel, smoked all around, and then he assigned them a camp near his own, and invited the Chiefs to the council that morning. The young men now took charge of the horses and the preparations of the camp."
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Post by hconroy on Feb 26, 2015 21:16:23 GMT -5
I found this in the Annals Of Wyoming, State of Wyoming Historical Department Quarterly Bulletin---Cheyenne, July 15, 1924 Early History of Fremont County by H.G. Nickerson written in 1886
"The Indian tribes occupying the section embraced within the limits of what is now Fremont County when first discovered by white men were the Crow nation up to 1854, and since then by the Shoshones, Bannock, and Arapahoe tribes. In 1854 the Crows and Shoshones met in battle at Crowheart Butte on Big Wind River, the Crows led by Big Robber, and the Shoshones by Washakie, in which engagement the Crows were defeated with loss of some fifty warriors and two children prisoners, one a girl, who is now the wife of Washakie of the Shoshones. The Shoshones losing only five or six killed. Since that time these tribes have been peacefully disposed toward each other, and the Shoshones have held this country against all comers, the Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes, fighting them occasionally, when short engagements were had, in which a few Indians would be killed or wounded."
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Post by hconroy on Mar 5, 2015 12:19:26 GMT -5
This from the footnotes on page 203 of "Of the Crow Nation" by Edwin Denig, from "Five Tribes of the Upper Missouri." "On his visit to the Crow country in August 1854, Indian Agent Vaughan reported, "Scarcely a day passes but the Crow country is infested with more or less parties of Blackfeet. who murder indiscriminately any one that comes within their reach. At Fort Sarpy so great in the danger that no one ventures even a few yards from his own door without company and being well armed. (ARCIA of 1854 p.85) By spring of 1855, hostile pressure had become so great that the traders burned Fort Sarpy (May 19) and abandoned the Crow country. ("Fort Benton and Fort Sarpy journals,"126-127.) Thus, at the time of Denig's writing his company had no trading post among the Crows. Vaughan was prevented from reaching the Crows in the summer of 1855 by bodies of hostile Sioux on the Lower Yellowstone. When he reestablished contact with the tribe in 1856, the Crows had received no annuities for two years. Their chiefs explained to him, "they preferred to go without the goods, rather than run the risk of passing through a country beset by their deadliest enemies, the Blackfeet and Blood Indians of the north." Vaughan persuaded 350 Crows to accompany him to Fort union to obtain the annuities for the entire tribe.(ARCIA,p.1856,p.81.) Denig states on the same page that at that time fully 2/3rds of the Crow Trade was being carried on by traders on or from the Platte.
These testimonies sum up the situation for the Crows, and offer a possible explanation for the reported loss of prestige suffered by Big Shadow shortly after the Horse Creek Treaty. That the government failed to live up to the treaty, whatever the circumstances, could have possibly been construed to have reflected on him, as the signatory on the treaty.
As to his death in battle, I have found NO evidence that it occurred at Crowheart Butte. In contrast, the testimony given by the Crows recorded in the Schmidt diary is quite clear:
Sunday, August 8 (1858) "Today new Indians chanced upon us. They told us that in the absence of Meldrum, that is, during spring and summer, thirty-one Crows were killed at different places, and some were captured by the Sioux, the Blackfeet, the Flatheads, and the Nez Perces. These feuds between the various tribes come to no end. They wipe themselves out. No peace will prevail until the U.S.A. sends soldiers everywhere. The Crows want peace. Also one of their famous people, "Big Robber," has been killed by the Blackfeet. This name, "Big Robber" has been given to him through a mistake of an interpreter. His name is ARAZIE ISE, i.e., "great shadow."
Also: Monday, September 6 (1858) "As much as I know now, the Upsaroka are divided into three camps. One group I called the Zisbawaikze with the outstanding chieftain Dagbizehischisch; then there are the Menesbere with our Dagbizaschlusch; then the third group, called Enanabio, whose chieftain Araziesa was slain by the Blackfeet last summer."(Tomahawk and Cross, by Gerhard M. Schmutterer)
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Post by hconroy on Mar 10, 2015 20:04:08 GMT -5
I find it very interesting that the Shoshones were not included in the Horse Creek Treaty. They were present at the treaty grounds, but were left out of the equation. I read somewhere that this was because they were considered a mountain tribe, not a plains tribe. This doesn't sound like a plausible explanation to me, and I suspect that there may have been other considerations that Mitchell was dealing with. These are the possibilities that come to mind: 1. The Shoshones were located much closer to the Mormon settlements. 2. The costs of the logistics of delivering annuities to them would have been prohibitive, given that keel boats could not navigate the North Platte into Shoshone territory. Big Shadow's band was camped near Crowheart Butte, on lands traditionally held by the Mountain Crows. Big Shadow had recently signed a treaty with the U.S., recognizing those lands as part of the Crow territories. It seems that if the Shoshones had been included in the treaty, the battle may never have occurred and the maps would look very differently today. Any thoughts?
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