Bad Wound

[Dietmar]

Some interesting information from the Bad Wound family:

www.badwoundfamily.com/page1.html

[ephriam]

Some thoughts about Bad Wound:

Bad Wound I -- Charles Turning Hawk mentioned in an interview that his grandfather was the first Bad Wound, "a big chief of the Tashnaitca" tiyospaye of the Oglala. Presumably Bad Wound I is the individual mentioned by Lewis & Clark. Hyde mentions that one of the Bad Wounds died in 1865 (I have not been able to verify his source yet); I suspect that this was Bad Wound I.

Bad Wound II was the father of Charles Turning Hawk, who mentioned that he had a number of wives and as many as 26 sons! Based on his children's years of birth, I am guessing that he was born circa. 1800-1810. I assume he is the one who signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 and the Treaty of 1868. In the records of the Red Cloud Agency where he settled in the early 1870s, he is usually referred to as "Old Bad Wound" to distinguish him from his son "Young Bad Wound." Bad Wound II is listed in the agency records up through the 1880-82 period but is not in the 1886 census, suggesting that he died sometime in the early 1880s. (We have not found census records for the period between 1882-86)

Bad Wound III or "Young Bad Wound" was born about 1832 or 1833 and assumed his father's role as leader of the Tasnaheca Band (Oglala). Like his father, he settled at the Red Cloud Agency during the early 1870s. He went to Washington, D.C. with the 1875 delegation and signed the Treaty of 1876. Either he (or his father) accompanied Red Cloud in May 1877 to meet Crazy Horse and other northern leaders as they were en route to surrender at Red Cloud. Bad Wound III married Good Woman probably about 1860 and then Red Top about 1873. His children included: Daniel (b. c1861), Noah (c1867-1930), Robert (c1871-1940) and Millie. Contrary to Donovin Sprague's comment in his photo book of the Pine Ridge Reservation, Bad Wound III died in late 1917 or early 1918 (I am still searching through the Pine Ridge Reservation records to find the exact date).

Bad Wound III's children continued the family tradition of participation in tribal government. Noah served as a tribal judge and Robert became the first tribal President in 1935 under the Indian Reorganization Act.

ephriam

[Dietmar]

Hello Ephriam,

good to hear from you again. The several Bad Wounds are indeed hard to discern.

Unfortunately the badwoundfamily link above is gone, here is another paper about Bad Wound:

moh.tie.net/content/docs/OweSica.pdf

One of the later Bad Wounds:

[kingsleybray]

Hi Ephriam and friends, I don't have all my sources to hand right now, but maybe we can update this effort as we go along - and perhaps offer it to our friends at badwoundfamily.com once we are satisfied with it. The Bad Wound family have certainly been a very important one in Oglala history from at least the early 19th century. I imagine they indeed were significant before 1800 too.

The way I read the generations is pretty much the same as yours. The only difficulty I have is with Hyde's assumption (in RED CLOUD'S FOLK) that Bad Wound was killed in 1865 - by his reconstruction in the Fouts fight at Horse Creek, when the Lakotas fleeing the Army fired on some of their chiefs who were haranguing to prevent the breakout. Hyde speculates that Bad Wound and Little Thunder (Brule) were among the chiefs killed, but he was mistaken about Little Thunder, as he confirmed later in SPOTTED TAIL'S FOLK. I feel sure he was mistaken about Bad Wound also. The only leader killed in the Horse Creek skirmish, that I have found actually named in a contemporary document, is Standing Elk. I think (emphasise think!) this is the Oglala Spleen band headman, father-in-law to former Agent T. S. Twiss. The contemporary Bad Wound (Bad Wound II in Ephriam's scheme), named in sources beginning 1844, continues with no break in the record as a headman into the 1870s. The last time he is named in a role of civil leadership is (I think) the Red Cloud Agency census begun by Agent J. J. Saville in March 1874. By then he would be approaching seventy years old, by which time many chiefs retired. Typically they named a son to succeed them, though that did depend on affirmation by the band council. Anyway, we find Young Bad Wound (Bad Wound III) assuming a political role beginning with the May 1875 delegation to Washington.

I shall follow up with my notes on Bad Wound I and II. So more later

[kingsleybray]

BAD WOUND II
Dates: Born ca. 1800-1810
Died: Between ca. 1883 and 1885
Name: Owe Shicha, Bad Wound. Nickname, used in 1856 Harney documents: Mischief Maker
Tiyoshpaye: Tashnahecha (Ground Squirrel). Also known as Ground Squirrel Eaters, by the mid-19th century a sub-band within the Southern Oglala division. This division was referred to in 1839 by Joseph Nicollet as the Ku-inyan. In the 1850s it was referred to as the Minisha, Red Water. It is only in the 1860s that records regularly assign the name Kiyuksa (also Kiyaksa) to the larger unit. What I think is happening is that the largest constituent sub-band of a division tends to have its name appropriated as the name for the division as a whole. Thus names like Kiyuksa, Tashnahecha and Kuhinyan were probably in circulation right throughout the period, but only get recorded when the relevant sub-band grew large enough to assume leadership of the larger division. (E-r-r-r, I hope that's clear!)

Bad Wound II first appears in the contemporary record in fall 1844, when the David Adams journal identifies him as the "brav" (the brave, i.e. the head soldier or akichita-itanchan) of Man Afraid of His Horse village of Oglalas, then located on the North Platte River upstream from Ft Laramie. This village corresponds to the Hunkpatila or Oglala proper division (100 lodges in 1839 according to Nicollet). Whether the Tasnahecha were a part of the Oglala proper at this date, OR whether Bad Wound had married in to that division, is a moot point.

At this time Bad Wound acted as a "soldier" for David Adams' trading operation at Fort Platte. Located close to the Chouteau Co's Ft Laramie, Ft Platte was the principal "opposition" to that post. Old Man Afraid of His Horse, already the acknowledged head of the Oglala Proper, was a long-time patron of the Ft Laramie traders, so it comes as no surprise that by January 1845 there was friction between him and Bad Wound. The latter supported Adams in a dispute with Man Afraid of His Horse. Shortly thereafter Bad Wound led a splinter-band to join the Southern Oglalas (which had spent the early part of winter 1844-45 on Horse Creek, south of Ft Laramie), since Adams notes that Bad Wound, Fast Whirlwind, and Le Borgne led an 80-lodge camp in February 1845.

Thereafter Bad Wound very rapidly assumed a position of leadership in the Southern Oglala division. Francis Parkman spent part of the summer of 1846 travelling with the division, which he indicates numbered some 150 lodges (between 1000 and 1100 people) when all together. During the summer the village divided three ways: Fast Whirlwind (40 lodges); Red Water and Le Borgne, which I reconstruct at upwards of 70 lodges; and Bad Wound (therefore the smallest sub-band, at between 30 and 40 lodges).

This probably gives a good idea of the relative strength of the division and its leaders. When Thaddeus Culbertson tabulated data on Oglala bands and chiefs, in 1850, he named Fast Whirlwind and Red Water as the ranking leaders of the Southern Oglala bands. Bad Wound is not named. However it is clear that very soon after 1850 Bad Wound was viewed as the Southern Oglala chief with the widest influence. This is another aspect of a general generational shift in Oglala tribal leadership at this point in time - cf. Hyde RED CLOUD'S FOLK, pp 67-68.

My interpretation of the shift is that in summer 1850 large numbers of Lakotas united for the Sun Dance and to counsel about the impending treaty with the USA (originally scheduled for 1850, but Congress did not appropriate funds until the following year). A council of older chiefs (including Old Smoke, if my interpretation of W. Smoke's postings on this site is correct) met in a great double tipi to name a new cohort of Wichasha Yatapika, Honoured Men. Invested with hair-fringed shirt and leggings they were national leaders, empowered to negotiate with the USA in the name of the Lakota people. My feeling is that Man Afraid of His Horse and Bad Wound were among the (four?) Oglalas so honoured. I think this may be the context in which to understand the statement in the S. Mekeel 1931 Field Notes, that Bad Wound was a shirt wearer for the Kiyaksa band.

No Oglalas signed the 1851 treaty (in the event) but Bad Wound was the second Oglala signatory of the 1853 amendment to the treaty, signed at Ft Laramie on September 15, 1853.

(More to follow:)

Kingsley

[Dietmar]

So here are Two Bad Wound photos: The first one is from the 1875 delegation group photo. Therefore he must be Bad Wound III.



Then we have this older Bad Wound, with his wife Rosie Red Top. If BW III. married Red Top, I assume this must be the same man photographed later in life:

[kingsleybray]

Indeed, Dietmar, and the woman sitting next to Bad Wound in the full 1875 image should be the same wife as in the later photo you posted.

As promised I will post more later on the Bad Wounds

Kingsley

[Dietmar]

Voila!


Bad Wound & Rosie Red Top 1875

[ephriam]

Kingsley:

I read the references to Bad Wound in the David Adams Journals a little different than you did.

I could not verify your reference to Bad Wound as a "brave" or head soldier in Man Afraid's band. Under the date Nov. 1841 (p. 19), Adams makes reference to Man Afraid as "the brav" but no mention of Bad Wound. Did I miss it?

Bad Wound is mentioned twice. On Nov. 4, 1845, he, together with Man Afraid, Medicine Man and Shell, attempted to persuade Adams to send a trader to their village(s). Then on Feb. 6, 1845, Adams notes that the Lakota had divided, with some camping with the Cheyenne while another part led by Old Borne, Bad Wound and Whirlwind had gone to Horse Creek "with their bands." Bad Wound appears to be a headman, not a head soldier, by this time.

I know that George Hyde initially assigned Bad Wound to the Hunkpatila but I think he was wrong. I question whether Bad Wound was ever part of the Hunkpatila. It was not uncommon for bands to camp together in winter camps. My read of these brief references in Adams' journals was that a part of the southern Oglala (including the Tasnaheca) spent the winter of 1844-45 camped with the Hunkpatila, then headed back down to the Platte River and probably continued on to the Republican River country with the other southern Oglala.

ephriam

[kingsleybray]

Thank, Ephriam, for your comments. Yes, according to The David Adams Journals, edited by Charles E. Hanson, Jr. (Chadron, NE: The Museum of the Fur Trade, 1994), p. 74, on November 5, 1844, Man Afraid of His Horse, Bad Wound, Medicine Man, and Shell arrived at Ft Platte and asked that a trader be sent to their village.

(Shell I believe is the Shell Man met and painted by George Catlin at Ft Pierre in 1832, and in 1851-52 an Oglala delegate to Washington after the Horse Creek Treaty. I wonder if there is any connection (father/son?) to Shell Boy, the Northern Oglala warrior of the 1870s and 1880s?)

Then, on November 7, Adams and his trader James McClosky departed with a small party, comprising Henri Chatillon, a man named Roy, plus four Lakotas - "3 buck and 1 squaw" - bound for "the vilig of the man that is afraid of his horses to place him [McClosky] in the lodg of the bad wond the brav of that band".

On the following day higher up the North Platte the party was met by "the bad wond and 5 others that had [led?] us in to the vilig thay brot us sum ponded meat [pemmican] and gave us to eat I then started a head with the bad wond and his a scart [escort] and I went to the vilig whar I was reseved with Joy and acklamashon though the flag with the stripes and stars floted in the ar on loge of bad wond . . . "

Bad Wound was therefore the head soldier in the village, and also the main Ft Platte patron at the beginning of the 1844-45 trade season. Note his leading of a formal escort to welcome the Ft Platte traders and his flying of a Stars and Stripes above his tipi, clear evidence of his status as a patron of traders.

During the winter one of the Ft Platte employees, Dan Finch, married a woman from the village, but she was unhappy with the arrangement and repeatedly fled to her home. There Man Afraid of His Horse took her in. It is not entirely clear whether the chief was another prospective husband, or (which I suspect) he was a kinsman who disapproved of the match and supported her rejection of the marriage.

(p. 79) In any case Adams and Finch rode up to the village on New Years Day 1845, at its new location on Laramie Fork "6 miles up larima" from the fort. Their plan was to reclaim the horses Finch had given Man Afraid of His Horse for the woman.

(p. 80) Man Afraid of His Horse refused to give back the horses, but Finch untied a mule (tethered outside the chief's tipi) that had been part of the deal "and led it to the bad wond lodg", before going on to the pony herd to find the horses. Note the clear alignment of Bad Wound with Adams against Man Afraid of His Horse.

This is why I think a month later we have the first evidence, as you adduce, for Bad Wound as headman of a small band. During January large numbers of Lakotas had gathered higher up Laramie Fork prior to a proposed raid on the Crows and Shoshones. Besides the Man Afraid of His Horse village, Southern Oglalas from their wintering grounds on Horse Creek, Brules and even Sans Arcs had gathered, but dissension broke up the enterprise. So, on p. 87, under February 6, 1845, Adams notes receiving word that "the sus [Sioux] . . . hav split sum has gon to the shians [on the Laramie Plains to the west] and old born and the bad wond and the whurl wind that thay hav gon ovr to h ors creck with ther bands the threa [bands] numbers a bout 80 lodges".

("old born"is Le Borgne (One Eye), a leader in the Red Water band, "the whurl wind" is Fast Whirlwind, who was the ranking Southern Oglala leader in the years immediately after the 1841 killing of Bull Bear.)

My reading is that a classic split in the Man Afraid of His Horse village had taken place, and that Bad Wound had led away a little group of relatives, establishing himself as a would-be chief. He then joined elements of the other major Oglala tribal division, the Southern Oglalas. There he may well have had a coterie of relatives (hence my earlier wondering if he had simply married a woman from the Oglala Proper-Hunkpatila, living there for a while and establishing an affinity of in-laws and adherents on whom he could call for support - returning eventually to claim his place among his blood relatives).

Anyway, more later on the later career of Bad Wound II.

[Gary]

Graet stuff Ephriam and Kingsley.

Gary

[ephriam]

I stand corrected! Because of the bad spelling and grammar, sometimes working with the Adams journal is difficult -- I missed the other references to Bad Wound! With that additional information, I agree with you that it appears that Bad Wound was associated initially with the Hunkpatila at the beginning of that winter and then moved to the southern Oglala.

[kingsleybray]

Yes, Adams' spelling is something else - even by the standards of great frontier idiosyncratic spellers like William Clark. Still, makes it fun!

[kingsleybray]

Continuing my biographical profile of Bad Wound II (ca. 1800/10-ca. 1885)

On September 15, 1853 the amendment to the Horse Creek treaty (reducing the term of annuity payments from fifty years) was signed at Ft Laramie before Agent Thomas Fitzpatrick by leaders of the Upper Brules and Oglalas. Five Oglalas signed, as follows:

Smoke
Bad Wound
Medicine Eagle
Man Afraid of His Horse
Big Crow

(Note that this is the list Catherine Price mistakenly prints as the 1851 treaty signatories.)

Bad Wound next appears in the record in late fall 1855, when Agent Twiss noted that his camp was then located on Lawrence's Fork, a tributary of the North Platte just to the west of Chimney Rock. I have visited the locality and there's a nice line of low bluffs on the north side of the creek that would be good weather protection for a Lakota winter camp.

During winter 1855-56 General Harney followed up his victory over the Lakotas at Blue Water Creek with demands for the surrender of all stolen stock and of various warriors implicated in the hostilities of the previous eighteen months. He summoned the chiefs of all Lakota divisions to a March 1856 council at Ft Pierre on the Missouri River, demanding that each tribal council nominate one principal chief and nine sub-chiefs, to be held accountable for their tribe's behaviour. Because Harney rode roughshod over the authority of the Indian Office (civilian) agents, Agent T. S. Twiss, based at Ft Laramie for the tribes of the Upper Platte, refused to co-operate with the general's proposal, advising the Oglala chiefs not to attend the talks. This infuriated Harney, who sent his own messengers to summon the Oglalas.

When the ten Oglala chiefs demanded by Harney appeared at Ft Pierre in April, they were led as head chief by Bad Wound (or "Mischief-Maker", a nickname: later documents indicate that he and Bad Wound II are one and the same man). Man Afraid of His Horse was present, and the spokesman emphasised that the tribal council did not want him to be thrown away, but that it was decided to nominate Bad Wound for the status of head chief. This was approved by Harney. (The Oglala spokesman was Brave Bear, the Bad Face band leader, father of George Sword and the brother-in-law of Red Cloud.)

What is the significance of these political developments? Man Afraid of His Horse had been considered by the Upper Platte agents to be the principal Oglala chief for the past few years, but here he is passed over (but remember how the tribal council wanted it reported to Harney that they were not throwing him away) in favour of Bad Wound. Basically my feeling is that the Oglala council realised that Twiss and his favoured chiefs were distinctly out of favour with the military, therefore they with some reluctance nominated another chief to serve as the nominal head chief recognized by the USA. The fact that a third chief, Brave Bear (referred to in the documents by another nickname, Wounded in the Face), was called upon to act as the Oglala sole speaker at the Harney council, suggests some rather complex political manoeuvering.

In any case, this may be another context in which to understand the assertion in the Mekeel 1931 interviews that Bad Wound II was a Southern Oglala shirt wearer.

Bad Wound remained the leading Southern Oglala civil chief, at least in terms of US diplomacy, through the period 1855-65. This was the period in which the Southern Oglalas increasingly hunted on the Republican River in sw. Nebraska and adjoining states, until the aftermath of the Sand Creek Massacre. Civil chiefs like Bad Wound and Little Thunder, his Brule counterpart, reluctantly smoked the Cheyenne war pipe to pledge support in avenging the massacre. Then, in January 1865, the Southern Oglalas, Southern Brules, most Southern Cheyennes and a Northern Arapaho camp all left the central plains bound for the north and the aid of their Northern Lakota and Cheyenne relatives. Significant numbers of Southern Oglalas did not return to the central plains ("the Buffalo South" in Lakota geographic terms) until summer 1866.

Again, a further instalment will follow ASAP.

[kingsleybray]

Incidentally in late 1855 Bad Wound was a key patron of trader Seth Ward (running the Ward & Guerrier trading post on the North Platte 8 ms upstream of Ft Laramie). Ward was one of the traders who had a run-in with Agent Twiss (who assumed his post in August 1855 and clearly spent several weeks throwing his weight around with the trading community!), and he was only too happy take sides with Gen. Harney in the Harney-Twiss conflict.

Maybe we detect Bad Wound in an anti-Twiss faction of the Oglala leadership? - a faction in which once again he would be opposed to Man Afraid of His Horse, as he had been a decade earlier in the Ft Laramie-Ft Platte trade competition. So maybe a pattern there. (We need an Old Man Afraid of His Horse string, I guess, but he had a habit of saddling himself with highly ambitious head-soldiers in his village organization: Bad Wound in the 1840s, Red Cloud a decade or two later).

As promised, more later