Chief Sitting Bear and the Cheyenne connection

[jinlian]

A few months ago, on the LBH forum, we discussed about the possibility of Cheyenne headman Tangle Hair being the son of the True Oglala leader Sitting Bear. Kingsley Bray kindly pointed me to an article by Barry C. Johnson about the seven Cheyenne's trials in 1879, where it was reported a hint, made by Tangle Hair himself, about this parentage. I finally managed to get the article, and the quote - from a local newspaper, the Fort Leavenworth Times says:

One of the party, after passing the pipe to another, endeavoured to say that he was no Cheyenne; that he was the baby of Three Bears, a noted Sioux

Now, the problem is that, from the sources I have, there's no mention of Sitting Bear being also called Three Bears. The only reference - and if this individual can be identified with the True Oglala headman - to a similar name is in the diaries of Private William Earl's Smith, where it is said that Sitting Bear, the spy sent by General Crook to the hostile Sioux and Cheyenne's camps was also called "Two Bors" (Two Bears). Personally, I'm rather skeptical about the two characters being the same person, first because William Garnett and John Bourke said that this Sitting Bear/Two Bears was in fact a Cheyenne, even if he had a Sioux family at the Red Cloud Agency, and also because it seems unlikely that an elderly and respected chief, as the True Oglala Sitting Bear was used as spy, considering also the risks involved with the mission. What's more, I've no information about the True Oglala Sitting Bear being also called "Two/Three Bears" (the only other name he may have had being the one shared by his son American Horse, as stated in a passage of Red Cloud's autobiography).

Has anyone (Kingsley, Ephriam) any source reporting alternative names as "Two/ Three Bears" for the True Oglala leader? I was wondering if the "noted Sioux Three Bears" mentioned by Tangle Hair wasn't actually the father of that Three Bears who went to Washington with the Oglala/Brulé/Arapaho delegation in 1877....but of course, this is mere speculation, as I don't know Three Bears' father's name.

Thanks everyone for your help!

[jinlian]

Chronologically, the last info about Sitting Bear have him as a member of the 1870 delegation (a real pity we have no photographs of him or other Oglala delegates) and participating in the following meeting with the Brunot commission. I've searched Mike Stevens' genealogy project, but it doesn't report any date for his death. My guess would be that he died in the late 1870s, but it's just a guess. Is there any reliable information about Sitting Bear's last activities and the year of his death?
Thanks.

[tatanka]

There was a Three Bears aka Two Bears wounded at LBH and died two days later. But he was Hunkpapa. There is also a Sitting Bear, an Oglala, in the warrior list, but no information about him or his death.

[jinlian]

Thank you for your answer, Tatanka. It is possible that the Three Bears who died after LBH was in fact Tangle Hair's father, since he - if the translation of his statement was correct - said generically "a noted Sioux" .
The possibility of the True Oglala Sitting Bear being at LBH is in fact intriguing since, as I've said before, I don't know anything of his activities after 1871. He would have been, at the time, in his middle fifties (at least), but there were also elderly warriors at LBH, Inkpaduta to name but one....

[jinlian]

By the way, does anyone know where Tangle Hair resided after being released in 1879?

[jmccalla44]

I thought I remembered a Three Bears, representing the Agency faction, in the meeting with Clark and Crazy Horse discussing the Nez Perce. The name was unfamiliar, to be in that position, maybe it is a case of multiple names?

[jinlian]

Thank you, the Three Bears you're referring to is the same individual I mentioned in my first posting and who was a member of the 1877 delegation. Too young to be identified with the Sitting Bear of the True Oglala/Oglala Proper.

[Gary]

Hi Jinlian

I believe that Tangle Hair lived in Montana after the Kansas Trial. He provided information to Grinnell when he was researching "The Cheyenne Indians". There is a picture of him (taken by Mrs G) as an old man in the book. I presume that the picture was taken c.1910.

Gary

[jinlian]

Hi Gary and thank you very much for the information - in fact, I was wondering if Tangle Hair wasn't in fact one of the Northern Cheyenne who were moved first to Pine Ridge and then transferred to the Montana Agency in 1883 (as it happened, if I'm not mistaken, with Wild Hog and his family)

I think this is the picture you're referring to:


Thanks again

[Gary]

Hi Jinlian

Yes, that's the picture; Tangle Hair and his grand daughter.

Gary

[jinlian]

Jul 16, 2008 16:20:49 GMT -5 jinlian said:

Hi Gary and thank you very much for the information - in fact, I was wondering if Tangle Hair wasn't in fact one of the Northern Cheyenne who were moved first to Pine Ridge and then transferred to the Montana Agency in 1883

A small update (I was wondering if I shouldn't post this in the Cheyenne board, but since Tangle Hair considered himself a Sioux...). In the list of the Indians living at Pine Ridge who signed the infamous land agreement in 1888 proposed by the Crook commission, we can find the names of Tangle Hair and other prominent Cheyenne who were in the 1878 uprising:



Tangle Hair's age is given as 57; he should then have been born around 1831. It sounds right, considering that in the photograph below (taken during the 1879 trial for the Kansas murders) Tangle Hair, standing second from right (third row), looks in his late forties - early fifties.

[kingsleybray]

H. Scudder Mekeel, Field Notes, 1931 (American Museum of Natural History).

ms p. 58. Statement of Thomas American Horse, at Kyle, September 10, 1931.

"The Kiyaksa shirt-wearers were Little Wound and Bad Wound. There were only two in the beginning, but there were more later on. The kunhinyan [band] are the Red Bear Creek people at Allen. Thomas' gransfather was Three-Bear and his father the famous American Horse. Thomas great grandfather was Sitting Bear. Sitting Bear's brother was Red Bear's father. Red Bear is still living. Thomas's grand-father, Three-Bear, was also called Sitting Bear, after his father. Thomas great grandfather, Sitting Bear, also had the name Brown Eagle Tail."

Hope this helps. Do we have any idea of the contents of the American Horse genealogical information in the material mentioned as recently auctioned? It and the pictorial material sounds fascinating.

Kingsley

[jinlian]

Hi Kingsley,

the 76 ledger-drawings (no, unfortunately the auction wasn't that recent, it dates back to 1963, so the hopes to re-track those drawings are quite feeble) have been described as a celebration of his grandfather's( Sitting Bear, "Mato Iyotanken") deeds as hunter and warrior (one picture is described as follows "Mato Iyotanken, Sitting Bear, 85 year ago [it is not clear if he's referring to his year of birth, or to the year in which the event took place ] Killing 35 buffalo at one hunting or chase" - unfortunately the drawings, which were made for Landy's son Edwin, did not always present an explaination).

Back to American Horse's father: he stated in the letters (and he made a similar statement in Washington, 1897, when meeting senator Pettigrew) that his grandfather was a chief but his father wasn't as he refused leadership (don't know if it is a statement we can actually believe? ) and he (American Horse) had to earn chieftainship relying only in his own abilities, since it has passed from his father to "another branch of the family" (the Red Bear one? The Bad Wound one? ).
The link for a Cheyenne connection is another statement of American Horse about his sister having married a Cheyenne and living "among the Southern Cheyenne" (1876 McKenzie letter). In Sandoz's Cheyenne Autumn (my, is it difficult with Sandoz to separate fiction from reality!) Wild Hog is said to have married AH's sister, described as a "sickened Sioux woman".


One note to chronology: Old Man Sitting Bear was said to have died in 1886 at 96, which would have made him born around 1790 (which would make sense, if we interpret the ledger book drawing's explaination as "[born] 85 years" ago -there would be only a 6 year gap)
According to the AH winter count, his father was born in 1805 or 1806 (so, Old Man Sitting Bear had his first son when he was barely 16?). I haven't found any record of a Sitting Bear/Two Bears in the 1886 Pine Ridge census, so It assume he was already dead by then (even when discharging C. Eastman's report about American Horse's father being "killed in battle when he was still very young").
Another reference to American Horse's father is in Red Cloud's autobiography, where he's called "Old American Horse, father of the present chief of the same name".
About American Horse's year of birth: it has been given, in different sources, as 1836, 1839 and 1840.

[kingsleybray]

Going through some old papers today I came across a photocopy of interviews conducted by Addison E. Sheldon at Pine Ridge in 1903-06 (originals in Nebraska State Historical Society).

Included is an interview with American Horse, dated July 30, 1903, in which American Horse states that he was then 64 years old (born c. 1839). He states that he was "Born on west side of Black Hills at hill called 'Bear Hill' ".
He makes an important family statement when he remarks that "My grandfather was big chief named 'Smoke'. "
He doesn't clarify the exact relationship - was Smoke the 'father' (or conceivably 'uncle') of American Horse's father (Three Bears) or mother (Walks With)?
Something to think about ....

[carlo]

Kingsley,

I have not read these interviews myself, so I am just completely speculating here, but can you confirm that Sheldon conducted the interview with the famous American Horse, not the "other" American Horse?

Remember that American Horse commented to Ricker that there was another Oglala by the same name, a brother to Woman's Dress -- which would make the Smoke statement fit rather nicely.

Carlo