Sitting Bull in Canada

[grahamew]

Does anyone have a scan of what is purported to be the first photo of Sitting Bull; wearing a hat, sitting with his men in the parade ground at Fort Walsh, taken in 1878 by Thomas George Anderton? I've only ever seen a small photographic reproduction and it's too small to make out that it is him. Some of Anderton's images are on the Glenbow site, but not this one, unfortunately.

I'm curious because I've seen other photos of Lakota in Canada from this period that are a little dubious. This one, for instance, allegedly shows a member of the NMWP wooing a Lakota woman, but I'm fairly certain I've seen her identified as trader's wife, if not a white woman (I'll check that later):




According to some documentation, the photo of Long Dog seems to have been taken in 1876, before Sitting Bull began his stay in Canada. Other sources, however, date this to 1878:



Other photos of the Lakota in Canada show men with hairstyles you wouldn't normally associate with the Sioux and I wonder if the identification is correct: ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx&BU=&TN=IMAGEBAN&SN=AUTO1472&SE=1359&RN=2&MR=10&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=0&XP=&RF=WebResults&EF=&DF=WebResultsDetails&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&ID=&MF=WPEngMsg.ini&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=87622&NR=0&NB=6&SV=0&BG=&FG=&QS=ArchivesPhotosSearch&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1

Likewise, there's a photo of Spotted Eagle's camp doing the rounds (and I've seen it at Wood Mountain) that's labelled Cree village elsewhere. There's man with a feather in his hair, carrying a knife club and I suspect that may have been the cause for its identification as a picture of Spotted Eagle! The picture can be seen here: lbha.proboards12.com/index.cgi?board=Indians&action=display&thread=1468&page=1

Here's the Stillson sketch, made in Canada in 1877, of Sitting Bull used in Harper's:





And finally, here's a neat site (though I cannot understand a word!) that provides a chronology of SB photos (and others if you search around):
hem.bredband.net/pedorch/foto_bull1.html

[grahamew]

Another good article on Sitting Bull in photographs is Family, Politics and Show Business: The Photographs of Sitting Bull by Markus Lindner in North Dakota History Vol 72, Nos. 3 & 4, 2005

[grahamew]

Here's the commonly used fictional engraving of Sitting Bull at Fort Walsh; even the less-than-sharp-eyed will recognise some of the figures adapted from other works.



The man kneeling, resting his chin on his hands, for example, is from one of Gardner's photos of Old Man Afraid of his Horses at the Laramie treaty in 1868.

[brock]

I've been to Canada and seen several photos labeled as Sitting Bull up at the tiny museum up near the Wood Mountain Reserve. Their equipment makes it nearly impossible to get decent reproductions, but I can definitely tell you that those labeled Sitting Bull in their catalogue are not. I can also tell you the RCMP Museum up in Regina is a huge disappointment for pictures of Natives. And Fort Walsh, although wonderfully rebuilt complete with re-enators, is very short on archives. Glenbow is about all there is unless there are some in Toronto or some of the Natives up there have them in their cedar chests. In that case my first inclination would be to ask around the Fort Peck Rez in Montana. If some were given to a Native and it made it south that's the most likely place to look. Personally I never saw a picture of him in a hat prior to the 1880s.

[liverpoolannie]

I wonder if an email to this blogger might steer you in the right direction Grahame ......

George Anderton, formerly of the North West Mounted Police and the founding father of photography in western Canada, came to Fort Benton in May 1880 from Fort Macleod. He took important photographs of the buildings and people in Fort Benton during the boom period of steamboat navigation. One exceptional Anderton photo in our collection shows the Front Street levee in 1880. The backstamp on this image reads: “Geo. Anderton, Photographer, Fort MacLeod, N. W. Ter. Canada.”

fortbenton.blogspot.com/2006/06/shooting-fort-benton-early.html

Annie

[grahamew]

Here is the Anderton photo taken at Fort Walsh in 1877, allegedly showing Sitting Bull - it would, therefore, be the first photo of SB:



However, looking at this blown up, if somewhat pixelated section, it doesn't appear to be him; indeed one of the mounted men at the rear is wearing a skin shirt with a beaded or quilled disk on the front, a style more indicative of the Blackfoot or Plains Cree - as are some of the hairstyles visible.

[grahamew]

Although unlabelled, from its context, I think this is meant to be Black Bull, the leader of the Lakota who stayed behind in Canada after Sitting Bull left. he image is from 'An Account of the Advance of the 7th Fusiliers of London to aid in the suppression of the North West Rebellion' by Alexander Campbell, a sergeant with the 7th Fusiliers, a battalion of militia which was headquartered in London, Ontario and headed west at the time of the Riel Rebellion. He met the Lakota at Moose Jaw and provides an interesting and admiring picture of them on the Militia's outward and return journeys. He made numerous sketches on his trip and later worked them up into watercolours and included them in his narrative of the events he took part in, so it's likely some accuracy was lost.



He refers to Black Bull as Sitting Bull's brother, but as far as I know there is no family connection.

The whole narrative is available here:

scaa.sk.ca/ourlegacy/solr?query=Name%3A%22pihtikw%C4%81n-ayap%C4%ABw%C4%AByan%22&start=0&rows=10&mode=view&pos=0

[Dietmar]

Is this the same Black Bull photographed by D.F. Barry?

[grahamew]

I've seen he photo in the Heski book, but I don't know when or if Black Bull moved back south before 1890 when Barry moved to Wisconsin. This is the only other photo of a Black Bull I know.

[fairman]

Please look at the quote below about the Moose Jaw Sioux. An author "They never Surrendered" Claims Black Moon was related to Sitting Bull but never clarified the fact there were TWO Black Moons in Canada after 1876.

Any comment please !!!!!!! as to the accuracy of the paragraph or thoughts thereon


In 1882, approximately 115 Sioux living in twenty-eight lodges established their permanent home on the banks of Moose Jaw Creek at The Turn, under the joint leadership of Black Bull and Black Moon, a Minnecoujou Sioux. Black Bull (Ta-Tanka-Sappa), a veteran of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, was reputed to be the half-brother of Sitting Bull. It is sometimes stated this particular Black Moon was Sitting Bull’s uncle, though it is possibly more accurate that the Black Moon that came to Moose Jaw was a Minnecoujou Sioux. Their was another Black Bull who also came to Canada who was Hunkpapa and he was a relative of Sitting Bull’s, also a Hunkpapa. But in any case, the fact they were a loose association of different bands of the Lakota and not one tribe, with one leader, would continue to be a problem for many years to come

[fairman]

Black Bull (Ta-Tanka-Sappa) died in 1897, and was buried at the southwest corner of Highway 363 and Ninth Avenue South, in Moose Jaw, Sask, on the highway leading to Wing 15 airbase. He was a veteran of the Battle of the Little Big Horn and reputed to be the half-brother of Sitting Bull.