Post by grahamew on Apr 29, 2013 13:40:10 GMT -5
There are some great images currently on the Heritage Auction site; all were part of the Johnson Collection, collected largely on Pine Ridge from 1892 to the 1930s:
The Johnson American Indian Art Collection
Missionaries Received An Assortment Of Artifacts While Among The Sioux In South Dakota
By Laura Johnson Osswald
Two years after the Battle of Wounded Knee, on a cold and blustery Thanksgiving Day in 1892, my grandparents arrived on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
The Rev. A. Fulton Johnson, a native of New Brunswick, Canada, and an 1890 graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary, was sent by the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A. as a missionary to the Oglala Sioux Indians. He married Louise A. Cornelius that same year in Halifax, Nova Scotia, just before embarking on his journey. Their only child, Julius Kenneth Johnson, my father, was born in 1904.
In South Dakota, their home and church was on an acre of land on the edge of a little town on the reservation that was known as the Agency, the government headquarters for the reservation. Twenty-five miles to the nearest railroad, it was a remote, windswept prairie with cold and stormy winters. With no modern conveniences, life wasn't always easy. The Johnsons soon learned that while the name "Sioux" was used to refer to the American Indians on the reservation, they called themselves Dakota.
In the early 1800s, missionaries were behind the first attempts to produce a written form of the Dakota language. Subsequent missionaries began the translation of the Bible into the Dakota language. It was a painstaking process, but one that produced an excellent translation.
In the mid-1800s, after years of hostilities and suffering at the hands of the white man, the Indians began to trust the missionaries and began to embrace the Christian faith, and many new churches were organized. One very influential missionary was the Rev. John Williamson, and under his ministry many new missions were established. It was his father who helped translate the Bible into Dakota.
In 1892, when the Rev. Johnson was invited to go to Pine Ridge Reservation as a District Missionary, he was an assistant to Williamson. In a 1934 essay titled "One Hundred Years of Missionary Work Among the Sioux," church historian John M. Somerndike wrote: "Pine Ridge was an armed camp, and there were only a few Indians in that area who were influenced by Christian teaching. But Johnson made friends among them, and even though they were slow to respond to his efforts to win them over to the white man's religion, he was unmolested in his missionary labors, going in and out among them always unarmed and unafraid. The massacre of the Indians at Wounded Knee two years before was still fresh in their minds, and they were bitterly resentful toward all white people. Chief Short Bull, one of the strong leaders of the Ghost Dance, was one of Johnson's earliest converts."
And so the Rev. Johnson became a beloved influence and dedicated Christian missionary among the Indians. Somerndike also wrote: "For over forty years, this heroic missionary has been preaching the gospel to the Dakota people. He has been their patient teacher and counselor. With his own hands he has built churches and manses for them. He has pleaded their cause with the government and has contributed in a helpful way to the training of native missionaries." He was a master of the language, speaking it fluently, and he even authored some books in the language.
Mrs. Johnson was also loved and respected as a partner and support to Johnson's ministry. An art teacher for four years before their marriage, she shared her talents in art, sewing, music, and literature with the people of Pine Ridge. She was active with the Agency's boarding school, Sunday school classes, and club and guild work.
During their many years on the reservation, the Johnsons witnessed countless Indian ceremonies in which Indians in their native costumes would participate in The Give-Away, The Dance, The 101 Ranch Show, and the Omaha dances, to name a few. On those occasions, the Indians would proudly wear their beaded outfits and headdresses.
It is fitting that our grandparents and father were recipients of such a wonderful assortment of clothing and artifacts given to them by their friends, the Oglala Sioux Indians. Now, my sisters and I are prepared to offer these items to the public, while at the same time remembering our grandparents as amazing people who devoted their lives to their missionary work and the Dakota people.
Laura Johnson Osswald and her sisters, Helen Johnson Grout and Frances Johnson Chase Montgomery, have been caretakers of The Johnson American Indian Art Collection for nearly three decades.
www.ha.com/information/johnson-american-indian-art-collection.s
There are several groupings of images, including those depicting the Lower Brule men here and on the following page: amertribes.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=portraits&action=display&thread=358&page=2
Here's a selection; the first group appear in one album and seem to have been taken around 1898; there are 38 prints altogether:
Crazy Bear
Short Bull
Brave Heart
Flat iron
i39.tinypic.com/1s195h.jpg
Iron Hawk
Red Cloud
One interesting point about the above collection is that it is inscribed, "For Dear Father, with much love from Luise (sic) and Fulton, July 4th, 1899." If you have your copy of Goodyear at hand, look at the photos of Red Cloud dressed in bonnet, holding the flag and a tomahawk on pages 167-8, credited to Ray Graves. Goodyear dates them 1907. Again, according to Goodyear, he's photographed wearing the same shirt on Pine Ridge in 1898 by Jesse H. Bratley. Wish I could make out the moccasin beadwork pattern in the Graves photo and try to match it to the Fulton photo... Anyone got a magnifying glass?
The next bunch are a selection from numerous lots and originating over a period of several years:
Big Mane
Unidentified
American Horse
"Sioko, the boogie-man of Pine Ridge"
Mr and Mrs Charles Black Horse
Unidentified
Unidentified
Young woman wearing her husband's feather bonnet. Note the horse mask. This possibly dates from President Coolidge's visit to Pine Ridge, some time in the 1920s as there are other photos of the occasion featuring the dance arbor.
Unidentified
There are several shots of Pine Ridge and its environs:
There's also a small collection of photos by Frank Fiske (complementing another collection also in the auction).
The Johnson American Indian Art Collection
Missionaries Received An Assortment Of Artifacts While Among The Sioux In South Dakota
By Laura Johnson Osswald
Two years after the Battle of Wounded Knee, on a cold and blustery Thanksgiving Day in 1892, my grandparents arrived on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
The Rev. A. Fulton Johnson, a native of New Brunswick, Canada, and an 1890 graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary, was sent by the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A. as a missionary to the Oglala Sioux Indians. He married Louise A. Cornelius that same year in Halifax, Nova Scotia, just before embarking on his journey. Their only child, Julius Kenneth Johnson, my father, was born in 1904.
In South Dakota, their home and church was on an acre of land on the edge of a little town on the reservation that was known as the Agency, the government headquarters for the reservation. Twenty-five miles to the nearest railroad, it was a remote, windswept prairie with cold and stormy winters. With no modern conveniences, life wasn't always easy. The Johnsons soon learned that while the name "Sioux" was used to refer to the American Indians on the reservation, they called themselves Dakota.
In the early 1800s, missionaries were behind the first attempts to produce a written form of the Dakota language. Subsequent missionaries began the translation of the Bible into the Dakota language. It was a painstaking process, but one that produced an excellent translation.
In the mid-1800s, after years of hostilities and suffering at the hands of the white man, the Indians began to trust the missionaries and began to embrace the Christian faith, and many new churches were organized. One very influential missionary was the Rev. John Williamson, and under his ministry many new missions were established. It was his father who helped translate the Bible into Dakota.
In 1892, when the Rev. Johnson was invited to go to Pine Ridge Reservation as a District Missionary, he was an assistant to Williamson. In a 1934 essay titled "One Hundred Years of Missionary Work Among the Sioux," church historian John M. Somerndike wrote: "Pine Ridge was an armed camp, and there were only a few Indians in that area who were influenced by Christian teaching. But Johnson made friends among them, and even though they were slow to respond to his efforts to win them over to the white man's religion, he was unmolested in his missionary labors, going in and out among them always unarmed and unafraid. The massacre of the Indians at Wounded Knee two years before was still fresh in their minds, and they were bitterly resentful toward all white people. Chief Short Bull, one of the strong leaders of the Ghost Dance, was one of Johnson's earliest converts."
And so the Rev. Johnson became a beloved influence and dedicated Christian missionary among the Indians. Somerndike also wrote: "For over forty years, this heroic missionary has been preaching the gospel to the Dakota people. He has been their patient teacher and counselor. With his own hands he has built churches and manses for them. He has pleaded their cause with the government and has contributed in a helpful way to the training of native missionaries." He was a master of the language, speaking it fluently, and he even authored some books in the language.
Mrs. Johnson was also loved and respected as a partner and support to Johnson's ministry. An art teacher for four years before their marriage, she shared her talents in art, sewing, music, and literature with the people of Pine Ridge. She was active with the Agency's boarding school, Sunday school classes, and club and guild work.
During their many years on the reservation, the Johnsons witnessed countless Indian ceremonies in which Indians in their native costumes would participate in The Give-Away, The Dance, The 101 Ranch Show, and the Omaha dances, to name a few. On those occasions, the Indians would proudly wear their beaded outfits and headdresses.
It is fitting that our grandparents and father were recipients of such a wonderful assortment of clothing and artifacts given to them by their friends, the Oglala Sioux Indians. Now, my sisters and I are prepared to offer these items to the public, while at the same time remembering our grandparents as amazing people who devoted their lives to their missionary work and the Dakota people.
Laura Johnson Osswald and her sisters, Helen Johnson Grout and Frances Johnson Chase Montgomery, have been caretakers of The Johnson American Indian Art Collection for nearly three decades.
www.ha.com/information/johnson-american-indian-art-collection.s
There are several groupings of images, including those depicting the Lower Brule men here and on the following page: amertribes.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=portraits&action=display&thread=358&page=2
Here's a selection; the first group appear in one album and seem to have been taken around 1898; there are 38 prints altogether:
Crazy Bear
Short Bull
Brave Heart
Flat iron
i39.tinypic.com/1s195h.jpg
Iron Hawk
Red Cloud
One interesting point about the above collection is that it is inscribed, "For Dear Father, with much love from Luise (sic) and Fulton, July 4th, 1899." If you have your copy of Goodyear at hand, look at the photos of Red Cloud dressed in bonnet, holding the flag and a tomahawk on pages 167-8, credited to Ray Graves. Goodyear dates them 1907. Again, according to Goodyear, he's photographed wearing the same shirt on Pine Ridge in 1898 by Jesse H. Bratley. Wish I could make out the moccasin beadwork pattern in the Graves photo and try to match it to the Fulton photo... Anyone got a magnifying glass?
The next bunch are a selection from numerous lots and originating over a period of several years:
Big Mane
Unidentified
American Horse
"Sioko, the boogie-man of Pine Ridge"
Mr and Mrs Charles Black Horse
Unidentified
Unidentified
Young woman wearing her husband's feather bonnet. Note the horse mask. This possibly dates from President Coolidge's visit to Pine Ridge, some time in the 1920s as there are other photos of the occasion featuring the dance arbor.
Unidentified
There are several shots of Pine Ridge and its environs:
There's also a small collection of photos by Frank Fiske (complementing another collection also in the auction).