(Fast) Whirlwind or wamniomni (1775 ? - 1854?)
Jan 3, 2016 8:32:29 GMT -5
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Post by gregor on Jan 3, 2016 8:32:29 GMT -5
Happy New Year from Germany.
I've tried to compile some information on the legendary Oglala chief Whirlwind.
Whirlwind Oglala
(abt. 1775 ? – 1854?)
Wamniomni (luzahan)
Whirlwind, also known as Fast Whirlwind and maybe as Tunica (?), was a noted Sioux chief in the 1830s and 1840s. About 1824 he seems to have been appointed as a Shirt Wearer for the True Oglala / Hunkpatila. George Hyde reported that George Catlin met Whirlwind about 1832 at the mouth of the Bad River (now South Dakota). About 1835 we find True Oglalas and Kiyuksa-Kuhinyan under Fast Whirlwind, Sitting Bear II, No Water in the North Platte area, where they tried to wrest the lower North Platte valley from the Pawnee. After the killing of Bull Bear in 1842/6 (?) he aligns with the Kiyaksa-Kuhinyan and is one of the senior chiefs within the southern Oglala through much of the 40s.
In “The David Adams Journals” (by Charles Hanson, 1994) we find Whirlwind under the date of November 27, 1841. Adams reports the chiefs of the Oglalas, among them Whirlwind and Bull Bear, walked through their camp and harangued the people not to molest white traders. Four years later (Feb. 6, 1845) Adams mentions Whirlwind again: “…The Bad Wound and The Whirlwind have gone over to Horse Creek with their bands…”.
In 1843 Whirlwind and his people were met by the Fremont expedition. According to diarist Theodore Talbot they met on August 2nd Sioux under “… their two principal chiefs 'Tourbillon' or the 'Whirlwind' a very great soldier, and 'Le Borgne' (or as he is more commonly called 'Old Burns'), so called from his having lost one eye…”.
In late summer 1846 Francis Parkman visited the southern Oglala and reported that they were grouped into three major camps; Fast Whirlwind’s camp had 40 lodges. According to Parkman was Whirlwind an older man with an imposing figure (“… a tall strong man with heavy features..”). Further on Parkman describes how Whirlwind tries to organize a campaign against the Shoshone (for the killing of a son) and how James Bordeaux talks him out of this expedition. This change will cost Whirlwind its reputation among the Sioux and will marginalize his importance. Parkman reported that only half a dozen lodges remained loyal to Whirlwind when he moved to Horse Creek. There he seems to have united with Bad Wound, an upcoming leader.
In 1848 travelled a Riley Root, member of the Wambaugh company, west. About May 28, near Ash Hollow (Nebraska) they came upon a Lakota village. Root passed on the names of the two chiefs of this camp: Whirlwind and “Badwoon” (Bad Wound).
A few days later William Anderson, member of the west traveling “Miller company”, also met this Lakotas. Anderson kept a diary and under the date May 28 to June 3, 1848 he reported a meeting with Whirlwind and his camp. According to Anderson consisted Whirlwinds camp “of about 30 Lodges”. Anderson and his fellow travelers traded flour, fruits an meat for Moccasins, buffalo robes and elk skins. And on the morning of June 1st the migrants parted in peace from the Oglalas.
Walter Griffith Pigman, a gold seeker who traveled to California, met Whirlwind in 1850. Again the Lakotas camped at Ash Hollow. In his “Journal of Walter Griffith Pigman (1850) he claimed that “Whirlwind, at 250 pounds, was the largest man he had ever seen”.
In Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s “Indian Tribes III” (1850, page 629) we find Whirlwind again. Schoolcraft listed the Oglalas with five bands and four chiefs. Whirlwind was the first mentioned leader. The others were 85 years old Red Water, Standing Bull and Yellow Eagle. And in Culbertson's tabulations (1850) Fast Whirlwind is assigned to the True Oglala.
In his later years Whirlwind seems to have roamed constantly between the north and south forks of Platte River and from Horse Creek to Ash Hollow and back. It is very likely that he was present during the negotiations of the Horse Creek Treaty (the first Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851). There is a later Fast Whirlwind or Wamniomni luzahan (1851-1935) who may be a son of this chief. This younger Fast Whirlwind served as an Indian scout at the Red Cloud Agency in 1877-78 and at Pine Ridge during the Ghost Dance troubles; he is listed in Pine Ridge Agency census for 1890 as a member of the Makaha band. In his pension file Fast Whirlwind said that he was born in the fall of 1851 at the mouth of Horse Creek (!).
Annie Lone Dog, a grand -daughter of Joseph Richard, states that Joseph married a daughter of Whirlwind.
The old chief Whirlwind died presumably about 1854.
Additions or corrections? What else do we know about this man?
Toksha
Gregor
I've tried to compile some information on the legendary Oglala chief Whirlwind.
Whirlwind Oglala
(abt. 1775 ? – 1854?)
Wamniomni (luzahan)
Whirlwind, also known as Fast Whirlwind and maybe as Tunica (?), was a noted Sioux chief in the 1830s and 1840s. About 1824 he seems to have been appointed as a Shirt Wearer for the True Oglala / Hunkpatila. George Hyde reported that George Catlin met Whirlwind about 1832 at the mouth of the Bad River (now South Dakota). About 1835 we find True Oglalas and Kiyuksa-Kuhinyan under Fast Whirlwind, Sitting Bear II, No Water in the North Platte area, where they tried to wrest the lower North Platte valley from the Pawnee. After the killing of Bull Bear in 1842/6 (?) he aligns with the Kiyaksa-Kuhinyan and is one of the senior chiefs within the southern Oglala through much of the 40s.
In “The David Adams Journals” (by Charles Hanson, 1994) we find Whirlwind under the date of November 27, 1841. Adams reports the chiefs of the Oglalas, among them Whirlwind and Bull Bear, walked through their camp and harangued the people not to molest white traders. Four years later (Feb. 6, 1845) Adams mentions Whirlwind again: “…The Bad Wound and The Whirlwind have gone over to Horse Creek with their bands…”.
In 1843 Whirlwind and his people were met by the Fremont expedition. According to diarist Theodore Talbot they met on August 2nd Sioux under “… their two principal chiefs 'Tourbillon' or the 'Whirlwind' a very great soldier, and 'Le Borgne' (or as he is more commonly called 'Old Burns'), so called from his having lost one eye…”.
In late summer 1846 Francis Parkman visited the southern Oglala and reported that they were grouped into three major camps; Fast Whirlwind’s camp had 40 lodges. According to Parkman was Whirlwind an older man with an imposing figure (“… a tall strong man with heavy features..”). Further on Parkman describes how Whirlwind tries to organize a campaign against the Shoshone (for the killing of a son) and how James Bordeaux talks him out of this expedition. This change will cost Whirlwind its reputation among the Sioux and will marginalize his importance. Parkman reported that only half a dozen lodges remained loyal to Whirlwind when he moved to Horse Creek. There he seems to have united with Bad Wound, an upcoming leader.
In 1848 travelled a Riley Root, member of the Wambaugh company, west. About May 28, near Ash Hollow (Nebraska) they came upon a Lakota village. Root passed on the names of the two chiefs of this camp: Whirlwind and “Badwoon” (Bad Wound).
A few days later William Anderson, member of the west traveling “Miller company”, also met this Lakotas. Anderson kept a diary and under the date May 28 to June 3, 1848 he reported a meeting with Whirlwind and his camp. According to Anderson consisted Whirlwinds camp “of about 30 Lodges”. Anderson and his fellow travelers traded flour, fruits an meat for Moccasins, buffalo robes and elk skins. And on the morning of June 1st the migrants parted in peace from the Oglalas.
Walter Griffith Pigman, a gold seeker who traveled to California, met Whirlwind in 1850. Again the Lakotas camped at Ash Hollow. In his “Journal of Walter Griffith Pigman (1850) he claimed that “Whirlwind, at 250 pounds, was the largest man he had ever seen”.
In Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s “Indian Tribes III” (1850, page 629) we find Whirlwind again. Schoolcraft listed the Oglalas with five bands and four chiefs. Whirlwind was the first mentioned leader. The others were 85 years old Red Water, Standing Bull and Yellow Eagle. And in Culbertson's tabulations (1850) Fast Whirlwind is assigned to the True Oglala.
In his later years Whirlwind seems to have roamed constantly between the north and south forks of Platte River and from Horse Creek to Ash Hollow and back. It is very likely that he was present during the negotiations of the Horse Creek Treaty (the first Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851). There is a later Fast Whirlwind or Wamniomni luzahan (1851-1935) who may be a son of this chief. This younger Fast Whirlwind served as an Indian scout at the Red Cloud Agency in 1877-78 and at Pine Ridge during the Ghost Dance troubles; he is listed in Pine Ridge Agency census for 1890 as a member of the Makaha band. In his pension file Fast Whirlwind said that he was born in the fall of 1851 at the mouth of Horse Creek (!).
Annie Lone Dog, a grand -daughter of Joseph Richard, states that Joseph married a daughter of Whirlwind.
The old chief Whirlwind died presumably about 1854.
Additions or corrections? What else do we know about this man?
Toksha
Gregor
