Iron Lightning

[Dietmar]

I have been asked to help finding information on Iron Lightning, a leading man at Cheyenne River reservation, after whom the town of Iron Lightning was named.

Many infos are in the Ziebach County history book, but maybe we can find more on him.


IRON LIGHTNING FAMILY
by Myron G. Armstrong, 1941

Mr. Iron Lightning spent most of his life on this reservation at
Cherry Creek Station. At one time, however, it is said that he went with
others to Canada, taking his family with him. Mr. Iron Lightning didn't
stay long, but (re turned) to Cherry Creek.

Mr. Iron Lightning came to this vicinity to live on his allotment
in 1906 or 1907. With him, he brought his three wives, whom he had
married in traditional fashion. He had bargained for the oldest wife,
White Buffalo, with her father, to whom he gave a horse. White Buffalo's
father also gave him Red Crane (b. 1863), who was White Buffalo's
younger half-sister, then a young girl. It is said that Red Crane was
supposed to wait upon White Buffalo. Later, Mr. Iron Lightning brought
his second wife, Pretty Elk, another half-sister to White Buffalo.
Apparently, another horse was the price. So, Mr. Iron Lightning had
three wives, all of them half-sisters to each other, having had
different mothers. The middle wife, Pretty Elk, had the first born
child, a son named John, who lies in the Iron Lightning family cemetery
up on the hill. Then White Buffalo had the second child. Altogether, Mr.
Iron Lightning beget twenty-six children: seven by White Buffalo, twelve
by Pretty Elk, and seven by Red Crane. 111 health and tuberculosis
stalked this family. White Buffalo and Red Crane raised only one child a
piece and Pretty Elk, only seven. At present, (1941) four of Pretty
Elk's children are still living: Grant Iron Lightning, Rose Iron
Lightning Red Bull, Ellen Iron Lightning Red Bird and Gertie Iron
Lightning Iron Bird. None of White Buffalo's children has survived and
only one of Red Crane's is living, Dora Iron Lightning Talks.

When the government urged Mr. Iron Lightning to choose one of (his
wives) for his legal wife, the oldest and the youngest stepped aside and
said, "let it be Pretty Elk, for she has seven children living and we
have one a piece." However, it is said that Mr. Iron Lightning didn't
marry any of them (in the Christian way), leaving the matter of
establishing his legal heirs to be decided after his death.

Mr. Iron Lightning had great herds of horses. I listened to a
eulogy of Mr. Iron Lightning the other day, given by Mrs. Pete Talks,
who was speaking for her husband. Of Mr. Iron Lightning, he said, in
effect, "He was a great and powerful man. He could walk great distances
and endure great physical hardships. His finesse in stealing horses
marked him as a great man. He would start out walking and always came
back with a horse. He was considered a Chief by the Indians, who admired
his prowess."

From this, I think we have the answer as to why this community was
named after the Iron Lightning family, as most of the families had
settled here long before the Iron Lightning family came, some of them
almost twenty years before.

While the present Mr. Iron Lightning (Grant), follows his father's
steps as a leader of his community, there the likeness ends. The old Mr.
Iron Lightning represents the Sioux of old traditions, the Sioux of
tribal life and customs. The present Mr. Iron Lightning represents the
modern Indian, who has adapted his life to fit in with the ways of white
culture, who has kept of the old way of life what is useful to him and
has discarded what is not. With his wife, educated at the Pierre Indian
School, Mr. Iron Lightning is trying hard to establish independence for
their nine healthy children.

Iron Lightning and Red Crane's daughter, Dora, married Charlie
Talks and was the mother of Dorothy, Lawrence and Andrew Talks.

Iron Lightning and Pretty Elk's children were: Grant, Rose (Mrs.
Wm. Red Bull); Ellen (1891-1981: Mrs. Wm. Red Bird); and Gertie (Mrs.
Sullivan Iron Bird).

Grant was the father of Cordelia (Mrs. Wilmer) Dupris, Florence
(Lafferty), John, Amy (Curly), Grant Jr., Caroline (Cook), Teter, Dale,
Delores (Hartfield), and Veronica (Thompson).

Ellen Red Bird was the mother of Cyril; Evelyn (Elk Eagle);
Earlwin, who married Mae High Elk; Rex; Martha (Mrs. Percy Marrowbone);
Gladys (Mrs. Bernhard LeClair); and Harold Red Bird.

Gertie Iron Bird was the mother of Harry, who married Anna Clown;
Nancy (Mrs. True Clown); and Edith (Mrs. Wilbur Dupris).


[from "South Dakota's Ziebach County, History of the Prairie", published in 1982 by the Ziebach County Historical Society, Dupree, SD, page 424]



Here are some portraits of Iron Lightning:



Iron Lightning, 1904



Black Eagle, Hump II., Iron Lightning, 1904



Iron Lightning, 1906



Iron Lightning, 1906



Iron Lightning, 1908



Iron Lightning, 1908



Iron Lightning, 1909



Iron Lightning, 1909



Iron Lightning, 1913



Iron Lightning, 1913

[gregor]

This is what I have on Iron Lightning:

On June 06, 1921 the “Great Falls Tribune” reported “the recent death” of Iron Lightning, a Sub-chief of Sitting Bull”. He died in his home near Thunder Butte station (Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation). The newspaper said “he was the last Indian living with two wives”.

I suppose that there was a close relation between Iron Lighntning (Wakangli Maza or Wakinyan Maza / abt 1845 – 1921) and Hump (Etokeah , 1850 – 1908).

I scribbled down the following (I have to look for sources):
“On the way to Montana for a visit, Hump camped with Iron Lightning on the Moreau River”.

Iron Lightning was a leader of the Iron Lightning – Mnikowozu band. For a while Iron Lightning lived at Red Elm (in 1910 the end of a railroad line).

On Cheyenne Indian Reservation Hump settled in 3 places : east of Bridger, at Iron Lightning and near Cherry Creek.

Hump went to Canada (stayed from 1877 to 1882?), and his band returned to the United States, the last of all the bands to return.

Dietmar you wrote “At one time, however, it is said that he [Iron Lightning] went with others [Hump?] to Canada, taking his family with him”.

Maybe there is the connection. Maybe friends from Standing Rock or CRST can shed some light on this matter.

[Dietmar]

Thanks Gregor,

Iron Lightning is mentioned several times in Walter (Stanley Vestal) Campbell´s biography on White Bull (“Warpath”, University of Nebraska Press)

According to the book Iron Lightning was among 50 other Lakota in July 1865, fighting Crows in a war-party led by Hump aka High Backbone (the first of that name, as I understand it).
Later in August 1865 he joined another war-party with Hump to fight soldiers in the Powder River country.

In 1871 Iron Lightning captured five ponies in a fight against Flatheads (Atsina).

In the battle at the Little Bighorn he rode close with White Bull and four others (among them two Cheyennes) to attack Custer´s five columns when they met their final fate.


Iron Lightning´s name was also translated as Iron Thunder. It is likely that he was the younger Hump´s brother.

[Dietmar]

As the photographs of Iron Lightning above show, he was a delegate to Washington on several occasions, at least in 1904, 1906 and 1909.

Here´s an article with many interesting details. Iron Lightning´s friend Hump must be the younger man of that name (High Backbone II.).

FAMOUS SIOUX CHIEFS

HUMP AND IRON LIGHTNING HERE ON A VISIT.

They Call at Museum - Attempt is Made to Secure Casts of Their Faces.

Chief Hump and Chief Iron Lightning, two prominent Sioux Indians from the Cheyenne River reservation, South Dakota, are paying a visit to the city of the "Great White Father" and incidentally viewing the sights of the national capital. Both Chief Hump and Iron Lightning participated in the famous bloody battle on the Little Big Horn known as "Custer's last fight," when the sons of the plains annihilated Custer and his little band of soldiers. The two Sioux chiefs were rebellious Indians then, and their hands were turned fiercely against the paleface, but their warrior days are over now and they both dwell peacefully on the reservation set aside for them by Uncle Sam, and dream no more of savage wars and scenes of carnage. Chief Hump surrendered himself to Gen. Miles in 1877 at the fork of the Yellowstone river, and since that time he has been the white man's friend. He was made chief of Gen. Miles' Indian scouts, and served in that capacity for a number of years. The general reported him to be one of the bravest and most sagacious scouts that ever served under him. Hump was wounded in the shoulder during the Nez Perces war, and about two years ago he came to Washington, and through the solicitation of Gen. Miles and Senator Kittredge, he was allowed a pension from the government. Chief Iron Lightning was born In the same lodge as Chief Hump, and the two redskins have always been the closest of friends, sort of "college chums," as it were, since the time when as papooses they played around the tepees of their Indian camp, snaring the wily gopher in his hole and slaying the unsuspecting prairie owl with bows and arrows. Later in life this Damon and Pythias of the Cheyenne river Sioux decked themselves with feathers and smeared themselves with paint and went on the warpath together, ambushing the lonely paleface pioneers in their dangerous journey across the plains, and putting forth their might to stay the march of civilization on the western frontiers. But civilization came a little too strong for them, and finally Iron Lightning, like his friend Hump, realized the folly of defying the inevitable and surrendered to the more powerful paleface.

Made but One Cast.

And now in the evening of their careers the two chiefs come to the home of the "Great White Father" to view the glories of that civilization which they once exerted themselves to destroy. The officials of the bureau of ethnology took photographs of the two chiefs Tuesday, and Wednesday they were escorted to the model shop of the National Museum, where it was hoped that they would both be preserved in plaster for the enlightenment of future generations. They are both fine-looking Indians, in spite of advancing years, and their well-marked, weather-beaten features would have been an addition to the collection of life masks of the Indian tribes. But it is seldom that the museum can get more than one mask out of a group of Indians at a sitting. Hump was the first to submit. He made a very good subject. Taking a face mask now is not exactly a comfortable process, though it is not as long and trying as it was a few years ago. Mr. Palmer, the Indian expert of the shop, did the work, and soon had Hump carefully done up in towels and the rapidly hardening plaster working up to his eyes and nostrils. Andrew John, the government's Seneca pensioner, was along with the party, and he tried to get Iron Lightning interested in some of the sights of the model shop. But It was no use. There was a deadly fascination about watching the things that were happening to old Hump. By the time the plaster was all over his eyes and nose Iron Lightning came to the conclusion that Mr. Palmer was some sublimated form of "slap doctor," if that superstition extends among the Indians, and he coldly reniged on the life-mask proposition. None for Iron Lightning. He had been through a score of pitched fights in the West, where quarter was neither asked nor expected. He had stood up to the buffalo In his charge and fought at close range with the grizzly bear. But when it came to cold plaster of parts, he proposed to pass out and make it a jack. "White muck no good," succinctly translated the interpreter. And if the government wants a cast of Iron Lightning's features they will have to get it in the form of a death mask.

[Evening Star from Washington, District of Columbia, January 20, 1906, Page 15]

[Dietmar]

IRON LIGHTNING,

FAMOUS CHIEF,

IS DEAD

By the Associated Press.

Pierre, S.D., June 8. – In the recent death of Chief Iron Lightning,
at his home near Thunder Butte in the northwestern part of the
Cheyenne Indian reservation, the country lost probably the greatest
of the few remaining famous Indian characters who figured in the early
history of Dakota territory.
Iron Lightning was one of the sub-chiefs, who under Sitting Bull,
participated in the memorable battle of the Little Bighorn, June 26, 1876,
when Custer and his band of 261 men were annihilated. He is said to be
the last of the chiefs who were in control of the Sioux Nation at that time.
He was 76 years old at the time of his death and has for years made his
Home in the vicinity of Thunder Butte station.

Unusually tall and well proportioned, even for an Indian, and possessing a voice
which commanded attention and obedience although it knew no word of
English, Iron Lightning was a natural leader of men. In the early part of this
century following the Ute Indian uprising when the Utes had been rounded up
and sent to the Cheyenne reservation, it was Iron Lightning who went among them
urging them to forget their grievance with the whites and settle down to peaceful lives.

He was the last Indian, so far as is known, to have continued to live with two wives after
the order prohibiting polygamy and further polygamous marriages among the Indians was made.
Iron Lightning was called to the Thunder butte station when order was received and told he must
choose between the two women with whom he was living.
“If the Commissioner has lived with one woman,” the chief replied in Indian, “ he will know
how impossible it for Iron Lightning to separate himself for two. Iron Lightning laughs.”
This speech won for him his case and the two wives were retained. They live together
in harmony, one doing the cooking for the family, which among the Indians is regarded
as an honor, for one week when the other came into power for a like period.

[Hickory Daily Record, June 03, 1921, page six]

[Dietmar]

Maybe Donovin Sprague will have to add more information on Hump and Iron Lightning. His coming book "Hump and Crazy Horse, Lakota/Cheyenne History: From a Family Perspective" is currently in the hands of the University of Oklahoma Press and soon to be released.

[kingsleybray]

That is interesting, it clarifies that Iron Lightning and Hump were not actual brothers, but grew up together from a young age. Check the Red Hawk thread under Oglala, Iron Lightning and Red Hawk were brothers.