Cheyenne/Arapaho delegation of 1873

[Dietmar]

Charlie has sent me this well known portrait of a Cheyenne delegate to Washington in 1873, but little is known about his identity though.

Can anyone help?

[glebborisov]

Father Peter Powell in his People of the Sacred Mountain gives an opinion that this man maight be Crazy Mule holy man of the Northern Cheyenne. but also states that he is too young to be such a person.

[Dietmar]

Okay, I´ve found my copy of People of the Sacred Mountain. My theory is this:

On page 844 (Volume II) it is stated that Crazy Mule (aka Medicine Man) was a holy man of the Northern Cheyenne. He was certainly too old to be the young man in the photo above, whose portrait is on the same page in the book.

On page 843 we have a photo of an older man, said to be Pawnee (aka The Ree), a prominent headman of the Bowstring Society. Powell states that he was the youngest man of the Southern Cheyenne delegation. But the photograph of an older man on that page doesn´t fit to the description.

I think it likely that both photos were mixed up. So the man in Charlie´s picture could be Pawnee, a Southern Bowstring headman.


On the other hand, Pawnee is identified differently on page 837 in a portrait with Old Whirlwind by Alexander Gardner. So there my theory goes...

[kingsleybray]

I tried that one too, Dietmar

[Dietmar]

I changed the title of the thread and moved it to another section.

[Dietmar]

The photographs of the 1873 Cheyenne and Arapaho delegations are listed in W. H. Jackson´s “Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians”.
Alexander Gardner took pictures in each case with two individuals (except No. 755: Ouray´s son), Charles Milton Bell photographed the single portraits:


No. 118, 119, 120, 121, 109: Little Robe (Hah-ket-Home-Mah), Southern Cheyenne

110: [Old] Whirlwind (Min-nin-ne-wah), Southern Cheyenne

111: White Shield (Whoak-poo-no-bats), Southern Cheyenne

112: White Horse (Wo-po-ham), Southern Cheyenne

113: Medicine Man (Bah-ta-che), Southern Cheyenne

114: Pawnee, Southern Cheyenne

115: Ed. Guerrier, interpreter, Southern Cheyenne

30, 31: Stone Calf and wife, Southern Cheyenne

116: Whirlwind and Pawnee, Southern Cheyenne

117: Little Robe and White Horse, Southern Cheyenne


21: Yellow Bear & Little Wolf, Southern Arapaho

22: Powder Face and wife [Wauk], Southern Arapaho

23: Medicine Pipe and Fool Dog, Southern Arapaho

755: A Young Man [Friday, son of Ouray], Southern Arapaho


26: Lame White Man & Wild Hog, Northern Cheyenne

27: Bald Bear & Cut Foot, Northern Cheyenne

28: Dull Knife & Little Wolf, Northern Cheyenne

29: Crazy Head & Spotted Wolf, Northern Cheyenne


24: Crazy Bull & Friday, Northern Arapaho

25: Plenty Bears & Old Eagle, Northern Arapaho


[Note that there are two individuals named Friday!]



In the last months of the year 1873 delegations of various Indian nations were in Washington to council with representatives of the U.S. government. A group of Crows under the leadership of Blackfoot and Iron Bull were there first. They met briefly with the arriving Cheyennes and Arapahoes, who in turn several days later had a meeting with the Utes of Ouray, who had the pleasure of reuniting with his lost son for a last time.

The Southern Arapahos in charge of special agent J. F. Williams were the first of the Arapaho/Cheyenne contingent that arrived on October 28, 1873. The group consisted of Powder Face (principal chief) and his favorite wife Wauk, Yellow Bear, Little Wolf, Medicine Pipe, Fool Dog, and Friday (“Ute boy”).

The Southern Cheyennes arrived next on October 31. Agent John Miles led the delegation. When they passed through St. Louis bound for Washington, they registered in one of the hotels. Their names were given as Stone Calf, Little Robe, Whirlwind, White Horse, White Shield and Medicine Man, altogether six Indians. Why Pawnee and Edmund Guerrier were not mentioned is unclear.

Eleven Northern Cheyennes and five Arapahos arrived on November 7, 1873, in charge of Gen. John E. Smith, and accompanied with Jules Coffee [Ecoffey?], William Rowland (interpreter for the Cheyennes), Joe Bisneth (mixed-blood interpreter for the Arapahos) and Thomas Reed.

The names in the groups are:
Northern Arapahoes: Old Eagle, Iron, Eagle Dress, Plenty Bear and [Chief] Friday.
Northern Cheyennes: Dull Knife, Strong Wolf, Black Hawk, Little Wolf, Spotted Wolf, Lame White Man, Crazy Head, Crow, Old Wolf, Bear Who Pushes Back His Hair, alias “Wolf Who Has Lain Down”, and White Powder.
(see: Evening Star newspaper, Nov. 8, 1873)


So, we have some new names that don´t turn up in Gardner´s or Bell´s photographs. Food for thought…

[kingsleybray]

there is a document in the Red Cloud Agency Letters Received File, by Col J.E. Smith, "Leaves list of names of delegation of Northern Cheyennes & Arapahoes in his charge", received at Office of Indian Afffairs on November 10th, 1873. It reads like this:

"Delegation of Northern Cheyennes and Arrapahoes in charge of Jno E Smith USA Special Agent

Cheyennes

1. Dull Knife
2. Little Wolf
3. Crazy Head
4. Spotted Wolf
5. Wild Hog
6. Lame White Man (Lamed by a white man)
7. Bald Bear
8. Cut Foot or Old Wolf
9. Pile of Bones
10. Half Bear
11. Old Crow

Arrapahoes
1. Plenty Bear
2. Old Eagle
3. Crazy Bull
4. Iron
5. Friday

Interpreters

Jules Ecoffey
Joseph Bissonette
William Rowland
Thos Reed

Total Indians 16.
Interpreters 4
[Total in party] 20"

[Dietmar]

Thanks Kingsley.

This confirms there were 5 Northern Arapahoes in Washington. Only four were photographed, somehow Iron was left out.
Crazy Bull´s other name possibly was Eagle Dress.

Of the 11 Northern Cheyennes only 8 were photographed by Alexander Gardner:
Dull Knife, Little Wolf, Spotted Wolf, Lame White Man, Crazy Head, Old Wolf [aka Cut Foot], Bald Bear and Wild Hog.

We don´t have 1873 portraits of Pile of Bones, Half Bear and Old Crow.

The rest of names we find in the Evening Star article possibly are second names of the men above:
Bear Who Pushes Back His Hair (aka Wolf Who Has Lain Down), Strong Wolf, Black Hawk and White Powder.

[charlie]

So, we can labelled the wonderful photo above (made by Carles Milton Bell) as: MEDICINE MAN (Bah-ta-che) Southern Cheyenne, aged about 30.
Other info about him?

[Dietmar]

These are all available pictures of the 1873 Cheyenne/Arapaho delegations, sorted by tribes, north and south. High resolution scans are easy to find in the net. I recommend Princeton University Digital Archives.

Southern Cheyenne:


118. Little Robe

119. Little Robe

120. Little Robe

121. Little Robe

109. Little Robe



110. Old Whirlwind



111. White Shield



112. White Horse



113. Medicine Man



114 Pawnee



115. Edmund Guerrier



30. Stone Calf and wife

31. Stone Calf and wife



116. Whirlwind & Pawnee



117. Little Robe & White Horse


Southern Arapaho:


21. Little Wolf & Yellow Bear



22. Powder Face and wife [Wauk]



23. Medicine Pipe and Fool Dog, Southern Arapaho



755. A Young Man [Friday, son of Ouray]


Northern Cheyenne:


26. Wild Hog [?] & Lame White Man



27. Bald Bear & Cut Foot



28. Little Wolf & Dull Knife



29. Spotted Wolf & Crazy Head


Northern Arapaho:


24. Crazy Bull & Friday



25. Plenty Bear & Old Eagle

[Dietmar]

Personally I would at least leave a little question mark behind the identification of Medicine Man. We haven´t find any reliable proof, that he is another person though.

However, there are more questionable identifications in the 1873 delegation photograph series.

Kingsley´s Red Cloud Agency list and the Evening Star article had Iron as a fifth Northern Arapaho delegate, though only four appear in the photographs. I see a strong resemblance of Plenty Bear and later portraits of Iron (or Bitcisa). I think they could be one and the same person. So why are both names listed?


Plenty Bear, 1873


Iron, Northern Arapaho, ca. 1880


Iron, ca. 1880 at Carlisle


Iron, ca. 1880 at Carlisle


The man who appears in Gardner´s photograph with Lame White Man according to the Jackson Catalogue is Wild Hog. Other portraits of Wild Hog show that there is no resemblance at all. I would say he definitely isn´t Wild Hog. I´ve seen the same man also been identified as Old Wolf. But there are several sources that state that Old Wolf's other name was Cut Foot, most importantly John Stands in Timber. And Cut Foot has been identified in another Gardner photo with Bald Bear.


allegedly Wild Hog or Old Wolf, 1873


Wild Hog, 1879

[Dietmar]

The rest of names we find in the Evening Star article possibly are second names of the men above:
Bear Who Pushes Back His Hair (aka Wolf Who Has Lain Down), Strong Wolf, Black Hawk and White Powder.

Bear Who Pushes Back His Hair is another name for Bald Bear aka Hairless Bear.

Strong Wolf is likely Lame White Man, wo was also known as Rapid Wolf or Mad Hearted Wolf.


White Powder was also known as White Clay or White Dirt.

Black Hawk, according to Powell, could perhaps be Black Eagle, a Northern council chief.

[Dietmar]

Father Powell´s footnotes lead to a Christian Barthelmess photo of Cheyenne men that includes Old Wolf and also Spotted Wolf, the younger. A small sample is shown on this page:

www.american-tribes.com/Cheyenne/bio/TwoMoons.htm

So it seems Old Wolf is the man with Lame White Man, while Wild Hog is in no 1873 photo at all.

In turn Cut Foot in the Gardner photo with Bald Bear has likely be misidentified, or am I mistaken?

[charlie]

Dietmar, wonderful work! I'm agree: there are no resemblance between Wild Hog (1879) and Wild Hog (1873). It's very probably that the man near Lame White Man is OLD WOLF, that is included in one of your list.
I would like to know bio info about CRAZY HEAD and OLD WOLF: they seems to be very important chief.

[charlie]

CRAZY HEAD (Heme'kone Ôhmâsęhanee'ęstse): Northern Cheyenne (O'mi'sis?) father was a Cheyenne, mother a captured Crow. A council of 44 chief.
Listed as a war chief at LBH battle and considered the third-ranking Cheyenne in the battle. Wooden Leg called him
"the most important tribal big chief". Fought Custer's column and wore a war bonnet.
Presence confirmed by Meyers. Still alive in 1908. Gardner, not by chance, photograped him near Spotted Wolf:
what a couple of great chiefs! And Gardner has put another great war chief, LAME WHITE MAN, near to OLD WOLF.
Hence, I think that this last also was an important chief.