Yellow Hawk

[Dietmar]

Here are the best known portraits of Yellow Hawk, who was one of the Sans Arc intancan that visited Washington in 1867. For more information about him please visit also the "Sans Arc"-thread on this board.


Yellow Hawk by Antonio Z. Shindler 1867 (SIRIS)


Yellow Hawk by Antonio Z. Shindler 1867 (SIRIS)


Yellow Hawk by Antonio Z. Shindler 1869 (SIRIS)

[Dietmar]

Henri has sent me this picture of a pipebag, which is in a museum in Belgium. To me it looks exactly like the one hold by Yellow Hawk. I don´t know if it belongs to him, because Spotted Horse holds the same pipebag as well (look in the "Two Kettles"-thread):




Bedankt Henri!

[grahamew]

Incredible. I wonder how it got there!

[Dietmar]

Here are photographs of Yellow Hawk´s wife Julia and their son. Kingsley said in the Sans Arc-thread that Julia was the daughter of Deloria (Des Lauriers, a frenchman) and a Dakota woman.
Donovin Sprague states in "Cheyenne River Sioux" that Julia was "a white woman rescued as a baby from a destroyed village by the Yellow Hawk family and raised by them." Later she married Yellow Hawk.



Julia Yellow Hawk



Solomon Yellow Hawk 1909


I assume that Solomon YH is the one called Yellow Hawk II. in the Sans-Arc-thread, who lead the progressive faction of the Sans Arc after Yellow Hawk´s death in 1970.

[Dietmar]

Here´s the text on the Yellow Hawks in South Dakota's "Ziebach County, History of the Prairie", published in 1982 by the Ziebach County Historical Society, Dupree, SD:

YELLOW HAWK
quotes from Ruth Yellow Hawk Thunder Hoop

"My father, Solomon Yellow Hawk (1847-1930), and his brother,
Steven Yellow Hawk (1842-1909), are the only two sons of my grandmother,
Wasicuwin or Julia Deloria Yellow Hawk (1826-1917). Her father was a
Frenchman. Julia had a sister and one or two brothers. Deloria, one of
the brothers, has a grandson who is now a minister, Vine Deloria, an
Episcopal."
In 1882, the Des Lauriers built Fort Tecumseh on the west bank of
the Missouri, a mile south of the later Fort Pierre, for the Columbia
Fur Company.
In 1843, Julia Deloria "married a full-blood Indian of the Itazipco
band: Yellow Hawk. My grandfather had three wives, but the third one had
no children that I know of. Both my father and his brother were
converted into Christian life and left all the old ways."
By the late 1870's both Stephen and Solomon Yellow Hawk had become
assistants to Reverend Thomas L. Riggs at Oahe.
After 1876, settlers swarmed into Peoria Bottom (near Fort Sully on
the Missouri), telling the Indians they must leave that area, which the
Indian people had considered theirs for two generations. With T. L.
Riggs, and at (later Governor) Mellette's suggestion, Stephen or his
brother, Solomon, Yellow Hawk and Spotted Bear went before the court in
Bon Homme and applied for citizenship. Then, at the land office in
Springfield, they filed claims for land on Peoria Bottom. Their entries
were accepted in 1879. Nineteen other Indians also made homestead
entries there. There had been no precedent of an Indian filing a claim.

SOLOMON YELLOW HAWK

"In the old days back, my father had two wives. One from their
community. The other wife he left with his two sons, he said, because he
had to, as he wanted to be a Christian, although it was heart-breaking
because he loved his sons. Their mother was from Fort Thompson, Kangi
Okute. This happened way back before I existed, but I have been told."
Elizabeth Saul returned to Crow Creek with her sons, John Saul(b.
1878) and Thomas Saul (b. 1876).
"He [Solomon] married Wipehan/Woman Hair (d. 1881) in a Christian
way. Their girl was Eunice, the one I followed to school. The other is
Alien (1868-1943). He went to school at Santee Normal Training School in
Nebraska and another name was given him: Alien West.'' His Indian name
had been Mate Hoksila.
Alien West married Nancy Winona (1873-1964), the daughter of John
and Elizabeth Cloud. Alien and Nancy were married in 1893 and their
children were: Collies Jewett West; Benjamin; Jessie O. (married Sophia
LaBlanc); Eugenia (Mrs. George Runs After); Hazel; Fred; Mamie (Mrs. Joe
Yellow Head); Phillip; Rebecca; Melissa(Mrs. Robert Annis); Rueben;
Estella (Mrs. Jack Claymore); and Francis W. West.
"About two or three years after Alien and Eunice's mother died in
1881, my mother, Josephine, and father, Solomon, were united in marriage
in a Christian way.
"Josephine/Isabelle Shouts/Yells (1852-1929) was the daughter of
Abel (d. 1896) and Nancy/Yells/Towanke Waste Win (1817-1903) Rattler.''
"Then I came along and my sisters followed one by one." Ruth (1887-
1972; Mrs. Harry Thunder Hoop); Elizabeth (b. 1890: Meter); and Bessie
(b. 1892: Mrs. Leon Veo or Vieus).
"It was at Oahe, South Dakota on May 25, 1887, the day I was born.
It must be a beautiful day with all the wildflowers in bloom, with
chokecherries, plums, currants, sweetpeas, bluebells, all in bloom that
sent out sweet fragrance all over the air with the sweet smell of soil
shooting up long blades of green grass and meadowlarks, brownthrush,
crow, making all the noises to beat the band while the others warble
sweet melodies, it must be this kind of a day as it always was."
"My grandma told me my father came riding bareback and said,
'Mother, come now. Ina wana hiyu we.' Well, I didn't know what was going
on while I was growing in the crib, but far back as I can remember, we
lived in a shingle-roofed log house at the foot of the northeast side of
Oahe where I was born. I remember too that we lived in a huge hewed
cottonwood log house, that the army had left and given to both my father
and uncle. We lived there in winter time and in summer time we would
move away to Bad River up the creek some twenty miles, where my father
built a log house. We had a garden and fields. My father would go
trapping for wolves and coyotes or chop up wood for sale. We would take
it to Fort Pierre."
"My father was a Congregational minister among his own people."
"My uncle, Steven Yellowhawk, used to move to a parsonage for the
summer. My father, Solomon Yellowhawk, would take all our livestock
along with Grandma's, branded TSBY.''
Stephen Yellowhawk died in 1909. Solomon Yellowhawk's allotment was
near La Plant, adjacent to the land bought by the railroad in 1910 for
the town of La Plant. Solomon sold his adjacent land to Fred LaPlante,
an Indian and a trader at Cheyenne River Agency, in 1914.
Solomon lived with his wife, Isabelle, in La Plant until her death
in 1929, and then he lived with one of his daughters. He died in 1930.

(See also "My Life at Oahe", "Congregational Minister" by Ruth Yellow
Hawk Thunder Hoop.)

SOLOMON YELLOW HAWK by Ruth Thunder Hoop

It must be around 1889 or 1890, my father, Solomon Yellowhawk, was
a policeman. There was the Indian Agency at Fort Bennett, South Dakota.
I also remember there was an army of soldiers; there were buildings
where they stayed. I can still hear the bugle call that sounded and the
many guns fired. We used to camp there. For some reason it seemed a long
time to me. Across from Fort Bennett on the other side of the Missouri
toward the east, was Fort Sully.
There was the Fort Bennett Boy's School, and there was the St.
John's Girl's School on the northeast side of the Agency.
This Agency was the Fort Bennett Agency. In later years it was
moved to the place up the Missouri where it has been, but now it is
moved to Eagle Butte.
Well, talking about Fort Bennett, I recall one time, it must have
been a ration day, as I saw the women and men standing in rows along the
house. It was a cold day. As I was playing, running around, I saw big
snow flakes falling. I dressed so warm I didn't feel the cold.
Afterwards I found out it was in January. My mother had been busy there
with the others. Finally she came and called me, so I followed her along
until we came to one of the police quarters. There a woman came forward
and met mother and took us inside. She was her cousin.
As I remember, we were sitting there, mother and the woman talking,
when a man came inside and shook hands. Then he said, "Takoja", meaning
grandchild, to one. There has been a war over there, pointing south,
killing all the children, women, and men. The soldiers have done it. So
I jumped up crying, holding onto mother's dress. I was so scared. This
was the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, December 30. I well remember
that man who came and told about the battle, Shaving Kajipa.
After that, the Indians were all scattered. People from Standing
Rock found their way to this part of the country after Sitting Bull was
killed. This is what I heard from the old people that knew what happened
at the time. Now, that was the time as a police or a scout, my father
was appointed by the agent to load up provisions in a spring wagon and
team and to go and try to find where there might be some Indians hiding
away and starving. Well, he said as he was going away far off on the
prairie, he saw one little tipi. People came outside. He whipped the
horses and went as fast as he could go, fearing they might get away
from~ him, but when he stopped, they all came to him. Women and the
children crying for want of food. There was one thing he told and
laughed was that they tried to talk English to him because he looked
like a wasicu (white person). Father spoke to them. So they were glad to
get what he provided for them and he told them to get back where they
came from.

STEPHEN YELLOW HAWK

After his first two wives died, Stephen Yellow Hawk married Martha
Whirlwind in 1883. Their children were Lucy Creek and Matthew Yellow
Hawk (1886-1956). Martha died in 1892 and Stephen married Nancy Cook in
1895. Their five children were: Marion; Mildred (d. 1917); Joseph Yellow
Hawk; David (d. 1898); and Jessie Yellow Hawk (d.1896).
Matthew Yellow Hawk was married to Carrie Bear Eagle of upper
Cheyenne River. Carrie died after one son was born, Bertran Isadore
Yellow Hawk (1912-1966).
Bert Yellowhawk was married to Anne Elk Head of Green Grass
community. Out of that union three children were born: Goldie Ann (b.
1934); Gerald (b. 1936); and Carrie (b.1940).
Goldie was married to Earl Beare, an ordained minister of the
gospel. They pastored a church on the Rosebud until his death in 1974.
They have two children: Richard (b. 1960), and Frances Ann.
Carrie Elizabeth is married to Jim Willcuts, a Rosebud Sioux, now
living in Los Angeles. They have three children: Michael, Kathy and
Crystal.
Gerald Yellowhawk entered the ministry early in life, surrending
his life at age 18 to a full-time service in church work. He spent 4
years in a Bible College, training for the task that lay ahead. He spent
5 years in Pierre, as an assistant pastor.
Gerald married Johanna Pierce, an Iroquois from Syracuse, new York.
Together they have pastored in Pierre and Eagle Butte. They have
traveled extensively in the interest of Christian work throughout the
United States and Canada. In 1966, Gerald was ordained as an Elder of
the Dakota Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Their children are James (b. 1958), Diane and Debra, twins born in
1962. Jim graduated from college in Indiana in 1981.

[Dietmar]

...another photo of Solomon Yellow Hawk:

[mabelbeth]

It's nice to see information about my great-grandfather. Especially reading quotes from Grandma Ruth. My mother was Marcella Elizabeth Veo Granados, her mother was Bessie Yellow Hawk, her grandfather was Solomon Yellow Hawk.

I will come back and read more!

[Dietmar]

Welcome mabelbeth,

I hope we´ll find out more about your ancestor. Please let us know if something´s not correct. We´ll be happy to learn from you.

Best wishes

Dietmar

[itancanwin]

This is my g-g-great grandfather. My grandmother was Melissa West Annis, daughter of Allen West, son of Solomon Yellow Hawk. This is an interesting site, I've done extensive research about my family. The pipe bag does look similiar and may, in fact, be the same used for the photos. However, at the time pictures like this were taken, many of the photographers had bought pipe bags and things of that nature to use as "props." The idea being to make the Native people being photographed look "authentically" Native. I have original copies of all these photos. It was nice to see them here though.

[Dietmar]

I found a photo on an auction site that I think shows some Indians from Cheyenne River, among them Solomon Yellow Hawk, Sans Arc.




Solomon Yellow Hawk (Itazipco) & No Heart (Miniconjou)





sitting 2nd from left: Roan Bear

[hollyannis]

Hello. Can you please tell me which auction site you found these photos? I am a descendant of Solomon Yellow Hawk. Thank you.

[Dietmar]

Welcome hollyannis,

great to have you here. If I remember correctly I found the picture at Cowan´s Auctions. If I find the direct link I´ll post it later.

Best wishes

Dietmar

[eric]

Sept 18, 2008 5:30:37 GMT -5 Dietmar said:

Henri has sent me this picture of a pipebag, which is in a museum in Belgium. To me it looks exactly like the one hold by Yellow Hawk. I don´t know if it belongs to him, because Spotted Horse holds the same pipebag as well (look in the "Two Kettles"-thread):



Bedankt Henri!

It is indeed that pipebag, I saw it up close when I was consulting and doing concervation work for an exhibition in 1999. The pipebag was most likely a studio prop, it was photographed in the hands of Yellow Hawk (Sans Arc), Little Bird (Yankton), Francis Jandron (Yankton), Spotted Horse (Sans  Arc), He Kills first (Miniconjou). Most of the collection in Brussels, Belgium was collected either by the famous Jesuit Father De Smet as gifts to his benefactors (among which the Belgian Royal family), or by a collector named Bayer. But I can not be sure if either of those two actually did send it to Belgium. The bag is in the 1999 "Indian summer" exhibition catalogue, I believe it to be Yankton or Yanktonai (or even Cree,) most likely not Teton.

[grahamew]

Where's the collection in Brussels, Eric?

[Dietmar]

I think it is this museum, Grahame:

Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire
10 Parc du Cinquantenaire 10
B-1000 Brussels
Belgium