Post by ephriam on Sept 14, 2019 13:43:16 GMT -5
The Pine Ridge Agency census for 1890 records a band known as the Pesla (Pĥešlá), a small thiwáhe numbering 22 families or 98 people living within the Porcupine District. The Pĥešlá or Bald Head’s band was a very ancient group of families who had originally been aligned with the Sičháŋğu until perhaps about 1839 when they shifted to the Oglala camp circle. Together with the Waceyunpa with whom they were intimately intermarried, this small band generally roamed with the southern Oglala during the decades of the 1840s and 1850s, hunting buffalo along the Republican River. Following the massacre of Cheyenne at Sand Creek in 1864, nearly all of the southern Oglala joined their relatives north of the Platte River. Over the next several years, most of these bands returned to their home hunting territory along the Repubican, except for the Waceyunpa and the Pelsa who remained in the north. During the 1860s they were with the northern Oglala fighting along the Bozeman trail in Red Cloud's War. By the time of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, both the Waceyunpa and the Pesla were considered part of the larger Wazhazha tiyospaye and were aligned with the northern bands -- both bands were at the Little Bighorn. The Pesla ultimately settled in the Porcupine District on the Pine Ridge Reservation and did participate in the ghost dance in 1890.
Two key leaders are generally mentioned for the Pesla band during this period: High Wolf and Daylight Man. Oral history notes that Daylight's father was Walks Freely (Ikopesni Mani) who was one of the prominent leaders of the Pesla during the 1840s and 1850s. In contrast, High Wolf was a Minneconjou who married into the Pesla. This information would suggest that both High Wolf and Daylight came into leadership positions perhaps in the 1860s.
But here is where some of the confusion exists within historical documents. Oral history notes that High Wolf's band had aligned with the more moderate Man Afraid of His Horses' band (Payabya) in 1866. This is supported by the 1874 ration list for the Red Cloud Agency, as recorded by Forsyth, that lists High Wolf as leader of a group of 35 lodges with the "Piabia". In contrast, the Forsyth list separately records a "Waz-izas" band of 28 lodges led by Day. One of Dr. Saville's annuity sheets (1874) has survived for Day's band, listing the head of families for 19 families, but only a few of these can be connected to later known families. Forsyth's list seems to suggest that High Wolf and Day were leaders of two separate bands. This is further supported by Merritt's list of families in 1876 and by a comment in the William Garnett interview in the Ricker Tablets. In talking about an 1878 council in which the Oglala were preparing to move from the Missouri River to what would become the Pine Ridge Agency, Garnett mentions High Wolf, “an old time chief,” and later Day, "a Waj ja ja chief.” He seems to treat them as two different band leaders. High Wolf and Daylight Man are listed in the 1879 Pine Ridge ration list as separate bands and in the 1890 census as the same band (Pesla).
So how do we interpret these tidbits of information? One possibility is that the Pesla was one band, bound together by family/kinship but deeply polarized and split politically during the 1866-1878 time period, as many bands were. High Wolf presumably fought early in the 1860s, but had become more moderate by 1866 when he aligned with the Payabya. He traveled to Washington, D.C. as a delegate in 1872 and then accompanied Red Dog on their peace mission to the northern Lakota later that same year. (Both High Wolf and Red Dog had married into the Oglala and had gone through similar political transformations.) Daylight might have initially been a supporter of the northern traditionalists. When the northern "break-aways" headed to Canada to join Sitting Bull in late 1877 and early 1878, both High Wolf and Daylight Man remained behind. Perhaps as these two factions of the Pesla band came back together, they lost their more ardent traditionalist followers to other Oglala bands and the two factions came back together again.
An alternative theory is that perhaps Daylight married into another band and only returned to his original family band, the Pesla, about 1878, hence High Wolf and Daylight being listed as leaders of different bands during the 1870s.
High Wolf disappears from the Pine Ridge census records between 1890 and 1892, suggesting that he died at that time. His wife, Susan, later married Shot in the Eye. Daylight Man died in 1909.
Two key leaders are generally mentioned for the Pesla band during this period: High Wolf and Daylight Man. Oral history notes that Daylight's father was Walks Freely (Ikopesni Mani) who was one of the prominent leaders of the Pesla during the 1840s and 1850s. In contrast, High Wolf was a Minneconjou who married into the Pesla. This information would suggest that both High Wolf and Daylight came into leadership positions perhaps in the 1860s.
But here is where some of the confusion exists within historical documents. Oral history notes that High Wolf's band had aligned with the more moderate Man Afraid of His Horses' band (Payabya) in 1866. This is supported by the 1874 ration list for the Red Cloud Agency, as recorded by Forsyth, that lists High Wolf as leader of a group of 35 lodges with the "Piabia". In contrast, the Forsyth list separately records a "Waz-izas" band of 28 lodges led by Day. One of Dr. Saville's annuity sheets (1874) has survived for Day's band, listing the head of families for 19 families, but only a few of these can be connected to later known families. Forsyth's list seems to suggest that High Wolf and Day were leaders of two separate bands. This is further supported by Merritt's list of families in 1876 and by a comment in the William Garnett interview in the Ricker Tablets. In talking about an 1878 council in which the Oglala were preparing to move from the Missouri River to what would become the Pine Ridge Agency, Garnett mentions High Wolf, “an old time chief,” and later Day, "a Waj ja ja chief.” He seems to treat them as two different band leaders. High Wolf and Daylight Man are listed in the 1879 Pine Ridge ration list as separate bands and in the 1890 census as the same band (Pesla).
So how do we interpret these tidbits of information? One possibility is that the Pesla was one band, bound together by family/kinship but deeply polarized and split politically during the 1866-1878 time period, as many bands were. High Wolf presumably fought early in the 1860s, but had become more moderate by 1866 when he aligned with the Payabya. He traveled to Washington, D.C. as a delegate in 1872 and then accompanied Red Dog on their peace mission to the northern Lakota later that same year. (Both High Wolf and Red Dog had married into the Oglala and had gone through similar political transformations.) Daylight might have initially been a supporter of the northern traditionalists. When the northern "break-aways" headed to Canada to join Sitting Bull in late 1877 and early 1878, both High Wolf and Daylight Man remained behind. Perhaps as these two factions of the Pesla band came back together, they lost their more ardent traditionalist followers to other Oglala bands and the two factions came back together again.
An alternative theory is that perhaps Daylight married into another band and only returned to his original family band, the Pesla, about 1878, hence High Wolf and Daylight being listed as leaders of different bands during the 1870s.
High Wolf disappears from the Pine Ridge census records between 1890 and 1892, suggesting that he died at that time. His wife, Susan, later married Shot in the Eye. Daylight Man died in 1909.
