Broken Arm, Brule

[jeroen]

I start this thread because I am doing some background info on a portrait of Broken Arm I am working on. So far I have found surprisingly little information about him. He was photographed on several occasions, so he must have been a man of some reputation. Anyway, all info is welcome. Here are some pics to start with:

[jinlian]

If my memory is correct, Broken Arm was a prominent member of Two Strikes'band - he was present when, in January 1891 (right after Wounded Knee) Plenty Horses killed lieutenant Edward Casey. Broken Arm was also one of the witnesses at Plenty Horses' trial.

Here's one of the group photographs taken after Plenty Horses'trial - Broken Arm is standing, back row, third from left:

[jeroen]

Thanks Jinlian! Here's another one of Broken Arm wearing a cap of coyote fur:

[hako]

By F. Rinehart, labeled as " Broken Arm. Ogallala Sioux". 1899.

[jinlian]

Another Rinehart photograph of Broken Arm:

[kingsleybray]

Broken Arm belonged to the Two Crows family, part of the Kiyaksa-hcka (Real, or Original Kiyaksa) tiyoshpaye of the Southern Oglalas. He was born c. 1836. His mother was a Cheyenne. His brothers included Two Crows (born c. 1820?), Poor Elk (born c. 1822, Gardner photo' in 1872),and Lone Bull (born c. 1825-30).

By c. 1860, according to his brother's son Lone Bull jr, he had a reputation as a "great raider". For a story involving him in battle with the Pawnees, see Luther Standing Bear MY PEOPLE THE SIOUX p. 5. He owned about 120 horses, probably the largest herd among the Southern Oglalas. (According to Jack Ewers's informants owning 100 horses marked a very rich man: as comparison, we know that Old Man Afraid of His Horse in 1875 owned 100.) He had a very large tipi made of twenty buffalo skins, which he gave away to his sister Eagle Come Out. He then lived in another large tipi of 16 skins. In this era a tipi of 14 hides was considered large. So, a very prosperous man.

By the 1860s Broken Arm was the nominal headman of the family, and represented it in the Kiyaksa band council. His 'brother' Slow Dog (son of one of his mother's sisters) was another such headman.

Since he visited among the Southern Cheyennes, and was present at the Battle of the Washita, I suspect that his mother belonged to Black Kettle's Wutapiu band of Cheyennes (a band of hybrid Cheyenne-Lakota origin). Note that she was one of three Cheyenne sisters all born in the early 1800s, who each married into the Oglala. Another sister was the mother of Slow Dog (born c. 1826, and another Kiyaksa-hcka headman-counsellor), and the third was the mother of High Bear (born c. 1840, identified with the Skokpa sub-band of the Kiyaksa, and one of the Southern Oglala head akichita). So Slow Dog, High Bear, and Broken Arm (and his biological brothers), all called each other brother.

[charlie]

Kingsley: very good to have some info about this mystery chief.But in your precedent article on Brulè bands you have mentioned only these bands:
Isanyati (Toward the Santee)
Choka-tunwan (Middle Village)
Wacheunpa (Meat Roaster)
Minisha (Red Water)
Wazhazha (Osage)
Wagmeza-yuha (Corn owner)
Wablenicha (Orphan)
Loafer.
I think that the Kiyaksa (or Kiyuksa) belonged to Oglala subdivision, not Brulè.
Then, chief Broken Arm was Oglala or Brulè?
A great idea: why you don't write an extended article about the seven Teton subdivisions,
the relative bands and the most important chiefs that belonged at every bands?
It should be a wonderful gift for the Forum!
p.s. I have buy your book on Crazy Horse, now translated in Italian language.

[charlie]

If the info post by Jinlian at the beginning of the thread is right, Broken Arm belonged to the Ring band (Choka-Tunwan) of the Upper Brulè (Keyatawicasa) the same band of Two Strike and Spotted Tail, I don't know if by birth or by marriage.
Still two questions: Broken Arm was present at LBH? When he died?

[Dietmar]

Buongiorno Charlie,

two more details about Broken Arm:

Luther Standing Bear called him an uncle. I suppose he married one of Standing Bear´s sisters, didn´t he?

According to some sources one Broken Arm from Pine Ridge was one of the Lakota delegates who visited the Paiute Wovoka in 1890 along with Kicking Bear and others.



Broken Arm at the Plenty Horses trial



Broken Arm mounted

[charlie]

Guten Tag Dietmar. What is your opinion? Is Broken Arm Brulè or Oglala?
In this moment, we found he in the Brulè section...
The expert Kingsleybray is disappear?
And who is the photographer of the first coloured image of this thread? Rinehart?

[Dietmar]

Charlie,

as far as I know the first photo of Broken Arm is a Heyn & Matzen picture.

Broken Arm, as I understand it, was an Oglala who married into the Brule.
I don´t have any information about the time periods he lived on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations.


Best wishes
Dietmar

[kingsleybray]

Sorry, Charlie, didn't see your message the other day. The Kiyuksa band was found among both the Oglalas and Brules. Broken Arm belonged to the Oglalas, it may be as Dietmar suggested that he had a Brule wife. I didn't know that. The family information I posted above about Broken Arm and his brothers and other relatives, is from an Oglala called Lone Bull; it's a quite amazing amount of detail that permits us to understand his place within his tiyohspaye, and the wider setting of the greater Kiyuksa band. We also see his intertribal connections, e.g. to the Cheyenne through his mother.

[charlie]

Tanks to everyone.
I have found his indian name: ISTO KSA
from the words: Isto(arm)and Ksa(break,broken).
One correction on my preceding post:
the Spotted Tail band was Wazhazha not Choka-Tunwan.
This last may be the band of chief Two Strike, but I'm not sure.

[jarp1978]

Does anyone know what year Broken Arm died, and where he died?

Jennifer