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Post by kingsleybray on Sept 6, 2010 6:58:33 GMT -5
Calling all Crow experts!
Has anyone heard of a Crow chief or headman named Pretty Bull, during the 1860s?
In January 1867 the Miniconjou Lakota chiefs Lone Horn and Roman Nose went to visit the Crows in the country west of the Bighorn River. They evidently wished to distance themselves from the war against the American forts on the Bozeman Trail, and wished to renew the peace with the Crows that Lone Horn had helped engineer a decade earlier.
In Lt. Templeton's diary, kept at Ft C. F. Smith, for March 20, 1867, he indicates that Roman Nose at least was still visiting with the Crows, and living in Pretty Bull's village.
Lone Horn may have left before Roman Nose. When Lone Horn arrived at Ft Sully for talks in early June 1867, it was noted that two Mountain Crow chiefs were with the Miniconjous and Sans Arcs. Obviously a diplomatic visit of some months' duration.
I think Roman Nose must have had regular trade ties directly or indirectly to the Nez Perce, obviously mediated by the Mountain Crows. This is because one newspaper report of the battle of Slim Buttes, 1876, mentions Frank Grouard's observation that the presence of several Appaloosa horses in the captured pony herd suggested that Roman Nose was present - he being known to favour that breed. Perhaps Pretty Bull was Roman Nose's key Crow trade partner.
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Post by kingsleybray on Sept 2, 2010 8:35:01 GMT -5
On the parentage of Robert P. Higheagle - in the Col. A. B. Welch papers now at the Standing Rock Tribal Archives, there is a statement by Two Bulls. He said that his brothers were Bear Ribs II and High Eagle. Two Bulls is listed in High Eagle's band of Hunkpapa in the 1885 Standing Rock Rations List, and also is in the 1889 List of Hunkpapa Males at Standing Rock, in the cluster near High Eagle.
All this suggests that Bear Ribs I, the accommodationist Hunkpapa leader recognized as head chief of all the Lakota by Gen. Harney in 1856, and assassinated by non-treaty Lakotas in 1862, was the father of Bear Ribs II (born ca. 1842), Two Bulls (born ca. 1846) and High Eagle (born ca. 1843). Therefore he should be a grandfather of Robert P. Higheagle.
The band to which these men belonged was the Che-okhba or Droopy Prick band. Bear Ribs I was evidently 'brother' to Bear Face I (father of Bear Face II, Red Thunder et al. - LaDonna's Hunkpapa ancestors), of the same band, and to Running Antelope, of the related Sore Backs band.
Sorry I didn't catch this earlier - this has been a great thread.
Kingsley
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Post by kingsleybray on Sept 1, 2010 5:36:07 GMT -5
eljay
I only know of this war exploit story about Fire Thunder. Check the Amos Bad Heart Bull PICTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE OGLALA SIOUX, plate 285, p. 381. There Fire Thunder, identified by the sort of lewd nickname given by winktes, Anuk Onze ('Double Ass' or 'Anus on Both Sides'), is depicted counting coup with his bow on a fallen Crow Indian. The No Ears winter count gives under 1872 that Double Ass killed two Crow Indians - evidently a separate incident. Variants of the count also identify this man as Fire Cloud and Hollow Head, but I think all are referring to our Fire Thunder.
Joseph Eagle Hawk (1869-1954) indicated to John Colhoff that "The northern Fire Thunder" was living with the Crazy Horse camp during the removal of the Red Cloud Agency in November 1877. He listed him among several men, naming Yellow Eagle, Little Hawk, Iron White Man, and Standing Bear, who belonged to the Crazy Horse band or tiyoshpaye. (John Colhoff to Joseph Balmer, April 25, 1951, transcript in my collection.)
Remember how we found that Fire Thunder moved from Spotted Tail Agency on October 25, 1877, with a group of people intending to join the Red Cloud Agency column then starting for the new agency site. If Joseph Eagle Hawk was correct, he joined Crazy Horse's Hunkpatila band for several weeks or months. Note however he did not join the flight of that group to Canada (January 1878), but at some point attached himself to Red Cloud's Bad Face band, settling permanently at Pine Ridge later in 1878.
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Post by kingsleybray on Aug 29, 2010 15:15:50 GMT -5
I have a photocopy of a letter written by Wallace Amiotte , datelined Long Valley, SD, November 10, 1959, to the historian George E. Hyde. Wallace was still alive abut 7 or 8 years ago, when I had a phone conversation with him.
Anyway, in the letter Wallace writes: "My uncle who is eighty years old gave me some of this information. Chief Smoke was my great great grandfather. One of Smoke's daughter's name was Pretty Woman, also Walks With, she married Alex La Buff who was a horse trader among the Indians at Ft. Laramie, Wyo. They were married in an Indian ceremony about 1858. They were my great grandparents. They had two children, Janie LaBuff was my great grandmother. She married Stephen Amiotte, Frenchman in 1875, one of Janie and Stephen Amiotte's sons was Emery Amiotte my father. "No Neck told [that] his dad Chief Smoke had 4 wives, here is a list of all of Smokes children, that we know: No Neck, Charging Bear, Woman-Dress, Stickbread [note by Hyde: Thick Bread] and American Horse. (Two-two and Bearfoot were sons or grandsons of Smoke) Daughters were Pretty Woman, wife of Alex LaBuff my great grandparents [, also] the wife of [Jules] Escoffey . . . They had one daughter she was Mrs. William Larvie. Then Escoffey and Smoke's daughter separated then she married Sleeping Bear. My other relatives call her only old Aunt. The wife of Shangreaux [was another daughter of Smoke's;] this was the parents of Louis Shangreau." Wallace goes on to talks about Smoke's children, which clarifies some points about the American Horse who was killed at Slim Buttes. "Charging Bear [captured at Slim Buttes] was known as brave fighting man charging into the thick of every battle . . .His son was name Tom Spotted Bear and I believe he is still alive lives around Pine Ridge. "Woman's Dress my relatives say he is one of Smoke's sons. American Horse - - - I was confused about which American Horse was my great grandfather's brother until I read your book [see Hyde's discussion at RED CLOUD'S FOLK p. 318]. Alfred and Dawsen American Horse I believe were the sons of the Smoke American Horse as they were my grandmother Janie Amiotte's cousins. " . . . . According to my uncle American Horse Charging Bear, Thick Bread wife of Escoffey, Pretty Woman wife of Alex La Buff were all brother and sister from one of Smoke's wives."
Hope this helps,
Kingsley
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Post by kingsleybray on Aug 28, 2010 4:44:21 GMT -5
Roman Nose the Miniconjou leader photographed at the treaty of 1868 talks at Ft Laramie, was likely some sort of relation to Lone Horn, they are usually mentioned together in contemporary records - but the photographic evidence is clear that he was too old to be a son. Could he, like Spotted Elk (Big Foot), have been a son of the elder One Horn, the chief painted by Catlin and killed by a buffalo bull in ca. 1835? I don't know the answer for sure, I'm afraid. The Indian Wars researcher Walter M. Camp interviewed Roman Nose's son Charging Eagle (Wambli Watakpe, ca. 1847-1918) on the Cheyenne River Reservation. Charging Eagle stated that his father's name in Lakota was Pa Shkopa, literally meaning Crooked Nose. Interpreters and other contemporary white men translated it as Roman Nose. Charging Eagle said that his father was also called "Shiute", meaning Thigh. (Fr Buechel's Lakota dictionary gives this word as siyoto, that's 's' with an acute accent so pronounced 'sh-' - shiyoto -, referring to the front part of the thigh.) Roman Nose died in Canada in spring 1878. His son Charging Eagle was one of the founders of the Red Scaffold community on the Cheyenne River Reservation.
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Post by kingsleybray on Aug 28, 2010 4:17:56 GMT -5
Lone Horn married as many as ten wives during his lifetime. Of these the best remembered were three sisters, Stands on Ground, Wind, and Stiff Leg. Their children were as follows:
1. Stands on Ground (or Little Old Woman): had 6 children with Lone Horn –
• Touch the Clouds (1837-1905) m. Light Woman (5 children) [photo in Sprague, Cheyenne River Sioux, p. 65] • Matthew Standing Elk (1855-1938) (m. Susie White Weasel, possibly relative of Hollow Horn Bear, died 08/03/1937, they had two children, Philip and Thomas Standing Elk) [photo in Sprague, p. 73] • Three other sons (Ida Crow stated that these included Big Foot, and possibly Roman Nose and Frog) • Two White Cows, aka Ida Crow (1862-21/02/1945) [photo in Sprague, p. 105] m. (a) Luke Gets Off (3 children, Louise, Sophia and Aryules Gets Off) m. (b) John Crow
2. Wind (ca. 1812-1890, killed at Wounded Knee?): had 1 child with Lone Horn –
• Four Horses (Woman) m. 5 times First marriage to Thunder Buffalo, produced one daughter, Kate Kills Plenty/Blue Legs, aka Kate Hunter (lived at Rosebud). Second marriage to Poor Elk, produced one child: Edward Hunter. Third marriage to Wet Skirt (Two Kettle), produced one child: George Hunter Fourth marriage to Jose Marshall, produced one child: Susie (or Bessie) Marshall. Fifth marriage to Yellow Haired Horse, produced one child, died as infant.
3. Stiff Leg (ca. 1817-07/05/1911): had 5 children with Lone Horn –
• Her Iron Cane (born ca. 1843-d. 01/05/1901) m. Bridge (died 16/01/1898), one child: Spotted Horse (or Leona Lyman Spotted Horse Bridge, 1866-21/04/1901), m. Edward Lyman (1857-1936) • Talks About Him (1851/2-June 1, 1901) m. (a) Susie White Weasel (?-08/03/1937), said to be daughter of Hollow Horn Bear, produced one daughter, Ellen Talks About Him Black Moon (1877-28/02/1940) m. Philip Black Moon (1882-01/01/1957) NB I am not sure about the Susie White Weasel marriage - she was married to TAH's brother Standing Elk (b) Otter Woman (1855-?), possibly Cheyenne, produced four children, Charlie, George [photo in Sprague, p. 72], Peter and Agnes Talks. • Plenty Clothes Woman, aka Lassoed White Cow (1850-16/04/1901) , m. (a) Blacksmith, son Yellow Shirt (1885-15/04/1901), (b) Black Fox, two unnamed children
• Lone Horn also had two sons who died as “babies” (ca. 1851, 1857?).
SUMMARY: Lone Horn had at least seven children surviving to adulthood by these three wives. In likely order of birth, they were:
• Touch the Clouds born 1836-37 mother: Stands on Ground • Four Horses born ca. 1840-45 mother: Wind • Her Iron Cane born ca. 1843 mother: Stiff Leg • Plenty Clothes, or Lassoed White Cow born ca. 1850 mother: Stiff Leg • Talks About Him born 1851/52 mother: Stiff Leg • Standing Elk born 1855 mother: Stands on Ground • Two White Cows born 1862 mother: Stands on Ground
This is my current working version of Lone Horn's Family - hope it helps
Kingsley
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Post by kingsleybray on Aug 25, 2010 16:05:11 GMT -5
Lance Owner, family of 3 (1 man, 1 woman, 1 boy), is still listed under Loafer band on the December 1877 Spotted Tail Agency census - so he definitely remained at STA after Fire Thunder and Foam went to join the Red Cloud Agency people.
It's beginning to look as if Foam's tiwahe was, prior to 1877, Brule rather than Oglala, and possibly part of the Orphan band.
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Post by kingsleybray on Aug 25, 2010 14:31:46 GMT -5
Going off at a slight tangent here, because we haven't yet established any connection between Owl Eagle and the Fire Thunder-Foam tiwahes. However I've gone through the Whetstone Agency records for 1871-74 and found this reference to Owl Eagle.
On March 5 1872 at the relocated Whetstone Agency on White River (near modern Whitney, Nebraska) several Brule leaders signed a request to the Indian Office about agency affairs. At this time most of the Southern Brules, led by Spotted Tail, were absent on their winter hunt on the Republican River. The leaders who signed identified themselves as "we are the ones that stay with you [the agent] all the time". They were as follows:
Yellow Hair White Thunder Swift Bear Fast Dog Dog Hawk Owl Eagle Iron Shell
The first three represent various tiyospaye associated with the Corn band-Loafer band village, seemingly now reorganized under a unitary village leadership. Of the last four, two - Iron Shell and Dog Hawk - are definitvely of the Orphan or No Mother band, and I suspect that the other two are Orphan band leaders too. As early as 1866 Dog Hawk had been noted as leading a sub-band favourably disposed to farming. Judging by Owl Eagle's band's performance in farming in 1877, we may surmise that Owl Eagle belonged to that segment of the Orphan band also. So these four headmen, Iron Shell, Dog Hawk, Owl Eagle, and Swift Dog, may each have led a tiyospaye of the Orphan band.
For whatever reason Owl Eagle decided to move to the Oglala agency in fall 1877, at the same time as his putative kinsmen Foam and Fire Thunder. Given the government's intransigence in moving the agencies to the Missouri, despite the sterling work in farming by such leaders as Owl Eagle - who can blame him for taking umbrage?
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Post by kingsleybray on Aug 25, 2010 10:49:13 GMT -5
Great, Ephriam, that clarifies that Fire Thunder listed in the Brule band census at Spotted Tail Agency in May-June 1877 is NOT our man, but a Lower Brule visitor.
And secondly, good census evidence that Foam/Saliva is OUR Fire Thunder's father-in-law, not father.
However, both Foam and Lance Owner are named separately in the census, so I don't think they are the same man.
It would be good to nail this Bissonnette connection for the Fire Thunders. Re-reading Kadlecek, Charles Fire Thunder is quite explicit about the relationship: "[Joseph Bissonnette] was a brother-in-law to my grandfather. He married my grandfather's cousin." This suggests that Fire Thunder's grandfather was a classificatory 'son' or possibly 'nephew' to Black Fox and Bearskin Robe. Since the latter pair were probably both born in the 1815-30 frame, and the grandfather fits in two generations before 1849, so not later than approx. 1810, this does seem to be straining the logic of generations, but not for the first time! An older man marrying a young woman and having children skews generational expectations.
Spotted Tail Agency census January 1875: includes Foam and family of 13, a Fire Thunder and family of 6, Owl Eagle and family of 18, Shot at Ghost and family of 9. The list includes mainly Brules of course, but also Miniconjous, Two Kettles and Sans Arcs - no way of identifying individual families with tribal divisions, unfortunately. Remember Shoots Ghost had been with the Northern visitors at the Brule agency the previous winter also, 1873-74.
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Post by kingsleybray on Aug 25, 2010 8:55:39 GMT -5
A quick update on the above.
As Ephriam noted Fire Thunder was one of the non-treaty Lakotas who surrendered at Camp Robinson/Red Cloud Agency on March 14, 1877. He was part of the camp led by No Water, and a few days later was transferred to Red Cloud's band, the agency camp of Bad Faces. Then he sought transfer to Spotted Tail Agency and was transferred there on April 9. The Spotted Tail Agency census taken in May-June 1877 lists Fire Thunder (family of 4 people: 1 man, 1 woman, 2 boys) in the main Brule village. Also listed in the Brule village are Foam (family of 5) and Owl Eagle (family of 11). As stated above I think Foam may be a 'father' of Fire Thunder, and Owl Eagle is probably some family connection of Foam's. "Owl Eagle & Band" it is worth noting planted almost 12 acres in spring 1877 at Spotted Tail Agency.
Now for a slight complication! In the Corn-Loafer band at Spotted Tail the 1877 census also lists Lance Owner and Fire Thunder with a family of 4 (two men, 1 woman, 1 girl). This is definitely OUR Fire Thunder because Lance Owner and Fire Thunder surrendered together at Red Cloud with a total family of 9 people. The two men were transferred still together to Spotted Tail, now with a family of 6. Possibly there were two men named Fire Thunder in the Spotted Tail census, but it may also be possible that the family was split in some way between the two Brule villages and Fire Thunder himself was counted twice. (When the Brules were counted again in December Fire Thunder is not included, when we know that OUR Fire Thunder had definitely moved back to Red Cloud Agency: see below.)
At National Archives Kansas City in 2007 I found a letter in the Spotted Tail Agency Outgoing Correspondence File, from Agt Lt. Jesse Lee to the Red Cloud Indian Agent [James Irwin], dated October 25, 1877. In it Lee lists 28 families, total 194 people, who "wish to be transferred to your Agency, they are rationed with rations and beef to include the 28th Inst".
The list is headed by Joseph Bissonnette, then his son Peter, plus Lakota families including Battiste Good and his son High Hawk, famous as winter count keepers. However, more relevant to our current thread the following families are included:
Owl Eagle 11 people Fire Thunder 4 people Foam 4 people
The time frame is important because at the end of October 1877 the Indians at both Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies were being readied for removal to new (unwanted) agency locations on the Missouri River. The following year the permanent homes of these people were finally located at modern Pine Ridge and Rosebud. Fire Thunder and "Foam" (nb Imnistan, Saliva) are listed in the first register we have for Pine Ridge, the 1879 ration roll. They are both listed as living in Red Cloud's band (as are the Bissonnette family and Owl Eagle).
The list was updated in 1882 with no change in their band identification. Shoot the Ghost, who I think may be another contemporary-relative of Saliva, is listed in the 1882 register among the people recently transferred from Standing Rock Agency, the bands who had been in Canada with Sitting Bull. The family must have moved to the Oyuhpe band settlements along Wounded Knee Creek later in the 1880s.
The importance of the October 1877 document is in confirming the links between Fire Thunder, Foam, and the Bissonnettes.
Kingsley
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Post by kingsleybray on Aug 25, 2010 4:30:17 GMT -5
Hello Eljay, Ephriam and everyone, what follows is a few disjointed observations about Fire Thunder (ca. 1849-1937) and possible relatives in the Oyuhpe band of Oglalas.
I have wondered if Fire Thunder may be a son of the Oyuhpe headman Imnistan (Saliva, sometimes translated Foam). They are listed next to each other in the 1890 Pine Ridge census list of the Oyuhpe band, as if they lived adjoining, and Saliva is the right age (born ca. 1824) to be Fire Thunder's father.
From clustering of names in censuses and other late 19th century lists, I think there may be a connection - "brothers"? - between Saliva I, Owl Eagle (born ca. 1824), and Shoot Ghost (born ca. 1826). The latter is first listed as minor headman in the camp of "Minneconjou & Northern" Indians at New Whetstone Agency winter 1873-74.
There was also a younger man bearing the name Imnistan/Saliva, born ca. 1839 and immortalised in Edward Curtis's photos of the hunka ceremony of adoption, lighting the pipe, painting the buffalo skull. The other two men officiating in the restaging of the ceremony are also Oyuhpe - Slow Bull (born ca. 1844), son of the chief of that name, and Picket Pin (born ca. 1850).
Charles Fire Thunder told the Kadleceks that the trader Joseph Bissonnette was a brother-in-law to his grandfather (TO KILL AN EAGLE p. 102). Two men identified as brothers-in-law of Bissonnette were Bearskin Robe (born ca. 1828, Loafer band) and Black Fox, the father of Kicking Bear, probably born about 1820 (Oyuhpe band, possibly Wakan sub-band). Bearskin Robe signed the Treaty of Ft Laramie in 1868, and was on the delegation to Washington in 1870 (he is the man standing at the left in the photo with Red Dog and others - most of the men have some sort of Oyuhpe connection, so possibly he originated in that band and went to live among the Loafers).
I suggest that the relationship to Bissonnette may have been through Charles Fire Thunder's mother, i.e she was the daughter of one of Bissonnette's brothers-in-law.
In the 1890 census the younger Saliva, born ca. 1839 (so presumably not a biological son of his older namesake), is the next family to Peter, born ca. 1848, one of the sons of Joseph Bissonnette.
As said just a few ideas and hunches, but maybe the Ephriam census concordance can kick in on some of these names!
PS: Bearskin Robe in the 1890 Loafer band census is just four families away from Edgar Fire Thunder. I wonder if there is not some sort of family connection ("cousins"?) we're not seeing between Charles Fire Thunder and Edgar and George Fire Thunder. I think the latter two are sons of the Loafer band leader Fire Thunder named above by Ephriam. He is the man in the 1868 Alexander Gardner Ft Laramie photograph with Old Man Afraid of His Horse, holding a very large ceremonial (pipe?) bundle, posted above by Dietmar.
Best wishes and good luck Eljay with your family research. I think I can say for everyone on the Boards that we'd be delighted to help in whatever way we can
Kingsley
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Post by kingsleybray on Aug 6, 2010 5:23:38 GMT -5
I can confirm that the Summer 2010 special Sitting Bull-themed issue of SOUTH DAKOTA HISTORY is now out, and includes my article 'Before Sitting Bull: Interpreting Hunkpapa Political History, 1750-1867', as well as Ephriam's paper on the Sitting Bull Surrender Ledger, plus a photographic essay by Frank H. Goodyear and an introductory piece on 'Sitting Bull, the Immortal' by Robert M. Utley.
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Post by kingsleybray on Jul 6, 2010 1:00:44 GMT -5
In the Walter S. Camp papers, Lilly Library, University of Indiana, transcript p. 390, it is stated on authority of Antoine Bordeaux that Iron Shell's "brothers" were:
Dog Hawk Crow Dog Bell Snake Moccasin Face Brave Bull.
(I have also been told that Crow Dog was an in-law of Iron Shell.)
Iron Shell came to Ft Sully in early June 1867 with a large contingent of Miniconjous and Sans Arcs, including Lone Horn. On June 9 he met with the Investigative Commission led by Gens Sully, Stanley, and Eli S. Parker, also Fr De Smet. In the Commission Proceedings their talk is minuted, and Iron Shell replied, to the question "Have you been on the Platte lately?"
"I heard you were coming here. I was just going there. My brother was at Laramie."
Later he remarks: "I have a messenger to travel around and hear the news. I now come to hear for myself."
Maybe these ref's are to Dog Hawk?
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Post by kingsleybray on Jun 17, 2010 6:58:01 GMT -5
Thankyou, Dietmar, for pulling these Catlin portraits together. I was of course really interested in the 'new' ones of White Bear that Goes Out (Blackfoot Sioux chief), and either Grizzly Bear that Runs Without Regard (Hunkpapa brave) or Elk Head (Sans Arc chief). I thought these portraits must be among the Catlin pictures destroyed in the Smithsonian Institution fire in 1865, so I was thrilled to see them.
Many will be excited to see a possible portrait of Elk Head, since he would have been the Keeper of the Calf Pipe Bundle (perhaps the grandfather of the Elk Head who kept the Pipe between 1877 and 1915 and was photographed by Curtis). However, I have to say that the age and presentation of this man would seem to point to his being a "brave" rather than a chief - so perhaps he is the Hunkpapa.
Have you any further documentation on the id and provenance of these two portraits?
Again, I was thrilled to see the pictures
Kingsley
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Post by kingsleybray on Jun 14, 2010 7:42:43 GMT -5
Agnes
a number of points, in a kind of reverse order:
First: Thunder Tail's account of the hunka ceremony in Fr Buechel's collection LAKOTA TALES & TEXTS.
I feel this story is drawn from the life of Thunder Tail's father (his ate or "father" in Lakota terminology, which might include paternal uncles and so on), who was the famous Oglala leader Black Twin (ca. 1825-1876), and refers to a hunka ceremony that he sponsored ca. 1850. Ceremonies like the hunka were constantly subject to adaptation and innovation, hence the frequent claims that such a person originated the ceremony. But the hunka or calumet adoption ceremony is clearly reported in the very earliest written accounts from French explorers and missionaries in the late 1600s. Robert L. Hall in his outstanding study of native American religion, AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE SOUL, documents just how very ancient this kind of ritual is in the American mid-continent. So accounts like the JR Walker one of the 1804-05 'making of the ceremony of the horses' tail' refer to new twists on a very old theme - in this case I would surmise that the new dimension is to do with horse symbolism.
Secondly: Bull Bear's father etc. Walker's LAKOTA BELIEF & RITUAL is one of the fundamental references and sources on what interests us all! But I feel that the statement attributed to Little Wound, that his father Bull Bear was not born until after the 1804-05 hunka ceremony, must be in error and perhaps an interpreter's misunderstanding of what LW actually said. My reasons are that (a) the portrait of Bull Bear painted from life by Alfred Jacob Miller in 1837 shows a man still vigorous but clearly older than 32 - which would be the oldest possible age if we take the Walker statement literally. (b) Traveller Wislizenus met Bull Bear in 1839 and described him as "rather aged, and of a squat thick figure". All in all I suggest that BB was probably born in the 1790s. Note also that besides the identification of Stone Knife as his father we have two other possible names: (i) Another Ricker interview, with Pine Ridge Res. official Wm Girton, identifies BB's father as Bull Hoop (ii) the interviews conducted with the Bull Bear family in 1931 by Scudder Mekeel name Bull Bear's father as White Swan. In theory these could all be names for one man, alternatively we may have three brothers, all of whom BB could have called his father or ate.
Thirdly, Standing Bull I: I think he was probably born say the late 1730s, therefore by the time of Lewis & Clark he would be nearly 70 if still alive. By that age he would very likely have retired any active political leadership, so not a surprise that L&C don't name him in their Lakota leadership tabulation. His son (or, possibly, grandson) SB II is named as the Oglala head chief at the 1825 treaty, and is mentioned in the Cloud Shield winter count under 1832-33, when all his horses were killed by persons unknown: clearly a feud or political quarrel. I don't know when he died or retired.
But fascinating to speculate on those marriage connections made into Standing Bull's family at the end of the 1700s. Through the early 18th century, Victor Douville told me, the Oglalas had a reputation as a weak and "divided tiyoshpaye", content to let the Brules take the lead in political arrangements. I think this changed in the last quarter of the 18th c., with the Oglalas taking an increasingly independent role, pioneering new hunting ranges and so on. Standing Bull's dynastic arrangements could be interpreted as part of an Oglala strategy of maximising inter-band alliances etc., building up their status in the Lakota nation.
Kingsley
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