Post by grahamew on Nov 11, 2010 15:12:22 GMT -5
In the collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society are thirteen Plains Indian ledger drawings donated by the widow of Colonel J. J. Upham:
“Here are entered works on pictographic images inscribed by American Indians of the Great Plains onto blank pages of ledger books obtained from U.S. soldiers, traders, missionaries, and reservation employees. Original drawings in pencil, wax crayon and earth colors by a Plains Indian, about 1880-1890. Drawn on discarded sheets of an Indian agent's record forms."
www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records?terms=upham+ledger
34690
34870 The museum caption says this shows two men, but the person on foot is clearly a woman
34866
34869
At first I thought I could make out a name glyph behind the horseman's head, but I think it's writing by the ledger's previous owner.
34867
Is this some sacred power symbol over the first tipi?
Nothing seems to be known about when they were drawn or who drew them.
Upham led a rich and varied military career; after graduating West Point in 1859, he saw action in the Civil War before heading west. He was posted to the frontier at Ft. Gibson, Indian Territory, Mar., 1869; Ft. Smith, Arkansas, to Aug., 1869; Crawfordville, Kansas, to Oct., 1869; Girard, Kansas, to Jan., 1871; — in the field, Mar. to Oct., 1871, — Ft. Scott, Kansas, commanding troops in Southeastern Kansas, Oct. 24, 1871, to Apr., 1873; back to Ft. Gibson, Indian Territory, Apr. 21, 1873, to Aug. 25, 1874; and in the field, Oct to Dec., 1874; on leave of absence to June 23, 1875; on Court Martial to Aug. 8, 1875; on frontier duty in command of Ft. Gibson, I. T., Sep. 8, 1875, to June 7, 1876; on Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition, to Nov. 24, 1876, being engaged in the Action of Indian Creek, Wyoming, July 17, 1876, and at Slim Buttes, Dakota, Sep. 9 10, 1876; on leave of absence to Jan. 24, 1877; under orders of Interior Department to June 26, 1877; on leave of absence, June 26, 1877, to July 4, 1878; absent sick to July 31, 1878; on frontier duty at Camp Brown, Wyoming, Aug. 8, 1878, to Mar. 31, 1880; and Ft. Niobrara, Nebraska to May 31, 1881; on leave of absence, to Dec. 11, 1881; on duty at Infantry and Cavalry School of Application at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., to July 1, 1885; in command of Ft. Sill, Indian Territory , July 15, 1885, to Feb. 11, 1886; on leave of absence, to Aug. 25, 1886; in witnessing the manoeuvres of the French Army, and examining French military schools, to Apr. 30, 1887; in command of Ft. Elliott, Texas (as Lieutenant Colonel of the Third Cavalry), Aug. 24, 1887, to Oct. 5, 1888; on sick leave of absence, to Oct. 5, 1889; in command of Ft. Brown, Texas, to 1891; and finally, he was made Colonel of the Eighth Cavalry in January 1892, although he seems to have been on leave of absence for his tenure, before retiring on 30 January that year and spending his time between Florida and Milwaukee, where he dies in 21 October 1898, aged only 61.
(http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1844*.html; thanks also to Billy Markland and Steve Wilk for answering my questions about Upham on lbha.proboards.com/index.cgi)
Charles Bird King has left us an admiring portrait of Upham in the field in Campaigning With Crook: ‘Right in our front, half-way to the skirmish line, rides the major commanding the battalion ; a tall, solidly-built fellow, with twinkling blue eyes and a bronzed face, barely visible under the mass of blond hair and beard over which the rain is dripping. He is a Milwaukeean and a West-Pointer, a stanch favorite, too ; and today the whole rear guard is his command, and on his shoulders rests the safety of our move.’
Other items collected by Upham were donated in 1900 by his widow to the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the Anthropology Collections Manager, Dawn Scher Thomas, informed me these came from a variety of tribes: Arapaho, Bannock, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Comanche, Shoshone, Crow, Sioux, Plains, Southeast and Plateau.
The WHS haven’t been able to determine much more about the ledger other than “The drawings were acquired by Col. John J. Upham while he was serving with the U.S. Third Cavalry during the Indian campaigns,” although in correspondence with Jon Nondorf, of the Wisconsin Historical Society, I learnt that the names ‘Arapaho’ and ‘Shoshone’ are visible on drawing 34862 :
Note also that the words, ‘the Act of March 3, 1875,’ appear on a some of the pages, therefore dating the works to that year at the earliest.
So what, then, of the visual evidence? In simple terms, the drawings seem less ‘sophisticated’ than those associated with the Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa from this later period (horses only have two legs, for instance), but for every Yellow Nose or Bad Heart Bull, there are plenty of other artists who didn’t draw in a style that lends itself to an easier appreciation by Anglo/Euro/American eyes and while the device of showing both legs of a horse rider is associated with an older style, there is at least one existing Lakota Ghost Shirts featuring figures with the kind of triangular torsos that would be more typical of robes or shirts from the 1830s or 40s.
The series seems to concentrate on the activities of one figure who, in two panels fights people with hairstyles features associated with Crow (or perhaps Nez Percé) Indians in other ledger art.
34847
34868
However, other common representative conventions of the depictions of the Crow, such as panel leggings or striped breechcloths, are absent. Although the presence of Hudson's Bay blanket leggings likely places the action on the north-central plains. Elsewhere, there are features that I thought I hadn't seen in ledger art before, such as the strange hat/hoods in 34863, 34864, 34865 and 34871:
Notable absences from the set are any representation of white people, dance scenes or courting.
Andy Kraushaar, Visual Materials Curator at the WHS has kindly given permission for the images to be used in this thread in the hope that someone can shed more light on them.
I would think it likely that, based on the evidence of the names, ‘Shoshone’ and ‘Arapaho’, and the fact Upham was posted in 1878 to Camp Brown on the Wind River Reservation, the same year the Arapaho were moved there, that these are Arapaho drawings. Perhaps we have an Arapaho protagonist fighting the Crow or Shoshone, but both tribes did scout together for the army in the post-Little Bighorn campaign against the Lakota and the Cheyenne and then again against the Nez Perce, so maybe ithe images depict scenes from that conflict, although this doesn’t tie in with the story the WHS have that he collected them while serving with the Third Cavalry.
Anyone else got any ideas?
“Here are entered works on pictographic images inscribed by American Indians of the Great Plains onto blank pages of ledger books obtained from U.S. soldiers, traders, missionaries, and reservation employees. Original drawings in pencil, wax crayon and earth colors by a Plains Indian, about 1880-1890. Drawn on discarded sheets of an Indian agent's record forms."
www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records?terms=upham+ledger
34690
34870 The museum caption says this shows two men, but the person on foot is clearly a woman
34866
34869
At first I thought I could make out a name glyph behind the horseman's head, but I think it's writing by the ledger's previous owner.
34867
Is this some sacred power symbol over the first tipi?
Nothing seems to be known about when they were drawn or who drew them.
Upham led a rich and varied military career; after graduating West Point in 1859, he saw action in the Civil War before heading west. He was posted to the frontier at Ft. Gibson, Indian Territory, Mar., 1869; Ft. Smith, Arkansas, to Aug., 1869; Crawfordville, Kansas, to Oct., 1869; Girard, Kansas, to Jan., 1871; — in the field, Mar. to Oct., 1871, — Ft. Scott, Kansas, commanding troops in Southeastern Kansas, Oct. 24, 1871, to Apr., 1873; back to Ft. Gibson, Indian Territory, Apr. 21, 1873, to Aug. 25, 1874; and in the field, Oct to Dec., 1874; on leave of absence to June 23, 1875; on Court Martial to Aug. 8, 1875; on frontier duty in command of Ft. Gibson, I. T., Sep. 8, 1875, to June 7, 1876; on Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition, to Nov. 24, 1876, being engaged in the Action of Indian Creek, Wyoming, July 17, 1876, and at Slim Buttes, Dakota, Sep. 9 10, 1876; on leave of absence to Jan. 24, 1877; under orders of Interior Department to June 26, 1877; on leave of absence, June 26, 1877, to July 4, 1878; absent sick to July 31, 1878; on frontier duty at Camp Brown, Wyoming, Aug. 8, 1878, to Mar. 31, 1880; and Ft. Niobrara, Nebraska to May 31, 1881; on leave of absence, to Dec. 11, 1881; on duty at Infantry and Cavalry School of Application at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., to July 1, 1885; in command of Ft. Sill, Indian Territory , July 15, 1885, to Feb. 11, 1886; on leave of absence, to Aug. 25, 1886; in witnessing the manoeuvres of the French Army, and examining French military schools, to Apr. 30, 1887; in command of Ft. Elliott, Texas (as Lieutenant Colonel of the Third Cavalry), Aug. 24, 1887, to Oct. 5, 1888; on sick leave of absence, to Oct. 5, 1889; in command of Ft. Brown, Texas, to 1891; and finally, he was made Colonel of the Eighth Cavalry in January 1892, although he seems to have been on leave of absence for his tenure, before retiring on 30 January that year and spending his time between Florida and Milwaukee, where he dies in 21 October 1898, aged only 61.
(http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1844*.html; thanks also to Billy Markland and Steve Wilk for answering my questions about Upham on lbha.proboards.com/index.cgi)
Charles Bird King has left us an admiring portrait of Upham in the field in Campaigning With Crook: ‘Right in our front, half-way to the skirmish line, rides the major commanding the battalion ; a tall, solidly-built fellow, with twinkling blue eyes and a bronzed face, barely visible under the mass of blond hair and beard over which the rain is dripping. He is a Milwaukeean and a West-Pointer, a stanch favorite, too ; and today the whole rear guard is his command, and on his shoulders rests the safety of our move.’
Other items collected by Upham were donated in 1900 by his widow to the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the Anthropology Collections Manager, Dawn Scher Thomas, informed me these came from a variety of tribes: Arapaho, Bannock, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Comanche, Shoshone, Crow, Sioux, Plains, Southeast and Plateau.
The WHS haven’t been able to determine much more about the ledger other than “The drawings were acquired by Col. John J. Upham while he was serving with the U.S. Third Cavalry during the Indian campaigns,” although in correspondence with Jon Nondorf, of the Wisconsin Historical Society, I learnt that the names ‘Arapaho’ and ‘Shoshone’ are visible on drawing 34862 :
Note also that the words, ‘the Act of March 3, 1875,’ appear on a some of the pages, therefore dating the works to that year at the earliest.
So what, then, of the visual evidence? In simple terms, the drawings seem less ‘sophisticated’ than those associated with the Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa from this later period (horses only have two legs, for instance), but for every Yellow Nose or Bad Heart Bull, there are plenty of other artists who didn’t draw in a style that lends itself to an easier appreciation by Anglo/Euro/American eyes and while the device of showing both legs of a horse rider is associated with an older style, there is at least one existing Lakota Ghost Shirts featuring figures with the kind of triangular torsos that would be more typical of robes or shirts from the 1830s or 40s.
The series seems to concentrate on the activities of one figure who, in two panels fights people with hairstyles features associated with Crow (or perhaps Nez Percé) Indians in other ledger art.
34847
34868
However, other common representative conventions of the depictions of the Crow, such as panel leggings or striped breechcloths, are absent. Although the presence of Hudson's Bay blanket leggings likely places the action on the north-central plains. Elsewhere, there are features that I thought I hadn't seen in ledger art before, such as the strange hat/hoods in 34863, 34864, 34865 and 34871:
Notable absences from the set are any representation of white people, dance scenes or courting.
Andy Kraushaar, Visual Materials Curator at the WHS has kindly given permission for the images to be used in this thread in the hope that someone can shed more light on them.
I would think it likely that, based on the evidence of the names, ‘Shoshone’ and ‘Arapaho’, and the fact Upham was posted in 1878 to Camp Brown on the Wind River Reservation, the same year the Arapaho were moved there, that these are Arapaho drawings. Perhaps we have an Arapaho protagonist fighting the Crow or Shoshone, but both tribes did scout together for the army in the post-Little Bighorn campaign against the Lakota and the Cheyenne and then again against the Nez Perce, so maybe ithe images depict scenes from that conflict, although this doesn’t tie in with the story the WHS have that he collected them while serving with the Third Cavalry.
Anyone else got any ideas?