Lakota Speakers: The name "Saswe"

[winona]

Thanks, Dietmar for posting the photo. I have never seen it; the historical societies do not own a copy (that I have seen). Yes, that is three of the suspects. Paul Holy Track and Philip Ireland were part of the lynching in Williamsport Jail in November 1897, along wityh Alec Cadotte. George Defender (top right) was housed in the Bismarck City jail along with Frank Black Hawk. They had to be released after the lynching. Defender died within the year from tuberculosis.
Does anyone recognize anyone else in the photo? The white man in the front row--lawyer, interpreter? I wonder if it is Thomas Reedy, head of the Indian Police at Standing Rock Agency?
The trials took place in June and July--yet notice the heavy coats. Fabulous photo! Thanks!

[winona]

Could that be Grey Eagle on the bottom left? He was one of the trial witnesses, (both trials) and 45 at the time. The newspaper clippings described him "as a handsome man of about 45." (right on the nose!) Patrick Yellow Lodge, possibly, on the top left, described," as a tall, good-looking youth of 19." Next to him, in the buffalo coat, Baptise Gabe, one of the interepters for the trial? (Baptise Gabe was half-French-Canadian and Lakota and attended Hampton Institute; he was a harness-maker at Standing Rock Agency.) Other witnesses were Leo Smell the Bear, Frank and Thomas Martin, John Blue Boy "Hoksilato." Anyone recognize anyone?

[Dietmar]

Unfortunately I can´t say anything about the other men in the photograph. I tried to google the names mentioned, but found little information.
I´m not sure about Gray Eagle, I tend to believe he isn´t in the photo.

There is another photo you can find at Cowan´s auctions which shows the three young men hanging at the gallows, but I refrained to post it here out of respect for the dead.

[winona]

Yes, I have seen the scaffold photo. Very gruesome. The historical society also has the Spicer victim death scene photos, taken by Dick Fansler and Frank Fiske (as a teenager). It has to be one of the early crime scenes photographed that way, anyway, on the ND prairie. They were never used in the trials, though.
The only other idea I had for identification was that the photo is possibly the Defender trial, the second trial for the murder suspects. There was a juror who held out, and made the jury acquit George Defender. He was a 30-ish homesteader named Gust Frederickson. Maybe it is him. The awkward haircut makes me think he was not an official, or lawyer, as they were very polished in their photos.
I wondered about the white button some of the men are wearing. Is that a button, or a inked in photo ID? If a button, I am thinking it possibly a temperance button, for the society run at Standing Rock Agency by Mrs. Jennie Buisson Cramsie, wife of the Indian Agent.
Anyway, I appreciate your posting of the photo. I never would have thought to look on ebay!

[wolfgang]

Hey,I think the man second from right in the sitting row is Tom Frosted aka White Bear

[Dietmar]

Danke Wolfgang,

good call. Just for comparison:


Tom Frosted aka White Bear, 1908


Tom Frosted aka White Bear, 1908

www.american-tribes.com/Nakota/BIO/WhiteBear.htm

[winona]

Thanks Wolfgang and Dietmar, for the identification. I am beginning to think that the auctioneer for the original photo correctly identified the three suspects, but I am wondering if the photo is not connected with the trial at all, and just happens to be a photo for some other occasion. The murder investigation took place in March, April and May, 1897. The trials were in June, Alec Cadotte's, and July, George Defender. I mentioned the heavy coat worn by Holy Track and the man next to him. Also, George Defender would not want to associate with Holy Track and Philip Ireland after they brought him into the murder investigation. He always claimed he was innocent (and was acquited) while Holy Track and Ireland admitted their role in the murders.
I am wondering if this is just some sort of association meeting at Standing Rock, like the YMCA, or a temperance society. Tom Frosted was never part of the trials, or investigation, that I can determine. He wasn't part of the Indian Police yet, in 1897. Notice, no one is handcuffed, so how are all the suspects at a photo studio, being photographed, without police or the sheriffs, like in the earlier photo?
I think this photo is prior to the murders. Philip Ireland looks so young, I am wondering if it is a few years earlier than 1897. Defender does not look so emaciated, as in the jail photos. He would die in 1897 of TB, and was described as gaunt and thin in the trials.

[ladonna]

Does you have any information on who Paul Holy Track was I can not find any informatrion of him on the rolls for Standing Rock?

[winona]

This is what I know about Paul (Oyewakanwin). Paul Holy Track's father was at a reservation in Montana, possibly Ft. Peck, and was alive in 1897. In 1897 Paul had lived at Standing Rock about 13 years. His mother was Her Day (Taanpetu) born 1860, and married to Scare the Eagle, or Siaka = Teal Duck; he used both; George Shiyaka, born 1842. Paul sometimes went by Paul Shiaka. His sister was Bessie (1881), Clarence (1884, Dora (1892). The grandmother was Bear Robe (1813). (She might have died by 1898, as she's no longer living with the family.) In 1900, George Shiyaka is added. Paul was 19 when he was arrested in April of 1897 and confessed to the murders of the Spicer family. Philip Ireland was then arrested soon after.

[winona]

Ladonna, In your Black Hawk/Pierre family tree, there is a fourth son of BlackHawk and Visible. His name was Henry (Ali) and used Henry Pierre or Ali Blackhawk interchangebly; he was born in 1869. He is in the 1896 Indian Census with his brother Pinta (Peter) Pierre, and in the 1887 Census with his older brother Bacis, or Baptise Pierre. I have trouble finding after 1896 at Standing Rock. I am also pretty certain that there was a sister, Celestine Pierre, married to a (German-born) Mutchler, and who died by the 1890s, as son William is listed on the census as an orphan, and lives alternately with the Pierre brothers. (The Pierre/Blackhawk family was cousin to Louis Agard, Jr., with whom Henry (Ali) Pierre is living in 1891, and listed as cousin.)

As far as their mother, Visible, there are some hints that she may be the sister of Louis Agard's mother, Mary Brocell, born 1840. Her name was Spotted Horse. (These relationships are not proved,yet, but they have to be cousins on the Sioux side, not the BlackHawk side) I am guessing they are cousins through sisters.

[ladonna]

Oyewakanwin-Holy Track Woman would not be Pauls name? Win means woman
We have had some people here from Standing Rock who say that is not his name.
We have no Holy Tracks on the rolls here, and Paul Shiyake is not the same person.
We were told Paul Holy Track and Philip Ireland were cousins but I still can not find
anything on him. I did fine information on Paul Shiyaka.

[ladonna]

Aug 20, 2012 20:16:02 GMT -5 winona said:

Ladonna, In your Black Hawk/Pierre family tree, there is a fourth son of BlackHawk and Visible. His name was Henry (Ali) and used Henry Pierre or Ali Blackhawk interchangebly; he was born in 1869. He is in the 1896 Indian Census with his brother Pinta (Peter) Pierre, and in the 1887 Census with his older brother Bacis, or Baptise Pierre. I have trouble finding after 1896 at Standing Rock. I am also pretty certain that there was a sister, Celestine Pierre, married to a (German-born) Mutchler, and who died by the 1890s, as son William is listed on the census as an orphan, and lives alternately with the Pierre brothers. (The Pierre/Blackhawk family was cousin to Louis Agard, Jr., with whom Henry (Ali) Pierre is living in 1891, and listed as cousin.)

As far as their mother, Visible, there are some hints that she may be the sister of Louis Agard's mother, Mary Brocell, born 1840. Her name was Spotted Horse. (These relationships are not proved,yet, but they have to be cousins on the Sioux side, not the BlackHawk side) I am guessing they are cousins through sisters.

Cousin would be called sisters in the culture

[winona]

Paul Holy Track used that name in both the trials, and attested that was his name in English. After his death The Winona Times quoted ," Holy Track's step-father only thought that justice had been done." November 24, 1897.

Another newspaper acccount May 1, 1897: "Paul Holy Track, aged 22,he is the step-son of Siyaka or Rushing Eagle. Paul's own father lives at Poplar Creek, Montana. Rushing Eagle is a chief of a band of Indians living a mile or two this side of the agency."

The Emmons County Record: May 13, 1897. "The mother of Paul Holy Track, the leader in the Spicer murders, came to bid him goodbye when he was taken from the jail at Standing Rock to begin his trip to Bismarck." So his mother was alive at the time.

Bismarck Daily Tribune, May 28, 1897, Holy Track said: "But (George) Defender is, as you know, my near relative..."
Paul Holy Track has to be at Standing Rock in February 1896, as he is listed in the pay records in the Standing Rock Records at the National Archives Record Group;General Correspondence Series; Box 40; "A" 16684-96; May 05, 1896 "Paul Holy Track, Assistant Blacksmith, appointed April 17, 1896, $120 per year."
Then,"June 30, 1896, Paul Holy Track discharged."
He doesn't appear anywhere in the SR Census, except as Paul Shiyaka, and is no longer with the parents after 1897. If Paul Shiyaka is not Holy Track, and he's supposed to have lived at SR for 13 years, what would his name be? And would Shiyaka, the stepfather, have a son exactly the same age from 1892 through 1896?
I hope you can figure this out, Ladonna! You know the families...

[winona]

Correction: I said in an earlier post that his stepfather was named Black Lightening. That's George Defender's father. The stepfather, as I wrote later was Siyaka or Shiyaka, Rushing Eagle.

[ladonna]

Thank u I am trying to figure this out hopfully i will find the answer