Orlando Scott Goff

[grahamew]

I found it on Google books, but I couldn't see any sources for the statement.

[grahamew]

A Goff from Ebay. A Crow scout at Fort Custer, early 80s, I guess:

[grahamew]

Going back to Goff's photo of the steamboat Helena:

[shan]

Grahamew,

great blow ups given how small the image was, or rather is. Do you, or does anyone else recognise any of the Indians, given that I am always on the look out for Low Dog, the man sitting directly below the man in the war bonnet looks to have his rather distinctive hairline, but then to be honest, I think I'm grasping at straws. Any idea who the man in the Warbonnet is? He must have thought a lot of himself to put it on for such a solemn occasion?

Shan

[grahamew]

I know these are sometimes credited to Barry, who Goff hired in 1879, and sometimes to Morrow, who had hired Goff earloer in 1871. To complicate matters further, looking through auction sites, some of Goff's images were sold by Barry, presumably under licence.

There are several studio photographs, taken, I would guess, in the mid-late 1870s, featuring a patterned drape hanging over the backdrop wall. Most of these images are of Berthold people:




War Eagle (Wanmdi Kicizapi) aka Rushing War Eagle, Mandan


Buffalo Horn and family, Hidatsa - or Horn in Front, Mandan


Antelope or Iron Horse, Arikara


John Left Hand, Arikara - I've also seen him identified as Blue Thunder


Unidentified - note the X-shaped exploit marks on his leggings that were typical of the Arikara, though not unknown among other tribes in the area


Black Bull, Lakota - not the Black Bull who stayed in Canada at Moose Jaw



Unidentified Lakota - that may be the same pipe and pipe bag that Black Bull holds


No drape on these next few. Long Soldier, Lakota - or... Long Soldier, Arikara


(Bob) Brave Bear, Lakota


Black Buffalo Bull, Arikara - name also given as Little Thunder


Little John, Arikara


Bull Head, Arikara


Crow Flies High, Hidatsa


Bloody Knife (maybe), Arikara, with Mr. De Frane


Bloody Kife, Arikara - possibly not by Goff, but by whom?


Charging Hawk, Arikara - sometimes mistakenly identified as an Osage scout

[nicolas (carlo)]

Interesting to see so many of the Arikaras carrying a US Cavalry saber. Tantalizing to think it was a symbol of leadership, although I suspect it was a studio prop that Goff used (as can also be seen in the Crow Flies High, Hidatsa, photo and the Crow scout photo in this same thread.) Difficult to make out but it seems to be the same one in all photos.

[grahamew]

You may be on to something.

I think the Crow scout photo was taken quite a few years later and I'm not sure he's not a Crow soldier rather than a scout. You can see sabres in several non-studio Goff photos and in one case at least, it's not the same one:


Unidentified


Black Fox and Son of the Star/Rushing Bear


Hard Horn and family, Hidatsa


Hard Horn and his son, Hidatsa - wearing the same clothing as they do in the image above. The sabre handle is different to the type carried in the other photos.


As you mentioned - Crow Flies High


Here's one I don't think is a Goff, judging by the backdrop: Long Knife(?), Arikara


Bobtail Bull, the man second from left carries a sabre in this Morrow photo taken at Berthold


Another Morrow photo; although unamed and occasionally identified as a Cheyenne or Cheyenne River Sioux, this is an Arikara and he looks like Black Fox (see photo further this post)

[nicolas (carlo)]

The ones that are similar are Model 1860 Light Cavalry sabers, in use by US Cavalry units from the Civl War until today (for dress uniform or color guards.) They were quite common up until the 1900s actually, so they might be different sabers after all.

Btw, nice views of with and without sheath.

[grahamew]

You can also see the use of sabres - as if some kind of status symbol rather than a weapon - in Arikara drawings from this period in the Hazen Collection in The Smithsonian:








This one possibly shows Bloody Knife because his appearance is similar that in another drawing of him meeting an officer (possibly Hazen), where he wears an army jacket with corporal's chevrons on his sleeve, though he has five feathers here but only four in the other drawing

[grahamew]

Rushing Bear/Son of Star, Arikara


Hard Horn's family, Hidatsa.

Dating the photos is difficult; various websites give, not surprisingly, various dates. Louis N. Hafermehl's article on Goff, which can be downloaded at www.history.nd.gov/publications/goff-article.pdf, gives the date of the photo below as 1879, which possibly dates all the similar photos too. I have seen earlier dates. I think the boy here could feasibly be eight or nine, so that he might be 13 in 1878, meaning he could be Arihotchkish aka Long Arm, one of the first intake at The Hampton Institute. The other young man in the image below with Hard Horn is possibly too old. On the other hand, if we take Hafermehl's date, then he must presumably be the boy in the turban and roach in the image below. This young man is sometimes identified as Long Arm, so who knows...? Another possibility is that the photo shows him after his father brought him back (though I don't have the date) to the reservation, where he died shortly afterwards.



Arihotchkish is the one sitting on the floor in the Hampton photo below:

Arihotchkish produced ledger drawings while at Hampton. You can see a couple here: www.pafa.org/museum/collection-artist/arihotchkish


Wolf Chief, Hidatsa


Earth lodge


"The Old Giant," Hidatsa


Vien, Hidasta(?)


Crow's Breast, Hidatsa. I've also seen this labelled as Black Tongue - does he look like the Morrow photo of Crow's Breast below?


Credited to Hamilton, this may be a Morrow ... though I've also seen it credited to D.C. Smith


Rushing War Eagle, Mandan


Hard Horn and wives...?


Thorn and Bull in the Water, Arikara scouts - this could well be a Morrow or a Haynes

[Dietmar]

Interesting pictures in this thread. Many identifications of the Fort Berthold people need to be discussed.

I don´t know who labeled this man 'Chief Vien' (not Grahame of course) and if it has a meaning, but he is mixed-blood trader Pierre Garreau, usually called 'Long Hair' by the Affiliated Tribes:


Pierre Garreau by O. S. Goff, said to be taken in 1881

I think Garreau also sits in front of the earth lodge photo further above.

[grahamew]

Yes, it is him:

[Dietmar]

Yep, and probably Black Fox on right.

Black Fox, btw, must be the delegate who went to Washington with Rushing Bear in 1874.


This picture is labelled Bull Head. I´ve seen him incorrectly identified as 'Sioux' on other sites as well:



My hunch is that he is instead a man called Big John, who later was photographed by Gilbert:



'Chief' Big John was a prominent Arikara und ran a store on a hill near Fort Stephenson in the 1890s. He previously had been a scout for the government and lost a leg below his knee during his service.

[grahamew]

Brilliant! That Gilbert photo has to be mid-80s at least.


This is labelled Big John and his brother. I've also seen the man on the horse identified as Rushing Bear and the other man as Black Horse. Looks nothing like Rushing Bear to me, but maybe Black Horse is Big John's original name.

I'd like to say the photographer is Goff, but it might be Morrow or Barry (or Haynes...).

Notice the X-shaped exploit marks painted on the arms of the mounted man.





I wonder when/how he lost his leg.

[grahamew]

Another Goff, presumably taken at or near Fort Abraham Lincoln. No idea who the boy and girl are, though the boy's necklace is more typical of the Lakota than the Arikara.