Kicking Bear's Surrender, 1877

[grahamew]

I think you must be right and and Ephriam surmised (http://amertribes.proboards.com/thread/1204/ephriam-dickson-sitting-surrender-census) that he left for Cheyenne River with the other Miniconjou and Sans Arc before the 1882 census.

[kingsleybray]

I don't have all my documentation to hand, people, but my reading of the Kicking Bear story in brief would be like this:

Kicking Bear (born c. 1843) and his brothers Black Fox (the younger) and Flying Hawk belonged to the Wakan Oyate, a sub-division of the major Oglala band called Oyuhpe. Oyuhpe was an old band (I have traced its antecedent groups into the 1500s -- I'm not kidding) with connections that from the beginning linked it with the Miniconjou and Sans Arc divisions of the Lakota. These linkups to the northern Teton groups explain much of Kicking Bear's own connections and movements

He and his brothers were among the many Lakotas who first surrendered at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies in spring 1877 All three brothers danced in the Miniconjou-Sans Arc Sun Dance at Spotted Tail Agency at the end of June. After the killing of Crazy Horse and the relocation of the agencies to the Missouri in the fall, they joined bands which broke away to join Sitting Bull's people in Canada. They were probably among those Lakotas who --- hungry from the depletion of the buffalo -- were compelled to surrender once more, this time to Col Miles' command on the Yellowstone river during summer 1880. In July 1881 all these people, plus others who surrendered at Ft Buford, were steamboated down the Missouri river to Ft Yates and the Standing Rock Agency. The plan was to hold them at Standing Rock over winter 1881-82, pending relocation to home agencies e.g. Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Cheyenne River. (The Hunkpapa camp that surrendered with Sitting Bull was sent on to detention at Ft Randall.)

Spotted Eagle's camp of Sans Arcs for some reason was sent to Cheyenne River, their home agency, in Sept. 1881, ahead of the planned relocation. This was just part of the Sans Arc contingent, presumably cored on Spotted Eagle's own tiyospaye the Tatanka Cesli (Bull Dung) band.

The other people remained at Standing Rock where in Sept. 1881 a very accurate census was taken - published by Ephriam Dickson as The Sitting Bull Surrender Census. Kicking Bear and his family was then counted with the Sans Arc camp led by chief Circle Bear. I suspect the most likely explanation is that his wife Woodpecker Woman (born c 1858) was a Sans Arc. She was a niece of the Miniconjou chief Big Foot (or Spotted Elk) so is commonly referred to as a Miniconjou, but her main affiliation seems to be with the Sans Arc. Note her age -- she is about 15 years younger than Kicking Bear, and their son To Fight With (later Frank Kicking Bear) was only 1 year old. My guess would be that KB had been married before but as of now I don't know anything about that marriage -- I'll try to follow up.

Anyway, the main point is that there is a census taken in June 1882 at Cheyenne River, after the transfer of the surrendered Miniconjou and Sans Arc bands from Standing Rock. Kicking Bear is still listed with the Sans Arcs. At no time is he listed with the Oglalas in this period - hence he is missing from the Big Road Roster illustrated above. His connections to the Oyuhpe and the Oglala were still strong, however, and in 1890 he moved between Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge during the Ghost Dance in which he took a leading part. After he returned from (a) military detention and (b) his World Tour with Buffalo Bill he relocated permanently at Pine Ridge, settling with his natal band the Oyuhpe near the reservation community of Manderson, South Dakota. Hope this helps.

[gregor]

Thank you, Kingsley! I think, we are one step ahead.

[tomfc]

My friends, very belatedly, much appreciation to you for your kind and scholarly attentions to my original query!

[tomfc]

<< his World Tour with Buffalo Bill >>

With all due respect, I take issue with 'world tour' - the only countries visited on the 1891-92 season were Belgium, Germany, England, Wales and Scotland - where the Wild West passed a memorable winter season in Glasgow, right next door to the school which my late mother subsequently attended!

[tomfc]

Mar 5, 2018 10:05:09 GMT -5 gregor said:

Unfortunately, to Whites Kicking Bear was not known until the advent of Ghost Dance in 1889/1890. I assume that he was among the Mnikowozu Lakota who surrendered to General Miles in May 1877 and were settled on the Cheyenne River Reservation. Leaders were, as far as I remember, Lame Deer from the Wakpokinyan band and Hump from the Shunka yute sni band. The census reports for Cheyenne River - available to me - are all starting in 1886, so are not very helpful.

The information about Hump (Etokeah) from this period is also partly contradictory. Some sources say he surrendered about the same time like Crazy Horse , then it is said he went to Canada to Sitting Bull (when?). Again other sources say Hump helped General Miles as a scout against the Nez Perces (in 1877). After Ephriam's Sitting Bull Surrender Census, Hump capitulated in 1881 (a second time?).

According to “General Miles Indian Campaigns” by G. W. Baird, (Major, US Army and a friend [?] of Miles.) in The Century Magazine (1891), Lame Deer's / Hump's group surrendered in a time frame from March to May 1877.

Baird wrote “The scattered fragments of Lame Deer's band were so hotly pursued by different detachments of the command that they were forced to seek rest and sue for peace at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies”.
And he goes on “In the summer and autumn of 1880 large and important surrenders to General Miles were made, the Indians breaking off from Sitting Bull's camp and coming under their own chiefs to Fort Keogh. In this way Spotted Eagle and Broad Trail or Big Road, Rain-in-the-Face, Kicking Bear, Short Bull, etc., and their followers came in and many others..”.

Here we have Kicking Bear again. But was he known from surrendering to Miles in 1880 or then (in 1891) by his Ghost Dance fame.
Question over questions. Any thought?

The reference to Short Bull, right after Kicking Bear, is highly significant. Short Bull, a Brule, not to be confused with Short Bull, Oglala, was Kicking Bear's brother-in-law. The two men were very close friends and both played a leading role in the Ghost Dance movement. Both were sent to Fort Sheridan as hostages and both ended up in Glasgow, Scotland, with Buffalo Bill's Wild West, in the winter of 1891-92. In fact, Short Bull took ill and almost died there.   

[kingsleybray]

Kicking Bear belonged by birth (father's side) to the Wakan sub-band of the Oyuhpe band of Oglala. His marriages were to the Sans Arc and Miniconjou divisions. My information, derived from Oglala consultants in 2018, is that Kicking Bear was with Lame Deer's camp in spring 1877. However, he had pledged the Sun Dance and so sometime in June he joined the Northern Lakota village at Spotted Tail Agency to fulfill his pledge. He is not named in any contemporary documents that I'm aware of. He then was among the people who broke away when the agencies were moved to the Missouri, fall-winter 1877-78. He was then in Canada with the Sitting Bull exiles, surrendering to Col Miles at Ft Keogh in 1880. The bands at Ft Keogh were then steamboated to Standing Rock in July 1881. Kicking Bear then appears in the census conducted in September, under the Sans Arc tribal division. He was transferred to Cheyenne River Agency in May 1882 with the Miniconjous and Sans Arcs for whom that was their home agency. He resettled at Pine Ridge after the Ghost Dance, locating with the Oyuhpe in Wounded Knee Creek Disrict.

[tomfc]

Jun 24, 2020 11:09:28 GMT -5 kingsleybray said:

Kicking Bear belonged by birth (father's side) to the Wakan sub-band of the Oyuhpe band of Oglala. His marriages were to the Sans Arc and Miniconjou divisions. My information, derived from Oglala consultants in 2018, is that Kicking Bear was with Lame Deer's camp in spring 1877. However, he had pledged the Sun Dance and so sometime in June he joined the Northern Lakota village at Spotted Tail Agency to fulfill his pledge. He is not named in any contemporary documents that I'm aware of. He then was among the people who broke away when the agencies were moved to the Missouri, fall-winter 1877-78. He was then in Canada with the Sitting Bull exiles, surrendering to Col Miles at Ft Keogh in 1880. The bands at Ft Keogh were then steamboated to Standing Rock in July 1881. Kicking Bear then appears in the census conducted in September, under the Sans Arc tribal division. He was transferred to Cheyenne River Agency in May 1882 with the Miniconjous and Sans Arcs for whom that was their home agency. He resettled at Pine Ridge after the Ghost Dance, locating with the Oyuhpe in Wounded Knee Creek Disrict.

A masterly synopsis Kingsley, thank you very much indeed. I'll take a careful note of that. 

You're going to find this an incredibly newbie-ish comment but I'm amazed that all those sub-tribes, bands and sub-bands stayed relevant as long as they did. Presumably they provided some kind of stable frame of reference to a people for whom kinship was everything. 

What I'm getting at is that so many tribes fractured down the middle and such was the fluidity of realignments that one might expect that the old distinctions would become meaningless and disappear. What was the significance of 'Oglala' when you have Smoke at one end and Crazy Horse at the other - the full spectrum? Like I say, unless you can advise me otherwise, it has to come down to genealogy. 

Which brings me to the next thing I'm really struggling with, if I may.  

Ricker, in Voices of the American West, Vol. 1, p. 387, note 17, identifies Kicking Bear's mother as 'Iron Cedar Woman, a sister of Chief Sitting Bull.' At p. 400, note 94, he repeats essentially the same information, regarding Flying Hawk, Kicking Bear's brother. 

The problem I have with this is that I understood that Kicking Bear's mother was a sister to Crazy Horse's mother. If all this is true so far, then Crazy Horse was also a nephew to Sitting Bull. However, in your biography of Crazy Horse, which is surely the standard text, you state in a couple of places that Crazy Horse's mother was a Miniconjou. Would you care to elucidate?