Short Bull Ledger

[grahamew]

Most of these are housed in the Lansburgh Collection at Dartmouth College:


Short Bull in a fight with Crows (this one is/was in the Donald Ellis Gallery


Short Bull falls from his horse


Short Bull stealing horses


Short Bull and Grey Hawk


Crazy Horse fighting the Shoshone


Short Bull and Eagle Bear fleeing gunfire from Crows and soldiers


Short Bull raiding for two horses


Short Bull in battle against the Chaticks si Chaticks (Pawnee)


Short Bull counting coup on a Pawnee

I know of two more almost identical to the one immediately above and another of him striking a Crow wearing a striped shirt with his lance. Unfortunately, I haven't come across the images on the internet and my scanner is shot...

Ron McCoy's excellent article on Short Bull for American Indian Art Magazine, containing more drawings, including excerpts from his winter count, can be found here: faculty.washington.edu/kbunn/short_bull.pdf

Short Bull attacking the enemy


Short Bull fights a Crow

Note that McCoy's article identifies the Crazy Horse figure as Short Bull and that the same man (similar shirt, same fox skin and different leggings) turns up in another drawing - see above.

[grahamew]

If anyone has any more, please post - likewise, if anyone has clearer copies of the two immediately above, so we can make out the writing. Whoever wrote the text had issues spelling and I wonder if that says, "Crazer Horse" on the second picture of the man with the fox skin.

[grahamew]

Short Bull some time in the 1890s, I'm guessing, wearing what may be a fox skin...



If you look closely, the fox tail is present in three of the non-'Crazy Horse' images, emerging from above his waist or blanket.

[nicolas (carlo)]

Jul 10, 2018 1:12:32 GMT -5 grahamew said:

If anyone has any more, please post - likewise, if anyone has clearer copies of the two immediately above, so we can make out the writing. Whoever wrote the text had issues spelling and I wonder if that says, "Crazer Horse" on the second picture of the man with the fox skin.

I have a copy of the physical magazine in front of me and even with a magnifying glass I can't make out the first word. It could be "Crazer", although it seems the first letter is an R, and in the middle is a G, Y or Z, followed by what seems to be ER. Not very helpful I know...

The second word is indeed "Horse", followed by "and Crow man" 

[wyandotte303]

The writing on that last page, marked 36, would likely be "Crazy Horse" since the writing on the earlier page, marked 37, is clearly Crazy Horse—and looks like the same hand. If the handwritten numbers relate, in fact, to the position of these pages in a once-intact ledger, they would be two sides of the same page (or leaf). If these pages are, indeed, from the same source, someone has cropped a few of the images. Does anyone know if there are more at Dartmouth?

[grahamew]

I had assumed Dartmouth housed the complete ledger until I saw that the Donald Ellis gallery had one page. Aside from any more images in McCoy's article (which are cropped), the only others I've seen - maybe two more off the top of my head - are in Ledger Narratives: The Plains Indian Drawings in the Mark Lansburgh Collection at Dartmouth College (2012)

[ted]

Interesting, Short Bull wearing a long breast plate in the early seventies.

Attachments:

[grahamew]

[nicolas (carlo)]

Although the text reads "Hohe tribe indian", Short Bull's adversary shows all the characteristics of a Crow warrior as typically depicted by Lakota artists: pompadour hairstyle, red painted forehead, Crow-style breast plate.

[grahamew]

A better version of one of the pages posted above - this time from The Donald Ellis Gallery ( www.donaldellisgallery.com/offerings/plains-indian-drawings/ledger-drawing-p4416 ):

[grahamew]

A few more from here: www.olc.edu/about-olc/office-of-the-president/short-bull-family-history/










And, most intriguing but with the poorest resolution...

[nicolas (carlo)]

Any idea what the last one depicts?

[grahamew]

Sorry. The original is even smaller!

[grahamew]

Here's an unusual one, taken from allenartcollection.oberlin.edu/objects/16524/two-figures-on-horseback?ctx=36749b2f5801f07bec0567893c7d7ecc41039126&idx=0







'Bought from "Short Bull" who selected himself as the ? in his book of drawings. Fort Sheridan, Illinois, March 14th 1891.



Short Bull's illustration used in Natalie Curtis' The Indians' Book

[nicolas (carlo)]

Nice one Grahame. It seems to show him in close combat with a Crow warrior.

The text reads: “Bought from "Short Bull" who selected it himself as the best in his book of drawings.”