portrait of Lakota Omaha or Grass Dancer - by Anderson?

[Californian]

I have owned this photograph for a number of years, it is an albumen print mounted on black card stock. Until recently I have never been able to identify who it is other than broadly considering it to depict a Lakota dancer (Omaha of Grass Dance costume ?) - the age I can safely date to be either mid/late 1880's or 1890's. There was a photographer named John Alvin Anderson (1869-1948) who was active on the Rosebud Reservation as of 1889 and during the 1890's he worked at the Trading Post there that was operated by Indian agent Charles Philander Jordan. I have seen Anderson images that had a similar feel and are also printed on black card stock, though most of them are with his initials and name imprinted at the bottom. Just today I found this very same photograph offered on EBAY - seemingly a pirated reprint (though also albumen type and thus an early reprint) and it has the name Sunka Wakan Hanska - Lean Horse - written thereon by hand and in 19th century period handwriting. I would be most grateful for any insights.

[Dietmar]

Is lean the correct translation for hanska? I thought it means long or tall.

[Dietmar]

I found the same picture with handwritten inscription "Loves Horses, Sioux Häuptling". Häuptling is the German word for Chief, so it surely was written on the photo not by the photographer, but by someone later, probably in Germany.

The photographer was Abraham Bogardus from New York, not Anderson:



Most of Bogardus´other Indian portraits I know show Northern Cheyennes.

[grahamew]

Thought I'd seen him somewhere before:


I had him down as Lakota, too.

[Californian]

thanks Dietmar - "Lean Horse" and "Loves Horses" to someone not paying particular attention has a similar sound and I can easily see how an uncaring early vendor of Indian photographs might have made that error. You are right about the word "hanska" - perhaps it could also be taken for something "thin" and hence the misnomer "lean" ?

[Californian]

hi Dietmar - great find about the Bogardus photograph - I am indebted. So it is a Northern Cheyenne and not a Lakota. Looking around the internet I located similarly posed images that further substantiate your finding. It turns out now that I too seemingly own a plagiarized copy, perhaps a better quality one than the one currently offered on EBAY (Oct 2018)