Black Elk in Germany?

[grahamew]

www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/circus-indian-black-elk-buffalo-bill-1695276419

Supposedly taken in 88 or 89 after he'd become separated from Cody and joined some other show. The clothing looks like a costume. There's a written date on the other side of the postcard that's either 1903 or 1905.

To be honest, the bone structure doesn't look the same as the man we know from the Elliott and Fry photo, but who knows...?

[Dietmar]

If you ask me, I don´t think this is Black Elk, if it is a Lakota at all.

[rudolf]

Hello, I am Rudolf from Germany. This is most probably the Lakota Hampa Naspa, Wet Moccasin. Hampa Naspa was a mystery and worked in various European circus companies from 1886.

[Diane Merkel]

Welcome, Rudolf, and thank you for your reply.

Best wishes,
Diane

[rudolf]

Diane, thank you for the warm welcome.

Rudolf

[Dietmar]

Not that I´m totally sure, but I find it more likely that this Black Elk is the first Native American hired by Circus Sarrasani to perform in Europe in 1906/1907.

The German newspaper 'Sächsische Volkszeitung' of July 31st 1906 writes, that "the Sioux Indian Black Elk (Schwarzer Hirsch) will appear in full war-regalia. The gentleman in question acquired his astonishing skill as a marksman during extensive travels in South America."


Unfortunately Black Elk died in 1907 in Munich, Germany, again as told by German newspapers, among them the 'Dortmunder Zeitung' of July 9th 1907:

"In foreign soil [...] Josef Xab-Panka, called Black Elk, Schwarzer Hirsch, of the Sioux Indian tribe, has reached the last station of a very eventful wandering life. On the other side of the great water, in Canada, the son of the free wilderness grew up."

This is followed by a vivid description of how Black Elk set out to show other peoples his shooting and riding skills and joined Buffalo Bill and then Sarrasani, among others. He died in Munich at the age of thirty-eight 'after a serious illness' and was buried in a grand ceremony.

Whether this Black Elk was really a Lakota or an American Indian at all is a question mark. The whole life story seems a bit questionable. At the very least, more research is needed to prove it.

[rudolf]

„Not that I´m totally sure, but I find it more likely that this Black Elk is the first Native American hired by Circus Sarrasani to perform in Europe in 1906/1907.“


The one does not exclude the other. Wet Moccasin is said to have worked for various European circuses. He did not come to Europe with "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" but in 1886 with "Sitting Bull's Sioux Indians". I assume it was also him who worked for Sarrasani around 1907. Names can be changed. Publications in German newspapers about Native American artists at the Sarrasani Circus almost always follow the statements of the circus director Sarrasani and his press department. Stosch-Sarrasani revered the Indians but was not so particular about the truth. In the circus, rattling is part of the trade. For advertising reasons, the circus always had to stay in the news - better bad or invented news than no news. According to this motto, Sarrasani often spread half-truths or invented stories about "his" Indians. For this reason, it is very rare to find really meaningful and true information about the dedicated show Indians in circus publications or in the memoirs of his employees. Even the Sarrasani historian Ernst Günther, in his publications such as the book "Sarrasani wie er wirklich war" (Sarrasani as he really was), was very much guided by the half-truths and tall tales told by the circus director and his propaganda chief August Heinrich Kober about the Indian employees.

The Sarrasani archive, which could be helpful, is known to have been burned during the heavy bombing of the city of Dresden in early 1945. I have not yet been able to find any information about the alleged (?) burial with a large ceremony of the Sarrasani Indian Black Elk in Munich or a corresponding grave.

To speculate further, here is a quote from the book "Wild West Shows and the images of American Indians, 1883-1933", L. G. Moses, page 66 - 68 :

„… A few spectacular instances of abandonment fueled the other pressing issue, mistreatment of Indians. Agent Hugh Gallagher at Pine Ridge reporter one of the more important cases in molding attitudes at the Bureau. In December 1886, he informed Commissioner Atkins that all but two of his charges, Hampa Naspa (Wet Moccasin, also known as Whirlwind) and Eagle Horse, had arrived back at the Great Sioux Reservation. They and the other Sioux had been taken from the reservation without permission. Although their names appeared on the return list provided by F. H. Partridge, an American agent for European circuses, Hampa and Eagle Horse had disappeared.

Months later, in March 1887, at the request on Oglala named White Eyes, Gallagher next asked the commissioner to enlist the assistance of the State Department in locating a third missing Indian who had apparently accompanied Partridge to Europe. White Eyes’s son Yellow Blanket was, according to some of the returned Show Indians, being held against his will in Christiana, Norway. The State Department investigated. United States ministers and consuls scattered throughout Europe made inquiries. A year and seven months later, the State Department informed the commissioner of the results of the investigation. It was discovered that Yellow Blanket, Hampa, and Eagle Horse (or „Horn“ as he was sometimes listed) had joined the Circus Krembser in Kiel, Germany, during the summer of 1887. Next, Hampa and Eagle Horse, without Yellow Blanked, performed in Kiev, Russia, during July 1888. In October, the secretary of state received information - which he forwarded to Commissioner John Eberly, who had replaced Atkins the month before - that both Sioux had been admitted to an infirmary in Jitumir, Russia. Hampa and Eagle Horse appeared „quite ill and in destitute circumstances.“ Yellow Blanket still could not be found. Oberly passed the information along to Agent Gallagher ans assured him that all measures were being taken to locate and return the prodigals to their homes.

Just before Christmas 1888, the Indian Bureau forwarded information recently obtained from the vice-consul at Hamburg, Germany. Eagle Horse, the report to Gallagher stated, had died of tuberculosis in Lodz, Poland, and had been buried there in the Protestant cemetery. The search for Hampa and Yellow Blanket continued. Finally, in April 1889, it ended. Robert V. Belt, acting commissioner of Indian affairs in the newly inaugurated Harrison administration, reported to Gallagher that Eagle Horse, buried in Poland, was actually the missing Yellow Blanket. It seemed that the clever proprietors of the Circus Krembser had given Yellow Blanket what they considered to be a more „Indian-like“ name and that F. H. Partridge had failed to record that information. Hampa had also been found. As of March 1889, he was living in Odessa on the Black Sea, performing in a circus, and appearing „quite alive, well paid and seemingly content.“ The United States consul at Odessa assured the Bureau, through the State Department, that Hampa expressed no desire to return to the United States. Hampa then disappeared from the record for more than twenty years. He surfaced briefly in the summer of 1909, when sources in the State Department reported that he was being held against his will in London. Upon further investigation, however, it was discovered that he had been working continuously for various circuses throughout Europe and, according to the United States consul at Leipzig, „most emphatically … does not want to return to … the United States.“ Thereafter, Hampa disappears from the record. The odyssey of Yellow Blanket and Hampa became a testimonial supposedly to neglect. …“

[Dietmar]

I`d like to thank Dr. Peter Bolz for contributing another picture of Black Elk and also Rainer Hatoum, who forwarded it to me:





This is said to be a Sarrasani poster of 1907, where as it seems Black Elk is shown as one of the circus performers:




Not only German newspapers reported about Black Elk´s death in 1907, but as seen here American papers as well:


The Weekly Corinthian, Corinth (Mississippi), 1907.08.01.

[rudolf]

Dietmar exciting pictures thanks. It would also be interesting to see the back of the first picture. Then one could draw further conclusions as to whether it is a picture postcard or a photo and who published it.

Is the known information about the Sioux BLACK ELK's 1906/1907 engagement with the Sarrasani circus and his death and funeral in Munich at all correct? To me, this information in the press and in the literature seems questionable and of little substance. Where is the source for the sparse information? This original source would have to be found in the Sarrasani Circus or its environment. I could not find any corresponding information in the advertising booklets "Mit Sarrasani in Südamerika", No. 1 - No. 7, in various Sarrasani program booklets and in various issues of "Sarrasani's Illustrierte". Your short newspaper article also seems unspecific and vague to me; it contains hardly any tangible facts.

In the literature on the legendary Sarrasani Circus, the story of this BLACK ELK appears for the first time to my knowledge in the following book by the official Sarrasani historian Ernst Günther from Dresden.




SARRASANI WIE ER WIRKLICH WAR. (SARRASANI AS HE REALLY WAS.) Ernst Günther. Henschelverlag Kunst und Gesellschaft. Berlin 1984. pp. 65-66.

"...In connection with the shooting arts also an Indian appears for the first time. A Friedländer lithograph from 1909/10 (no. 5074) shows the director as a trapper in the center, flanked by a cowboy and an Indian in front of a log cabin, surrounded by bold riders and shooters. In the Guldner brochure of 1908, there is a graphic allegation that the cowboy is Rodrigo and the Indian is the Sioux BLACK ELK, whose real name is Josef Xab-Panka. The said BLACK ELK had come over from Canada with the Buffalo Bill Show and performed at Sarrasani's for a while in 1907. He died in Munich in the summer of 1907, where he was also buried..."




SARRASANI WIE ER WIRKLICH WAR. (SARRASANI AS HE REALLY WAS.) Ernst Günther. Henschel Verlag GmbH Berlin. 3rd supplemented and expanded edition 1991. page 75.

Here the author Ernst Günther wrote the same as in the first edition of his book, but supplemented the information somewhat.

"...In connection with the shooting arts also an Indian appears for the first time. A Friedländer lithograph from 1909/10 (No. 5074) shows the director as a trapper in the center, flanked by a cowboy and an Indian in front of a log cabin, surrounded by bold riders and shooters. In the Guldner brochure of 1908, there is a graphic allegation that the cowboy is Rodrigo and the Indian is the Sioux BLACK ELK, whose real name is Josef Xab-Panka. The said BLACK ELK had come over from Canada with the Buffalo Bill Show and performed at Sarrasani's for a while in 1907. He died in Munich in the summer of 1907, where he was also buried. Rodrigo is none other than 'old Mr. Schmidt from Radebeul'. It was not until 1989 that more could be found out about him: One of the very first Sarrasani cowboys was the subsequent owner of the Radebeul cinema 'Union', Max Schmidt..."




SARRASANI GESCHICHTE UND GESCHICHTEN. (SARRASANI HISTORY AND STORIES.) Ernst Günther. Edition Sächsische Zeitung Dresden 2005. page 27.

Günther also recorded similar information in this book. In his first two publications, however, he formulated more cautiously "...it is said to have been..." Here in his third book on the subject, however, he now formulates the following as an indisputable fact.

"...Sarrasani was able to present the first original Indian in 1906/07. The Sioux BLACK ELK, whose real name was Josef Xab-Panka. He belonged to the Canadian part of the ethnic group, came to Germany with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, but did not return home with it. For Chief Black Moose ( !? ), the director had one of his early shows staged, 'A Scene from the Wild West'. He provided him with the 'daring cowboy Rodrigo' - his Radebeul friend Max Schmidt, still remembered today as the owner of the 'Union' cinema..."




In all three books, Ernst Günther owes us his sources for the information written down.

Other authors who write about BLACK ELK, Artist at Circus Sarrasani, refer to this information about BLACK ELK by the author Ernst Günther.




MENSCHEN ANSCHAUEN. (LOOKING AT PEOPLE.) Editors Dr. Christina Ludwig, Andrea Rudolph, Dr. Thomas Steller, Volker Strähle. Sandstein publishing house. Dresden 2023.

This book is an anthology that brings together several articles/research reports on the subject of "Self and other stagings in Dresden human exhibitions". Also included are two articles in which BLACK ELK, Artist of the Circus Sarrasani, makes an appearance.




Article SARRASANIS VÖLKER: MENSCHEN-SCHAUEN IM ZIRKUS. (SARRASANI'S PEOPLES: PEOPLE-WATCHING IN THE CIRCUS.) Sabine Hanke.

The author Sabine Hanke writes the following.

"...Even before the opening of the large main building in Dresden, the Sarrasani Circus presented its first Indian group. In 1906 and 1907, a group under BLACK ELK (1863 - 1950), who had traveled to Germany with 'Buffalo Bill's Wild West', was shown..."

Your source: "GÜNTHER: Sarrasani (note 4), 27."




Article INDIANER UND „INDIANER“ IM RAUM DRESDEN. (INDIANS AND "INDIANS" IN THE DRESDEN AREA.) Hartmut Rietschel.

The author Hartmut Rietschel writes the following.

"...1907 The Indian BLACK ELK at the Dresden Circus Sarrasani. During the Wild West performances at the Sarrasani Circus, the company had its first real Indian under contract: Black Deer (BLACK ELK or Tanka Gsab, deceased in 1907). He was known as the 'Lasso thrower'. He also performed a 'bareback wrestling match for two'. According to his death certificate, he came from Canada and probably escaped from a Wild West troop in Europe..."

His source: "See the article by Sabine Hanke in this volume."




Although the Dresden author Hartmut Rietschel cites the author Sabine Hanke and both articles were published in a book, there is sometimes contradictory information.

All five publications report on the Sioux Indian BLACK ELK under contract to Circus Sarrasani, but unfortunately not a single reasonable source is to be found. New authors will no doubt often use and cite the five publications as sources on the subject of BLACK ELK.

All in all, there is a lot of confusion and little substantive, verifiable information!

[Dietmar]

Rudolf, unfortunately I only got the front of the picture.

I can´t say how accurate the newspaper coverage of Black Elk`s funeral is, but at least many details are given... even a few names of those who were present, among them:
- a catholic priest and his altar boys
- Herr Friedmann (managing director of Circus Sarrasani)
- the nurse who took care of Black Elk in a hospital
- Frau Bircher, a dentist who also visited Black Elk in hospital
- a crowd of curious boys

Allegedly his grave was in Schwabing, Munich.

[whitefox]

This Black Elk first appears with Texas Jack in the late 1800s. He has no connection with either Buffalo Bill or the "Sioux Indian Troupe".

[whitefox]

[Dietmar]

Thanks a lot, whitefox!

[rudolf]

whitefox, thank you for your interesting information. Can you tell us where you got this information from? Is there an archive or a publication in which your photo posted here was archived or printed?

[Dietmar]

The picture is from Austrian newspaper 'Österreichische Illustrirte Zeitung', printed on September 4th 1898.



Although there is a lengthy article about the show at the 'Thiergarten' in Vienna, I couldn´t find out much about the whole group simply called "Wild West troupe" performing there. There were Mexicans mentioned being present too.

One other photo in the article shows Mister Hopkins, a sharp-shooter: