Hanging of Two Face and Black Foot in 1865

[hreinn]

In 1865, two Oglala Lakotas, Two Face and Black Foot, were hanged at Fort Laramie, without a trial, by the orders of either or both drunk Colonel Moonlight and drunk Colonel Baumer.
It would be interesting to find out to which tiyoshpaye (band) or wicoti (sub-band) Two Face and Black Foot belonged to.

Here is an interview of Addison E. Sheldon with Bawling Bull in July 31, 1903, who was a member of Two Face's band:

Aged 64. [edit: therefore born in 1838 or 1839]
Not with Red Cloud.
With another branch of the Oglalas.
His chief was named Two Face.
Two Face was hung at Ft Laramie for keeping a white woman (Mrs. Eubanks) captvie and assaulting her.
Two Face band of Oglalas used to hunt on both sides of the Platte as far east as the forks.
Never went up into the Powder River country.
Was not in fights against the whites.
Went up to Ft. Laramie when Two Face was hung.

This seems to best fit Wagluhe tiyoshpaye (Loafer band).
What do you say ?




Wagluhe chief Big Mouth rounded up Two Face's band, see a quote below [1]. Is this an example of a Wagluhe rounding up another Wagluhe ?

"Two Face, an Oglala chief, was one of the first to come. The Sioux stated that he had bought a white woman from a warrior who had captured her on the Platte, and he inteded to prove his friendliness by taking her safely to the fort; but he now met some Indians from the friendly camp, who warned him of the harsh treatment the troops at the fort were giving to all Indians. Two Face stopped where he was, afraid to approach the fort. Then Big Mouth and some and some warriors from the friendly camp came and rounded him up."




Blackfoot belonged to another tiyoshpaye and/or wicoti than Two Face, since they were not camping together, see a quote below [2].

"Two Face having bought or ransomed a white captive from the hostiles started in the spring of 1865 to take her to Fort Laramie, evidently hoping for a reward. Near the Platte his party ran into some of Elliston's Indian police, who rounded them up; and having learned that Blackfoot, another friendly chief, was on Snake Creek with a small camp, Elliston went with his Indians and brought in this band also."



Names of other people of Two Face's and Black Foot's bands who were also arrested and nearly escaping hanging were [3]:
1. Black War Bonnet. Black Foot's son
2. Thunder Bear (Mato-wakinyan). Two Face's son.
3. Calico (Minihuha), also known as Black Shield (Wohachankasapa). Said to be first cousin of Thunder Bear and therefore having the same grandparents.

Calico belonged to Skokpa tiyoshpaye.
What does that mean ?
Did all of these people belong to Skokpa tiyoshpaye ?
Or did some or all Skokpa travel with Wagluhe ?



References:
1. George E. Hyde "Spotted Tail's Folk", page 118, University of Oklahoma Press (1975).
2. George E. Hyde, "Red Cloud's Folk", page 119, University of Oklahoma Press (1974).
3. Denton R. Bedford and William C. Park, "Article on Hanging of the Chiefs Brings Forth Broad Reader Response", Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Autumn, 1970), p. 76-77

[frenchman]

Before the year 1840/1845 Two Face and Blackfoot belonged to the Southern nation (Itokaga oyate ) sub-band of the Payabiya  members of the maximal band Shiyo ;
Around the years 1840 , a group of brothers and cousins including Two Face , Blackfoot ,Thunder Bear joined the Shkokpa and married daughters of Calfskin Robe 
The reunion of these two tiyospayes formed a new band called Tapishleca .
Around the year 1850 Big Ribs who was a headman of the Southern Nation found a lot of kettles with legs abandoned on the trail by white people ! After that, the
Southern Nation tiyospaye took the name of "Kettles with legs" !
So, Two Face and Blackfoot belonged to the "Kettles with legs" tiyospaye of the Tapishleca when they were hanged .
 

[hreinn]

Great !
This fits to the "first cousin" term for Calico and Thunder Bear.
Where their common grandparents were Calfskin Robe and an unknown woman.
Based on this taken together:
a) Thunder Bear was a son of Calfskin Robe's daughter and Two Face.
b) Calico was a son of a unnamed Calfskin Robe's daughter, according to Lone Bear in Collier Field Notes.


But there is one "problem".
These sisters are not included in Lone Bear's genealogical tree of Calfskin Robe's family in Collier field notes.
According to Lone Bear, Calfskin Robe had 4 children; 1 unnamed daughter + 3 sons (Long Bear, Running Enemy and Pawnee Killer).
This unnamed daughter had at least 1 son named Calico, the name of his father is not given (do you know Calico's parents names ?).
But there seems to be 3 daughters of Calfskin Robe, i.e. Calico's mother + Two Face's wife (and Thunder Bear's mother) + Black Foot's wife.


The easy way around this "problem" is to say that Lone Bull's genealogical tree does not contain all details.
As evident by no name of Calfskin Robe's wife(s) + no name for Calico's parents.
So Calfskin Robe could have these 2 daughters with another woman than he had the above mentioned 4 children.
But is it certain that these sisters were Calfskin Robe's daughters but not "daughters" ?
That is, daughters of Calfskin Robe's brother or sister.


Do you know how Bawling Bear interviewed by Sheldon was related to the above mentioned people ?

[frenchman]

Greetings from France ,
As always, many years after it's very difficult to reconstruct the genealogy of famous chiefs without written contemporeanous proofs !
When we said Calfskin Robe's daughters maybe it's in Lakota sense of kindred where the nieces called their uncles "father" and where the uncles called their nieces "daughter" !
It seems that Calico was the real son of a Calfskin Robe daughter ( father Thunder Bear )
Best regards

[hreinn]

Black Feet is perhaps the correct form of the name, not Black Foot.

Frenchman, I have sent you a personal message on this website.
Please look in your Inbox under Messages (in a black line almost at the top on the homepage of this website, under the logo + photo).

[grahamew]

Magloire Mousseau in Ricker's Settler and Soldier Interviews says 'John' Calico was Two Face's son and a scout with Sanborn in the south. After the hanging, he 'picked off' numerous soldiers in revenge.

[Dietmar]

There is useful information on the Shkokpaya Band in this thread on Yellow Bear:

amertribes.proboards.com/thread/341/yellow-bear


You´ll also find an well written account of the Hanging in 1865 in this publication:
Fort Laramie and the U. S. Army
On the High Plains
1849 – 1890
Douglas C. McChristian
National Park Service


Black Foot, btw, was also known as Thunder Bear. His son was named after him Young Thunder Bear.

[Dietmar]

This is a portrait of the younger Thunder Bear, or John Thunder Bear, who was for some time a captain of Indian Police and later judge of the Pine Ridge Indians Court:



Mato Wakinyan, Thunder Bear, Oglala, 1896, by William Dinwiddie (SIRIS)

[Dietmar]

Here are Walter Camp´s field notes from which came the statement that Thunder Bear was Blackfoot´s son:

fedora.dlib.indiana.edu/fedora/get/iudl:2099039/OVERVIEW


Another info from Camp´s notes is that Mrs. Eubanks said she was first captured by a Cheyenne, who sold her to Red Eagle, a Sioux who sold her to Two Faces, who took her to the fort expecting to get a ransom that had been offered.
According to cavalry man John Davidson, who was an eye-witness, Mrs. Eubanks begged the commanding officer not to hang the Indians (Two Face and Black Foot).

[gregor]

There are conflicting dates with regard to the execution day of Two Face:
According to „Massacre Along the Medicine Road: A Social History of the Indian War of 1864“ by Ronald Becher Two Face appeard with Mrs. Eubanks at the Fort on May 18th.
Colonel Thomas Moonlight and Lieutenant Colonel William Baumer listened to Mrs. Eubanks report and ordered the detention of Two Face and Blackfoot.
On May 24th Two Face and Blackfoot were hanged.

And according to „Fort Laramie: Military Bastion of the High Plains, by Douglas C. McChristian, Two Face appeard with Mrs. Eubanks at the Fort on May 15th.
On May 26th Two Face and Blackfoot were hanged.

Regardless, Moonlight or Baumer must have had contact with their commanding officer Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor in Denver before the execution.
Connor, commander of the District of the Plains, initially approved the execution of Two Face and Blackfoot as Moonlight had proposed. Then Connor reportedly changed his mind.

Connor telegraphed the fort: „COLONEL, I WAS A LITTLE HASTY. BRING THEM TO JULESBURG AND GIVE THE WRETCHES A TRIAL.“

The reply came from the secondranking officer at Fort Laramie, Lt. Col. William Baumer, not Colonel Moonlight: „DEAR GENERAL, I OBEYED YOUR FIRST ORDER BEFORE I RECEIVED THE SECOND.“

Unfortunately I can’t find the source for the telgrams in my papers.

[grahamew]

Didn't Mrs Eubanks change her story and claim Black Foot was guilty after all?

[cinemo]

Two Face and Black Foot were hanged on May, 26th. Besides other sources, we have the diary entry of an army soldier.

Please see that article. Full Citation: John J Pattison, “With the U S Army Along the Oregon Trail, 1863-66,” Nebraska History 15 (1934): 78 – 93.

Link : history.nebraska.gov/sites/history.nebraska.gov/files/doc/publications/NH1934Army_Trail.pdf

[grahamew]

So... the same Calico as photographed by Curtis:

Mar 30, 2014 15:09:33 GMT -5 ephriam said:

Sorry, Carlo, but I had not noticed that Meany interviewed Calico twice. Here is the first interview:

Pine Ridge Agency, 7 VII [July] 1907
Nicholas Rouleaux -- Interpreter

Chief Calico

Long time ago is name was Wa ha'h-chun ka-Sa-pa = Black Shield

When fur traders came he got Mini-Xerhah = Calico by which he has since been known among Indians and whites.

His uncle Two Face was killed -- hanged -- by soldiers at Fort Laramie 1868? because he had brought white woman who had been captured by Cheyennes and taken by Two Face from them. Girl said Calico had treated her all right but they suspicioned Two Face and he was hanged and the woman sent home in East. Two Face had bought her release.

Calico was with his uncle at the time and soldiers put him in chain and ball.

Sioux fought for revenge later and killed captain, 2 sergeants and several privates.

[hreinn]

Many interesting details above.


I have a copy of the original handwritten transcription of Walter Camp's interview with Thunder Bear [1].
It is interesting to compare 2 lists in Thunder Bear's interview.
A. list of lodge owners
B. list of arrested males (rest of the band were women and children according to Thunder Bear)


A.
"Judge Thunder Bear story.
My father bought the woman from a Cheyenne when grass was starting in spring probably about april.
My father gave a horse and Two Face gave a mule in trade [..] [...] Cheyenne for her.
After we bought her, we came south [....] (thro ?) sand hills, and we met a band of Brules on Running Water known as the Corn band under Swift Bear.
There were 6 lodges of us as follows;
Standing Cloud
Red Dog
Two Face
Two Face's mother
Thunder Bear* (my father)
and my mothers lodge

* Thunder Bear had two wives and mother was living in a lodge by herself."


B.
"When we got to Fort Laramie, there was a boat crossing about where [...] bridge is now.
[....] soldiers [....] came over with Charlie Gerau as interpreter said: you people should not [...] come here.
You are in a bad fix, and Two Face is in the guard house.
This was about the month of June.
They arrested 7 of us
my father, my two half brothers
Standing Cloud and Red Dog
[.] stepsons of Thunder Bear
Calico (Two Face nephew), Long
Legged Wolf (stepson of Thunder Bear)
Yellow Bear and me."


So this small band consisted of 6 lodges.
Thereof 2 lodges were linked to Two Face (Two Face + Two Face's mother) and 4 lodges linked to Black Foot (aka. Thunder Bear = "old" Thunder Bear).
So it is more appropriate to call this Black Foot's band.
But most often this band is referred to as Two Face's band.
It would be interesting to know how Two Face and Black Foot were related.
Two Face and Black Foot were also together during the summer before (1864).
As interestingly discussed in Emily Levine's book "With My Own Eyes", pages 83-84.
So Two Face and Black Foot seem to had stuck together for some time.

Of those 1+7 arrested, 4 were lodge owners, that is:
Two Face
Black Foot (aka. Thunder Bear)
Standing Cloud
Red Dog

Those 4 arrested who were not lodge owners were:
Calico
Long Legged Wolf
Yellow Bear
Thunder Bear

Young Thunder Bear and Long Legged Wolf lived in their mother's lodge or their father/stepfather's lodge ("old" Thunder Bear, aka. Black Foot)

Regarding Calico, it is interesting to note that there is only a mention of a relation to Two Face (nephew), but there is no mention of a relation to Black Foot in the Thunder Bear interview.
It seems that Calico was just visiting Two Face and so most likely lived in Two Face's lodge or Two Face's mother lodge.

In what lodge Yellow Bear stayed/lived is a question.
It is also a question who this Yellow Bear was, since there were at least 2 persons who had this name.
It is tempting to look at Lone Bull's genealogical tree in Donald Collier's field notes [4] (see below).
Where we can find 3 uncles of roughly the same age, that is Calico and Yellow Bear 1 and Yellow Bear 2.
Calico was a son of Pawnee Killer's sister (unknow name).
Yellow Bear 1 was a son of Pawnee Killer's brother Long Bear.
Yellow Bear 2 was a son of Pawnee Killer's brother Running Enemy.
So it is tempting to assume that Calico and Yellow Bear who were arrested at Fort Laramie in May 1865 were 2 of the 3 above mentioned uncles, all uncles of Pawnee Killer and all grandsons of Calfskin Robe (aka. Wears Young Buffalo Robe).
Taken for granted that Two Face and Black Foot (aka. Thunder Bear) are not another names for Running Enemy and Long Bear (Pawnee Killer's brothers).
It is tempting to assume that Calico and Yellow Bear 1 or Yellow Bear 2 were visiting their nephew Two Face and stayed in Two Face lodge or Two Face's mother lodge.
In order to not rule out something which could be correct, one stretch would be if Thunder Bear was another name for Long Bear. Because Long Bear had a son named Yellow Bear. But there is no backup for that.


According to the Edmond Meany interview which Ephriam transcribed, Calico was born 1842 or 1843, so 22 or 23 years old in 1865.
Here is a link to that:
amertribes.proboards.com/thread/2033/calico?page=1

According to information from Ephriam about a Yellow Bear who belonged to Skokpha tiyoshpaye (part of Tapislecha tiyoshpaye), he was born ca. 1844, so he was ca. 21 years old in 1865.
Here is a link to that:
amertribes.proboards.com/thread/341/yellow-bear


It is interesting to note that Bawling Bull is not mentioned as one of those 8 arrested.
See Addison Sheldon's interview with Bawlling Bull in the original post in this thread.
Who said his chief was Two Face.
But in 1865, when Two Face and Black Foot were hanged, Bawling Bull was 26 or 27 years old and would therefore have been one of the males arrested at the ferry.
But he was not, so he seems to have been somewhere else.
In accordance to what Bawling Bull said: "Went up to Ft. Laramie when Two Face was hung."
So the rest of/majority of Two Face's relations was somewhere else, it seems in the south, since Bawling Bull said he "went up to Ft. Laramie".
Being in the south fits to the behaviour of Tapislecha.
But Black Foot and Two Face were not in the south. So they seem to be an offshot from Tapislecha or loosely connected to Tapislecha.
The only definite Tapislecha link for Two Face and Black Foot to belong to Tapislecha, is that Calico belonged to Tapislecha, according to Meany interview with Calico.
But Calico seems to be only a visitor in this small band, visiting his nephew Two Face.
Perhaps another definite Tapislecha link is that there was a person named Yellow Bear who belonged to Tapislecha. But it is not certain (though likely) it is him who was with this band when they were arrested at the ferry.
Anyway, Yellow Bear is not listed as lodge owner. So he is most likely a young visitor. Just like Calico.
Otherwise we have no direct "proof" that Two Face and Thunder Bear belonged to Tapislecha, only indications.


Thunder Bear did not mention Black War Bonnet in the interview with Walter Camp.
Following is a statement from Bedford and Park [2]:
"It is believed that young Black War Bonnet, seized at the same time, was Black Foot's son."
Thunder Bear would have mentioned if he had a brother named Black War Bonnet who was arrested at this time.
So the above statement from Bedford and Park seems to be out of the blue.

Anoter statement from Bedford and Park [2] which has no support in Thunder Bear's interview [1]:
"Two Face's son was Thunder Bear (Mato-wakinyan), seized at the time of his father's execuition and placed in chains."


Please notice that in his excellent text, McChristian got some relations of Black Foot wrong [3].

Regarding Calico.
McChristian: nephew of Black Foot
Thunder Bear's interview: nephew of Two Face
Calico himself said in an interview with Edmond Meany: "His uncle Two Face".
So McChristian got it wrong.

Regarding Standing Cloud and Red Dog.
McChristian: half brothers of Black Foot
Thunder Bear's interview: stepsons of Black Foot
The difference comes about because McChristain confuses young Thunder Bear and old Thunder Bear. Because young Thunder Bear always refers to his father as Thunder Bear in the Camp interview.

But McChristian got it right though that Long Legged Wolf was a stepson of Black Foot.

Please see a copy of part of Thunder Bear's interview below (this part is translated in section B. above, where the translation is given by purpose in the same format as the handwritten text):








References:
1. Walter Mason Camp, Thunder Bear Interview, Call Number SCM-000-826, Mss. 57 Walter Mason Camp Interview Notes, L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
2. Denton R. Bedford and William C. Park, "Article on Hanging of the Chiefs Brings Forth Broad Reader Response", Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Autumn, 1970), p. 76-77
3. Douglas C. McChristian, "Fort Laramie and the U. S. Army On the High Plains 1849 – 1890", National Park Service, Historic Resources Study, Fort Laramie National Historic Site, February 2003
4. Donald Collier, Oglala Field Notes, Pine Ridge Feb-March, 1939, Eggan, Fred. Papers, [Box 72, Folder 5], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

[kingsleybray]

thanks for posting the original Thunder Bear - Walter Camp interview details, hreinn. That clarifies some points obscured in secondary works.

What I have been told is that Two Face and Blackfoot (both hanged May 1865) were both sons of the Oglala headman Shell Man (painted by Catlin 1832), and also brothers to Quick Bear the Wazhazha headman. Shell Man's father was called Okahniga Sica, Hard To Understand. Both Shell Man and Hard To Understand were headmen of a sub-camp of the Payabya band, called the Black Calf. So Two Face and Blackfoot were both considered as Payabya. Blackfoot's son Thunder Bear was considered Payabya / Oyuhpe -- perhaps his mother was Oyuhpe? Two Face married into the Spleen band, Tapisleca. I think the whole Black Calf sub-band merged into the Spleen band in timeframe 1850-75.

Here are my own interview notes: "Shell Man signed 1851 Treaty. He was an important leader, died about 1855. Shell Man had a[nother] son named Sto Se Yanka . . Killed at Wounded Knee 1890 a Holy man .. so in history [books] people say his name was Yellow Bird but not true. Also known as Good Thunder, the man who threw dust in the air at Wounded Knee", i.e. just before shooting broke out.

I would observe that Shell Man is not noted among the 1851 treaty signatories, but he was part of the Lakota delegation to Washington after the treaty signing. And the usual remarks -- son or 'son' brother or 'brother' -- are to be taken as read.