Crazy Horse.... Miniconjou...?

[miyelo]

it is not a written language.
Tashunke Witco actually means ''His crazy horse." which is actually his name.

I am just reading these now. There was a blizzard on the rez and I have had no power since wednesday night. Truck was stuck in a five foot drift, so i have been stranded and freezing in my trailer in the dark with no water, lights heat etc. Noticed they got the white ranchers to the south lights on pretty quick though. Sorry I digress.

Kingsley--I will connect all those families for you asap. Don't have time right now. BTW you're CH book was fantastic. Thank you for that.

Also, I will post some Pete Catches footage later today. It is from 1976 when he spoke to a classroom of people.

[Dietmar]

Hi Miyelo,

I hope your situation is improving soon! Best wishes.

I´m looking forward to your posting about Pete Catches.
What´s also interesting to me is the connection between the Little Thunder and Iron Shell families. Are they closely related?

Thanks.

Dietmar

[kingsleybray]

Hi Miyelo

I hope that things have got better down there at Porcupine. Keep us posted of how things are, and we look forward to you being back in full communication!

Best Wishes

Kingsley

[jinlian]

Heard there's been a pretty bad blizzard in the Pine Ridge area - they're out of power (with all the dramatic consequences you can imagine) and it's reckoned the power will be restored in two days at least. There're some help programs for those who want to help but are not US based; maybe Miyelo (hope your situation is getting better) can suggest us some other ways, once he's back online.

All the best

[miyelo]

hau everyone

yes it has been very very bad. i just raved on the other thread so beware!
Many districts on Pine Ridge and Rosebud are still w/out power and may be for another two weeks. I am not sure about the other northern rez's, is Ladonna around?

Please visit these two websites and help if you can, there are many elders and children in bad shape, not to mention the poor rez dogs and cats.

www.friendsofpineridgereservation.org and www.NDNnews.com these two sites you can trust. Trust me.

my internet service is spotty but will be posting some info and video hopefully tonight or tomorrow for you all.

micante etan wopila tanka

[miyelo]

hi hanne was'te (he hannay wash tay) (good morning)

ok I will try to do this. B Broken Leg is an elder woman very traditional up in Parmalee who I am very close to. She is keeping and researching all info on just the Lakota WOMEN cuz it is never done. Her Grandma was wife of Iron Shell and was a powerful and respected medicine woman. Her name translated to ''She Cherishes Her Nation So Takes Care Of Them" so you get the picture. B's Grandma's made it very clear that the history of the family must be oral, not written. It is because oral history must be heard and listened to, and hence the only way to learn and understand it, if your heart wants to know these things. So she will not write this down and I have to remember the things she told me. So for me, writing this will help me remember. I will have more visits with her to learn more and will share what I can.
These families I speak of were all related by blood and lived together for generations.
Conquering Bear (Old Bear Chief to the whites cuz there was no translation for ''conquering") was the Chief/Head and Iron Shell, Little Thunder, Red Leaf, Spotted Tail were all important families in the clan. Red Leaf was Conq Bears brother.
Iron Shell was a brother of Little Thunder, and was also brother-in-law of Bordeaux at the trading post. Iron Shell had 29 sons, whom he called his ''army'' and from here Hollow Horn Bear, Crow Dog, Brave Bird etc came. Crazy Horse lived with these brothers for long time, and was 12 years old when Harney massacred all his relatives at Ash Hollow/Blue Water. Iron Shell hunka'd Crazy Horse as his son and CH called Iron Shell ''father."
Iron Shell's wife escaped with some children after Blue Water and was harbored by some Oglala's and stayed with them on Wounded Knee Creek. Cannot remember if it was her or a daughter that married a Broken Leg (Oglala) Broken Leg's are from Wounded Knee and are still there. So there are Iron Shell's on Rosebud and Pine Ridge to this day. All related to Little Thunder, who by the way, had 7 sons, some of whom went to Canada with Sitting Bull after fighting at the Greasy Grass. Those Little Thunders have relatives on Standing Rock now.
Here is a cool fact she told me: there are old stories of how Iron Shell and Spotted Tail would take the young boys (Crazy Horse was one of them) to hunt and several times came across DINOSAURS. B says it must be true as there was a Lakota word for these creatures that has been handed down since the time they saw them out hunting.

[miyelo]

if you want to see Pete pm me.

[Dietmar]

Good to hear you´re back, Miyelo. It´s a shame what happened on the rez.

A friend of mine (from Rosebud and related, too) also confirmed to me that Little Thunder´s family does go back into Iron Shell´s family.

Just a small question: Old Bull Tail is also named in some publications (Bettelyoun/Waggoner) as Iron Shell´s "father". Is he perhaps instead an uncle for Iron Shell?

[kingsleybray]

Dietmar

Any info' you have on that IronShell-Little Thunder relationship would be warmly appreciated! As to Bull Tail. He was a Brule chief mentioned several times by travelers and traders in the 1840s. One account, by Matthew Field (1843), quotes Bull Tail in calling Iron Shell 'my son'. Rosemary Lessard wrote to me over 20 years ago about her own research into Iron Shell family history. Her informant was Carl Iron Shell, who was emphatic that Bull Tail was not the biological father of Iron Shell I (ca. 1815-1883). Family informants of Royal B. Hassrick in the 1940s identified Iron Shell's father as Shot in the Heel, whose family background was Miniconjou. The family joined the Brule (Sichangu) circle early in the 1800's. It's interesting just how many of the most prominent Upper Brule leaders of the post-1850 period had family origins among the Northern Teton tribal divisions, e.g. Iron Shell (Miniconjou), Swift Bear (Miniconjou), Two Strike (Miniconjou and Hunkpapa?), and Spotted Tail (Sihasapa). The information shaping up from miyelo makes me think that the Little Thunders too had strong Miniconjou antecedents. Nevertheless, to clarify, all these men won political status as leaders in the Brule tribe - in the same way that Crazy Horse, who had strong Miniconjou connections, nevertheless won political status (first Shirt Wearer, later War Chief) among his father's people: the Oglala oyate.

Today some family descendants certainly do consider Bull Tail to be Iron Shell's father. The jury's out, I guess. It's interesting, however, that the descriptions of Bull Tail - he certainly made an impression in appearance and dress - describe the sort of tied forelock that is implied by the band name Ashke.

Kingsley

[miyelo]

i will ask today about Bull Tail. I forgot to mention that there was an ''Old Iron Shell" and ''Young Iron Shell" so will ask about that today

[clw]

I know the storm was horrid. CR and SR didn't get hit as hard. Their power was "only" out for four days and phone service was on and off. Mostly off. I heard that the snow drifted against the house was a blessing as it provided good insulation -- even though it necessitated crawling out a window -- and there was much stapling of blankets over windows and doors. Good grief. I've drug my kerosene heater out of the garage and am going to ship it -- like I really need it in FL. This is predicted to be a very bad winter, so lend a hand where you can.

[miyelo]

didn't get to talk much about this today but did find out that Little Thunder's father was Big Thunder. She said he could have also been called Black Moon but she has never heard of that. To them he was always known as Big Thunder. She said it was very very common for two brothers to hunka each other's sons, and most usually did so. She also said they were all Brule, the miniconjou only came in thru marriage. The young men would all go elsewhere to marry, because they were all related in this family by blood...little thunders, iron shells, etc etc

[oyateunderground]

Hau, in researching my great,great,great grandmother Her Cane, mother of Joseph Horse With Horns (3/7/1843-3/3/1948), I can find no reference to her except for Her Brown Cane and Her Iron Cane. Her Brown Cane is listed as being married to Jumps Over Buckskin Horse and her child is listed as Lone Woman. freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mikestevens/tiyo2-p/p423.htm#i32002
Her Iron Cane lists no husband or child.
The Tribal genealogy of Her Cane lists Good Eagle as father of Joseph Horse With Horns.
My question is: Is Her Cane and her Iron Cane one and the same? Her Iron Cane was daughter of Lone Horn/One Horn:http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mikestevens/tiyo2-p/p239.htm#i15673

[brock]

Been gone awhile. Did a documentary about Vietnam era Huey choppers for some LA folks and wrote a film script based on the oral history of the Clown family on the battle of the Little Bighorn. (It's been recommended by Readers...kind of like security guards at a gated community...but nothing's been put together so it's solid).

So now I'm back finishing Crazy Horse Part Four, the final documentary of the series. Learned some pretty interesting stuff.

According to Doug War Eagle, it seems a few hours after Crazy Horse died two elders (one named Kills At Night...one of Waglula's accomplices on his ration finagling a few years later) came to perform a burial preparation ceremony. They brought buffalo robes and a bundle. In that bundle was a a recently killed black tail deer. The guards gave them the privacy to do their ceremony. While performing the ceremony they switched the black tail deer and Crazy Horse's body. The body was still loose enough to put in a fetal position and it became the new bundle. The deer was cut in two and arranged to make it look like a body while under the buffalo robe. Touch The Cloud carried the new bundle (Crazy Horse's body outside and put it in their wagon).

Once outside they did the honoring ceremony with the deer between two horses and placed it on a travois. They then took the deer and put it on a burial scaffold. Waglula brought in Crazy Horse's brown hunting horse and killed it and placed it under the scaffold. They went through all the motions to convince not only the military but the people that the deer was Crazy Horse's body.

I think what they did is ingenious. Who would have thunk it? Not I.

Anyway, Crazy Horse's war pony, Inyan, a black and white paint was killed with the real body. He is buried by his daughter.

Waglula cut a lock of Crazy Horse's hair right after he died and later brought it to Black Shawl so she could keep his spirit and mourn. This was done for one year. Then she cut a lock of her hair and braided her hair and Crazy Horse's lock together and Waglula took her to his real gravesite and they buried the hair with him and his spirit was freed.

I thought I'd share because I always wondered how they were able to bury him within their sacred four days when our white records and friendly Lakota interviews say it went longer.

[Dietmar]

Welcome back Brock!

interesting and surprising information, as usual.
Kills-at-Night... you said that Worm took this name later to hide his identity, right?

There is also a Kills-at-Night, Oglala, listed as a participant of the LBH battle. He surrendered in May 1877 at Red Cloud agency (see: Crazy Horse Surrender ledger)

Good luck for all your projects

Dietmar