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Face
Nov 18, 2008 10:39:32 GMT -5
Post by ephriam on Nov 18, 2008 10:39:32 GMT -5
There was a noted southern Oglala headman named Face (or Scalp Face), leader of a band among the Tapisleca band, prominent in the affairs of the Red Cloud Agency in 1874-75. He served as a delegate to Washington, D.C. to discuss the Black Hills issue in 1875.
But after returning from Washington, he seems to have just disappeared. Did he die during the winter of 1875-76? He does not seem to be in the Crazy Horse Surrender Ledger (1876-77). Anyone know what became of the headman Face? Thanks.
ephriam
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Face
Nov 19, 2008 8:19:59 GMT -5
Post by Dietmar on Nov 19, 2008 8:19:59 GMT -5
Robert Larson mentioned him in his Red Cloud biography as being at a conference with agent Saville in May 28., 1875... which of course doesn´t answer your question Here´s Scalp Face: Face aka Scalp Face, 1875
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Post by ephriam on Nov 21, 2008 8:58:42 GMT -5
The search for Face continues...
Issue records for the Red Cloud Agency record Face's band as 42 lodges, the second largest group among the Tapisleca (Melt) Band. I have a list of the families in Face's band (31 families) recorded by Agent Saville in 1874, but only a couple of the names can be connected to known Oglala families in later census records, so that does not help. Face served as a guard for the agency following Dr. Saville's aborted attempt to raise a flag at the agency and he was selected as a representative of the Oglala to Washington, D.C. in 1875. The last record of him that I have been able to find at Red Cloud is in March 1876, when he appears on the list of families authorized to be fed at the agency recorded in Lt. Col. Merritt's investigation. Face does not appear in the Crazy Horse Surrender Ledger for 1876-77, unless it is by some other name.
An Oglala named Face (Ite) reappears in the census records beginning in 1878, but I am not certain if these two are the same person. This Face first appears in Three Bear's band of Loafers, then in 1879 he is listed with Young Man Afraid of His Horse's band. I can then follow him and his family through the annual census records through 1900. In the famous 1890 Pine Ridge Agency census which lists everyone by tiyospaye, this Face is listed in the Makaha or Skunk Hide band. A comparison of names within this band shows that the Makaha were made up of families both from Three Bear's band (Loafers) and from Young Man Afraid's band (Pahabia). Census records show that this Face was born about 1830 (or as late as 1836 in a couple of the records) and married two women in 1870 -- Red Bird and Four Cloud, probably sisters. I am tracing his children in the hope of finding a link to modern oral history at Pine Ridge. This Oglala named Face died in late 1901.
If both of these men named Face are in fact the same individual, it makes you wonder what happened during the Great Sioux War of 1876-77. Why did he disappear from Red Cloud? And why did he move from a rising career among the southern Oglala to apparently live among the True Oglala group of bands with no apparent leadership position?
Will keep you updated as we continue the search. Thanks Dietmar for posting the photo from the 1875 delegation.
ephriam
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Face
Nov 21, 2008 10:48:48 GMT -5
Post by kingsleybray on Nov 21, 2008 10:48:48 GMT -5
Fascinating details, Ephriam, and I'll make sure to let you know of anything I come across on Face. A couple of points - I may have mentioned this in conversation, but I've always been a little puzzled by Billy Garnett's statement that Three Bears belonged to the Loafer band. I think what he says is that from 1878 on, the Loafer band was divided between three different chiefs, Blue Horse, American Horse, and Three Bears. Well, ok, but in the Red Cloud Agency period 1872-77 Three Bears is pretty consistently identified with the Kiyaksa or Southern Oglalas. In 1872 he was involved in some disagreement with the military when the Kiyaksa were pasturing their pony herd on the south side of the North Platte, opposite Red Cloud Agency no. 1, and the army got them to move. In the reports Little Wound and Three Bears are singled out and it's fairly clear that Three Bears is acting the role of head-akichita to Little Wound's chief. Three Bears was one of the chiefs in the Southern Oglala village hunting on the Republican in the winter 1873-74. The censuses of 1876-77 identify him as of the Kiyaksa band, and there's a report from September 1877 - No Flesh complains to Red Cloud military agent Lt. Johnson that he's heard that Three Bears, then with the delegation to Washington, is presenting himself as a chief of the Kiyaksa band. And so on. So I don't quite follow the Loafer attribution.
Garnett also says that Three Bears formed a band in 1878 comprising men from all bands, who had served as Army scouts in 1876-77. Maybe it's in this general sense of explicit co-operation with the US authorities that the band is considered Loafers? Anyway maybe this was not such a strange band for Face (assuming he is the same man as the agency headman of 1873-75) to end up in. In my notes at home I have some analysis of the names in the Three Bears band from the 1879 Ration Roll. I'll dig them out and see if anything is worth putting on the site.
The other point is on the Tapishlecha band being Southern Oglala. According to Makula winter count at MFT the Shkokpaya band (antecedent or sister outfit to Tapishlecha) suffered heavy losses in the epidemics of 1849-50. My working idea is that the surviving band was very much dispersed over the next 20-odd years, elements drifting between the Kiyaksa sphere south of the Platte, and the Northern Oglalas in the Powder River country. And some Shkokpaya family bands I suspect were part of the Loafer camps around Ft Laramie and other posts/agencies. Pawnee Killer, of the Shkokpaya sub-band, is clearly usually in the south, although even he (according to Two Moons) was in the north at the time of the 1866 Fetterman fight. But other leaders are usually in the north, e.g. the first Black Hawk who I presume to be the father of the Yellow Bear boys - he came in to Fort Laramie with Man Afraid of His Horse in December 1867. The band seems to reconsolidate on the North Platte in the frame 1870-72 - Garnett says it was a sizeable band in May 1872 (the day Richard paid a call, with a dubious Billy tagging along). After the killing of Richard the band was at the New Whetstone Agency (Whitney, Nebraska) for about twelve months before gravitating back to Red Cloud Agency in time for its removal to White River - some sort of White R. connection invoked there, I've always thought. In 1873-74 the band seems fairly tightly integrated but by 1876 it seems broken up again. If you analyse the names from the November 1876 Red Cloud Agency census, it looks like it's split with part in the Kiyaksa village and part in the True Oglala village. Then to me it looks like Yellow Bear II in Nov.-Dec. 1876 coheres the band again around a controversial undertaking - to voluntarily surrender their ponies to the Army, clearly with some idea to favourable treatment being expected.
Again I'll have to dig out my notes, but a lot of the Oglalas who had favoured Dr Saville were involved in the late summer 1876 exodus of many Oglala friendlies to Spotted Tail Agency. Most came back early in 1877. There are partial lists of the Oglalas so transferred. My feeling is that Spleen band elements were well-represented there. I shall look over the weekend!
Thanks for letting me ramble
Kingsley
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Face
Nov 21, 2008 11:05:54 GMT -5
Post by kingsleybray on Nov 21, 2008 11:05:54 GMT -5
And another thing!
Your analysis of the Makaha community composition is fascinating. We spoke about this maybe last year, but it would be good to discuss this on site. In Mekeel FIELD NOTES the observation by one informant was that the Makaha were a sub-band of the Oyuhpe - which given their location on Wounded Knee Creek of course makes sense. Your observation about the band's origins from Payabya and Three Bears is fascinating. Let's make medicine!
Kingsley
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Face
Nov 21, 2008 13:48:51 GMT -5
Post by kingsleybray on Nov 21, 2008 13:48:51 GMT -5
I think I've cracked it!!
Here is the list of "Indians [who] have the authority of the Commanding Officer District of the Black Hills to transfer from Red Cloud to Spotted Tail Agency." Included in Capt. Frank G. Smith/4th Artillery, Acting Agent Red Cloud Agency, to Lt. M.C. Foot/9th Inf., Acting Agent Spotted Tail Agency, datelined Red Cloud Agency, October 3, 1876.
"They are rationed to include the 10th inst viz
Fast Thunder 40 people White Crane Walking 52 Face 55 [it might be 33 - hard to read] Brush Breaker 24 Cut Hand 45 Iron Cane 10 Long Dog 10 Old Stabber 51 Ribs 8 White Face 20 Yellow Robe 28 Two Two 12 Broken Face [can't read number] Crow likes Water [ " " "]
"The interpreter reports that the families of several of these men are already at" Spotted Tail
This is in the Miscellaneous Letters Sent By Agents at Pine Ridge, 1876-1914, NA Kansas City Regional Branch, reproduced in NARA Microfilm, Microcopy M1229, Roll 1.
Ok more thoughts later, but there is Face!
Kingsley
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Face
Nov 21, 2008 19:26:22 GMT -5
Post by ephriam on Nov 21, 2008 19:26:22 GMT -5
Kingsley:
Thank you for the next link! I have that microfilm but missed the reference. When I get home this evening, I will look through my Spotted Tail Agency records, including the June 1877 and Dec. 1877 census, to follow Face further. He then should appear on the transfer lists from about 1878 back to Pine Ridge. Will let you know what I find. Thanks!
e
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Face
Nov 22, 2008 4:57:19 GMT -5
Post by kingsleybray on Nov 22, 2008 4:57:19 GMT -5
To contextualise Face's role at Red Cloud Agency in 1873-75, we know that he was an officer in at least two men's societies. In Agent J. J. Saville's monthly report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated January 31, 1874 and printed in the Red Cloud Agency Investigation volume, Saville observes that "Face, head soldier of the Omaha band, came to me and informed me to notify him when cattle were to be brought in and they would protect them" (quotation at p. 449).
This is in the context of beef issues at Red Cloud being disturbed by Northern Lakota visitors in the winter of 1873-74. As the head soldier Face would seem to be one of the two whip bearing officers of the Omaha society - then a recently founded men's society which would become the main association to survive the changing conditions of the reservation period. Note that he was committing the society to help protect the beef issue.
The other society was the Wichiska or White Packstrap society, which had been founded by Old Man Afraid of His Horse some decades earlier. By 1874 there were chapters of the society in each of the four major bands based at Red Cloud - True Oglala, Kiyaksa, Oyuhpe, and Wazhazha - and during 1874 they co-operated in protecting the agency from non-treaty visitors. The letter of Amos Appleton to Mrs A. R. Appleton, October 26, 1874, Appleton Family Papers, Nebraska State Historical Society, names the "White Sash Band" as the force that intervened under the leadership of Sitting Bull of the South in the flagpole incident at Red Cloud on October 23. Face was numbered among the prominent members.
Note the two feathers worn by Face in the 1875 photo detail that Dietmar posted. This arrangement - two feathers angled slightly away from one another - I have been told indicated leadership in a warrior society. The depictions of regalia by Amos Bad Heart Bull indeed show this arrangement as the headgear of whip-bearing officers.
Anyway, I'll try and check back with some thoughts on the collapse of the pro-US affinity that Agent Saville created, after his departure at the end of 1875. Face features in this too.
Kingsley
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Face
Nov 23, 2008 14:11:07 GMT -5
Post by ephriam on Nov 23, 2008 14:11:07 GMT -5
Kingsley: A quick update. I found the original Oct. 1876 transfer letter in the Spotted Tail Agency letters received file, showing Face with 33 people. He also appears in the Loafer band in the June 1877 Spotted Tail census. However, he is not listed in the December 1877 Spotted Tail census, suggesting that he probably transferred back to Red Cloud by this time, perhaps during the removal of the agencies in October of that year. As noted above, Face is listed in 1878 in Three Bear's band, then in 1879-82 in Young Man Afraid's band. By 1890, he and his family have settled on Wounded Knee Creek as part of the Makaha or Skunk Hide community. Following Face's death in 1901, his two widows both receive allotments in this community in 1908, as does his son Henry Pretty Bird. Assuming these are all the same individual (which I am inclined to do now since you found the missing link), the records raise an interesting question. Face was a prominent player in agency affairs in 1873-75 during Dr. Saville's administration, but during the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, he left the Tapisleca band and seems to have lost his prominence in Oglala politics. He is not listed in any of the treaty discussions in 1876. Makes you wonder what happened! I am still working on tracking down descendants in the hope that family oral history might yield some clues. I have found that four of his children who were still living in 1900: - Frank Black Bird (c1872-1926)
- Henry Pretty Bird (c1879-1942)
- Sallie Bissonette (b. c1870). We will have to check with Doug Bissonette to see if he knows this line of the family.
- Mary Face (b. c1879). She married John Comes Again but he died in Nov. 1901; I have not figured out yet who she married next.
I should also mention that Hardorff ( Lakota Recollections of the Custer Fight, p. 187n1) concluded that the Julia Face interviewed on the Rosebud Reservation in 1909 about the Little Bighorn was a daughter of Face. However, this is incorrect. This was her married name. She was the wife of Charles Face, a Brule, and no relation to the Oglala Face. The search continues. Thanks again for the information and discussion! ephriam
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Face
Nov 23, 2008 16:02:02 GMT -5
Post by kingsleybray on Nov 23, 2008 16:02:02 GMT -5
I just found this document among the ones I photocopied at Kansas City National Archives in June of 2007. It's from Red Cloud Agent James Irwin to Spotted Tail Agent Lt Jesse M. Lee, datelined Red Cloud Agency, D.T., July 9th 1878.
"I have the honor to state that while I was at the forks of White River [i.e. the main Oglala village] quite recently, I saw an Indian from your Agency named 'Stand and Look' who it appears has with his family of eleven persons been among my Indians for some time past - he desires to be transferred here as his relativesbelong here. Several other Indians asked that he be allowed to remain. They also ask that 'Big Head', (brother of 'Face') 'White Crane Walking' 'Sleeping Bear', the father in law of Shooting Hail - and 'Thigh' a relative of 'Little Dog' of this Agency - be permitted to move here and remain - I would request that they be allowed to come here if you have no objections," [signature]
This maybe implies that Face had already come back to Red Cloud Agency? Now I have to 'fess up and say I'm not sure whether this letter came from one of the Red Cloud or from one of the Spotted Tail Agency files. It slipped out of the sequence in my files.
Anyway, more later. Incidentally Face appears under the Red Shirt (Loafer) band in that other document we both found in KC - the alphabetical list of Pine Ridge Agency names dating from the early 1880s to judge by internal evidence.
In haste
Kingsley
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Face
Nov 23, 2008 16:09:24 GMT -5
Post by Dietmar on Nov 23, 2008 16:09:24 GMT -5
Kingsley and Ephriam, I hang on your lips... very fascinating details... as usual. Can´t wait to read more. Thanks! Dietmar
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Face
Nov 23, 2008 17:53:21 GMT -5
Post by kingsleybray on Nov 23, 2008 17:53:21 GMT -5
Earliest ref. I've found on Face.
OMAHA WEEKLY HERALD, issue of December 21, 1870.
Extensive report datelined Ft Fetterman, December 6, 1870, covering many aspects of life at the post. "The Sioux have now come down to the mouth of Box Alder and Deer Creeks." These are the Oglalas who had attended the talks at Ft Laramie in October (talks to locate an agency site), who had then gone to hunt in the north, but had poor success and drifted back to the North Platte.
"Day before yesterday the Sioux brought in Boyer, the murderer of McCloskey and Lowry, to the Richard camp, and a guard was sent from here to bring him to the Post. About twenty Sioux men of the party, the principal ones being Man-afraid-of-his-horses, Grass and American Horse. On their arrival at the Post quite a lengthy council took place, the Indians exerting their eloquence to find out what was to be his fate, to intercede for him with the Great Father, and finally, perhaps, to talk for bunkum, for the man's relations were also of the party -- Faces, Big Head, Whistler and others, and the relations of McCloskey, Red Cloud, Man afraid-of-his-horse, American Horse and others. Although they are the more powerful faction, they still did not wish to embroil themselves with the other clans."
Note Big Head again linked to Face - they were brothers according to the Irwin letter from 1878. Interesting that both Whistler and Big Head were named in the Mekeel field notes as Kiyaksa band shirt wearers. This suggests that Boyer's mother was related to these important families in the Southern or Kiyaksa Oglala camp. Also interesting that the Oglala chiefs are working closely together to ensure that the old feud between the Northern and Southern Oglalas is not re-ignited over this issue.
The man the Oglalas brought in was John Boyer (ca. 1845-1871), the half-brother of famous scout Mitch Boyer. He killed James McCloskey and another man named Lowry, at the Six-Mile Ranch near Ft Laramie on October 27, 1870. He was hanged at Cheyenne, Wyo., on April 21, 1871.
Kingsley
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Face
Mar 9, 2018 15:10:46 GMT -5
Post by Historian on Mar 9, 2018 15:10:46 GMT -5
Kingsley: ....I should also mention that Hardorff ( Lakota Recollections of the Custer Fight, p. 187n1) concluded that the Julia Face interviewed on the Rosebud Reservation in 1909 about the Little Bighorn was a daughter of Face. However, this is incorrect. This was her married name. She was the wife of Charles Face, a Brule, and no relation to the Oglala Face. The search continues. Thanks again for the information and discussion! ephriam Recently, I found this photo of the Sicangu Lakota, or Brule' Lakota, man known as Charles Face, taken by Erwin E. Smith in June of 1908, at Revere Beach in Revere, Massachusetts, just north of Boston. Charles Face was a paid performer with Pawnee Bill's Historic Wild West and Great Far East Wonderland which was doing shows at Revere Beach at the time of the photo.
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Face
May 2, 2018 12:59:30 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on May 2, 2018 12:59:30 GMT -5
hey guys, me again, jason white cap, on carry the kettle, that gentleman with the white face i believe is my great grandfather louis wahpahah, on ctk, my great grandfathers names FACE WHITE* and if he is on the hunkpapa police, you had to be akicita PREVIOUS to the america's arrival, so that guy with the white face, his name in canada on 1 census as sam white cap's dad as Face White, on cypress hills tepee hoksa has them marked as Son Of Wah-Pah-Ha* they came through treaty 4 stragglers Nicolas(necklace) Duckhead & Rattlesnake bands absorbed on to carry the kettle southern sask iron cree confederacy, could he be the face? or related to face? wahpahah? also wahpahah might have connections to white faced buffalo bull Padohgai/doha or Bluff?
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