Gardner at Fort Laramie 1868

[kingsleybray]

the fellow on the left looks alarmingly like Bob Dylan in 'Pat Garret and Billy the Kid'

[Dietmar]

Sure

Now, who were the interpreters present? From the treaty itself we learn that Charles Gueru (identified above), Leon Pallardy (identified in another Gardner pic), Nicholas Janis, Antoine Janis, Sefroy Iott (I think he must have been an older man), and Francois La Framboise signed the treaty papers as interpreters.

Sometimes the Richards/Reeshaws were mentioned as well. One of the Richards is identified by DeMallie sitting beside Man-Afraid-of-his-Horses, when he smoked the pipe in two Gardner pictures.

Just a bit of speculation here...

[kingsleybray]

Right, and this could be the clue. Richard brothers John Jr, Charley, and Louis, were all on the Indian Peace Commission payroll in April-May 1868, when these photo's were all taken.

They were dropped from the payroll on the dates given:

May 14, 1868: Charles Richard
May 15, 1868: John Richard, Jr
May 20, 1868: Louis Richard

John Jr. gave a speech in the Oglala council with the commissioners, and I suspect he is the Richard seated next to Old Man Afraid of His Horse in the council stereographs.

Unlike Gueru, Palladay, Iott, and others, the "Reshaw boys" were young, good lookin' guys. Maybe our man on the left is a Richard ...

They're not listed as interpreters in the documentation. I suggest they were used for a number of reasons, notably messengers-intermediaries with the Lakotas in the north. Charley had certainly made two or three runs into the north in fall 1867 for the Commission. Note Louis gets discharged May 20th, the day that word was brought in that Man Afraid of His Horse and his village of 70 lodges was expected in on the following day. Maybe that completed Louis's work?

[Dietmar]

Then it´s time to post this picture.

Some sources say that John Richard is in the photo. I have seen him identified as the man standing second from left, with wife. This can´t be him, because this is clearly Leon Pallardy, who is in a couple of other photos by Gardner.

The man with the gun, standing third from right is instead our candidate. The same man as in my last posted picture.The man to his left might be his brother Louis.

[kingsleybray]

getting warmer!

ok now look at the images taken in the council tipi on May 24-25th - is the fellow sitting to right of Man Afraid of His Horse the same as either of the putative brothers above? - or another possible brother?

[Dietmar]

I would say he has a rather lean face, more like the right than the left man.

[Dietmar]

Mmmh, these are portraits of Richard brothers:



Louis Richard


Louis Richard, 1880s


Pete Richard, 1890s

[grahamew]

In those Old Man Afraid photos, there's a bearded white man in the foreground; in at least one, he turns profile to face the left. He has a beard with no sideburns. Is this Guerue? I'm also thinking the man to the right of Old Man Afraid is similar to Kingsley's Bob Dylan. Note that he's smoking the pipe in one of the photos. Wish we knew who the Indian to the left of Old Man Afraid was.

[kingsleybray]

The only suggestion I have on the Indian to the left of Old Man Afraid is this:

Old Man Afraid was the first Oglala signatory to the treaty. The second was White Hawk, an elder and uncle to Red Cloud. Could it be he?

[Dietmar]

One step back... I said that John Richard allegedly was in the photo, but it was Peter Richard according to this list:


"Harney Collection: Scenes in the Indian Country, Alexander Gardner, 1867-1868
Record Series 02/P0124

Folder 14568: Peter Richard (Reeshaw), Mrs. Peter Richard, Captain Garnier (Little Bat), and unidentified men, Fort Laramie [Plate 17]"


I´m a little confused at the moment. The first photo of Louis Richard (identification from the James E. Taylor collection at the Smithsonian) does not look like anyone in the Gardner photos, but he neither does look like the Louis Richard of 1888!
I´m wondering how reliable the ID is.

The good looking guy with the gun... well if you add 20 years and some pounds... I´m not sure.



However, to make matters worse, here is the man identified by De Mallie as Louis Richard:

[kingsleybray]

These Richard names, John and Peter, were used by successive generations of the family. John Richard, SENIOR, had both a brother and a son called Peter.

Ray DeMallie did state that Louis Richard "spoke in the interests of the mixed bloods during the [Oglala treaty] council." However the minutes of the council speeches state that it was John Richard (Jr) who spoke, not Louis.

So for me the tightest of our proposed id's is that the man pictured in Dietmar's last post, sitting in the Oglala council lodge next to Old Man Afraid, is John Richard, Jr.

[grahamew]

Unless I'm mistaken, the Newberry only has two of the Man Afraid photos:





So here's the third:


And a fourth:


Are there more?

[kingsleybray]

didn't know about the fourth, grahamew! Any chance of a better res image?

[grahamew]

Unfortunately, that's the best I've got. This one isn't at the Newberry.

[kingsleybray]

where did it come from - an auction site?

Could you post the whole image, grahamew?