Tall Bull's headdress

[Historian]

An elaborate headdress attributed to Tall Bull (Cheyenne), exhibited at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 2003. Tall Bull, was a noted Cheyenne warrior and the leader of the Crazy Dog Warrior Society. He was killed by U.S. troops at Summit Springs near Sterling, Colorado on 11 July 1869. Tall Bull's unusual headdress, with buffalo horns attached all down its trailer, was in such poor condition that it had never been exhibited, and for many years it had not been fully unfolded and examined.

[wyman]

Great to see it here. Thanks Hin.

[tkavanagh]

Just to throw this out there:

In 1990 (IIRC, maybe 1991), the Northern Cheyenne Hotametaneo (Dog Soldiers) under William Tall Bull requested the loan (not repatriation) from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, of the so-called “Tall Bull Pipe (stem),” allegedly captured at Summit Springs, July 1869, to use in an initiation of new members.

That summer there were no other adult males in residence at SI, and the other anthropologists were sensitive to Native concerns, so I, a contract employee, was delegated to fly to Montana and drive down to Wyoming with the pipe.

We made a special box of “blue board,” an acid-free cardboard, and lined it with ethefoam and red trade cloth. We also put in a braid of sweetgrass, and – since we did not know if the pipestem had been fumigated – a new pipebowl that we purchased from the IACB store.

I flew into Billings, MT with the dingus on my lap: I did not want to subject it to either luggage handlers or overhead storage.

I had reserved a rental car and drove down to Crow Agency. Tall Bull and I had arranged to meet in the parking lot of a convenience store. It was all out of a spy story:

I pull in.
He pulls in.
“You’ve got it?”
“Right here”
“Follow me.”

So we drive over to Lame Deer, meet the Chairman, and then down to the Sun Dance grounds.

I won’t go into details about the ritual, but I will say that when they opened the box, they were pleasantly surprised at the trade cloth/sweet grass offerings and the new bowl. We all smoked the new bowl. Tall Bull announced that since I had smoked with them, and had carried the pipe, I was then a member of the Hotametaneo, and was a Pipe Carrier. I guess I am the last (or most recent) one.

We had been afraid that they were not return the pipe. But they did, and placed a carved pipestone buffalo in the box with it.

When I got back to Billings, I found that there were a couple of sensational stories in the paper about my visit, but they never found out my name. When I got to the Billings airport and went thru the x-ray, one of the attendants noticed the pipestone buffalo: “Nice one” he said, apparently not realizing what else he had seen.

[On my way back to Billings, I did stop at LBH, and made a tour. I’ve often wondered what the folks would have thought if they know that I had the Tall Bull pipe in my car.]

[Dietmar]

Great story Tom!

Are there photographs of the Pipe at the Smithsonian´s Archives?

[Dietmar]

Is it this Pipe?:


from SIRIS:
Pipe With Scalp Locks 1874
Full Catalog Number E13477-0
FROM CARD: "...THE PIPE STEM HAS THE CARVED FIGURE OF A MAN AT THE UPPER END AND HAS A BUNCH OF EAGLE FEATHERS AND LOCKS OF HAIR WRAPPED IN QUILLS ATTACHED BY THONGS AROUND THE WAIST OF THE FIGURE. L. 59 CM. ILLUS.: EWERS, JOHN C. PLAINS INDIAN SCULPTURE; PL. 13, PG. 24."

Pipe bowl was not located during 1970's inventory.
"There is a letter from the donor in the accession file with the history of this item. It is on War Department stationery, dated March 21, 1874, and reads: "...It belonged to Tall Bull, Chief of the Dog Soldiers .... He was killed by Lieut. Mason and Sergeant McGrath [Daniel McGrath], 5th U.S. Cavalry, in a fight at Summit Springs, Colorado... Tall Bull's wife, there captured, identified the pipe, and said that the scalp locks with which it is decorated, came from the heads of whites killed at the massacre on the Salinas [sic, may mean the Saline, i.e. the Saline River?], Kansas, two weeks before justice overtook the band."

collections.nmnh.si.edu/anth/pages/nmnh/anth/Display.php?irn=8338960

[tkavanagh]

Yes, that's it.

"Pipe bowl was not located during 1970's inventory." That's because some decades ago, the Collections Manager decided that it was a good idea to store all pipe bowls together separate from their stems, but no record was kept of which went with which.

The stem also has the word "Stikine" printed on it. But Stikine is a river in Alaska.

tk

tk

[tkavanagh]

Whoops:

I wrote "... delegated to fly to Montana and drive down to Wyoming..."

LBH, Crow Agency, and Northern Cheyenne, are all in Montana, not in Wyoming.

I had just been writing about Eastern (Wind River) Shoshone traditional land use, including the LBH valley in Wyoming, and I guess I got my geography mixed up. ;-(

tk

[philipp]

here are three more photos of the pipe. i don´t know, if the bowl is the right one, or just one fitting?!?

greetings, philipp

Attachments:

[philipp]

second

Attachments:

[philipp]

third

Attachments:

[tkavanagh]

Note: the bowl on the TB pipe first photo is not the bowl on the TB pipe in the third photo, but seems to be the top bowl in the third photo.

tk

[buffaloman]

The first published illustration of this pipe was in Richard Irving Dodge's OUR WILD INDIANS.





It shows the black pipe bowl that we see in the National Archives photo of two pipes and the bowls appear to be reversed in the New York Public Library photo of three pipes. Possibly the black bowl is the original.





I've included a scanned picture of the stem from John Ewer's book PLAINS INDIAN SCULPTURE.



-Bob Brewer

[tkavanagh]

"Two *Sioux* calumets..."

Now how did the National Carchives come to that conclusion?

tk

[stoneforehead]

Jul 23, 2009 9:25:17 GMT -5 Historian said:

An elaborate headdress attributed to Tall Bull (Cheyenne), exhibited at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 2003. Tall Bull, was a noted Cheyenne warrior and the leader of the Dog Soldier Band. He was killed by U.S. troops at Summit Springs near Sterling, Colorado on 11 July 1869. Tall Bull's unusual headdress, with buffalo horns attached all down its trailer, was in such poor condition that it had never been exhibited, and for many years it had not been fully unfolded and examined.

After the death of his 3 son's,each the captain of the main cheyenne warrior societies Stone Forehead like the his bloodline of the arrow tradition,had his bloodline in 4 major societies.Therefor trusted his best men the captain seat of the each societies.Tall Bull was married to Stone Forehead's daughter.Thus giving him the keep of the Dog Soldiers.Sweet Medicine's bloodline had full control of the cheyenne arrow and warrior societies shutai sundance and arapaho chiefs through out centuries.Until the encounters of Settlers and Soldiers.

[Dietmar]

Henri has sent me thiese pictures of Tall Bull´s headdress:







Thanks Henri!