Pony Claims

[aurelia]

Who know's about the Pony Claims. I have been doing some research on my family receiving payment for horses taken by the U.S. What I would like to know is how many payments were made and the dates.

Aurelia

[ladonna]

I still have my families orginal pony claim paper from Red Thunder
the paper is old now. I almost hate to handle them but here is what mine says:
Red Thunder, Standing Rock (Hunkpapa Band) Pony Cl. 117
We were awarded $160.00 then due to lawyer's fee they sent $144.00 to be divided up by heirs.

I do have a whole file on pony claim

[emilylevine]

There is a lot of Pony Claim information in the Ralph H. Case Papers at the archives of the I.D. Weeks Library at South Dakota State University. I have some photocopies. I have the Cheyenne River claimants info---numbers taken, amount paid, heirs, with some genealogical data. don't know why I don't have Standing Rock. If you have a CR name you want checked, I can do that. Case was the tribe's lawyer and the files have a lot of history on what happened. I think the taking of the horses is an overlooked episode that had a psychically and emotionally devastating effect on all the Lakota reservations.

Also at the National Archives in Kansas City: Cheyenne River pony claims in box 665. manuscript. names, ages, amount paid. some heirship info. Also Standing Rock info in Oversized box 69. I only have part of one sheet copied. Again I can check for names, but LaDonna may have more complete SR records.

from my notes © :
"After Custer’s defeat at the Little Bighorn in June 1876, control of Indian agencies on the northern plains was transferred from civilian to military authority. Ostensibly as a means of denying the Lakota mobility, but clearly as a retaliatory punitive measure, Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, commander of the Division of the Missouri, instigated a policy of dismounting the Indians. Additional troops were sent to the various agencies to carry out this policy; the Huŋkpapas and others at Standing Rock had the misfortune of being assigned to the 7th Cavalry, Custer’s unit. Meanwhile, the Commission of 1876 was visiting the Dakota/Lakota agencies in an attempt to force the Indians to cede the Black Hills. At the Cheyenne River Agency, the commissioners tried to allay Lakota fears that their ponies were about to be seized, assuring them that individuals and their property would be protected.
In October, after the Commission claimed ownership of the Black Hills for the United States???, Gen. Alfred Terry, commander of the Department of Dakota, was ordered to disarm and dismount the Lakota and Yankton/ai at Standing Rock and Cheyenne River. Terry threatened the Indians with denial of rations when he found that, forewarned, they had removed their ponies to distant pastures. The Indians relented. On October 23, Terry’s men seized 1,222 horses at Standing Rock. When the “pony campaign” ended in May 1877, over 5,000 horses had been seized at Standing Rock and Cheyenne River. The horses were to have been sold at auction and the proceeds used to provide cattle for the Indians. Through disease, incompetent drunken herders, corruption, and outright theft, only 429 of the horses taken from Standing Rock and Cheyenne River made it to auction. Of the money received, only a portion actually went toward stock for the tribes. Standing Rock received 315 cows and 8 bulls.
The Lakota worked for years to receive compensation for their stolen horses. In 1892, the government began to pay the people at these two agencies for over 5,000 head. Additional “pony claims” from Standing Rock and other agencies dragged on until 1944. In the end, the government paid compensation for over 8,000 pony claims totaling more than $320,000. This generally neglected piece of history had an emotionally and physically devastating effect on the Indians that few historians besides Waggoner have appreciated. See Richmond L. Clow, “General Philip Sheridan’s Legacy: The Sioux Pony Campaign of 1876” and Forrest W. Daniel, “Dismounting the Sioux.”
The Sioux hired attorney Ralph H. Case to pursue their pony claims (as well as petitioning for the Black Hills Claim). Case’s files on these claims are held by the I.D. Weeks Library at the University of South Dakota. Of particular interest are a printed list of “Cheyenne River Agency Claimants” and the settlements made to them or their heirs; “Sioux Pony Claims” presented by Case which includes interviews with Indians relating how soldiers stole elk tooth dresses, beads, moccasins, and whatever other personal items that caught their eye during their seizure of guns and horses; and finally, a number of letters to Case from individuals like the following from Kate Blue Arm written April 30, 1943 (original in Lakota):
I write this letter to you in haste. My Grandfather gave up some horses for which I now ask for money compensation. This happened many years ago. It was told at the time that a settlement will be made for the ponies on the value of Forty Dollars in money for each pony and I now ask for settlement.
There were Five ponies in all. It was the Soldiers that took these horses. I ask that you investigate this claim for me. I am in dire hardship for want of food, clothing and other necessities. I am living in dire need of these necessities.
This is all. I shake hands with you.
I am
Kate Blue Arm
Please answer me."

Waggoner ©:
"The hillsides were a black mass of moving horses, thousands of them were being driven in from every direction. They were held west of Fort Yates. Mother, my sister, and I climbed the hill near Yates where many others had gone to view the [?] of horses across the Missouri River where some of the Yanktonais were living all up and down Cut Tail Creek that empties into the river opposite Fort Yates. In a few days the horses were taken toward Bismarck. There were many fine horses among the herd; they were not all Indian ponies.
The Indians had been breeding up their horses till they had a good quality of running horses, horses that could compete with any Kentucky-bred race stock. A few Indians specialized in pinto stock, others raised bays, roans, or blacks, according to the stallions that were kept. So great was the pride in owning a herd that the owners just fairly lived with them. It was the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. The grooming, the pampering, and even painting ornaments on their pet horses. Horses were driven down to water twice a day and taken out to fresh fields of pasture as though they didn’t know enough to go to water. I have seen Indians talk to their horses as though they were human.
....There were a few halfbreed boys employed on this horse raid to drive them to Minnesota from where they were sold. The Standing Rock horses were taken to Minneapolis and sold, but the other reservation horses from Cheyenne River, Fort Thompson, Crow Creek, Rosebud, and Oglala agencies were taken south toward Omaha where they were auctioned off. At Standing Rock, John Fleury from Fort Thompson was employed to help to drive the horses. When he came back he boarded with us for a while. He told us they got to the railroad with about half what they started with. The horses were continually stolen. Many fine teams were sold to farmers who came looking for a bargain for little or nothing. There was one young fellow selling teams to the livery barns at Bismarck and to the grading camps right along. No one questioned where he got his horses.
All through the fall of 1876 and part of 1877, there were straggling herds coming in every now and then. Wagonloads of guns and ammunition was hauled in. All the ammunition went to the military, but the old guns were stored at the agency warehouses. They were there for years. I don’t know what became of them. The guns were old and useless, rusty and most of them broken.
So the horses were all gone. The life, the hope, the pride of the Indian was gone with them. The sole dependence of them. It was like losing your father and mother to them. No one in this machine age could ever understand the love between master and horse. The love of a man toward a spirited, courageous horse was wonderful. It was like the love for a beloved child, only a man is dependent on a horse. My sister and I and other children would climb the hill back of Fort Yates. We could see the wind-whipped tipis on the dust beclouded prairies for miles away without a horse moving around. Here and there we could see men and women laboriously dragging wood home or carrying small quantities on their backs. Every tent seemed to be silent except where children were crying for food. Silence because there was no enjoyment in talking, no enjoyment in singing, only a wailing song at times came with the wind, a song of grief and regret."
PLEASE NOT REPRODUCE

[aurelia]

The reason I asked was because I was in D.C. recently and looked at some of the original documents but did not have time to find all of the information I was looking for. I'm intereste in the information on Cheyenne River. I grew up knowing about the Pony Claims and agree with you about this not being well known. Because they took so many horses from my great grandfather Poor Buffalo it, as you stated, impacted my family even to this day.

When I was in DC I saw some original documents that showed where my great, great grandmother recived payment for ponys taken from my great, great grandfather High Bear. The total amount that the entire family recived was $690.00. What was exciting for me is by seeing these documents I was able to figure out how names that seemed to be hanging out with out a place in my family tree belonged.

There is a new name that I have found that had close connection to my family is Charles Corn who recived a check on behalf of three of my great, great grandfathers minor daughters. I know where he fits in one part of my family but I didn't know that he was closely related to High Bear (not a younger High Bear who I believe you discussed a while back). Charles Corn son married a daughter of Red Bird who was the son of Fight Thunder.

[brock]

Emilylevine,
Wonderful post. Thank you.

Aurelia,
If you are looking for someone on the rez that is well versed in this look up Doug War Eagle. I'm sure you know him as he also claims Fights The Thunder and Charlie Corn as relatives. He has talked to me extensively on pony claims, especially in relation to the Shakopee case that's about to happen. I would say he is an expert that's on the rez. He used to work at the Cheyenne River Central Records for six years. So he knows his way around the archives. Emilylevine seems to be on the ball on this and I laud her for stepping forward but I thought I'd throw that out to you as I recognized your lineage.

[aurelia]

Brock,
I do know Doug, he is a close relative of mine. His grandmother on his father's side was a sister to my grandfather and his grandfather (still on his father's side) was a first cousin to my grandmother this is the side that comes from Fights The Thunder. Fights The Thunder son Clown was Doug's great grandfather and Clown's sister Grows In A Day was my great grandmother. I know Charles Corn was there in-law but what I'm trying to find out is how he was related to High Bear so that the government gave the Pony Claim check due High Bear's three minor daughters to him. I will have to do more research because this was done before his son married into the Fight The Thunder family. Thank you for letting me know that Doug has been doing research in this area I'll have to conact him.