Robert P. Higheagle: his name and family

[clarkkimberling]

Thanks, swiftbird. It seems likely that Antoine Claymore and his wife Jennie LaFramboise were the parents of Joseph Claymore, born 1887. Joseph was a member of the first Standing Rock Tribal Council along with Robert Higheagle. Joseph Claymore was identified by Wolfgang in Reply #14, page 1.

Can anyone identify more fully the others in the photo - or the approximate date?

[Dietmar]

Clark,

great photo, thanks for posting it here. I would assume it was taken around 1910. You see that John Grass has lost most of his hair, he looks aged like in photographs I´ve seen of him in 1913. If the information I´ve found on John Tiakosin´s death (in 1912) is correct, the photo must have been before that date.
I tried to add a few infos on the individuals in the picture.



Front row, left to right:
- Claude Killspotted (“Gleska kte“, born 1874)
- [Major] Beldon
- and agent A.G. Wells

Middle row:
- John Tiokasin (born 1864, died 1912)
- Thomas Frosted (http://www.american-tribes.com/Nakota/BIO/WhiteBear.htm)
- John Grass (http://www.american-tribes.com/Lakota/BIO/JohnGrass.htm)
- Weasel Bear (“Hitunkasan Mato“) 1885 listed in Chief High Eagle´s band

Back row:
- [Antoine] Claymore
- Higheagle
- [Antoine] De Rockbrain[e]

[Dietmar]

Clark, are you sure it´s Martin High Eagle who is in the above photo? I would think he is Robert.

He can be seen also here:

INDIAN DANCE AND FEAST FOR FAREWELL MAJOR BELDEN 1911

"Major Beldon and the high-ranking Indian Chiefs of Standing Rock Reservation. Fort Yates, North Dakota. This image has many Chiefs, Indian Police, great bead work etc. Caption: Copyright by F. B. Fiske, 1911. Farewell council for major Beldon Indian Dance and Feast, Apr 1, 1911." (text from Heritage auction site)

Claymore (right of High Eagle) and Tom Frosted (far right) are also in the photograph. Who else?

[swiftbird659]

clarkkimberling, Thank you very much! so that would be a brother of Antoine Claymore named Joe or Joseph Claymore, aka Turning Bear born 1850 died Jan.13,1923. He was Standing Rock Sioux Allottee # 19. His wife was Mrs. Joseph Claymore (nee Kate Kurt, A white woman) He had 5 children Phillip Claymore S.R. #20, Abbie Claymore S.R. #24, Rose or Rosa Claymore S.R. #21, William Claymore S.R. #22 and Victoria Claymore C.R. #905.

[clarkkimberling]

Here is an article by Robert P. Higheagle, published in Talks and Thoughts. The article gives a Dakota legend about the naming of the Owl River.

Is this legend preserved anywhere else?

Can someone tell us more about Owl River? Is the river still called by that name?

The Legend of Owl River River.

BY R. P. HIGHEAGLE

"In the land of the Dakotas," there is a certain river known as the Owl River, from the fact that a famous event had happened there concerning the above named bird.

It was customary among the Indians of old, to do anything in their power to bring up their children as brave as themselves. One of the common punishments inflicted to remedy cowardice was that, when a male child cried over anything instead of acting like a man, he was sent out of the community until he could overcome his stubborness.

One night, when the Indians camped out near the above mentioned river (which did not have a name at that time) a boy was crying over something. Owls were plentiful in the neighboring woods and were wide awake as usual. They were the means by which the mothers could pacify their children by telling them strange anecdotes about them. But this child did not care to hear anything concerning the owls but kept on crying. His mother told him that if he did not stop crying she would send him out where the owls would come and carry him away. It was a general belief at that time that owls had enormously large ears -- so large as to enable them to carry away in them, a young child with perfect ease. Of course the mother was just saying this in fun, as mothers would often do, in order to quiet the child, but her words were of no avail. Finally she sent him out doors into the darkness of the night and told the owls to come and get him for she can't make him mind. The owls seemed to have understood her request and were coming along and before any one knew anything about it the child was carried off. The whole family went out when they heard no one crying and to their surprise, the child was gone. Just imagine how the parents felt! Word was sent through the village immediately announcing the trouble and nearly all the men [and] even women came out with their weapons to bring back the child. They searched all night and next day till dark but all in vain. During the night they heard some one crying in the woods. Everybody rushed toward the place but nobody was to be found.

The next day the parents offered a reward of two fine ponies to any one finding the child. Some boys went into the woods for game not intending to find the child, but they heard the same cry, which set them to search. They heard the cry again in the hollow of an old oak. One of the boys climbed up and found that the child was there. They caught the owl in a true "cowboy fashion" and brought him to the ground. Of course the owl tried hard to get loose from the boy but was in the same fix as when a wild Texas steer is once caught by a skillful cowboy and there is no knowing as to its escape. The boys butchered the owl in such a manner as not to harm the child's life and succeeded in restoring the child in a good condition.;

The act of the owl has been one of the greatest if not the greatest event that ever happened on that river and therefore the Indians named it the Owl River. Some Indians even count their time from that period. If you should ask any of those old time Indians the year of their birth etc., they will answer you that they were born ten years or so before the owl carried that child away. Of course this may not be a true story but the Indians of that section of the country believe it to be a fact just as much as the people of Sleepy Hollow believed in the incidents said to have occurred in that spot years ago.

The article appears in the July, 1895, issue of Talks and Thoughts, Hampton, Virginia. While Higheagle was a student at the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), he wrote a few other articles in Talks and Thoughts. Does anyone have access to any of the other articles?

[kingsleybray]

Owl River, Hinhan Wakpa, is the Lakota name for the Moreau River, a major western triburary of the Missouri that runs through the northern part of the Cheyenne River Reservation. It is the main tributary between the Cheyenne River to the south, and the Grand River to the north.

[clarkkimberling]

HOW THE BLACKFEET BAND OF SIOUX GOT ITS NAME

by Robert P. Higheagle
Walter Stanley Campbell Collection, Box 118, Folder 5.
Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries:
digital.libraries.ou.edu/whc/nam/manuscripts/Campbell_WS_118_05.pdf

It happened that a chief named Hawk Shield (minor chief), a relative of John Crass, had a daughter, and chiefs didn't let their daughters run around. They kept them at home and taught them to do beadwork, etc. It was pretty hard to see them and young men liked to court them. Sometimes a chief's daughter lived to be an old maid on this account. Hawk Shield's daughter was kept at home a good deal and she had a lot of admirers, but they were not allowed to see her. One night the girl disappeared and they found that a boy from another band had stolen her. He took her to his own people, and on the way set a fire which burned the grass. The burnt grass blackened the girl's feet. They called her Black-footed Girl and came to call her band the Black-feet. He set the fire so as to burn up their trail.

The archival copy is typewritten. It would be of interest to know whether it was typed by Higheagle himself.

Clicking the http address above will download several pages of Campbell's notes. Higheagle's typescript is at the end. I certainly do recommend downloading and reading, and I thank Western History Collections for permission to post Higheagle's typescript and this portion of its archival environment.

It seems likely that "John Crass" was "John Grass" - comparison with G in "Girl" shows that the C in Crass is not a broken G.

Does anyone know more about this daughter of Hawk Shield, relative of John Grass? Was Hawk Shield also called Two Packs? What else is known about him? Is there a photo?

[clarkkimberling]

While he was a teacher, Robert Higheagle wrote as follows:

I have thirty pupils on my rolls, boys and girls, ages between ten and twenty years. They live from one to six miles from school, and they have to walk that distance every day. I find they are very regular in attendance. During the Winter in the worst blizzard (for you know something of North Dakota blizzards) they came just the same. Some of them are poorly off in clothing, still they don't seem to mind that. The younger children sometimes come on their mother's or grandmother's backs.

The article continues:

The above is an extract from a letter of ROBERT HIGHEAGLE, a graduate of Hampton Institute, who teaches a Government day school in a large settlement of Santee and Cut Head Sioux, in North Dakota. These Indians have been declared citizens within the past ten years, and receive no help from the Government. Apparently the notion of shortening the school day has not occurred to their untutored minds.

The article, without any heading, was printed in the New York Times, April 10, 1905, page 8, column 4.

Can someone figure out the school in which Higheagle was teaching at that time? Any thoughts about the final sentence of the article?

[clarkkimberling]

The previous Reply asks what school Higheagle taught in at the time his description appeared in the New York Times. It appears that it was the Waanatan Day School, according to information found in Record Group 146, National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri, on a form which has these words at the top:

INSTRUCTIONS.--Each employee who receives more that $300 per annum must fill out one of these blanks in his or her own handwriting. The agent or superintendent must promptly forward the blank to the Indian Office...

Higheagle's fine handwriting provides more information about his employment than I have seen anywhere else. Here is a copy of the first few lilnes:



The question-and-answer format continues. Following are excerpts:


When, where, and in what other positions have you served in the Indian Service?

Ass't Clerk, Ft. Yates, N.D., Oct. 1897-1900, Standing Rock Ag'cy, N.D.

Property Clerk, Ft. Yates, June 1900-1901, Standing Rock

Ass't Teacher, Ft. Shaw, Mont., May 1896-1897. Fort Shaw, Montana

Teacher, Bullhead Day School, 1900-1902, Standing Rock

Teacher, Waanatan Day School, 1902-1905, Devil's Lake, N. D.

Teacher, Bullheard Day School, 1914-1920, Standing Rock.

If you have ever served in any other department, give name...

Interpreter & Surveyor, $5.00 per day, 1905-1906 - Alloting Standing Rock Reservation, North & South Dakota.

If you were ever separated from the Service give reasons briefly...

Resigned July 1, 1910 to accept position of Ass't Cashier, McLaughlin State Bank, McLaughlin, S. D.

Give your exact height and weight: Five ft. six inches

Give the names and locations of the schools or colleges you have attended...

Agency B'd'g School, Fort Yates, N.D.

St. Benedict's Mission School, Standing Rock Ag'cy, N.D.

Hampton Normal School, Hampton, Va.

North Dakota Conservatory of Music, Fargo, N.D.

Have you any musical ability? Yes.
To what extent has it been cultivated? Have taught vocal and instrumental music.
[Elsewhere Higheagle indicates that he played piano and clarinet.]


Now, for a mystery... In the Foreword of Frances Densmore's Teton Sioux Music, Higheagle is described as a "graduate of the business department of Carnegie College." You can read it by clicking here:

books.google.com/books?id=Ul_vtfG81ZoC&pg=PR5&lpg=PR5&dq=Densmore+Higheagle+Carnegie&source=bl&ots=Q_QyJcsMyC&sig=x1eC5kz9ifMxehUtPmErUZPPnDY&hl=en&ei=EyHhTdKXGdLPgAeSwL2VBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Densmore%20Higheagle%20Carnegie&f=false

Higheagle did not mention this in the list of his schools shown above, and I have not succeeded in finding any trace of Carnegie College. Any ideas about this?

[clarkkimberling]

Among articles published in Talks and Thoughts at Hampton Institute, several mention Higheagle or were written by him.

One of particular interest is the July 1895 issue, which starts with an article by George Frazier, followed by a Supplement which describes both Frazier and Higheagle. As far as I know, this is the only published mention of Higheagle's nickname.

George Frazier is from Santee Agency, Nebraska. He joined the Junior Class when he first came. His father is a Presbyterian minister among his people and so the son expects to attend Philipps Academy, Andover, Mass., next year and some day become a preacher of good, short sermons to the Santees. During the past year he was a sergeant in the Indian company, president of the Indian Y.P.S.C.E. [Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor] and a member of the Indian Council.

R. P. Higheagle, "Samo" (Samoset), as his chums call him, is from Standing Rock Agency, N.D. He, like Frazier, had been at school before and joined the Junior Class when he came. He intends to teach next year and make very little use of the birch. Last year he played the Eb [E-flat, shorter and higher than the common B-flat] clarinet in the band, and was secretary of the S. C. A. [Student Christian Association].

[Historian]

Dec 4, 2010 6:09:28 GMT -5 Dietmar said:

Clark,

great photo, thanks for posting it here. I would assume it was taken around 1910. You see that John Grass has lost most of his hair, he looks aged like in photographs I´ve seen of him in 1913. If the information I´ve found on John Tiakosin´s death (in 1912) is correct, the photo must have been before that date.
I tried to add a few infos on the individuals in the picture.



Front row, left to right:
- Claude Killspotted (“Gleska kte“, born 1874)
- [Major] Beldon
- and agent A.G. Wells

Middle row:
- John Tiokasin (born 1864, died 1912)
- Thomas Frosted (http://www.american-tribes.com/Nakota/BIO/WhiteBear.htm)
- John Grass (http://www.american-tribes.com/Lakota/BIO/JohnGrass.htm)
- Weasel Bear (“Hitunkasan Mato“) 1885 listed in Chief High Eagle´s band

Back row:
- [Antoine] Claymore
- Higheagle
- [Antoine] De Rockbrain[e]

As I understand it, this photo was taken in 1910, and includes the following men.

*Back row L-R: Joseph Claymore, Martin High Eagle (Hunkpapa Lakota), Antoine DeRockbrain
*Middle row L-R: John Tickasin, Thomas Frosted (Lower Yanktonai Dakota), John Grass (Sihasapa Lakota), Leo Weasel Bear (Hunkpapa Lakota)
*Front row L-R: Claude Kill Spotted, Maj. George P. Beldon (Indian Agent), A.C. Wells (Chief of Police at Fort Yates)

[lgarcia]

The mother-in-law of Robert P. Higheagle is Tiyoniya.
(Ti = house; yo = inside; Niya = breath), Breath in the House.
She is Spirit Lake Dakota (Ft. Totten) # 997, Born 1850, died 1923.
LouieG