American Horse

[jinlian]

Good morning everybody,

Still about our AH: I wonder if anyone has had the chance to look at this book:
R.H.Adams: Chief American Horse: (Was-e-chun-ta-shun-ka), 1922

If yes, is it a historical biography or a novelized one?

Thank you, everyone!

[grahamew]

Interesting that there are two stories as to why AH killed Sioux Jim. One, because the latter was a) some kind of Indian outlaw and b) going to leave the reservation to join the non-treaty bands and roamers; therefore AH was doing both Indians and whites a tremendous favour b) AH was secretly passing rations to the northern bands and Sioux Jim ratted on him!

[Dietmar]

According to information I found at Ancestry.com Sitting Bear´s wife, American Horse´s mother, was called Walks With.

AH later took the christian name Matthew.

AH married Fannie Hard Woman in 1879. She was born in 1855.
They had two daughters, Lucy (born 1880) and Alice Vina (born 1882).

I wonder how reliable it is?

D.

[kingsleybray]

Here are some early notices of American Horse (1840-1908) that go some way to identifying his band affiliations.

Early notices do confirm Billy Garnett's statement to Ricker that American Horse belonged to the Bad Face band. During the 1860s and 70s this band name seems to be used interchangeably with True Oglala (Oglala-hca). Perhaps this is the source of Hyde's identification of the American Horse family with the True Oglala band.

The first documenetary notice I've found of AH is in a list of chiefs and headmen that the Loafer band peace envoy Big Ribs was to contact in fall 1865. It has been transcribed in John McDermott's fine book on the war of 1865 CIRCLE OF FIRE, p. 147. The list was the product of intense talks with Indians and traders around Fort Laramie. Separate lists were prepared for the Brules, Oglalas, Bad Faces, O Yoki ha pas (Oyuhpes), Miniconjous, and Cheyennes. Among the listed Bad Face band headmen is "Steals the White Man's Horse". That this is our American Horse is confirmed by the next name, that of his father Sitting Bear.

Apart from his role in the Fetterman fight, little is known about American Horse during the Bozeman Trail War. A document generated by the 1867 investigative commission indicates that in spring 1867 a nascent peace faction of Northern Oglalas was formed, seating four men as Wakichunze or Deciders to head their village organization. These men were Old Man Afraid of His Horse, Sword-Owner, Good Thunder, and White Man's House - I'm sure that last word is misprinted from horse, i.e. American Horse. At the end of the year American Horse was one of the peace envoys to visit Fort Laramie in the preliminary treaty talks. In a report by Indian Agent A. T. Chamblin he notes the visit in late December by a sizeable deputation of Brules and Oglalas, the latter including American Horse, "one of the Red Clouds' leaders in war parties."

In early April 1868 Indian messengers located several villages of Lakotas then preparing to deal with the Peace Commission. Clustered around the northwest edge of the Black Hills were several Oglala camps, as follows:

Oyoucapos, Ogallala, 75 lodges on Head of N. Fork of the Cheyenne River.
Red Cloud and Man Afraid of His Horse, 90 lodges, on Bear Lodge Creek
American Horse, 50 lodges, Head of Bear Lodge Creek
Bad Faces, 100 lodges, Belle Fourche

This is an early indication of American Horse's following becoming semi-independent from the larger Bad Face band.

In February 1871 the 66 lodge camps of American Horse (by now a Shirt Wearer, seated as such in summer 1868) was among the Oglala camps gathered near Ft Laramie during the talks to locate Red Cloud Agency. Something seems to have happened at this stage, because two more detailed lists were prepared by civilian and military authorities, one in March and one in December 1871. Neither one lists American Horse or his father Sitting Bear. It is as if their camp had broken up and been absorbed by other bands. Interestingly, Red Cloud was counted at 78 lodges in February. When recounted the following month "Red Cloud's band" was enumerated in three camps, one of 35 lodges (headman Big Foot the Oglala), one of 108 lodges (headman Brave Bear, Red Cloud's brother-in-law), and one of 53 lodges (headmen Big Foot and Yellow Breast). Although unclear, it seems that the American Horse camp had been absorbed into the Red Cloud camps.

In March 1874 Lt. Col. J. W. Forsyth reported on the military takeover of Red Cloud Agency No. 2. In so doing he transcribed a working document of Agent Saville's, used as a basis in assessing rations at the agency. The Bad Face band is there rated at a total of 237 lodges (certainly inflated), comprising nineteen sub-bands. Among them are American Horse, 14 lodges, and Sitting Bear, 7 lodges.

Sometime between spring 1874 and summer 1876, the American Horse camp became identified with the Loafer band. Perhaps this reflects a distancing from Red Cloud's ongoing feud with agent Saville?

After the final settlement of the Oglalas at Pine Ridge Agency, there is a final shift in American Horse's affiliation. Beginning in 1880 the Oglala bands settled along the creeks draining north into White River. The major bands settled as follows:

Oglala proper (Bad Faces, Loafers, Payabya, Spleen): White Clay Creek
Oyuhpe: Wounded Knee Creek
Wazhazha: Porcupine Creek
Kiyaksa: Medicine Root Creek

American Horse and his band settled along the west fork of Medicine Root, near the Kiyaksa. Pine Ridge interpreter John Colhoff (1880-1953), very knowledgeable about Oglala bands and headmen, consistently identified American Horse as chief of the Kiyaksa band. Could one or more of those wives Ephriam told us about, married in the 80s, have been Kiyaksa. Alternatively, was Americazn Horse's mother a Kiyaksa?

By the way, American Horse's father - Sitting Bear aka Three Bears - is said to have been the father of the Cheyenne headman Tangle Hair. So were American Horse and Tangle Hair half-brothers?

Best,

Kingsley

[jinlian]

dietmar said:

According to information I found at Ancestry.com Sitting Bear´s wife, American Horse´s mother, was called Walks With.

AH later took the christian name Matthew.

AH married Fannie Hard Woman in 1879. She was born in 1855.
They had two daughters, Lucy (born 1880) and Alice Vina (born 1882).

I wonder how reliable it is?

D.

Hi Dietmar,

the source of Ancestry.com is Donovin Arleigh Sprague's book "Pine Ridge Reservation"; a curious thing is the statement on this "Matthew American Horse" (born in 1831) being the son of True Oglala's Sitting Bear, but not being the Oglala appointed shirtwearer during the Bozeman Trail War. Sprague clarifies then the parentage of current tribal leader Joe American Horse, as being the son of Louisa Kills Crow, daughter of Charlie American Horse, son of our American Horse. I suppose Chief Joe American Horse was Sprague's source...I wonder if they have kept a family tree or something....

I add the link to Mike Stevens' Oglala Genealogy Resource page concerning AH:
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mikestevens/tiyo2-p/p295.htm#i17771

[jinlian]

kingsleybray said:

In March 1874 Lt. Col. J. W. Forsyth reported on the military takeover of Red Cloud Agency No. 2. In so doing he transcribed a working document of Agent Saville's, used as a basis in assessing rations at the agency. The Bad Face band is there rated at a total of 237 lodges (certainly inflated), comprising nineteen sub-bands. Among them are American Horse, 14 lodges, and Sitting Bear, 7 lodges.

By the way, American Horse's father - Sitting Bear aka Three Bears - is said to have been the father of the Cheyenne headman Tangle Hair. So were American Horse and Tangle Hair half-brothers?

Best,

Kingsley

This is quite interesting, Kingsley, as I- probably influenced by C. Eastman's notes - believed that Sitting Bear died when American Horse was still quite young. Also, I didn't know that Sitting Bear's other name was Three Bears - it surely wasn't the leader of the a subdivision of the Loafer band, was it?

I remember that in the Eli Ricker book there was a passage regarding an AH-Cheyenne connection but it seems to me it was about a sister, not a brother. I'll check and then let you know.

[clw]

If I'm not mistaken, American Horse died of wounds received at Slim Buttes in 1876. Are references to American Horse after that date referring to a son of the same name?

Update..... for years it was thought to be American Horse that died at Slim Buttes. But now it's thought to be Iron Plume that was head of that tiospaye and was killed there. American Horse was fixed in my mind as not three weeks ago I stood at the Slim Buttes monument and read the plaque that states American Horse died there.

So I (and the NPS) stand corrected!

[Dietmar]

One more note about the Trager & Kuhn photo:

There is a better version of this picture in the Eli S. Ricker interviews of the University of Nebraska Press. Vol.1

The incription says:
Chief American Horse with Squaw No. 2
Copyrighted Jan 30 1891
by the N.W. Photo Co
Chadron Neb

[Dietmar]

from the same book:

American Horse told Ricker that his grandfather was ninety-six years old when he died in 1886.
This would mean his name must be somewhere in a Pine Ridge census record before that date.

[jinlian]

Hi Dietmar and thanks again for checking the pic (as you've probably guessed, I've not the original book). Incidentally, I've found the reference on American Horse and the Cheyenne on the same book (Ricker Interview , vol.1) pp.284-85 in a certificate issued for AH to Lt.Col Hatch from Sgs MacKenzie on October 25, 1876:

"The bearer of this letter, American Horse, a chief of the Loafer Band of the Sioux, is the man who killed Sioux Jim, a member of his band who refused to be arrested by the troops, for which reason I think him a very good Indian and I wish you would have him well treated when at your Post. I wish you would also have Mr. James to introduce him to the Comanche Chiefs as a friend of mine and tell them to treat him well and take him Buffalo hunting if he wishes to go....

P.S. American Horse thinks his sister his with the Southern Cheyennes. Please give him a line to Agent Miles and ask him to assist him all he can, as he is a very good Indian."

I've been told that Mari Sandoz also mentioned a sister of AH being married to a Cheyenne in "Cheyenne Autumn", but I have to check that - what's more, I don't have that book.

Incidentally, in the preface of this interview dated August 13, 1906, Ricker speaks of the "two wives" of American Horse (thus corroborating ephriam's notes on AH being married to Sleep and Josie only after 1890) and of two daughters named Alice ("put to school when she was seven and not released till she was seventeen") and Julia.

About AH's grandfather:it would be interesting to get the whole 1884 census and get his name, supposing that he was living with AH (who had at least another brother) - it shouldn't be forgotten that it was AH's grandfather to begin keeping the family's wintercount.

[ephriam]

jinlian:

Unfortunately, the first census listed with names of husbands, wives and children for Pine Ridge will be in June 1886. I have an index for that census at home and will check after I leave work to see if American Horse's father is listed.

ephriam

[jinlian]

Thanks Ephraim,

I got the notion of a 1884 census from Mike Stevens' Oglala genealogy website - a typo, maybe?. Hope that AH's grandfather was still living by June 1886, otherwise there's little hope to get any other information...

Thanks again

[Dietmar]

Julia American Horse

[Dietmar]

Charles American Horse

[Dietmar]

Samuel American Horse & wife