Hunkpapa Bands at LBH?

[Ephriam Dickson]

Josephine F. Waggoner wrote that there were four Hunkpapa bands in exile with Sitting Bull in Canada. No doubt these were the core of the Hunkpapa who were at the Little Big Horn.

She lists the following bands, but does anyone know who the leaders of the individual bands were?

She listed:
1. Icira -- Sitting Bull and Four Horns
2. Talonapin
3. Kangiska
4. Cankahuran

Coincidentally, when the Hunkpapa were shipped to Standing Rock Agency following their surrender in 1880-81, they were divided into four bands but without listing the band names:

1. Sitting Bull and Four Horns
2. Crow King
3. Gall
4. Rain-in-the-face

Anyone out there familiar with Hunkpapa bands that could help with matching up?

Thanks!

Ephriam

[glenbow]

This is really interesting, Ephriam, and you have once again shared some valuable information about the Lakota that I have not seen elsewhere. Which article or book by Josephine Waggoner are you referring to? I know she is listed as a coauthor, along with Lewis F. Crawford, of the book "The Exploits of Ben Arnold". I have a list of Hunkpapa bands that was collected by Walter S. Campbell (Stanley Vestal) at Standing Rock in the 1920s or '30s. It was photocopied for me a few years ago by a librarian at the Western History Collections at the University of Oklahoma. I will have to search for it, but I will be happy to share the information it contains with you as soon as I locate it. I thought that there were more than just four bands of the Hunkpapa in the mid to late 1800s, but I could be wrong about that. I do know for certain that there was one subdivision called the Meat Necklace band - sorry I can't remember the others offhand. The name 'Kangi Ska' is interesting, as I think it translates to 'White Crow' - possibly a connection with the name Crow King? I will get back to you about that list.

[glenbow]

I just recalled another list of "Uncpapa" bands, from a record of rations issued to band Chiefs at Standing Rock in July, 1885 (RG 75 Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs - Standing Rock Agency, Fort Yates, North Dakota
Roll 5A: Record of Rations Issued 1885
National Archives, Kansas City 1977). You can view it for yourself at:
www.primeau.org/StandingRock1885families.html

I counted no less than twenty-seven Hunkpapa Chiefs, although their specific band names were not listed. Perhaps by this time the agent had appointed some Chiefs of his own, as it is documented that McLaughlin promoted his favorites to positions of power within the reservation system. It is also noted in the original list that several of these men had signed the November 1882 treaty, which is also interesting. Here is a list of the Chiefs' names in Lakota and English:

Standing Rock ‘UNCPAPA’ - 14 - 27 July 1885 - (Hunkpapa Band Chiefs)

1) Cetan Wakiyan Chief Thunder Hawk
2) Mato Cuwiyuksa Chief Broken Bear Rib
3) Wanbli Wakantuya Chief High Eagle
4) Mato Ite Chief Bear's Face
5) Akicita Hanska Chief Long Soldier
6) Mato Ocinsica Chief Cross Bear
7) Tejikjice Chief Belly Fat
8) Tatoka Iyanke Chief Running Antelope
9) Mato Wakantuya Chief High Bear

(Crow King’s two daughters belonged to this band after his death in 1884, although they were later adopted by Major James Mclaughlin, the agent at Standing Rock, and his wife, Marie. McLaughlin mentioned in his book “My Friend the Indian” that Crow King had a brother named High Bear who pre-deceased him. Perhaps another brother adopted the name at a later time?)

10) Mato Wayuhi Chief Scattering Bear
11) Wakiyan Watakpe Chief Charging Thunder
12) Pizi Chief Gall
13) Wanbli Rita Chief Grey Eagle
14) Wi Sapa "No. 1" Chief Black Moon
15) Ocinsica Kte Chief Kill With Anger
16) Izuzu Chief Grind Stone
17) Tatanka He Gleska Chief Spotted Horn Bull
18) Oape Ota Chief Struck Plenty
19) Mato Kawinge Chief Circling Bear
20) Tatanka Iyotake Chief Sitting Bull
21) Wakiyan Ohitika Chief Brave Thunder
22) Mazakan Wicuki Chief Takes the Gun
23) He Topa Chief Four Horns
24) Huhu Canrpi Chief Bone Tomahawk
25) Marpiya Iyapato Chief Against the Cloud
26) Tahu Wanica Chief No Neck
27) Mato Hakikta Chief Bear Looking Back

Hope this helps.

[Ephriam Dickson]

Actually, there are a number of Hunkpapa bands. Waggoner however wrote (in her unpublished papers at the Museum of the Fur Trade, Chadron, NE; she also compiled the Susan Betteyloun autobiography published by University of Nebraska Press) that there were four bands with Sitting Bull in Canada. I am trying to link the four bands in Canada with the bands as they appear in the agency records after their surrender which are only listed by the name of the headman. I can post the names of some of the Hunkpapa agency bands as well, if interested.

Two important elements to remember when looking at the Hunkpapa bands. First, there was considerable pressure from the Office of Indian Affairs to break the influence of the chiefs. Agent McLaughlin at Standing Rock explained in one of his annual reports that one way to do that was to have as many leaders as possible with very small bands. Eventually everyone would be a headman and the chiefs would therefore have no following. Hence, during the 1880's, you see a sudden rise in the number of Hunkpapa bands such as illustrated on your list.

Second, remember that there are apparently two levels of social organization within a tribe like the Hunkpapa. First, there are the tiyospaye, which are a group of smaller family bands (wicotipi). Tiyospaye were originally defined by their own hunting grounds; wicotipi were more often groups of closely related family members. Once the Hunkpapa and the other Lakota tribes were forced onto reservations, the distinction between tiyospaye and wicotipi appears to have disappeared and they became essentially the same.

When trying to reconstruct the original Lakota political structure, it is important to know whether the name of a "band" is a tiyospaye or a wicotipi. For example, one of the major Oglala tiyospaye were the Kiyuksa or Cut Off band, which consisted of a number of small family groups such as the Kuinyan, built around the family of Little Wound.

Does this help -- or am I making the water muddier?

Ephriam

[glenbow]

This actually makes things much clearer, and I would be very interested in reading the names of the Hunkpapa agency bands that you have. Thank you, Ephriam.

[Ephriam Dickson]

In September 1876, the following Hunkpapa bands were recorded at the Standing Rock Agency:

Thunder Hawk -- 15 lodges (95 people)
Bears Rib -- 4 lodges (30 people)
Running Antelope -- 13 lodges (75 people)
Iron Horn -- 3 lodges (20 people)
Belly Fat -- 6 lodges (40 people)
Long Soldier -- 4 lodges (25 people)
Medicine Man -- 7 lodges (46 people)
White Eye -- 4 lodges (26 people)
Bad Hand -- 7 lodges (40 people)
Black Bird -- 3 lodges (20 people)
Red Horse -- 10 lodges (65 people)

Ephriam

[glenbow]

Ephriam, my apologies for being so slow in finding those Hunkpapa band names for you. I am still searching! I did find this information online at a genealogical site that talks about the Hunkpapa divisions:
www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/siouan/hunkpapahist.htm

I will quote here the information that specifically deals with the Hunkpapa band names:

"Their subdivisions as given by J. O. Dorsey are:
(1) Chankaokhan,
(2) Cheokhba,
(3) Tinazipeshicha,
(4) Talonapin,
(5) Kiglashka,
(6) Chegnakeokisela,
(7) Shikshichela,
(8) Wakan, and
(9) Hunskachantozhuha.

Culbertson (Smithson. Rep. 1850, 141, 1851) mentions the following bands:

Devil's medicine-man band (Wakan),
Half breechclout people (Chegnakeokisela),
Fresh meat necklace people (Talonapin),
Sleepy Kettle band (Cheokhba),
Sore backs (Chankaokhan),
Bad bows (Tinazipeshicha), and
Those that carry.
Fire-Heart's band (Chantaapeta's band) is supposed to be a part of the Hunkpapa."

I recognized the name 'Talonapin' from your original list, which, according to this article, is the same band that I recall having seen in Walter Campbell's notes, and which he referred to as "Fresh meat necklace people".

[Ephriam Dickson]

Thank you for the information. Those names can also be found in W. J. McGee's article, "The Siouan Indians: A Preliminary Sketch," published in the 15th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Smithsonian).

So while we have the names of Hunkpapa bands, what we do not have well established yet are which Hunkpapa leaders were members of which bands. The Waggoner papers I mentioned before (thanks to Kingsley Bray who brought them to my attention) begin to link band leaders with the traditional band names. But we still have much to learn to fully understand Hunkpapa tiyospaye politics.

Please do let me know when you find that Campbell document! Thanks for continuing to look.

Ephriam

[markland]

Ephriam, since I am near the Kansas City National Archives Repository, if you could point me in the correct direction, I will be glad to dig into their Sioux reservation records. From what I can tell, all of the reservations will have their original papers located here-well, as long as they were located in NE, SD, ND...WY & MT are in Denver.

My throwaway address is [e-mail]...don't worry, half the spammers on the i'net already have it, but AOL does have nice spam blocking...

Best of wishes,

Billy

[kingsleybray]

Let me add my request to Ephriam's for the Campbell/Vestal list of Hunkpapa bands. Such a list matching band names to leaders would open up a lot of Hunkpapa history. According to Frances Densmore's informants Sitting Bull's band was the Bad Bows (Tinazipe-sica), which is in the lists posted by Glenbow. Vestal's informants consistently identify Sitting Bull with the Icira band, a name not listed in 19th Century tabulations. The Icira may be a small sub-band within the Bad Bows - alternatively, perhaps it's an over-arching title for two or more bands that habitually 'ran together': see Ephriam's discussion of the nested nature of Lakota sub-divisions.

The first list posted by Glenbow above is a snapshot of the Hunkpapa tribal circle ca. 1880 - the order of the bands follows the camp-circle from band no. 1 on the south side of the camp entrance round to band no. 9 on the north side or 'horn'. The translations of the names are as follows. Where we know a chief or leader I've added it:

1. Chankaohan, Sore Backs chief Running Antelope
2. Che-ohkba, Sleepy Penis chiefs Little Bear (pre-1866), Tall Soldier, Bear Face
3. Tinazipe-sica, Bad Bow chief Sitting Bull
4. Talonapin, Fresh Meat Necklace chief Charging Thunder (post-1880, a Densmore informant)
5. Kiglashka, Tie Their Own
6. Chegnaka-okisela, Half Breechcloth
7. Siksicela, Bad Ones
8. Wakan, Holy
9. Hunska-cantojuha, Legging Tobacco Pouches.

This still leaves us in the dark about the band affiliations of key leaders such as Gall, Crow King . . . the list goes on. The Vestal document could clear all this up.

Kingsley Bray

[glenbow]

I have managed to find a good deal of the Campbell papers that I received from the University of Oklahoma Library, although I still have not pinpointed the exact document I was hoping to find. Campbell's notes from the field appear to have been hastily written in point form, and some interpretation is required by the reader. For example, he often uses initals to designate an individual, so it is important that his information is not misinterpreted, and there is often a question and answer format from the transcriptions of his interviews with Lakota Elders. So far, I've managed to find one interesting reference to a band of Hunkpapa that went to Canada after the Custer Battle. It is from Notebook 12, Box No. 105, on the cover of which is hand writtten "Old Bull / White Bull". I have injected my own interpretations in brackets:

p13:

"When OB [Old Bull] 1 yr old - 1851: Following chiefs made:
1) 4 Horns
2) Red - [Horn]
3) Loud Hawk
4) Running Antelope

Before that just lodge - no chiefs -

Lots peo[ple] already in Can[ada] when SB [Sitting Bull] starts -

SB go to Canada? yr spring after Custer - 77
OB [Old Bull] with Sitting Bull - already there

p14:

Few of White Crows [Kangi Ska?] bands there -
White Crow = name of whole band -
leader = Shoots the Enemy Hunk[papa]"

I am sorry that I can't offer better clues at this point, Ephriam and Kingsley, but I will continue my search in earnest for the information you're seeking, and will let you know as soon as I find more information.

[glenbow]

Gentlemen, after some crawling around in the cramped storage locker of my apartment building, I just may have finally found that document I was beginning to think was just a figment of my imagination. The following information is from Walter Campbell's research notes (Box 105, notebook 35, entitled "Two Bulls on Custer Battle & Sitting Bull"). Please note that these are once again jotted notes, apparently handwritten by Campbell himself:

p8 (verso):

"On Little Mo [Missouri] in camp

Gall, Circling Bear & father there

4 Horns same band but not sure of kin to S.B. [Sitting Bull]

Old Black Moon adopted father of [Sitting Bull]

Red Hail - not sure a chief

chiefs of [words "S.B. band' scratched out]
1) 4 Horns
2) Red - [Horn(s?)]
3) Running Antelope
4) Charge the Tiger
all counselors of Humkpapa -
up to 1850 [ this is barely legible]

p9:

bands - of above
A) 4+1. Band that separated & went
[following brackets are Campbells:]
[icira (ichicra gutteral 'r')]
together again

3+2. named after Sore Back of horses

Later
1. Gall
2. Long Dog
3. Running Horse
4. SB [Sitting Bull]

4. to A
1. " Breechclout
2. " Meat Necklace
3. " Had discord & thrown aside band -

Both groups Hunkpapa -
Red Horn head chief ?? [Frank] Zahn doubted"

Once again, the material is sketchy at best, and probably open to varying interpretations. Still, I hope it may be of help to you. I have a few boxes of this material, and will do my best to sort through all of it and let you know if anything else comes up. FYI, the University of Oklahama Libraries' Associates of the Western History Collections published an inventory and index for the Walter Stanley Campbell Collection in 2001. It was revised and edited by Kristina L. Southwell. Although I am not sure if it is still in print, it is an excellent guide to a valuable source of firsthand recollections of Lakota history. Again, my apologies for taking so long to find this small bit of information, and I hope it is of help to you both.

[Ephriam Dickson]

Thank you for taking the considerable time to track down these documents. You are right -- they can be interpreted in several different ways and we will have to study them closely.

The Josephine Waggoner Papers (courtesy Kingsley) noted that there were four Hunkpapa bands in exile in Canada:
1. Icira -- Sitting Bull, Four Horns, Red Horn and Black Moon.
2. Talonapin -- Charging Thunder
3. Cangiska (Kangiska) -- Gall
4. Cankahuran -- Cross Bear and Running Antelope [since both of these men led agency bands, was there a part of the Sorebacks who were in Canada with Sitting Bull?]

Coincidentally, when the Hunkpapa were sent to Standing Rock Agency shortly after their surrender, they were divided into four major groups:
1. Sitting Bull and Four Horns
2. Crow King
3. Gall
4. Rain in the Face
Is it too much to hope that they in fact represent the four bands that Waggoner wrote of? Lets take each one individually.

Band 1. Waggoner had already identified Sitting Bull and Four Horn's band as the Icira.

Band 2. Crow King was counted at Standing Rock Agency in September 1881 with 285 people. By December of that year, the agency officials were recording these people in two bands: Crow King's (163 people) and Charging Thunder (136 people). By 1883, Crow King's band was shown divided again, between Crow King (113 people) and Scattering Bear (48 people), with Charging Thunder numbering 137 people. Following Crow King's death in 1884, High Bear was listed as the head of this band in agency records. Waggoner listed Charging Thunder as Talo-napin; can we assume that in fact all three groups belonged to this band (or at least were closely related)?

Band 3. Gall. Waggoner listed Gall's band as the Kangiska.

Band 4. By the process of elimination, this leaves making a connection between Rain in the Face and the Soreback band. I cannot make that connection yet, but suspect it is there. I am just beginning to track his band through the Standing Rock records. It is of interest to note that Rain in the Face is shown in Bear's Face band (one of the agency bands) in the 1885 census. But this still needs work.

Thoughts?

Ephriam

[glenbow]

I've found something else in the Campbell notes regarding the Hunkpapa band names. On page 15 of Folder #8, Box 105 is written the following:

"Names of bands in Hunkpapa tribe when Sitting Bull was chief [after 1867?] -

1) Sitting Bull's Band called Bad Bulls [the word "Bows" written above] Band. Sometimes called Icira because Sitting Bull was chief of Icira & they joined Bad Bull's Band - Sitting Bull became chief
2) Red Horn's Band called Sore Back
3) Long Horn's Band called Holy
4) Gall's Band called Meat Necklace"

This latest bit of information only manages to confuse things more, as Gall is here associated with the Talonapin, after having already been designated as a member or Chief of the Kangi Ska and possibly Half Breechclout bands. I am not sure who Campbell's informant was for this particular information, although I can probably find out. It would seem that the Lakota oral tradition was not infallible, and facts could possibly have become blurred over the years. As for Rain-in-the-Face, was he ever positively identified as a Chief? In the 1885 annuity record from Standing Rock, he is listed as a member of the band led by Chief Bear's Face (Bear's Head?) whom I believe I read somewhere was his brother. In any case, I am continuing to sift through the Campbell material that I have, and will let you know if anything else surfaces.

[kingsleybray]

Again, thanks for taking the trouble to dig the Campbell papers out of storage. Ephriam has teased out the implications for the Hunkpapa bands in Canada. Of the four Hunkpapa bands enrolled at Standing Rock, summer 1881 (Sitting Bull & Four Horns; Crow King; Gall; Rain in the Face) SB & FH equate with Waggoner's Icira. I feel reasonably confident that we can identify Crow King's band with the Talonapin, Fresh Meat Necklace, and that his sub-band and those of Charging Thunder and Scattering Bear together comprise that band. Gall is identified with Waggoner's Kangi-ska, White Crow band - a name also mentioned in the Campbell data , but not mentioned in the 19th Century Hunkpapa band lists. It must tie in with one or more of the bands in the contemporary tribal circle listed in my last post.

Rain in the Face is the last band leader to tie up. Interestingly, his band surrendered at Fort Keogh on the Yellowstone rather than at the posts along the upper Missouri (Buford, Wolf Point etc.) where the other Hunkpapa surrendered. It's tempting to tie him up with Waggoner's Sore Backs, but it doesn't seem quite so neat. As Ephriam notes, in the 1885 SR census he is listed in Bear's Face's band. In the Waggoner papers at the Museum of the Fur Trade, Chadron, NE, there is a biographical profile of Bear Face, where he is named as the head chief of the "Ceyorwa" band of Hunkpapa. This name equates with the Che-okhba or Sleepy P-nis band (I'm trying to circumvent the site's inbuilt bowdlerising facility, which rendered this name as Sleepy Thingy in my previous post!). Bear Face was a brother of Rain in the Face - see James McLaughlin, 'My Friend the Indian' p. 226 f, so I'm confident that Rain's natal band was the Che-okhba.

Having said that note that Sore Backs and Che-okhba are neighbours as bands 1 and 2 in the camp-circle, which usually means that they are related or sister bands.

Moving back in time, the Campbell infor' has huge implications for earlier Hunkpapa history. In the spirit of a brainstorming session, I read the data as follows: originally, there was a basic binary division of the Hunkpapa tribe into two primary bands (again, review Ephriam's analysis of the nesting of sub-divisions). One was the Sore Backs, the other was the Icira. The informant goes on to give Campbell a rather detailed breakdown of the composition of the Icira sub-bands, including the Breechclout, Meat Necklace, and Had discord and thrown aside band. These correspond to the camp-circle bands I listed as Half Breechcloth, Fresh Meat Necklace, and Siksicela. Since Densmore identifies Sitting Bull with the Bad Bows band, that too must be a part of the larger Icira grouping. Note how these bands comprise a bloc within the camp-circle. Unfortunately the informant doesn't go into detail in breaking down the Sore Back division, but I suggest it included at least the Che-okhba band next to it in the tribal circle. Interestingly Lewis & Clark and Tabeau in 1804 also break down the Hunkpapa into two major bands - I suspect that their Saone-Hontpapa corresponds to the Sore Backs division, their Tackchandeseechar band to the Icira. I'm working on a paper on early Hunkpapa history and this data is a vital contribution. Thanks again!

Kingsley