Minneconjou/Sans Arc Bands at LBH?

[shan]

Dietmar,

What is the title of the book you mentioned on D.F. Barry By Thomas H. Heski it sounds very interesting. Is it an old publication? I tried searching by author in ABE books but they came up with nothing,
Shan

[Diane Merkel]

I know you weren't asking me, Shan, but the book is Little Shadow Catcher: Icastinyanka Cikala Hanzi The Story of D.F. Barry by Tom Heski. It was published in 1986; ISBN 0875648088. You can go to bestbookbuys.com and run an ISBN search for it. They are showing four used copies available with quite a wide price range. It is a great resource.

Diane

[shan]

Thanks Diane,
I'll start searching for it today,
Shan

[Dietmar]

I just want to mention two other Miniconjous who were listed in some sources as leaders of the Miniconjous at the LBH:

Buffalo Bull (see Nick Ruleau, Ricker interviews)

Last Bull

Hardorff states that Buffalo Bull was a minor war chief. Last Bull was also a war chief in Lame Deer´s band.

I would not be surprised if these were two names for the same person.

[perrinj]

Folks,

This is my first time investigating anything of this nature, so please be kind. I'm an Australian who is trying to find out information about, or seek out photos of, a Minneconjou indian named Little Bear. Where is the best place to start? I would like to know as much about his life and find out information about his wife and family etc if I can. I don't just want stats and info, I want to really understand who he is and what he believed in, so any tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Being from a completely different country and having no clue about Minneconjou ways, is there any way that stories of him would have been passed down through generations and therefore have people alive today that would be able to tell me more?

I eagerly look forward to all your responses and thank you greatly in advance,
Janelle

[Diane Merkel]

Welcome, Janelle!

As you may have seen, the LBHA website lists two men named Little Bear, neither of whom were Minniconjou. We have some very knowledgeable people checking this board, so it might be helpful if you could provide a date range for the Little Bear you are researching.

Best wishes,
Diane

[Dietmar]

Janelle,

in Stanley Vestal´s "Warpath - The true story of the fighting Sioux" (University of Nebraska Press) White Bull mentioned a Little Bear, who was probably Miniconjou. He was among White Bull´s friends in many war parties against enemy tribes and surrendered with him after the Sioux wars against the whites.

Best wishes

Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

[kingsleybray]

Janelle

I don't know whether your Little Bear is the same, but there was a Miniconjou leader of this name active in the 1870+ period. He was the son of one of the six Wicasa Itancan or band chiefs of the Miniconjou, Helogecha Ska, White Hollow Horn. According to the statement of Lakota historian Josephine Waggoner Little Bear belonged to a band known as Maka-mignaka, meaning Skunk-Belt. This band name is nowhere else recorded. Because the Miniconjou were declining in numbers throughout the 19th Century, I suspect that this once autonomous group was absorbed by one of the larger bands. My supposition has been that White Hollow Horn's family were identified with the Unkche Yuta or Dung Eaters, one of the major bands of the Miniconjou tribe.

Little Bear was born about 1840. Beginning in 1875 he increasingly takes centre-stage in band affairs. His band (like Lone Horn's) was one that settled near Cheyenne River Agency in January 1875, having left the hunting gounds west of the Black Hills during the drought of the previous summer. The old way of life was perceived by such moderate bands as no longer sustainable in the long term. He was a delegate to Washington in May-June of that year, and represented them again at the September council at Red Cloud Agency. The band fled Cheyenne River Agency in Sept. 1876 when the Army took over. In the October parleys with Col. Miles White Hollow Horns gave himself up as a hostage, and Little Bear surrendered at Cheyenne River on Nov. 30.

Joseph White Bull gives an account (in Stanley Vestal's WARPATH) of the investiture of a new generational cohort of Wicasa Itancan at Cheyenne River Agency in 1880-81. Little Bear was formally seated to succed his father, invested with ceremonail shirt etc.

I am not sure when this Little Bear died, but Ephriam may be able to help with his census concordance.

Hope this is of some interest, and that this is indeed 'your' Little Bear.

Kingsley Bray

[grahamew]

Would Little Bear be on the photo taken of the 1875 delegation ouitside the Treasury Building(currently on the Idnetification of Indians thread)? I'd forgotten about this thread until I saw your reply and remembered that photo Dietmar posted of Charger that was labelled Little Bear.

[kingsleybray]

Additions to my Little Bear posting:

Cheyenne River Agency census rolls, 1886.
Little Bear, age 43
Hurts Herself, female, age 36 [wife?]
Brave, male, 16
No Neck, male, 3
White Cow, female, 10
Short Spear, male, 3

Little White Bull [White Hollow Horn], age 70
Black Beaver, female, 68
White Weasel, male, 22
Leader, female, 26
The Enemy, male, 2
Close to the Lodge, male, 12
Short Woman, female, 50

From Josephine Waggoner mss, Museum of the Fur Trade:

details as first posting, plus: Little Bear and his brother Brown Eagle were not involved in wars with USA after 1868. Little bear and his band settled near Cherry Creek on the Cheyenne River Res. Little Bear died June 9, 1920, and is buried at Cherry Creek.

I'll look into the photo angle some more.

Kingsley

[andrew]

I like know about Elk Head and his family.

[clw]

Andrew:

Mr. Dickson and Mr. Bray can provide you with many more details than I, but in the meantime I can tell you that Elk Head, Hunkpapa, was the keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe at the time of the Little Bighorn.

Mr. Bray:

One interpretation that I think is worthy of consideration is that one story about Big Foot identifies him as a nine-year old orphan...... Since the elder One Horn was killed by a buffalo bull in July 1835 at Bear Butte - could Spotted Elk have been his orphaned 'son' subsequently raised by the younger Lone Horn?

As you have probably discovered by now, this is corroborated in the DVD from the CH family.

[Dietmar]

Elk Head was photographed several times as an old man, this picture was made by Edward S. Curtis in 1907.

I think Elk Head was Sans Arc, not Hunkpapa.

[clw]

Deitmar:

He was identified to me as Hunkpapa, one of Sitting Bull's elders, arriving at the Deer Medicine Rock camp with Sitting's Bull's people for the Sundance there and moving on to conduct the solstice ceremonies at the LBH.

[Dietmar]

Well, I have seen him both identified as Hunkpapa (for example in the 1868 Fort Laramie treaty) and (in most sources I saw) as Sans Arc, hard to tell what is definetly right.
And I would not be surprised if there were several men with that name in the different Sioux bands.

The Pipe Bearer Elk Head obtained the Pipe bundle from his father, who was also called Elk Head.
Catlin painted an Elk Head, who was a Sans Arc chief in the 1830s, could be that he was this man.