Red Dogs ledger book.

[elisabeth]

There's a bit of background on Red Dog here:

www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/books/ourbooks/ledgerha.htm

[markland]

This is not specifically about Red Dog nor Clifford the Big Red Dog

But while trying another search engine, I ran into this page about White Swan.

"In June 1876, a young warrior named White Swan was one of six Crow scouts assigned to the 7th Cavalry. The outnumbered Crow had aligned themselves with the U.S. government against their traditional enemies, the Sioux and Cheyenne, in exchange for a promise from General George Armstrong Custer of a return to their old way of life, and a return of land stolen from the Crow by other tribes.

History would have been altered had Gen. Custer followed the advise of the Crow scouts who urged him not to lead his forces into the valley of the Little Big Horn. In the ensuing battle, White Swan was severely injured, and after a long recovery, returned to Crow Agency seriously disabled.

In 1894 White Swan, crippled and unable to hear or speak, created a series of drawings on pages from an accounting ledger book to explain his role in the famous battle to his friend, the pastor at the Congregational Church. That man was my grandfather, Rev. James Gregor Burgess. These remarkable illustrations have been in our family ever since.

Our goal is to use reproductions of these drawings to raise college scholarship funds for members of the Crow tribe. Thanks for your interest and support through the sale of items. "

Anyone familiar with the above? The URL with one example of the art is:

www.plainsart.com

Billy

[Grahame Wood]

One White Swan drawing, on canvas, depicting a series of incidents at LBH is in the Time-Life volume, The Scouts.

[kingsleybray]

Red Dog's ledger book is in the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Several of the images are downloadable on the NAA website, depicting some of Red Dog's own war exploits in the 1830's-50's.

Born a Hunkpapa, Red Dog married into the Oglala tribe probably in the late 1830s, his wife being one of Red Cloud's sisters. He became a headman in the Oyuhpe band. An accomplished orator he shaped Oglala consensus for going to war with the USA in 1864, but in 1867-68 he seems to have been one of the Lakota leaders who facilitated treaty negotiations. In 1870 he was one of the key leaders favouring dialogue with the USA, settling at Red Cloud Agency two years later. He was a regular spokesman at the agency, and won the support of the Kit-Fox Society in the Black Hills negotiations of 1875 - he demanding subsistence and annuities for seven generations ahead. His influence waned, but he seems to be the old holy man, Red Dog or Fox Belly, who helped young Black Elk stage his vision ceremony at Pine Ridge ca. 1883. He died about 1885. His personal kindred of the Oyuhpe band was by then known as the Makaicu (Takes the Earth) band, probably satire on Red Dog's pro-treaty ideology.

Kingsley Bray

[Grahame Wood]

I looked on the Smithsonian site and the only Red Dog ledger drawings I could find were on this page

(copy and paste this address into your browser address bar:) siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1CA156A685151.3286&profile=all&page=36&group=0&term=http+image+%28Drawings+or+sketches+or+paintings%29&index=.GW&uindex=&aspect=power&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siarchives&1131575261417#focus

and the previous one. They are considerably 'cruder' than those on the leaflet I had from the National Museum of the American Indian in New York (and which I STILL haven't found!). I notice in the notes that Candace Greene suspects that the figure in the picture is by a different artist to the one who drew his horse. I don't know how old Red Dog was compared to, say, Red Cloud, but I'm guessing he was around 60 when he was photographed in the mid 1870s so this could be the same individual who is depicted on a raid in 1839.



However, the other picture I've posted is one of those I saw on the leaflet and, indeed, one of those I saw on display. It's from 'Treasures of the National Museum of the American Indian' by Clara Sue Kidwell and Richard W. Hill, Sr. (Abbeville Press, NY, 1996).

[Grahame Wood]

Ah-hah... I have found further Red Dog drawings, some of him, collected in the Lakota Drawings of Red Dog and Others folder at the Smithsonian. They seem to be a different had to both the others in the previous post!

Of course, just because they're not by the same individual doesn't mean they don't depict the same individual! However, this doesn't really help Shan in his search for the drawing of Low Dog...

Look at this page:

(copy and paste this address into your browser address bar:) siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1CA156A685151.3286&profile=all&page=11&group=0&term=http+image+%28Drawings+or+sketches+or+paintings%29&index=.GW&uindex=&aspect=power&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siarchives&1131579078034#focus

[Grahame Wood]

Finally, for no particluar reason, here are three pictures of Red Dog himself. The one in the cap is dated 1872; I'm not sure about the others but the one in the cloth shirt must be 1877, and from his face, I'm guessing the group photo is from the period between the other two (I have seen another photo of him in the same - or similar earrings, but offhand, I don't know where).

Red Dog photos:

[Grahame Wood]

Thanks for posting those, Diane.

[shan]

Thanks Grahame,

That first post of yours shows the drawing of Red Crow that was the companion piece to the one of Low Dog that prompted me to start this thread. As I said earlier they are, in my opinion, by a different hand to the one that drew the images in your next post. I have a couple of other drawings from that series, both of which feature Red Dog, and if you look at the way the artist approached drawing the horses in particular, I think that you will agree that we are talking two artists here. I agree with Candace Greens suspicion that that first drawing is the work of two different artists, and given the way the ears legs and hoofs are depicted, I would guess that the horse is by the same hand that drew the pictures in your second post. Hope that is not too confusing.
Couple of questions. You say you found that second batch of drawings in the Lakota drawings of Red Dog and others folder in the Smithsonian. Was that online? If so, how do I get into it? Which brings me to my second question. That address you posted for us to add to our browsers, how on earth does one go about using it, do I type all that into google, does it all start with a www. Sorry to be so thick, but as you will have gathered by now, a natural on the computer I am not.
One last question. How do you go about posting images on this board? If I can crack it I will post the image of Low Dog.
Shan

[Grahame Wood]

Do you mean the second picture (ther one of Red Crow)? Greene was referring to the first picture when she was talking about the possibility of two different artists. That picture and the two in the following post are in the Lakota Drawings of Red Dog and Others folder in the Smithsonian. I would copy and paste this in your address bar:


www.siris.si.edu/


Next, click on Image Gallery in the Archival, Manuscript, and Photographic Collections; then on to Drawings and Sketches; then to Drawings & sketches from National Anthropological Archives National Museum of Natural History; type in Red Dog in the search bar and hit the white arrow in the red button and you should be there - drawings and photographs. Not every entry has an image, unfortunately, so the Mitchell photo (the one with the cloth shirt and gun) isn't there, for some reason, and there are entries that don't refer to our particular Red Dog. Bear in mind that the records, even in the Smithsonian, can be a little liberal.

I can't find any drawings in the style of the second one in my first post on the net, unfortunately.

As far as posting pictures, I send them as an attachment to Diane and beg her indulgence!

[shan]

Thanks Grahame,

I got in fine, followed your instructions and looked up the Garrick Mallery Collection, that's the one that Ephriam suggested housed the Red Dog ledger book. Sadly it turns out to be one of those entries with no attached image, so I tried typed in Low Dog in the search box, but it only referred me to 2 photos I already know, again no images, and no reference to any drawing of Low Dog.
As I said, I am sure the images we have of Red Dog in action, are drawn by some other hand than the drawings supposedly by Red Dog. Indeed the blurb concerning the ledger book says that the drawings are indeed by multiple artists, possibly including Two strike. The mystery deepens.
Sorry if I wasn't clear. The drawing I was reffering to, was indeed the very first picture.
Thanks for your help, many hours ahead buried in the Siris website.

[Ephriam Dickson]

Regarding the three Red Dog photographs:

1. The first photograph was indeed taken in 1872, by Alexander Gardner; it is one of I think three portraits of Red Dog from this period.

2. The second photograph was taken in the fall of 1877 by D. S. Mitchell.

3. The third photograph, a group photograph, is the only photograph known from the 1870 delegation to Washington D.C., taken by Mathew Brady.

Ephriam

[Grahame Wood]

Apologies if you've seen this, Shan, but here's a drawing of Low Dog from The Big Road surrender roster, obtained by Rev S D Hinman in 1883 from Agent Mclaughlin at Standing Rock. It was made for McLaughlin by Big Road (or at least he gave it to McLaughlin) when his followers surrendered at the Agency following their sojourn in Canada. The leader of each sub-band on each plate is designated by the presence of a pipe and pipe bag - all of a different design. This is only the page with Low Dog on. Red Crow features on another page, possibly under the Bear Spares Him or (the author isn't sure) as one of Low Dog's band and he would appear to be one of the head soldiers. If my reading of this is incorrect, please put me right.

It's taken from Garrick Mallery's Pictographs of the North American Indian, Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology but a trimmed down version of the Big Road roster is available in Mallery's Picture Writing of the American Indians, originally in the Tenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, but published more widely in two volumes by Dover in 1972 and, for all I know, it may still be available.

The full cast on this page is: 11. Low Dog 12. Charging Hawk 13. White Tail 14. Blue Cloud (woman; Arapaho?) 15. Shield 16. Little Eagle 17. Spotted Skunk 18. White Bear 19. White Hair 20. His Fight 21. Centre Feather 22. Kills Crows

[Grahame Wood]

For no particular reason, here are another couple of photos of Red Dog. The first is an 1880 delegation picture by Charles Bell. Red Dog's 'accommodationist' outlook perhaps reflected by his dress. L to R: Red Dog, Little Wound (wearing the shirt in which several leaders were photographed during the 1877 delegation; Red Cloud also wore it during this one for what is probably his most famous photo), Red Cloud, American Horse and Red Shirt.



The second is to be found in Hinman's Oglala Sources on the Life of Crazy Horse, in Nebraska History and seems to feature several men decked out for an 1874 trip to Red Cloud agency in hats and fine blankets - the central standing figure seesm to be wearing a quilled robe, but this is scan of a photocopy of a damaged photo, so it's not easy to tell. Red Dog is No. 2; none of the other Indians are named. Anyone know the photographer or whether there were more images taken at the time?



Note the presence of the artist, Jules Tavernier, who, along with Paul Frenzeny, produced several sketches of Indian life in the west, including the one below of the Sun Dance at Red Cloud (in 1874, I think). Does anyone know if their reminiscences were recorded?

[Dietmar]

Grahame, the second photo is very interesting. I have seen it before but didn´t realize that Red Dog is shown here. I found the photo in the "Gallery of the Open Frontier" of the University of Nebraska Press. There is a second photo of a similar scene also. Both photos are said to be made at Fort Robinson.



This is a great photo, because it shows Red Leaf, the wazhazha chief. I think it´s the only known picture of him (if you can proof me wrong please, please post it!), although I know that Stanley Morrow must have photographed him (as it is shown in his catalogue listing):

1. Lt. Carter 2. Tavernier 3. Dear (indian trader) 4. Lt. Buchanan 5. Red Leaf

I don´t know exactly, but I think I read that the indian in your photo on the far left is also Red Leaf.

Red Dog in Carlisle:



Red Dog by Curtis, 1907:



Dietmar