Low Dog Photo

[Grahame Wood]

Couldn't find the thread on Low Dog, so I thought I'd start this one to display the following picture. I thought Shan might not have seen it. It's almost identical to the one in Utley's The Lance and the Shield in which he (or an editor) labelled Low Dog as Crow King, probably because of the army coat. This one, however, has other people, Indian and white, behind the main figures.



I'm assuming this is shortly after the surrender of Gall, Rain in the Face and Low Dog; Running Antelope is there as some sort of facilitator, I guess. I'm also assuming the jackets he and Gall are wearing were handed out for the occasion - maybe Rain's hat too. The latter is holding a photo of himself which I always thought was taken by Barry or Huffman shortly after surrender (if memory serves, he has fur-wrapped braids, one feather and is wearing an army blouse), but I guess must have been taken while he frequented Ft Abraham Lincoln or even during his period of arrest.

[Dietmar]

My information of this photo is:
made by Frank J. Haynes in 1881

The complete photo shows 10 sioux indians. In the front row sitting are Gall, Crawler, Low Dog/Crow King, Running Antelope and Rain-in-the-Face.
In the back row standing are Louis Sitting Bull, Chase Walking, Yellow Hawk, Fool Bear and Brave Thunder.



Dietmar

[Grahame Wood]

Thanks. I've never seen a complete version of this photo. Don't suppose you've got one to scan and post? Louis Sitting Bull? I've seen that name applied to Little Assiniboin/Jumping Bull; is that right?

[Dietmar]

I´m not sure, but I don´t think Louis was Little Assiniboine/Jumping Bull. I have two Barry photographs of Louis Sitting Bull and one other in "The last years of Sitting Bull" of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
In "The Lance and the Shield" you find this statement:
"there were the two stepsons brought into the marriage by Seen-By-The-Nation, identified in early years as Little Soldier and Blue Mountain, among other names, but in reservation years as Louis Sitting Bull and William Sitting Bull. William was the deaf-mute."
The deaf-mute stepson was also photographed by Barry, but he was named John Sitting Bull (a little confusing!)

Three Barry photos of Low Dog:

[Grahame Wood]

I couldn't think of a reason why Jumping Bull would also be named Louis Sitting Bull, but I came across some pictures of him named as such on a website. Can't remember where, but I'll root around this weekend and, if I can find them, I'll post them. There was another who I'm sure was called Lone Sitting Bull and I have a feeling I've seen that labelled Jumping Bull too!

[Grahame Wood]

Thanks for those. Doesn't No. 7 remind you of Spotted Eagle, the Sans Arc leader, particularly with that knife club?

Can't think why Utley didn't use that photo in the Lance and the Shield.

By the way, don't mean to pry, but are you Dietmar Kuegler of Tatanka Press?

[Dietmar]

yes, indeed, looks like Spotted Eagle.
I picked the names from the original inscription on the photo. Maybe Fool Bear was another name for Spotted Eagle? Is it possible that Spotted Eagle was at this occasion at this time at all?

Well, Grahame, I´m not Dietmar Kuegler we just got the same name. But I know and like his german magazine a lot.

[Grahame Wood]

Getting back to Low Dog, I wonder, Shan, if you're out there, if you've read DeCost Smith's Red Indian Experiences (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1949)? He tells of his meeting with, and interest, in Low Dog. There's also a chapter on His Fight, number 20 in Low Dog's band in the Big Road roster.

[shan]

Hi Grahame, been away for a few days, so it was a surprise to come back to all this Low Dog activity. I'll work my way through the various points.
Yes I did know that particular photo you first posted, [As a matter of fact I have all the photos that have been posted on this thread, plus one other, blown up and framed in my studio, } but what I have not seen before is the drawing of him, alongside the warrior by the name of His Fight, that you posted on the Red Dog ledger book thread.
The book you mention, Red Indian Experiences, by DeCost Smith, was given to me by my father when I was 6/7 years old, and it was that image of Low Dog and the chapter dealing with him that set me off on a life time obsession with the man. If I was to get involved in that thread that invites people to list their collection of books on the subjects covered by this forum, it would be my first, and, if one were asked, which of your books would you choose if you were only allowed to keep but one, be the book I would choose to keep. Maybe that other thread will mutate towards that very question, who knows?
But back to that drawing. Can you tell me where you found it, and if it contains any more information?
Shan

[Grahame Wood]

Off hand, I don't hink it contains any more information specifically about Low Dog, but I'll have another look and post again tomorrow.

Here's yet another picture of your man, clearly from the same session as those Dietmar posted, but with the added bonus of Crow King! I scanned this from Paul Hedren's booklet, 'Sitting Bull's Surrender at Fort Buford'.

[crzhrs]

Great photo of Crow King, Low Dog, etc. This must have been taken soon after Sitting Bull's band came in from Canada. The warriors still appear formidable!

[Dietmar]

I found an interesting statement about Low Dog in "Standing Rock Sioux - Images of America" (Arcadia 2004). The author Donovin A. Sprague is himself a tribal member of the Cheyenne River Sioux:

"Low Dog is always listed as an Oglala but is a Siha Sapa."!!!

He seems to have got this information from Carideo Low Dog of Dupree, South Dakota, who is the great-grandson of Low Dog.

Does anyone got more information about this?

Dietmar

[Grahame Wood]

Shan, the pictograph of Low Dog with name glyph is to be found in Garrick Mallery's 'Pictographs of the North American Indians: A Preliminary Paper', 4th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington DC, 188m 6; pp 175-176, and the relevant plates. There is no information about him specifically; he's just listed as a band leader under Big Road. Mallery intially syas they represent the 84 heads of families in Big Road's band and were collected by the Rev S D Hinman in 1883 from agent James McLaughlin, who obtained them from Big Road when he was brought to Standing Rock and had to give an account of who was in his band. The originals were made with black and coloured pencils, with a few in yellow ochre water colour on single sheets of foolscap paper with materials acquired from the agency.

The first figure in each of the seven plates is a chief of the sub-band or head of 'family'. The leaders' rank is shown by the presence of a pipe and bag. The pipe bag of each leader is different; some of the leading figures don't have pipes or bags and Mallery feels this may because they all belong to the previous leader - which suggest the largest of the bands may have been Low Dog's. There is no suggestion that the individual Indians were responsible for their own images; in fact, they seem to be all by one hand (Big Road's, I assume) - although there are a few on plate which may be the product of a different artist.

Some of the drawings also appear in Garrick Mallery's Picture Writing of the American Indians; two volumes, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1972, which was a reprint of his 'Picture Writing of the American Indians', in the Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-89, by J W Powell, Director, originally published by the Goverment Printing Office, Washington DC, 1893. In Volume One, pp 420-423 and relevant plates, Mallery has reproduced the heads of the band leaders and the head soldiers (indicated by the presence of a war club and three transverse bands of red paint on their cheeks. Each of the chiefs have different designs of pipes and bags and at least three transverse bands painted on their cheeks. All he says about Low Dog is that the dog figure is represented as 'low' by the shortness of the legs as compared with the figure of Long Dog.

I don't know if Dover still have this two volume work in print, but there is a Dover shop in London :

www.doverbooks.co.uk/main.asp

[Grahame Wood]

Here's the plate from the Dover reprint featuring the band leaders:

a - Big Road b - Low Dog c - Long Dog d - Iron Crow e - Little Hawk

[shan]

Grahame,

Many thanks for your stirring work in unearthing Low Dog as a member in that band count of Big Roads, and for the information on those Dover books, I have ordered them this morning. Maybe I should hire you as a private eye, { what a strange saying that is when you look at it twice,} having previously unearthed all the photographs that have been put up on this thread, and having tried to check up the 2 different dates Richard Hardorff gave in 2 different book, { he never replied to my letters,} and then having contacted and requested information from the Cherry creek reservation which seems to be where Low Dog may well have ended his days, I hit a series of extremely well built brick walls.
That drawing of him, I posted on the Red Dogs ledger book thread, and now this one in Big Roads band count, are the first vague glimpses I have had of him through a chink in those walls, for quite some time.
I'm still not totally convinced that the drawing of him and Red Crow come from Red Dogs ledger book, books make mistakes in attribution of sources and images all the time.
I have just received a book this week entitled Art of the Warriors, rock art of the American plains, an excellent book with lots of eulogies on the back, BUT, good as it is, it prints a photograph of a man it calls Low Dog, when it is patently LONG DOG. If one knows that they have got one thing wrong, then you are never quite sure whether you can trust them on the rest.
This matter came up on the original Low Dog thread, which is still on the board should you wish to have a look at the image.
Anyways, having got that off my chest, thanks again,
Shan