Low Dog Photo

[Hans Karkheck]

To the friends of Low Dog:

Interesting discussion of Low Dog on this great message board. There are two additional portraits of the man I shall post. If someone explained to me how to attach pictures on this site, I would do so immediately.

The first photo certainly is the earliest portrait of Low Dog known to me, the second one should be his latest likeness, depicting him as an older man with short hair.





Hans

[Grahame Wood]

Sounds interesting. What I do is send pictures in an attachment to Diane at
[e-mail] and ask her to post them in the thread. Can't wait to see them.


No problem, Shan. I think you'll enjoy the Mallery stuff - a lot of information on winter counts and the Big Road and Red Cloud rosters.

I'm disappointed you didn't hear back from Hardorff. Years ago, I corresponded with him about Crazy Horse and he was most helpful.

[Hans Karkheck]

Thanks, Grahame, I followed your advice and posted the photos to Diane. So you should see them soon. Enjoy.

Hans

[Grahame Wood]

Excellent photos. Can I ask where you got them from? Are there any dates? I wonder if the first was taken in Canada?

[Dietmar]

Wow!
Hans, thank you, you posted great photos!

The first one must be Low Dog in the 1870s. Where do you found it? Do you know the photographer?

I just found the second photo in the Minnesota Historical Society Visual Recources Database. It states the photographer is Edward Augustus Bromley (1848-1925). The picture was made in 1891.

Dietmar

P.S.: do you have more of these rare photographs?

[shan]

hello Hans,
Hans, I can only echo what the others have said, great photos where on earth did you find them. I have spent 20 years trying to find photographs of the man, other than the one we see used in every second book that has the Sioux, or the battle of the Little Bighorn as its subject matter. Some 20 years ago I corresponded with the Smithsonian, asking if they had any other photographs of him in their archive, but they said no, the only one they knew of was that original image, as far as they knew, it was the only one ever made of him.
Since then I have kept on looking and eventually found all those that have been posted on this thread over the last week or so, so these are a great bonus, and for that i thank you again.
Having said that, my elation is tinged with sadness to see such a fierce looking man, reduced to the tame Indian we see in that last photograph.
Shan

[Hans Karkheck]

I have had these interesting Low Dog portraits for a long time and wasn't aware of any sources for both of them. Thus I am thankful to Dietmar for giving us the MHS information regarding the Bromley photo.

The first image obviously depicts a younger Low Dog than those pictures taken shortly after his return from Canadian sanctuary. If not taken immediately before his Canadian sojourn (which potential photographer was around?), the portrait could well have been done in Canada - although somehow I am still inclined to slightly doubt this (photographer?).

Hans

[Hans Karkheck]

Trying to complete the record, there, of course, is a companion picture to the alleged Haynes group photo with Low Dog (available from SIRIS). This one is lacking the entourage standing behind Gall, Crawler, Low Dog, Running Antelope and Rain In The Face.



These 1881 Lakota photos might in fact be David Barry's work. Haynes seemed to have used and distributed them under his own name.

Hans

[Grahame Wood]

I guess what we need to know is did Low Dog surrender in 1877? With Crazy Horse? If so, he must have been using another name - and not White Guts - for he isn't in Buecker and Paul's 'Crazy Horse Surrender Ledger', so he doesn't appear to have been at Red Cloud (unless he's one of those listed as Guts) at this time. Did he then leave for Canada after Crazy Horse's death, or did he go straight to Canada with Sitting Bull after LBH?

In 'Indian Views of the Custer Fight', Hardorff suggests that Low Dog went straight to Canada with Sitting Bull, but in his book on the death of Crazy Horse, he says he surrendered in May 1877 then left for Canada later.

I'm assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that he hadn't been at an agency prior to 1877 at least. If he initially surrendered in 1877, then the photograph could date from the brief time he was at the agency (but which agency???). Could be a Morrow, a Hamilton, a Mitchell, a Goff? Was it taken in Canada? There certainly were photos of Sitting Bull's people taken in Canada, but not many seem to have surfaced and there are some passed off as Lakota that clearly aren't. Was it taken almost straight after his surrender in 1881? A Haynes? A Barry? A Huffman? There looks to be more than 10 years between the two photos Hans posted, but then Sitting Bull's features aged noticeably during this period...

As I'm sure you know, when the reporter John Finerty visited Sitting Bull in Canada in 1879, he referred to Low Dog as 'brave and sullen. He had little to say, but was a man of considerable action when it came to blows." On the other hand, Finerty also refers to a man called White Guts, the other name by which he is referred in DeCost Smith's book, as "tall, thin, and gaudily dressed, young but hard looking, with the reputation of being a good fighter."

Finally, I have to echo Dietmar and ask if you have any more portraits like this?

[shan]

I would guess that the photograph of a younger Low Dog was taken some 5\6 years previous to those that we are all now so familiar with, those taken around the time of his surrender, the reason I say this is because to me, the face looks less lined, much less careworn.
Beside his face, there are a couple of things that indicate that the Photo was taken at some other time. The braid wraps he wears appear to be much thicker than those he wears in the surrender photos, although he does seem to be wearing the same neck choker and bone breastplate. But what on earth are those strange pieces of string or rope that seem to pass from behind his head, over his shoulder, and then link with those things he wears on his arms? I for one have never seen anything like them in any of the thousands of photographs of plains Indians I have looked at over the years.
With regard to the later photo, I wonder if it was taken either whilst he was a prisoner at Fort Snelling in Minnesota, { he had been arrested at the time of the Ghost Dance, as it was felt that he was one of the men fermenting trouble,} or, if not, then on his return to Cherry Creek. He was released in August 1891, and escorted by a non commissioned officer to Fort Bennet, and from there, he was given yet another escort that took him back to the Cheyenne river agency, for, as the order has it,
" restoration to his people. What a long, strange trip that must have been for the men concerned.
Shan

[Grahame Wood]

Of course, it's always possible the 1891 date for the Bromely photo isn't correct. I've looked on the MHS site and while some of the dates are spot on, others are consderably more ball park.

[Dietmar]

I learned from the Kingsley Bray article "Crazy Horse and the End of the Sioux War" that Low Dog enrolled at Spotted Tail Agency with the surrendering Lame Deer village on September 4, 1877.
Maybe the early photo was shot there?

[Grahame Wood]

Ah, maybe then. Perhaps a Cross photo, although I'm sure he didn't have his studio in Niobrara until 78.

[shan]

I have just been in and viewed the Edward Bromley photographs, and notice that he took a good number of Fort Snelling over the years, which, I think, strengthens my case for him having taken that photograph of Low Dog when he was a prisoner there in 1891.
Shan

[grahamew]

Yet another view of Gall, Low Dog, et al - by Haynes (possibly):