Northern Cheyenne Chiefs at LBH

[Dietmar]

As I was answering a question about Dull Knife in another thread I looked through the pages of “People of the Sacred Mountain” by Father Peter Powell. He listed the Northern Cheyenne Chiefs in 1876 and who of them was at the Little Bighorn in detail.

The traditional 44 Cheyenne Chiefs were chosen in a ceremony after a Sun Dance in 1874. This “Renewing of the Chiefs” took place normally every ten years. For the first time the Northern Cheyenne elected their own Council of Chiefs independent of the Southern branch of the tribe. The following Cheyennes were chosen in 1874:

Old Man Chiefs:
Little Wolf, Northern Suhtai and Sweet Medicine Chief
Morning Star (aka Dull Knife), Head Chief of the Omisis
Old Bear, Omisis
Black Moccasin (aka Limber Lance)

Council of the Forty-Four:
Box Elder, Head Chief of Northern Suhtai
American Horse, Northern Suhtai
Black Wolf, Northern Suhtai
Black Eagle, Head Chief of Northern Scabby
Little Chief, Little Chief´s band of Lakota/Cheyenne
&
Turkey Leg, (Young) Spotted Wolf, Old Wolf, Black Moccasin (aka Iron), Bald Bear, White Dirt (aka Powder), White Head (aka Gray Head), Old Crow, Strong Wolf (aka Big Wolf), Plum Man, Magpie Eagle, Crazy Head, Black Crane, Medicine Bear, Medicine Wolf, Twin, Standing Elk, Spotted Elk, Living Bear, Black Bear, Cut Foot, Broken Dish (aka Calfskin Shirt) and some others.

The great majority of these Chiefs were at the Little Bighorn in 1876.

Only Morning Star/Dull Knife, Turkey Leg, Spotted Elk, Standing Elk, Living Bear, and Black Bear remained at the agency that year. Little Wolf arrived shortly after the battle and was harangued badly by the Lakotas.

Best Regards
Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

[Dietmar]

In addition to the Chiefs all of the thirty headmen of the Northern Cheyenne warrior societies were probably present at the Little Bighorn, with the exception of Little Wolf, head chief of the Elkhorn Scrapers.

Elkhorn Scraper:
Lame White Man
Wild Hog
Broken Jaw
Crow-Split-Nose
Tall White Man
White Hawk
Left-Handed-Shooter
Goes-After-Other-Buffalo
Plenty Bears
Wolf Medicine

Kit Foxes:
Last Bull
Two Moon
Bear-Who-Walks-On-A-Ridge
Wrapped Hair
Plenty-of-Buffalo-Bull-Meat
Little Horse
Sits-Beside-His-Medicine
Mosquito
Rattlesnake Nose
Weasel Bear

Crazy Dogs:
Old Man Coyote
Strong Left Hand
Little Creek
Snow Bird (aka White Bird)
Crazy Mule
Iron Shirt
Black Knife
Beaver Claws
Red Owl
Crow Necklace

The most important holy men in the LBH village were Coal Bear (Keeper of the Sacred Hat), Box Elder and White Bull (Ice).

[shan]

Over the years, whenever reading about those first attacks on the troops at Calhoun hill, the names Yellow Nose, Comes in Sight and Contrary Belly, keep coming up. In all the years I have been looking at photographs of plains Indians, I never seen a photograph of these men. Have any of you Indian sleuths out there ever come across any?
Shan

[Dietmar]

I can´t remember seeing a photograph of one of these men.
But here is a ledger drawing from the Spotted Wolf/Yellow Nose Ledger, probably drawn by Yellow Nose himself:



Yellow Nose counting coup with the flag he captured from Long Hair´s soldiers.

(take a look at his short hair!)

[shan]

Thanks Dietmar,
yes I've seen that drawing and several others of Yellow Nose, in fact I think there is one of Comes in Sight being rescued by his sister at the battle of the Rosebud in the same ledger book. But as I said earlier, I never seen any photographs of those men.
Shan

[Dietmar]

Sorry Shan.

But perhaps there is a chance that someone made a photograph of Yellow Nose when he was an older man living in Oklahoma. Who knows.

[Dietmar]

I just found a great photo of Brave Bear, the Southern Cheyenne who fought at LBH, I haven´t seen before:

http://members.aol.com:/veedauwoo1/BraveBear1

tinyurl.com/q88bu

Dietmar

[Modified so second link works. -- DM]

[grahamew]

This is the only other Snell I can think of, offhand: Wolf Road, Cheyenne/Sioux, brother of Man on the Cloud


Here's Brave Bear by Wanamaker, 1913:

[Dietmar]

Here is another Snell photo, again a Cheyenne: Bobtail.

www.historicamericana.com/past_sales_view_item.asp?ItemId=5959

I´d love to think there must be more photos of Cheyennes or other tribes by Snell, does anybody know more?

Dietmar

[Dietmar]

Yeah, here´s another one: Lame Bear, Cheyenne

[grahamew]

Here he is:



So when do you think these were taken? Early 80s? I find it hard to believe this is the Lame Bear later killed at or before Sand Creek. There is a Lame Bear listed on the 1887 Darlington census (http://www.rootsweb.com/~itcheyen/1887CheyenneCensus.html) aged 70, which looks about right, and a Wolf Road of 80, although the Brave Bear there is only 31.

There's a possible Snell photo of Whirlwind and his wives in Berthong's The Cheyenne and Arapaho Ordeal. From what I can make out, the backdrop is similar and, like the others, he's wearing leggings, shirt and hat, as if they've all prepared for the occasion.

I notice an auction site on which you can find both Wolf Road and Lame Bear, is passing off Little Wound as American Horse and suggesting Wolf Road may be Geronimo on account of his thin lips and piercing eyes! Good grief! Interesting semi-tinted photo of a man wearing a feather and cradling a tomahawk, however... No documentation of course.

See julia.hanovercomputer.com/firearms/oct03/catalog/adaythree.htm

[Dietmar]

Grahame,

80s could be right, although I tend to believe that they were taken later in the 80s. Is Bobtail perhaps Bobtail Horse from the Huffman photo (with Bull Hump)? Then he looks older here.

[grahamew]

Here's the photo of Whirlwind I mentioned above:



Do you reckon this is another Snell photo? If it's the same Rising Elk, he's mentioned in the Darlington Census as aged 50 in 1887, which looks about right:



Finally, is this THE Dull Knife? If so, when was it taken, because he seems to look a lot younger than the man photographed in 1872 in Washington?

[Dietmar]

Yes, the background in all these photos looks pretty much the same, so I assume they were all made by Snell. Funny, I have seen the last photos all before, but didn´t reckognize them being made by the same photographer...

I am not absolutely sure, but I think the Dull Knife photo could be labeled wrong. Either it´s the bad quality of the photograph or it isn´t Dull Knife at all.
Maybe this Cheyenne is Bull Hump, Dull Knife´s son, who was often confused with his father.

Dietmar

[grahamew]

I'm not sure they do have the same backgrounds, to be honest. Painted backdrops like this seem to be pretty common. Here are two similar pictures. At least one is the same backdrop as the Rising Elk picture.





This profile of the woman and child SEEMS to have the same backdrop as that of Bobtail, above:



Here is the Snell photo of Brave Bear that Dietmar refers to above:



Here is a rather neat painting of Brave Bear by Kenneth Ferguson, an artist based in Arizona (see:
www.prweb.com/releases/2005sponsored/0/prweb270797.htm#):





Here's the 1872 photo of Whirlwind:



And finally, a rather impressive looking Whirwind, but is it the same Cheyenne?