Brule Participants at LBH?

[kingsleybray]

The 1887 Rosebud census is now online at the Oyate Research Center website. I just rechecked there and under Wazhazha band we find the following family:

Red Leaf, Husband, Age 72
Fight all the Time, Wife, 30
Look Good, Daughter, 8
Little Girl, Daughter, 6
Foot Son, 2

This suggests that Red Leaf's youngest wife married the chief about 1877 or 78 (possibly linked to the move from Red Cloud to Spotted Tail Agency in April 1877?), and their eldest child was born a year or two later.

We may envy a 62-year old man marrying a 20-year old girl - but her name suggests she was one of the feisty brand of Lakota women!

[charlie]

Kingsley: great! magnificent! enormous! So, we now have the photo and many interesting infos about him. I hope that Ephriam soon added notices about the latest years of his life.
Still a curiosity: WAZHAZHA is usually translate as "Osage". In the web, i have also seen these translations: "Snake People" and " "Shred into Strips". The later is my prefer. Which is the more right? Can we consider the major bands of Sichangu the following:
1-Chokatunwan "Middle Village" (Ring band) 2-Wazhazha (Osage?) 3-Wablenica "Orphans" 4-Wagmezayuha "They have corn" (Corn band)? Thanks.

[grahamew]

C R Savage photo of Hollow Horn Bear.

Is it him? He's not a photographer I would normally associate with the Lakota.

[Dietmar]

I don´t think so... he´s much too young for Hollow Horn Bear.

[jinlian]

May 21, 2008 6:54:54 GMT -6 charlie said:

1-Chokatunwan "Middle Village" (Ring band) 2-Wazhazha (Osage?) 3-Wablenica "Orphans" 4-Wagmezayuha "They have corn" (Corn band)? Thanks.

When speaking of Sicangu politics in the agency period, we can't forget the Loafer (Wagluhe) band, considered together with the Corn band a "progressive" one, and whose leader was White Thunder, killed in 1884 by Spotted Tail's eldest son in the struggle for leadership.

Also, it should be remembered the Kutawichasha o Lower Brulé, even if they chosen the Missouri area as their territory (around 1832) and didn't take any part in the later Upper Brulé vicissitudes.

[kingsleybray]

I have written a paper about early Brule bands and political organization, to appear in a forthcoming volume of tributes to Colin Taylor. It covers this stuff in some detail, but briefly at the beginning of the 19th century the Brules were rated by both Tabeau and Lewis & Clark as comprising the following bands:

1. Isanyati, or Isanyati Ektapa, Toward the Santee. Largest band in 1804, chief Black Bull. Still rated a band in the Upper Brule tribal circle at Rosebud ca. 1880, settled in Okreek Community, leading families still included the Black Bulls. Part of the Loafer-Corn band division of the tribe by this period.

2. Choka-tunwan, Middle Village or Sichangu proper. The parent-band of the tribe, from which bands offshooted or to which outside bands joined. Chief Medicine Bull in 1804, descendant of same name was second chief at Lower Brule Agency after 1870. Part of the band also at Rosebud, name rendered Chokatowela, settled between Rosebud village and Parmelee.

3. Wacheunpa or Meat Roaster. Chief Partisan in 1804. Offshoot bands of this band at both Lower Brule and Rosebud. Little Thunder family was connected to this band in early times. Rosebud Wacheunpa groups settled at Grass Mountain.

4. Minisha, Red Water. Band broke up in 1840s, part joining the Oglalas and part the Sans Arcs. Undoubtedly some families joined other Brule bands. A man with the personal name Red Water crops up in some Lower Brule censuses. The band name was borne by a Sans Arc band associated with the keepers of the Calf Pipe Bundle, and I think the band originated there. Part joined the emerging Brule tribe in period 1750-75.

5. Wazhazha, Osage. Smallest band in 1804, chief Mazomani. Later associated with the Upper Brules and Oglalas, with bands settled at both Rosebud (Black Pipe District) and Pine Ridge (Porcupine District). I think the 'cut into strips' translation is a folk etymology, used to explain a term no longer understood. Nicollet (in 1839) obtained the story that this band grew out of intermarriage between Lakotas and the Wazhazha clan of the Ponca tribe. My feeling is that this also happened in the 1750-75 frame.

As for the Upper/Lower Brule division, this is best understood as a process rather than a single event, taking place during the frame 1825-50. Key to understanding it is the geographical distribution of trading posts. Branch posts serving Brule communities between the Missouri and White Clay Creek were outfitted from Ft Pierre, and served the Lower Brules. After 1835 branch posts were located on upper White River from Ft Laramie and the North Platte. The bands served by these several posts (e.g. at Bordeau Creek, Chadron Creek) became the Upper Brule tribal division. That indicates a basic wintering division, although I think that the Brules continued to offer a single Sun Dance (summer operations) until the 1850s. Then, with the move of the Southern Men band into southwest Nebraska and certain Northern Brule bands (Wazhazhas, Orphans) into Wyoming, separate Sun Dance complexes crystalised.

Hope this helps

Kingsley

[kingsleybray]

charlie, I forgot to address the other bands you raised, Wagmeza-yuha or Corn-owner, and Wablenicha or Orphan (also rendered Hunku-wanicha, No Mothers). These are examples of groups in-marrying into the Brule tribe during the early 19th century. Both seem to have included strong elements of Miniconjou people. The first band, then known as Red-Top Tipis, was identified with the tiwahe of Swift Bear (via his father Lone Dog and grandfather Red Warbonnet). I think it became part of the Isanyati band we discussed above, and by the 1850s was the leading group within that band. Because they practiced a little corn planting the name changed to Wagmeza-yuha. Contemporary accounts and reports simply call them "the Corn Band". Settled Ponca Creek, or Milk, District at Rosebud.

The Orphans I think joined the Brule circle during the frame 1805-20. There were significant numbers of Northern Teton people who joined the Brules in this period (my hunch is because of US trade advantages). This band was associated with the tiwahe of Iron Shell (and his father Shot in the Heel and grandfather Bone Bracelet) and thence his descendants (Hollow Horn Bear et al.) Settled ain Upper Cut Meat Dist., Rosebud.

Later,

Kingsley

[jinlian]

May 27, 2008 7:40:41 GMT -6 kingsleybray said:

Wablenicha or Orphan (also rendered Hunku-wanicha, No Mothers).

Kingsley,

this is very interesting, since it would disprove the explaination given by George Hyde about the origin of the name i.e. the band feeling "orphaned" after the death of their chief Big Raven (Kangi Tanka), killed in a raid against the Shoshone in 1844. Have you any info about this chief and the one who succeeded him (Grand Partisan, Blotahunka Tanka) - was one of them or both related to the Bull Tail - Iron Shell family?

Thanks

Jin

[charlie]

Kingsley: i enjoy myself too much when i read your posts; and i learn a lots of things. Many thanks for you basic support to this Forum!

[kingsleybray]

charlie, flattery will get you everywhere. Jin, the Orphans band story is one that George Hyde got wrong. The story of the killing of Male Crow and his war party by Crows and Snakes, fall 1844, is the origin of the Orphan band among the Oglalas. Survivors' families formed a band which ultimately (after 1880) settled on Pine Ridge at the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre. In the period 1845-75 it was a small sub-band of the Southern or Kiyaksa Oglala division, hunting south of the Platte River.

The Orphans among the Brules were a different group, although I'm sure there must be family connections that linked all these groups. Big Partisan (Blotahunka Tanka, born about 1809) was associated with the Corn band, not the Orphans. He was chosen as one of four Brule Wichasha Yatapika in 1850. In the 1860s he led a more conservative sub-band of the Corn band than Swift Bear's tiwahe - and probably 'ran with' the Orphans and other so-called Northern Brules in the Powder River Country. Big Partisan settled at Butte Creek community on the Rosebud. This community or at least part of it corresponds to the band Oglala-ichaga (Makes Himself an Oglala) listed in the ca. 1880 camp-circle published by Dorsey.

The Loafer band: formed about Fort Laramie and the North Platte trading posts in the 1850s. Most were Oglalas and Brules in-married with trading and army personnel, but a Loafer speaker in council in 1867 said the band included "grandmothers from all the bands" - rather a neat formulation I thought. The band went went to Whetstone Agency on the Missouri in the period 1868-70. Ultimately some rejoined the Oglalas at Red Cloud Agency, but a significant number remained at the Brule agency as it moved up and down White River in the 1870s. It formed a single band organization with the Corn band, hence references to the "Corn band and Loafers" etc.

Hope this helps, amuses, etc.!

Kingsley

[jinlian]

Thank you so much for all the information, Kingsley. So, the Big Raven mentioned by Hyde and the He Crow whose death is recorded in the American Horse winter count (1844-45) are in fact the same person.

Speaking of winter counts, are there any other calendars other than the well-known Rosebud, Baptiste Good and Big Missouri kept by Brulé families?

[kingsleybray]

Off the top of my head the following are additional Brule winter counts:

Iron Shell (in Hassrick's THE SIOUX).
Swift Bear
Big Missouri (valuable because it is a Lower Brule count, all others are Upper Brule)
High Hawk - the son of Battiste Good, produced several variants of his father's count
Short Bull

There are more in the Buechel Collection at St. Francis (Rosebud Res.). Their website has very valuable papers by Linea Sundstrom which includes transcripts of the counts, e.g. the Ring Bull count, which is a variant of Iron Shell's. Make sure you check it out.

Best,

Kingsley

[jinlian]

Thank you very much, Kingsley. I've got Hassrick's book - in translation - and Iron Shell winter count is transcribed, without pictograms. I guess I've to purchase the original...
I've ordered the Big Missouri a couple of weeks ago, together with that of the Oglala White Man Stands in Sight and both items should be on their way.

About the Buechel collection: I had big problems opening the files in the winter count collection page - however, one minute ago I realized I should submit a request to access the database. Guess I was trying to "looking at the flowers while passing on horseback" as Chinese people would put it...

Thanks again,

Jin

[kingsleybray]

The Iron Shell winter count is a 'text only' count - there are no pictographs in the original US edition. Chapter 1 of Hassrick has important details on the Miniconjou background of Iron Shell's family and tiyospaye. The count is important in being clearly kept within that tiyospaye throughout its life, and so reflects a lot of local events specific to the Orphan band.

Kingsley

[jinlian]

Thanks Kingsley, that saves me some money. I believed it was a way to spare a few pages in the translated text (not an uncommon thing). I assume that the original winter count has pictographs, right? Or is it "text only" as the No Ears one?