What became of Little Big Man?

[Diane Merkel]

The CD is fabulous, Ephriam! Thank you very much!

[buffaloman]

Yes, a wonderful CD. Great high quality pictures. Made great prints. Most I hadn't seen before. and I'm very happy to have. Thanks Ephriam! Those large TIFF images take a while to load on the computer, but worth the wait.

-Bob

[Dietmar]

Ephriam,
the CD arrived in Germany today. Like the others said, GREAT photos. I´ve seen only the Red Cloud and Black Bear photos before, the rest is totally new to me. Thanks a lot!
What do we order next?

Dietmar

[agnes]

Hungary is so far from the U.S. that I received the CD last. ;D Very great photos! Interesting that Young Man Afraid of His Horse was identified as White Bird by photographer. Funny to see No Flesh Ephriam, I'm thankful for the photos! And if it's possible, I'm ready to "order" again!

[mort aux vaches]

Yes, thanks again to Ephriam. Received the CD before the weekend. Nice shots.

Back on the subject of Little Big Man, he's again listed with a year of death 1887 on this page: ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/sd/shannon/cemetery/hc-1906.txt

[Dietmar]

Is this really the shirt of Litte Big Man?

images.nypl.org/?id=826698&t=w

[grahamew]

This is the one that he claimed (according to Bourke) had belonged to Crazy Horse. There's one very similar in the Denver museum.

[grahamew]

Here's a photo of it on display at the NMAI:

[grahamew]

Colin Taylor's paper, "Wakanyan: Symbols of Power and Ritual of the Teton Sioux" in the Canadian Journal of Native Studies VII, 2, 1987; pp237-257, discusses the symbolism of the shirt. This WAS available for free download on the internet:

www.brandonu.ca/Library/CJNS/7.2/taylor.pdf

If that link doesn't work, get to it through: www.brandonu.ca/Library/CJNS/Online_Issues/online_issues.htm

[grahamew]

Here's one of Little Big Man's drawings in the SIRIS collection that shows him wearing a similar shirt:



(Image reduced to fit board size. For the larger image,
see sirismm.si.edu/naa/2372/08745501.jpg -- DM)

[grahamew]

And for no real reason on than the fact I've just come across it, here's a photo of his wife - or so the label says - also from SIRIS. The photographer is unknown, but it looks like Godkin to me.

[shan]

grahamew,

I've that drawing of Little Big Man's before, there are in fact several from the same series, but, I have to say that to my shame, that I have never really noticed that the name gylph above the main figure, who I always took to be Little Big man himself, seems to be of a bear, have you any theories as to why?
Shan

[grahamew]

He was also known as Charging Bear.

[tompowers]

It may be worth noting the close similarity of the Little Big Man drawing in the Siris collection to the drawings in W. Fletcher Johnson's Life of Sitting Bull, pp. 114-15. In both the LBM figure rides with arms outspread front and back, is counting coup with a bow, is wearing roughly the same shirt, has one feather and one braid, and is riding a horse reared back slightly on its hind legs, with lightning streaks down the legs front and back. If Little Big Man gave his shirt to Bourke, while claiming it had belonged to Crazy Horse, it may also have been Little Big Man who gave a shield to Lieutenant Henry Lawton which Lawton evidently believed to have belonged to Crazy Horse. That shield, now in the Smithsonian, is depicted in Colin Taylor's Buckskin and Buffalo; it is surmounted by an image of a bear (not charging, however) and in my opinion depicts the killing of Levi Powell in March 1872, for which Little Big Man was alleged to have been responsible.

[grahamew]

Don't suppose you could scan and post (or send to Diane to post) those LBM drawings in Johnson's book?

Meanwhile: