Gurney photos

[grahamew]

Can someone please identify the subjects of these Gurney photos?




Is this Running Bull, the Two Kettle?


The man on the right - Two Bears or Four Bears?





Thanks

[Dietmar]

Hi Grahame,

the two Lakota in the third photo are the younger White Swan (Minicoujou, sitting left) and Four Bears (or Joseph Four Bears, Two Kettle, sitting right).

[grahamew]

Thanks Diane and Dietmar.

Here's the Byron Gurnsey photo of Running Bull taken in 1870 (Hamilton sold his work after he bought out Gurnsey when the latter left Sioux City; hence the imprint on the frame):

[Dietmar]

White Swan and Four Bears were both photographed in individual portraits by Gurney in 1870 (White Swan with feather-bonnet)... with same backdrop as the Running Bull photo.
So I assume the above photo is also from 1870?!

Is there any information about the members of this 1870 delegation. Did they travel apart from the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail groups?

[jinlian]

According to James Olson (Red Cloud and the Sioux problem) the 1870 Red Cloud and Spotted Tail delegations didn't travel together: the first left Fort Laramie on May 26 and arrived in Washington on June 1st, while Spotted Tail's party had been in the capital since May 24, leaving from Whetstone on May 17.

George Hyde, in his Spotted Tail's Folk, reports that when the Brulé delegation left the agency, the Minneconjou/Two Kettle/Sans Arcs delegation was already on its way East (leaving from what would become later Fort Bennett ).

In The tribes of the sioux nation it is mentioned another member of the Cheyenne River Agency delegation, an individual named Red Feather, but no info about him is given.

[grahamew]

The man definitely identified as Running Bull above is by Byron Gurnsey. Best I can tell, he was based in Sioux City, Iowa and photographed the 1870 delegation (or some members thereof) as they stopped in Sioux City on the way back from the east. Later, he moved west - Colorado - and he sold his stuff to Hamilton, who, following the custom of the day, sold Gurnsey prints with his own imprint on them.

Gurney, on the other hand, had his studio in New York. Both men seem to have photographed members of the same delegation in their respective areas of the country.

Here's Gurnsey's Yellow Hair, a Brule Head Soldier:


And Spotted Tail:


I think the background has been retouched in both the photos in this post

[jinlian]

Here's another Gurnsey photograph (also from The Tribes of the Sioux Nation) of the 1870 Brulé delegation:



Left to right: Fast Bear , Spotted Tail, Swift Bear, Yellow Hair.

The background looks like the one of the last pictures posted by Grahame, but I'm not 100% sure.

[grahamew]

After Gurnsey moved to Colorado Springs, he continued to take photographs of Indians. Here's a group of Utes posed outside of his store. The man with the hat on his knee is Colorow; the one standing to attention at the back, wearing trousers and a military belt, is Captain Jack (Nicagaat). Date? Gurnsey moved there in 1872, but this is probably after 1875 when Jack's band moved to be with Colorow's on White River, and before the troubles of 1879. Jack lived with a Mormon family as a boy and had served as a scout for Crook in the Sioux wars - both of which might explain his adoption of white dress.

[Dietmar]

Here is the Red Feather photo, although sometimes identified as Four Bears (SIRIS):



I´m sure Gurnsey also made individual portraits of Quick/Fast Bear and Swift Bear in 1870 as they both appear to be in the group photo posted by jinlian. If you ever discover this Quick Bear photograph by Gurnsey, PLEASE let me know, I would hand it on to the Quick Bear family.

Thanks

Dietmar

[grahamew]

Do you think Red Feather is the man in the first of the Gurney photos I posted? He seems a little happier in the Gurney photo and I have to admit that I had this photo in mind but couldn't find it at the time for comparison.

Is it possible to post the phto of White Swan in the bonnet, please? The only version of this I've seen is so small I'm not even sure it's him!

I think I've seen the Quick Bear portrait, but not sure where.

[jinlian]

May 27, 2008 11:11:30 GMT -6 grahamew said:

Is it possible to post the phto of White Swan in the bonnet, please? The only version of this I've seen is so small I'm not even sure it's him!

Hi Grahame,

this is the best I can do:



Maybe Dietmar has a better resolution version of this image.

[Dietmar]

Here is his face blown up:



Right, I agree it could be Red Feather... sometimes it´s hard to see the forest for the trees

btw, Cowan identified the second photo Grahame posted above as Captain Jack, Modoc... which of course is nonsense.

[grahamew]

Thanks. The version I have is considerably poorer.