Post by Diane Merkel on Jul 27, 2008 15:51:07 GMT -6
From Tom Cunningham:
I'd like to draw attention to one of the Grabill photos taken at Pine Ridge on the 16th of January 1891. According to Sam Maddra, in both her book Hostiles? and her earlier booklet Glasgow's Ghost Shirt, the Indian sitting over towards the right, between the Indian in the hat and scarf and the guy in fancy dress, was Kicking Bear.
Despite its great interest to me, I have always hesitated to use this series of photos in my own publications, as I just cannot see the resemblance at all.
Looking more closely at this version of one of the three photos, some of the Indians have numbers attached to them, others haven't. According to the caption, the Indian identified as Kicking Bear by Sam is number 8 - which according to the caption makes him Thunder Hawk, not Kicking Bear.
In my opinion, Sam has got Kicking Bear and Thunder Hawk switched around. The Indian whom Sam identifies as Thunder Hawk, kneeling, over to the extreme left, is actually Kicking Bear.
If you look at his sour "I seriously don't want to be here" facial expression, you'll see what I mean.
It occurs to me that one reason why it has proven so difficult to identify the Indians in this photo is that if you look closely they are looking directly into the sun, which, in January, would have been very low and right in their faces. (You know what a pain that is when you are driving.) Hence the closed eyes and screwed up faces.