- 83
Important Cheyenne Ledger Book of Pictographic Drawings
Description
- paper
Provenance
By family descent to the present owner
Condition
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
Bowstring Warrior Society of the Southern Cheyenne
Horses had first reached the Cheyenne tribe on the Minnesota borderlands of North Dakota by 1730 (Cowdrey, Martin & Martin, 2011: 15 & Map 1). Thereafter, the tribe migrated southwestward and crossed the Missouri River. By 1800, they were established along the river named for them in South Dakota, between the Missouri and the Black Hills. About 1815, a party of young Blackfeet, Algonkian linguistic relatives of the Cheyenne, traveled from their Montana homeland into the Southern Plains, seeking adventure. In northern Texas they stole a large herd of horses from the Comanche and high-tailed it for home. Stopping briefly with a Cheyenne camp, they reported seeing thousands of wild horses roaming the Plains between the Platte and Arkansas rivers. Almost immediately, parties of Cheyenne headed south. [19th-century Cheyenne historian George Bent (quoted in Hyde, 1968) guessed that this Blackfeet raid occurred “about 1825.” This date is belied by the information in James, 1823, of which Bent was unaware, that the Cheyenne had already moved south by 1817.]
When the Stephen Long Expedition explored out to the Arkansas River in what is now southern Kansas, in 1820, they encountered a village of Cheyenne who had just returned from raiding for horses in Mexico (southern Texas). The Cheyenne said they had come down there in 1817 (James, 1823, Vol. 3: 53). Gradually, the lure of horses drew more of the Cheyenne into the Central Plains, until by about 1840 the tribe was separated into northern and southern halves.
The same process divided several of the warrior societies. The most recent and popular of these, the Wolf Warriors, had been founded soon after1800 by the visionary experience of a man named Owl Friend. Among the Northern Cheyenne, the Wolf Warriors gradually adopted the name Crazy Dogs. “The...members imitate the coyote in their power of endurance, cunning and activity. They outstrip their fellow tribesmen in running long distances, playing games, etc. There are about 150 warriors in the society, and a head chief” (Dorsey, 1905, Vol. I: 19). Among the Southern Cheyenne the organization came to be called Bowstring Warriors (Himatanohis), though both groups considered themselves constituents of the same organization (Llewellyn & Hoebel, 1941: 100; Grinnell, 1926, Vol. II: 72-78).
The name Bowstring Warriors (in English translation) is a bit confusing. Rather than referring to an actual bow, it describes the distinctive, decorated lances carried by some officers of the organization. A long cord of twisted sinew, similar to a bowstring, was threaded through the quills of feathers attached to the lance shaft, uniting them into a solid panel, not unlike a banner [Plate 16]. The members competed in designing original patterns of feathers on their lances. In combat, when inevitably scattered on a battlefield, these colorful ensigns were easier to discern at a distance, allowing the members to keep visual track of each other (Dorsey, 1905, Vol. I: 19-20; Grinnell, 1926, Vol. II: 74).
The society's colors were those of a thunderstorm: “their bodies and upper parts of their arms are painted yellow. While the lower arms and legs are painted black (Plate 2)” (Dorsey, 1905, Vol.I: 20). Two senior officers of the Bowstrings were distinguished by “war shirts and... leggings trimmed with scalps” (Grinnell, 1926, Vol, II: 75). These rare shirts were painted black on the top half, yellow on the lower half and the arms and body of the garments were trimmed with flowing locks of black, human hair, interspersed in panels with locks of yellow-dyed horse mane (Plate 4 & Figure 5). The matching leggings were painted solid black, trimmed with yellow and black hairlocks (Plate 6).
The Bowstring Warrior Society Ledger
Traditionally, the only drawing surfaces available to Plains Indian artists were tanned skins of animals, principally buffalo robes; rock outcrops and cliff faces; the barked trunks of dead trees; or their own skin. By the mid-19th century, however, another option had become available.
Colonel Richard I. Dodge, who served on the Southern Plains and was among the Cheyenne from the 1860s to the 1880s, recalled: “Almost every warrior makes a picture of each prominent event of his life, and many of them keep a book in which their acts are thus recorded” (Dodge, 1882: 413). They had been doing so at least as early as 1845, when Lt. James W. Abert, visiting at Bent's Fort in southeastern Colorado, mentioned a Southern Cheyenne, son of the chief Bear Wings, making a “lifelike” drawing on paper (Abert, 1970: 8).
Colonel Dodge added: “The fight or other act is depicted as nearly as possible as the Indian wishes it to be seen; himself the prominent figure in the foreground, dealing death, or otherwise performing the act. Their pictures of fights in which numbers are engaged are simply the representation of individuals who were prominent either for courage, or from being killed or wounded. In such pictures symbolism is used to make up the deficiencies of the draftsman; thus a great many marks of horses' feet indicate that great numbers were engaged [see Plates 7-8]; many arrows or bullets represented in the air show that the fight was hotly contested [see Plates 5, 24 & 32].
“There is nothing in which white men differ more than in drawing. One draws exquisitely, another...cannot draw at all. Not so with Indians; all draw, and though entirely without knowledge of perspective, all draw quite as well as the average of whites. If one wants Indian pictures, there is no need to hunt a special artist. All he has to do is to give some paper and a few colored pencils to any middle-aged warrior” (Dodge, 1882: 413-14).
The earliest source of paper, colored pencils, ink and water color paints on the Southern Plains was Bent's Fort, a trading post built in 1832 near present La Junta, Colorado, by brothers Charles and William Bent and their partner, Cerain St. Vrain. Employees of the Bents, including noted frontiersmen Kit Carson, and John Simpson Smith (Figure 1, standing 3rd from left), spent each winter in one or another of the Cheyenne camps, with an inventory of trade goods. By the 1850s, at the latest, as documented by Col. Dodge, account ledgers were among these trade materials.
Dating the Drawings
Previously, the earliest-known collections of Cheyenne drawings were the Little Shield Ledger, now in the Schoyen Collection, Oslo and London
(http://www.schoyencollection.com/historyModern.html#4457), which depicts several events known to have occurred during the Platte River War of 1865-66 (Coleman, 2004); and the Dog Soldier Ledger captured during the Battle of Summit Springs, Colorado, in July, 1869, which documents events of 1865-69 (Colorado Historical Society; see Afton, et al, 1997). The leather cover and small size of this volume, 3.5 x 5.5 inches, is very near the same dimensions as the leather-covered Little Shield Ledger (7 x 15 cm.), and another notebook in the Colorado Historical Society (see Afton, et. al., 1997: Appendix).
Both the Little Shield and Dog Soldier ledgers feature numerous drawings of clashes with blue-clad, U.S. Army troops. In significant contrast, the Bowstring Warrior Society Ledger shows no hostilities with the U.S. Military, but only inter-tribal conflicts, principally with the Pawnee. This confirms the collection history that the small notebook was given to Ambrose Asher in the village of Black Kettle, on the headwaters of Smoky Hill River, Kansas, sometime during August-September, 1864; and that he had the book with him when he arrived in Denver City on September 28th (see Figure 2). That date, alone, makes this collection of Cheyenne drawings the oldest one known. Further, there had been a whole summer of conflict, including the raids during which the families of Ambrose Asher and Danny Marble had been killed; but none of that is shown in this completely-filled volume. All of the events depicted, therefore, occurred earlier.
How much earlier? The style of these drawings is that seen in rock pictographs across the Plains area from the 18th and early-19th centuries. Only five figures in the entire book are depicted with facial features.(Plates 10, 18, 24 & 32); and only three of these show a face in profile (Plates 10 & 32). All of the other figures are shown with featureless, round heads viewed frontally. Most torsos are drawn as an hourglass (Plates 1, 4, 7, etc.), or a simple rectangle (Plates 2, 4, 6, 9, etc.). These, too, are characteristic of the period prior to 1850 (Keyser, 2004: Chapters 1 & 2).
As noted above, the Officers of the Bowstring Society included two leaders distinguished by leather shirts trimmed with locks of human hair and horse mane. These two officers are both depicted in several pages of the ledger, probably in self-portraits.
One of these distinctive shirts is shown in Plate 4. Its features are characteristic of the first half of the 19th century: it is an un-tailored garment, with the tanned legskins of the animals incorporated as pendants; and a large rosette decorates the chest. What may be the actual shirt depicted in this drawing survives in the Splendid Heritage Collection (Figure 5. Our thanks to John Warnock and his curator Clinton Nagy for allowing us to use this photograph). The shirt is painted in the black and yellow colors indicative of Cheyenne Wolf Warriors, with black and yellow hairlock fringes, precisely as depicted in Plate 4. Note that the shirt is decorated with strips of porcupine quillwork on the sleeves and shoulders, and a large, circular rosette of quillwork on the chest (another rosette decorates the upper back). Each of these quilled decorations is bordered by a narrow row of embroidered pony beads, typical of Plains Indian garments from the 1840s and 1850s.
This Bowstring Shirt Wearer in Plate 4 shows himself carrying a yellow-background shield with motifs of a bald eagle and the crescent moon. This is a previously-unknown example, but is much in the character of another surviving shield known to have been made by a famous visionary of the Bowstring Society, also a leader of war parties (Hyde, 1968: 265, 270), whose name was Lame Bull (see Nagy, 1997: Fig. 3). This surviving shield also has a yellow background, the central figure of a bald eagle, and an upper crescent, but rendered as the rainbow arc of a storm cloud. A painted tipi design created by Lame Bull features two human figures with their arms shown in the same, splayed & bent-elbow position as the figure of the protagonist in Plate 4 (also Plates 2, 6 & 13, by the same hand)---see Nagy, 1997: Fig. 4.
Lame Bull must be regarded as a strong candidate for this Bowstring Shirt Wearer. The garment indicates he was a leader of the warrior society, so would have had the prestige to have been custodian of this tribal record. In turn, this makes Lame Bull a strong candidate for the Cheyenne who was the adoptive father of Ambrose Asher, and who sent this historical record with the boy, far into the future. A late-19th century portrait of Lame Bull is in the National Anthropological Archives, Cat. No. 330. Another portrait, with his wife, is given by Nagy, 1997: Fig. 1.
A second Bowstring Society leader's shirt is shown in Plates 29 & 31. It is very long-bodied, characteristic of Plains Indian garments depicted by George Catlin and Carl Bodmer in the 1830s. It is likely that this shirt belonged to the Head Chief of the Bowstrings. The style of the drawings depicting this shirt is consistent, indicating the same artist, so it is very likely both are self-portraits. Until 1837, the leading Bowstring Chief was a man named Medicine Snake. He was killed, along with most members (more than 40) of the Bowstring Society by the Kiowa in 1837 (Petersen, 1964: 148). That date is certainly too early for this collection.
Following the 1837 massacre, the Southern Cheyenne Head Chief Yellow Wolf reconstituted the organization, but there is no surviving documentation on who the leading officers were during the next twenty years (Petersen, 1964:149-150). A very likely candidate for the new Bowstring leader was a crafty and powerful man named Medicine Water, I. Earlier, he had been a member of the Crooked Lance Warrior Society (Grinnell, 1915: 54), but there are other instances of men changing their society affiliation. He was almost certainly the brother of Medicine Snake, so a likely candidate to have assumed his responsibilities. A huge victory over the Kiowa at Wolf Creek by the Bowstring warriors in 1838 indicates that this man was an experienced leader. In the next generation during the 1870s, this man's nephew, also bearing the name Medicine Water, was the Bowstring Head Chief (Sipes, 2003: Medicine Water), a strong suggestion that the position was being passed in the same family. This Bowstring Head Chief of the 1840s & 1850s was succeeded in 1860 by a man named Beardy (Mehats) (Mooney, 1905-1907: 413). The Bowstring Shirt Wearer depicted in Plates 29 & 31, therefore, would likely be either Beardy, or the unnamed leader of the 1850s.
A further indication that this Bowstring leader really was Medicine Water, I, are the depictions in Plates 9 & 27 of a man apparently wearing a shirt of Spanish scale-armor. This was the legendary nephew of Medicine Water, I, a Bowstring Society leader whose name was Alights on the Cloud. Compare these drawings with the only known, surviving example of such an armored Spanish shirt (Figure 7). Recently rediscovered in the Nebraska Historical Society storage collections, a full presentation on this astonishing shirt fragment will be forthcoming in Plains Anthropologist by Dr. Peter Bleed, University of Nebraska. Our thanks to Dr. Bleed and his colleague Lindsay Long, for permission to use their photograph.
Comanchero traders from northern New Mexico communities such as Taos, traveling into the Southern Plains in the decades following 1790, brought several such outdated armaments to the Comanche, Kiowa, Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne (Grinnell, 1915: 71-72). Medicine Water, I, had obtained his armored shirt during the mid-1830s, and first wore it in the famous revenge battle against the Kiowa in 1838, at Wolf Creek (Grinnell, 1915: 72). This is another indication that he was in a position of leadership during this victory of the re-organized Bowstring Society.
By the mid-1840s, Medicine Water, I, was promoting the military career of his nephew Alights on the Cloud. We have a fine portrait of this handsome man, when he journeyed to Washington, D.C., in 1851 (Figure 6).
.[Wearing his uncle's Spanish scale-armor shirt]..Alights on the Cloud had performed many marvelous feats. It is possible that the first time he wore it may have been in 1844, in a fight with [Delaware] trappers...[After several attempts to parlay had been rebuffed] old Medicine Water made up his mind that the Delawares wished to fight...he said to his son (nephew) Alights on the Cloud; “Now, my son, these people insist on fighting. Here is the shirt.” And he handed it forth from where he held it, on the front of his saddle, and said: “Put it on and wrap that red cloth about you so as to hide the shirt and then ride up close to them.” Alights on the Cloud put on the shirt and wrapped a red strouding blanket about him...
Medicine Water [called out]: “My son , Alights on the Cloud, will empty their guns.”
Then, when everything was ready, Alights on the Cloud rode twice around the Delawares and close to them, and they all shot at him, emptying their guns as they tried to kill him, but the shots did not harm him. [The Cheyenne then charged the entrenched Delaware, killing them all.] (Grinnell, 1915: 72-74).
The known association of Medicine Water, I, and his nephew Alights on the Cloud, together with their shared use of this legendary armored shirt, is a strong indication that the Bowstring Shirt Wearer who depicted himself in Plates 8, 29 & 31, was Medicine Water, while the man wearing the armored shirt in Plates 9 & 27 was Alights on the Cloud. The artistic styles are different, as well as individually uniform, suggesting these probably are self-portraits. Alights on the Cloud was killed in an attack on the Pawnee in 1852 (Grinnell, 1915: 75-80). If the “iron shirt” drawings are self portraits, then it is likely some of the drawings in this collection may be as early as the late-1840s. Regardless, the cumulative evidence of garment styles typical of the 1840s & 1850s, combined with a total absence of the Army conflicts of the 1860s, suggest that the Bowstring Warrior Society Ledger was mostly created during the 1850s.
The Historical Prelude, 1863 – 1864
On the first three days of July, 1863, more than 46,000 American men of the Union and Confederate armies were killed or wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg. Union levies for replacements immediately were sent out by the War Department. In far-off Colorado Territory, men of the First Colorado Volunteer Cavalry could read the newspaper casualty figures like anyone else; and many of them did not wish to be sent east for the next battle. Their Departmental Commander was John M. Chivington, a Methodist preacher who delivered fire & brimstone sermons from a pulpit in Denver City, the territorial capitol, then hardly more than a muddy mining town. In April, 1864, using the pretext of fictitious Indian depredations, Chivington issued a general order to “shoot all Indians on sight.”
The previous year, a delegation of three senior, Cheyenne leaders, including their Head Chief Lean Bear, together with Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche & Caddo chiefs, had traveled all the way to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Lincoln and ask for help in controlling the growing number of White ruffians being drawn to recently-discovered gold and silver mines in the mountains near Denver City. The journey had taken the Indians far north into Canada, in order to evade the Confederate lines, thence south through New York and Pennsylvania, to the Capitol. Severely occupied with other, pressing matters, Lincoln urged patience on his Indian visitors and told them: “It is the object of this Government to be on terms of peace with you, and with all our red brethren. We constantly endeavor to be so. We make treaties with you, and will try to observe them; and if our children should sometimes behave badly, and violate these treaties, it is against our wish. You know it is not always possible for any father to have his children do precisely as he wishes them to do” (Lincoln, 1953, Vol. 6: 152).
The Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, who had resided in the Central Plains since long before it became a territory, had always been at peace with the increasing numbers of White immigrants. Indeed, the American victory in the Mexican War, 1846-1848, would have been impossible without the sufferance of both tribes, because the staging depot for the Army's invasion of New Mexico and California was Bent's Fort in southeast Colorado, in the heart of traditional Cheyenne territory.
All of that was ended in May, 1864, when an expedition sent out by Colonel Chivington approached the village of Lean Bear, then in central Nebraska. Wearing the Peace Medal presented to him by President Lincoln the previous year, and holding up a paper signed by the President affirming the diplomatic status of the Cheyenne, Lean Bear walked out to meet the approaching soldiers. The commander, Lt. Eayre, allowed Lean Bear to approach within 20 feet, then ten of his men shot the chief to death in cold blood. The soldiers attacked the camp of several hundred people with howitzers, but were defeated and driven off by the incensed Cheyenne. This treacherous attack began a war that would smolder throughout the summer; then through further treachery explode into two, additional years of conflict that would claim hundreds of lives.
On August 7th, near present Oak, Nebraska, a war party of Cheyenne Dog Soldiers attacked the Eubank family, recent homesteaders who had moved from Kansas, while they were harvesting their first crop of wheat. Four men were shot down in the field. Seven-year-old Ambrose Asher saw his 62-year-old grandfather and a 15-year-old uncle killed with arrows. Then he was lashed to a horse and carried off. A 16-year-old neighbor, Laura Roper, and Ambrose's infant cousin Isabelle Eubank were also kidnapped (Ellenbecker, 1926-27).
The following day, near Plum Creek, Nebraska, two wagon trains on the road to Denver City were attacked by the same war party, and 13 men killed. Twelve-year-old Daniel Marble was captured. The war party returned to the main Cheyenne village, located near the Forks of the Upper Smoky Hill River on August 12th. Almost immediately, the Arapaho Head Chief Left Hand, and the Cheyenne Head Chief Black Kettle, who had succeeded the murdered Lean Bear, brought large numbers of their own horses, and ransomed the four White children from their captors, to insure their safety. Black Kettle had been a leader of the Bowstring Society, and these captives were distributed among families of Bowstring Society members. Typically, this meant that each would be formally adopted, so that the whole community understood they were now, officially “Cheyenne,” and not to be molested. As speculated earlier, the Bowstring leader who adopted young Ambrose may have been the visionary Lame Bull.
Black Kettle had been seeking a means of stopping the conflict, ever since Lt. Eayre had attacked them in May. The Cheyenne were aware of Colonel Chivington's “shoot on sight” order, so they understood that even trying to communicate was a suicidal problem. Two of the older, Bowstring members, One Eye and Eagle Head, offered to take the risk. As Black Kettle dictated, a literate, mixed-blood man, Edmond Guerrier, wrote a letter proposing a peace conference, and offering to return the four young prisoners. This was taken by the two volunteers, accompanied by One Eye's wife, on a journey of four days east, to Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory. As they approached the fort, all three Cheyennes expected to be killed. One Eye had pinned Black Kettle's letter to his shirt, in the hope that after he was shot, the soldier's would find it and then also wish to discuss peace.
As it happened, three members of the Colorado First Volunteer Cavalry had just completed their enlistments, and had left the fort earlier in the morning. These men met the three Cheyenne delegates about three miles from Fort Lyon. Seeing that one was a woman, and that the two men were “elderly” (in their mid-forties, perhaps), and themselves no longer in the Army, nor bound by Chivington's order to “shoot all Indians on sight,” the three ex-soldiers took the Cheyennes prisoner and returned with them to the fort.
This created a serious, political problem for the commander of Fort Lyon, Major Edward Wynkoop. His orders were not to negotiate in any way with Indians; but these delegates were already within the gates of his post. When he was handed the letter from Black Kettle proposing a peace conference, and the news that there were four captive children whose lives instantly became part of his “unofficial” responsibility, he was forced to reconsider. John Smith, who had been a trader with the Cheyenne for more than thirty years, and spoke the language fluently, was at Fort Lyon. With Smith interpreting, Wynkoop interviewed One Eye, asking whether he understood that all soldiers were commanded to shoot Cheyennes wherever they found them?
“I am young no longer [One Eye replied]. I have been a warrior. I was not afraid to die when I was young, so why should I be afraid when I am old? The Great Spirit whispered to me and said, 'You must try and save your people.' I thought I would be killed, but I knew that the paper would be found upon my dead body, so that you would see it, and it might give peace to my people once more.” Eagle Head added that he did not wish for his friend to die alone (Schultz, 2012: 86-87).
Wynkoop wrote, “I was bewildered with an exhibition of such patriotism on the part of two savages, and felt myself in the presence of superior beings; and these were the representatives of a race that I had heretofore looked upon without exception as being cruel and treacherous and blood-thirsty, without feeling or affection for friend or kindred” (Wynkoop, 1994: 28).
Wynkoop decided to risk his career, and perhaps the lives of many of his men, that One Eye and Eagle Head were telling him the truth. With a small escort of about 120 soldiers, nearly the entire personnel of the fort, he traveled four days' journey northeast to the Smoky Hill River. After two days of councils with the Cheyenne chiefs, they turned the four children over to Wynkoop; and the leading men of both the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes agreed to make a similar risk by accompanying Wynkoop more than 200 miles west to meet with Governor Evans at Denver City. An historic photo was made from a rooftop as the delegation arrived there on September 28th (Figure 2a & b).
Black Kettle (Figure 1) said to Governor Evans: “We have come with our eyes shut, following [Major Wynkoop's] handful of men like coming through the fire. All we ask is that we have peace with the whites. We want to hold you by the hand. You are our father. We have been traveling thro' a cloud. The sky has been dark ever since the war began. These braves who are with me are all willing to do what I say. We want to take good tidings home to our people, that they may sleep in peace. I want you to give all the chiefs of these soldiers to understand that we are for peace, and that we have made peace, that we may not be mistaken by them for enemies. I have not come here with a little wolf bark, but have come to talk plain with you. We must live near the buffalo or starve. When we came here we came free, without any apprehension to see you, and when I go home and tell my people that I have taken your hand, and the hand of all the chiefs here in Denver, they will feel well, and so will all the different tribes of Indians on the Plains, after we have eaten and drank with them” (Daily Rocky Mountain News, 1865: 2).
Colonel Chivington was also present at this council. He was quoted as advising the chiefs: “I am not a big war chief, but all the soldiers in this country are at my command. My rule of fighting white men or Indians is to fight them until they lay down their arms
and submit to military authority. They are nearer Major Wynkoop than any one else, and they can go to him when they get ready to do that” (Daily Rocky Mountain News, 1865: 2).
That is what the Cheyenne and Arapaho did, going directly back to Fort Lyon and camping where Major Wynkoop directed them, on Sand Creek.
A Seven-Year-Old “Collector”
The four, young captives rescued and repatriated by the Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs (Figure 3), fared much worse when returned to the rough “civilization” of Denver City. The youngest, Isabelle Eubank who was a cousin of Ambrose Asher, died within two weeks. The popular “explanation” for this swift demise was her “exposure” in the Indian camps; but she is clearly seen to be in good health upon her return. Laura Roper survived into the 1920s. The two boys were lodged temporarily with the family of Lewis and Sarah Giberson (Figure 4), who had arrived from Iowa only a few months earlier. The couple had three, young sons, and a daughter “Harriet” but had buried their beloved, 16-year-old daughter Mary Charlotte, called Lottie, the previous October (Giberson, 1863; and letters to this author from descendants of the Giberson family). Denver City was a rough and unsanitary community. In November, twelve-year-old Danny Marble was moved to nearby Camp Weld, in preparation for being sent east to live with relatives, but he contracted typhus in the Army encampment and died less than two months after his return.
Very little is known of Ambrose Asher, either before or after his brief sojourn among the Cheyenne. Unknown outside of the Giberson family until now, in the historic photo of the children jolting in to Denver City in a wagon, on his person young Ambrose carried remarkable evidence of the affection felt for him by the Cheyenne man who had been his adoptive “father.” This was a small book of drawings, the subject of this essay, which has the character of a passport. There is no possibility that a seven-year-old boy had stolen this historic document from a war chief of the Cheyenne. It could only have been a gift, which speaks volumes about the winning character of this blessed child. The Cheyennes understood that Ambrose must journey far, into a universe unknown both to him and to themselves. Whenever he arrived there, they wanted to ensure that his next caretakers understood there were important people elsewhere who “spoke” for him, and on whose behalf he should be well treated. So they sent this evidence which proved themselves leaders of a valorous nation. These drawings ARE not merely the pedigree of the individuals portrayed, but have also the nature of a charter: all the accomplishments of one generation of the “standing army” of a nation. These men were generals. These men were princes. These men had risked their lives to save this boy, who they believed deserved the very best.
Ambrose Asher eventually was sent east to be raised by his maternal grandmother, Ruth Eubank, in Quincy, Illinois. Nothing is known of his father. Since the man “disappears” from the historical record just as the Civil War was beginning, it is likely he was an early casualty; or perhaps had died in “bleeding Kansas” at the end of the 1850s, whence his in-laws took Ambrose into Nebraska Territory. Ambrose eventually married, and moved to Moniteau County, Missouri, where he had five children before dying of malaria in 1894, at the young age of thirty-five (California [Missouri] Democrat, 1894; & Ambrose Asher, 2013).
The Wages of Valor
Two months after the Camp Weld Peace Conference, all but two of the Indian leaders shown in Figure 1 were murdered, along with their families and a total of about 150 women and children. With the connivance of Governor Evans, Colonel Chivington had Major Wynkoop transferred from command of Fort Lyon. Two days later, after a forced march from Denver City, Chivington's men of the Third Colorado Volunteer Cavalry, who were enlisted for only 100 days, surrounded Fort Lyon to prevent any men of the First Colorado Cavalry from being sent to the Indian camp at Sand Creek with warning. Capt. Silas Soule (Figure 1, right, front) and other officers of the First Cavalry who had interacted with the Cheyenne and Arapaho for two months opposed the attack, but were forced to accompany the night march to the Cheyenne village, 40 miles away.
As dawn broke on November 29, 1864, Chivington's 700 men had surrounded Black Kettle's peaceful, sleeping village. After driving off most of their horses so that few of the Cheyennes might escape, Chivington ordered an attack without quarter, regardless of sex or age. Capt. Soule and another officer refused to participate, and their two companies of the First Colorado Cavalry stood apart, while Chivington ranted that he would have all of them shot. His soldiers, many of them the dregs of the rough community of Denver City, chased Cheyenne survivors for the next seven hours, in all directions across the snow-covered landscape. Many were trapped in the river bottom, and brutally murdered there.
John Smith, who had interpreted at the Camp Weld Peace Council two months earlier (Figure 1) was in the Cheyenne village. In his testimony before the Congress, he described what happened:
“...the principal chiefs...were terribly mutilated, lying there in the water and sand; most of them in the bed of the creek, dead and dying, making many struggles. They were so badly mutilated and covered with sand and water that it was very hard for me to tell one from another. However, I recognized some of them - among them the chief One Eye...There was another called War Bonnet, who was here [Washington, D.C.] two years ago with me. There was another by the name of Standing-in-the-Water, and I supposed Black Kettle was among them, but it was not Black Kettle. There was one there of his size and dimensions in every way, but so tremendously mutilated that I was mistaken in him” (U.S. Congress, 1865).
Later in the day Smith's own, 18-year-old son Jack, whose mother was Cheyenne, was shot to death at Chivington's order, while his father was decoyed away.
Capt. Soule, whose family had been prominent in the national Abolition movement during the previous decade, had many, well-known acquaintances in the eastern U.S. He wrote to one of them a few months later:
“February 12, 1865
To: Walter Whitman
c/o Paymaster Office
Washington City
Dear Walt,
The Cheyennes didn't get their lands. Or food. Or Justice. What they got was slaughtered. Last November 29th the governor sent out Colonel Chivington with a regiment of Hundred Daysers just to kill the ones that camped under our protection at Sandy Creek. Along the way they managed to surround Fort Lyons, dragoon the Colorado First and me. The colonel cried for vengeance, said he'd string up “any son-of-a-bitch who'd bury their bodies or their bones.” It wasn't an army, it was a mob. I flat refused to order any of my men to open fire. I soon found out what's underneath that hide of Christian love. The colonel-preacher went at me like I was 666 [Hell] itself. But I stuck fast. Two days I testified before an Army board, the colonel shouting challenges, the works. I thought of you and not without a smile. I mean, here I am a soldier hectored by a colonel just because I wouldn't fight. A preacher who wanted to kill the innocent, up against an infidel who wouldn't. What do you make of that? Anyhow, about a half of the population want to kill me. The other half are getting there. But some Episcopals are showing signs of backbone, and the Army's on my side. Do I know what Quakers must go through?
Fraternal greetings,
Your friend,
Si” (Cutler, 1995: 114-15).
Two months later, a mere eight days after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, one of Colonel Chivington's former soldiers shot Silas Soule in the back of the head on a street corner in Denver City. The murderer was apprehended, but was allowed to escape from jail and was never tried.
A Congressional investigation concluded:
“As to Colonel Chivington, your committee can hardly find fitting terms to describe his conduct. Wearing the uniform of the United States, which should be the emblem of justice and humanity; holding the important position of commander of a military district, and therefore having the honor of the government to that extent in his keeping, he deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly massacre which would have disgraced the [worst] savage among those who were the victims of his cruelty. Having full knowledge of their friendly character, having himself been instrumental to some extent in placing them in their position of fancied security, he took advantage of their...defenseless condition to gratify the worst passions that ever cursed the heart of man” (U.S. Congress, 1865).
No charges, however, were ever brought against Chivington, who had resigned from the Army in February, 1865. In 1866, he seduced then married his son's widow, who divorced him for non-support in 1871. Later, he worked as a deputy sheriff in Denver, where he died of cancer in 1894.
A History-Conscious, Pioneer Family
Among the men of the Third Colorado Volunteer Cavalry was Lewis Giberson, the husband of Sarah, who was left alone in Denver City in the midst of a frigid winter with her own three sons, young Ambrose Asher and her 70-year-old mother to care for. Virtually every male in the community not already enlisted was forced by “public opinion” to accompany the expedition, or be branded a coward and have his family outcast. We cannot know what was in the heart of any of the enlisted men who, as Capt. Soule commented, were “dragooned” out to Sand Creek. Certainly none of them was privy to Chivington's plans, or the “no prisoners” order he issued as the attack began.
What we can evaluate, however, is the fact that as soon as the snow melted off in the early spring of 1865, Lewis and Sarah Giberson got their family out of the Hell-hole of Denver City, and began a new life further east, in Nebraska Territory. Whatever soul-searing sights Lewis had experienced at Sand Creek, he wanted no more of it, for his family.
We have, also, the evidence of six generations of the Giberson family who were taught to respect and care for the book of Cheyenne drawings which came into their keeping. There is no record of why Ambrose Asher left the small ledger when he was sent east to live with his grandmother. He was, after all, only seven years old. Perhaps the drawings were no more than a novelty for him, in the midst of an unremitting series of harrowing experiences which would have confused nearly anyone. Lewis and Sarah Giberson, however, clearly understood that the book of drawings had historical importance, and they taught this to their children, who taught it in turn to their own descendants. One of these, Margaret Giberson, a professional teacher (Figure 4) when transferring the book to the next generation of her family in 1929, inscribed both the cover and an interior page with the little she recalled from the instructions of her grandparents.
The cumulative efforts of all these people during more than 150 years: the Cheyenne artists; the Bowstring leader, possibly Lame Bull, who sent this record to protect a ransomed and beloved child; young Ambrose---confused, alone, jolting into Denver City with a small book tucked into his clothing; Lewis and Sarah Giberson, who had recently buried their eldest child, and would see two other children they had cared for perish within a few weeks; and the Giberson descendants who have preserved this American document for a century and a half; ALL of these combine to transcend the tragedy of Sand Creek, bringing the triumphs of the brave men who gave their lives in an attempt to stop a war in 1864, once again into the light of History.
Mike Cowdrey
San Luis Obispo, California
23 March 2013
APPENDIX
The Oldest Documented Collection of Cheyenne Ledger Drawings
Important Features
---Depiction of Sounds
More than half a century before American cartoonists would employ similar strategies in Sunday comic strips, Cheyenne artists were already representing sounds in graphic media. In Plates 3, 30 & 34, a wavy line drawn from the mouth of one figure to the ear of another is clearly intended to represent the sound of a conversation. In Plates 18 & 32, dark bursts near the muzzle of a firearm are intended to represent not merely the visual effect of black powder, but also the staccato sound of the explosion. Another artist (Plate 4) merely depicted the transit of the bullets.
---Courting Scenes
A pervasive error repeated by several, recent scholars of ledger art is the suggestion that courting as an artistic theme was a revisionist addition that originated with the Fort Marion prisoners-of-war, 1875-1878. In significant contrast, Plates 3, 10, 14, 21, 22, 30 & 34 were collected more than a decade prior to 1875, and were created earlier still. The Little Shield Ledger (Schoyen Collection, Oslo & London), which depicts several known events of the 1865-66, Platte River War, also has several courting scenes alternating with battle exploits. This is merely the status quo in every human culture. More particularly, it is to be expected from a young men's social organization, the Bowstring Society, noted for “about three hundred dance songs” (Dorsey, 1905: 19).
---The Only Cheyenne Depiction of a Horse Mask
The first horses encountered by many American Indian people during the 16th and 17th centuries were dressed in Spanish armor, including steel horse masks. Indian riders copied this convention with materials available to them, initially with leather, and later with canvas and other cloth, a tradition that continues to the present day. Often, these battle and parade dressings are spectacularly beautiful (see Cowdrey, Martin & Martin, 2006).
The earliest historical reference to Indian use of horse masks was recorded by Canadian trader Alexander Henry, who visited a Cheyenne village in North Dakota in July, 1806:
“We did not advance far before we met a small party of Schians on horseback. They were young men sent to meet us. They all gave us a friendly shake of the hand. Their horses were...masked in a very singular manner, to imitate the head of buffalo, red deer [elk], or cabbrie [pronghorn antelope] with horns, the mouth and nostrils---even the eyes---trimmed with red cloth. This ornamentation gave them a very fierce appearance” (Henry & Thompson, 1897, I: 377).
Despite this early evidence, only one actual Cheyenne horse mask is known to have survived (Cowdrey, Martin & Martin, 2006: 14-16). Moreover, in hundreds of Cheyenne ledger drawings from the 1865-1890 period, not a single horse mask has been noted, suggesting they had become mostly obsolete, earlier. In this collection, however, a unique feature is the depiction (Plate 16) of a Cheyenne horse mask in use during battle against the Pawnee. This is yet another indication that the drawings pre-date 1860. The horse is shown as black, while the head is depicted as entirely light-colored, with lines of demarcation at the ears and above the nose. An eye opening is depicted, while on no horse anywhere in the collection is an eye shown. A crescent-shape, perhaps symbolizing a horse track, a common Plains Indian motif, is shown as embroidered or painted on the mask.
---War Shields
16 shields are depicted in this ledger. 9 are shown with undecorated, outer covers (Plates 2, 5, 6, 13, 16, 17, 24, 25 & 26). The symbolic designs of 7 others are shown in considerable detail (Plates 4, 7-8. 15, 19, 23 & 32). Of these, the “bald eagle” shield which may identify the visionary Lame Bull (Plate 4), has been discussed earlier.
A known, historical shield, which belonged to the Southern Cheyenne chief Whirlwind (Union Station Museum, Kansas City, Cat. No. 1940.616 ) --- Online at: http://collections.unionstation.org/detail.php?t=objects&type=related&kv=69349 --- may be depicted in Plate 23. The right half of the design (as viewed) has horizontal stripes of dark green; there is a vertical center stripe in yellow (covered by a feathered trailer in the drawing); and the left half is solid black, with four bear track motifs. This may be much abbreviated in the drawing, due to the tiny scale.
It was common for shields to be commissioned in sets from a respected visionary by close relatives, brothers or cousins, who were war partners. Evidence of this tradition is documented in Plates 7-8, wherein identical shields are carried by two men in a whirling surround, when two Pawnee enemies were lanced to death.
Motifs of a buffalo bull, and crescent moon are shown on the shield in Plate 15. The designs at either side are known as Hetanehao (the Sun, or Male Power motif), which represents an overpowering excess of masculinity.
Both the shield shown in Plate 19, and in fact the entire composition, are repeated almost exactly in a drawing by the same artist in another Cheyenne ledger, named for the chief American Horse, which was collected in 1879 (Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa, Cat. No. 4526/19, Page 13). This is evidence that at least one other Bowstring Society artist survived the carnage of Sand Creek. (My thanks to Hungarian scholar Imre Nagy, who recognized this repetition.)
The motif of five circles arranged in a quincunx pattern (Plate 32) is fairly common in Cheyenne shield heraldry, expressed in a variety of color combinations. The design symbolizes the Cheyenne view of the Cosmos, with the Sun at center, and circular Hills of the Maheono, or Spirits of the Four (semi-cardinal) Directions, who protect and oversee the World.
The Fort Marion Connection
During the past 50 years, considerable attention has been focused on the Southern Plains Indian people who were deported as prisoners-of-war to Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida, during 1875-78. More than a score of lavish publications have explored the collections of wonderful drawings produced by these men. One of these prisoners was Eagle Head, the Cheyenne Bowstring Society leader who had expected to be killed with his friend One Eye, when they carried Black Kettle's peace offer to Fort Lyon in September, 1864. Most of the other Cheyenne prisoners at Fort Marion were also Bowstring Society members, including their leading chief, Medicine Water, II. All had been indicted for participating in a war party led by Medicine Water. Most of the Bowstring members were young men in their early-twenties, such as Howling Wolf, the son of Eagle Head. At least four publications have analyzed his prodigious production of drawings.
It is important to remember that the talents of these young artists did not arise from a cultural vacuum. Every one of the Fort Marion prisoners had learned to draw by watching as the preceding generation of Bowstring warrior-artists created depictions of their earlier triumphs. Doubtless, many of those men would have been acquainted with the Bowstring Warrior Society Ledger. Some of them may have contributed to it. Their fingerprints would be upon its pages. It is the primer from which all subsequent Cheyenne artistic depictions derive.
Individual Plates
Nearly a dozen individual, artistic styles may be recognized among the drawings which fill this volume. Where clear, these are noted and compared for each Plate.
Cover
“Pg 6 [lined out] 14 – See warclub
Both boys captured by Indians while
very young. – Shy and afraid of
white captors at first. 1862?
Grandma kept them for
soldiers [lined out] Army for a while,
until relatives were located.
A mural in Hotel near
Glacier Park has old
Indian drawings like these.
M.G.”
This inscription was added by Margaret Giberson (Figure 5, right). The handwriting is the same as the note on Plate 33, and presumably was done at the same date entered there, 1929, when Margaret was forty-two (Giberson descendants, to author). The initial reference to a “warclub” apparently refers to the drawing in Plate 15 (she did not count the inside cover), where a quirt is represented as if hanging in the air, as a convention to indicate that the lashes had touched the body of the Pawnee enemy, giving the artist credit for a First Coup.
A significant detail is the information, conveyed by Sarah Giberson to her granddaughter, that Ambrose and Danny were both afraid of the soldiers, whom she refers to as “white captors.” This is a further, clear indication all of the children had been well-treated in Black Kettle's village. Daniel Marble died of soldier “kindness,” two months after he came into their custody.
Plates 1 - 2
Plate 1 (Inside Front Cover). Artist 1 (horses & rider at right), possibly Medicine Water, I; Artist 2 (left rider), possibly Lame Bull---compare round head, neck and position of arms with Plates 4 & 6.
It is common to find ledger drawings to which more than one artist contributed. Part of the definition of “tribalism” is that most activities were group enterprises. Here, one artist drew the horses, and himself mounted on the right; while one of his friends depicted himself (note the many differences between the two figures) on the horse at left. The horse at left is bridled with a halter trimmed in silver conchos, a favored trade item pounded out by Mexican plateros (silversmiths), from Spanish ocho reales, the eight-crown, Imperial coins which were also legal tender in the United States, prior to the Civil War. A long string of similar, large, silver ornaments called “hairplates” hang from this rider's scalplock, to below the belly of his horse. The silver circles on the bridle are depicted as white, because when seen against the solid color of the horse's coat they reflected sunlight; while the larger, silver hairplates are depicted as black, because they were often seen in silhouette, against the sky. In Plates 3 & 7, Artist 1 also shows silver hairplates as “black”; while different artists in Plates 10 & 16 depicted them as “white.”
By comparison with Plate 8, by the same artist, we can see that the rider at right wears a short breastplate of tubular hairpipes, another popular trade item which, during the 1850s, were made of roller conch shells from the Caribbean. This has been largely effaced by handling of the page during a century and a half. The individual hairpipes were laced between strips of harness leather to form short “necklaces” that covered the upper chest. To the bottom is suspended another piece of trade silver, depicted as “white” against the black shirt.
At left, center, in front of the horse, is an interesting detail which appears to show an arrow wound, perhaps through a man's leg. This may be intended as a name glyph; though it was more usual for these to be depicted above the head, as in Plates 21 & 22.
More likely, it may be a reminder of a particular occasion when the friends were together and a wound was received.
Plate 2. Artist 2, possibly Lame Bull.
The Stephen H. Long Expedition encountered what was probably (from the description of their lances) a Bowstring Society war party near the Arkansas River in 1820 “...on their return from an expedition against the Pawnee Loups. They had killed one squaw, whose scalp was suspended to the spear of the partizan, or leader of the party, the handle of which was decorated with strips of red and white cloth, beads and the tail plumes of the war-eagle...
The partizan who killed the victim of this excursion...[was] painted deep black with charcoal [and buffalo fat], and almost the entire body being exposed rendered the effect more impressive” (James, 1823, 3: 61).
In this drawing, it is more likely that the artist's intent was to show his society affiliation. As Dorsey was told, the Bowstrings' “lower arms and legs were painted black” (Dorsey, 1905, I: 20). To avoid any confusion with leggings of dark cloth (compare Plate 8), he has carefully shown his individual toes, to signal that his bare skin was exposed and stained in Bowstring color. His upper garment is a dark, dress coat of the early-19th century. Variously decorated, usually with gilt or silver braid, these were commonly supplied by trading companies to leading warriors who were “hired protection” while business was being conducted in a village. Note the split ears of his war horse, always an indication of a superior animal. The disfigurement allowed the animal to be located by touch, if among a herd of other horses at night, as often occurred during war parties.
A long and expensive string of silver hairplates is attached to his scalplock; and over this, he wears a headdress of golden eagle tail feathers with a long trailer. The man carries a shield trimmed with eagle feathers, and a war lance, with which he shows himself dispatching an enemy who we may recognize as Pawnee from his unclothed condition, plucked scalp and black-painted moccasins with high ankle flaps.
Plates 3 – 4
Plate 3. Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I.
Two young men (recognized by the long ends of the breechcloths trailing below their blankets) are shown being graced by the attentions of a young lady (the beaded cuffs of her leggings and shorter side tabs at the bottom of her dress, indicate the gender). The faint, jagged lines connecting her mouth to their ears signal that SHE is interested in talking to them, a direct indication of their masculine attractiveness---the artist's purpose in making this drawing. The young men have ridden to this meeting on the horses seen at left.
Plate 4. Artist 2, possibly Lame Bull.
A Shirt Wearer or leading chief of the Bowstring Society, dressed in the garment indicating his position, as well as beaded leggings, has depicted himself dispatching a Pawnee enemy with two shots from a muzzle-loading fusil. The actual shirt depicted may survive, illustrated in Figure 5. The Cheyenne has NOT shot the enemy's white horse (which he wants us to understand he afterward captured). The two bullets are depicted “hanging in the air”: the man is bleeding from his fatal chest wounds; but the horse is not. A red-painted human scalp hangs from the horse's jaw; and its tail is wrapped with strips of red cloth.As discussed above, the yellow color and bald eagle motif of this shield relates it to a known example made by a famous Bowstring war chief and visionary named Lame Bull. He would have been a likely custodian for this Bowstring Society war record; and may have been the adoptive “father” who gave it to Ambrose Asher.
Plates 5 – 6
Plate 5. Artist 3 (horse & rider); Artist 1 (Pawnee enemy---compare Plates 7 & 8), possibly Medicine Water, I.
Riding a black mare with blazed face, this Cheyenne has attacked another Pawnee enemy who fired two arrows, but missed with both, before the Cheyenne lanced him to death. The Pawnee was fighting entirely naked, a common choice. Compare this figure with Plate 2, where a breechcloth is indicated. A large, golden eagle tail feather is tied above the Cheyenne's brow. He wears a short, hairpipe breastplate of the early style, with silver ornaments hanging from it. His hair-fringed leggings differ from those which indicate a Bowstring officer (Plate 6). The attack was a sudden one, because there was no time to uncover his war shield.
Plate 6. Artist 2, possibly Lame Bull.
This is the only depiction the author has seen of the distinctive, hair-trimmed leggings worn by two Bowstring Society officers (Grinnell,1926, II: 75). They have the characteristic black and yellow fringe, are painted entirely black (like this same man's legs in Plate 2), and are decorated with a strip of black and white beadwork, almost certainly in pony beads. The artist is the same one who owned the matching shirt seen in Plate 4. Here, he is wearing the same, dark-skirted coat seen in Plate 2; and riding the same pinto gelding. On his chest is a large silver ornament called a “pectoral.” Designed by Mexican plateros as a brow decoration for a bridle, these were adopted by Indian riders, instead. For examples, see Feder, 1962; and Cowdrey, Martin & Martin, 2011: 55 & Figs. 3.24, 3.25.
In the action shown, one Pawnee, at right, has been shot twice by someone out-of-frame. The artist passed this victim on the run, blocked an arrow fired by the Pawnee at the left, then counted coup upon this assailant by smashing him across the face with his bow.
The notched quirt handle seen against the neck of the horse, similar to the one in Plate 15, may also be a Bowstring emblem, though the colors are different.
In 1820, the journalist for the Long Expedition noted of the Cheyenne: “They...regard long hair as an ornament...depending in many instances (particularly the young beau) to their knees, in the form of queues, one on each side of the head, variously decorated with ribbon, like slips of red and blue cloth or colored skin” (James, 1823, 3: 46). This man's hair is dressed according to that description, though the dark color indicates the wrappings would have been otter fur. An eagle feather, on a long cord of leather or sinew, trails back from the right-hand queue.
Plates 7 – 8
Plate 7. Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I.
The arrangement of the two pages of this Plate provides a classic example of the way in which Cheyenne artists conceptually modified two-dimensional space, in order to express action in three dimensions. Commonly, Cheyenne drawings flow from right to left, and the composition is arranged with the bottom toward the spine of the book. In working, therefore, the artist turned the volume sideways, and drew on the "top" or far page.
If the planned composition could be restricted to a single page, then nothing would be drawn on the facing sheet. The completed, page would be turned down toward the artist, and the next drawing made on the following top page.
In this earliest example, however, undoubtedly due to the limited number of pages, every sheet has been filled; and lacking any means of erasure, several pages have been “rubbed,” partially smudging the initial composition, then a second drawing has been added.
If as we see here, the action overlapped, requiring more than a single page, the composition would be completed by revolving the open volume 180 degrees, and continuing on the facing page, again with the bottom of the drawing oriented toward the spine. The consequence is that action on right-hand pages of the ledger flows toward the top of the volume, while action on left-hand pages flows toward the bottom of the volume.
From a European, compositional standpoint this would seem to be antithetical. In the Cheyenne perspective, however, where circularity always triumphs over the limitations of a flat page, it makes brilliant sense. The viewer assembles the halves of the drawing in his mind, as if he were INSIDE the closed book. This is the same as if he were standing inside a conical tipi, and the composition were painted around him on the inner surface, or as commonly happened, painted on the draft-screens tied around the tipi circumference.
When one is standing INSIDE the composition, it is only possible to see part of it at one time. As one views half the lodge (or half of the two-page composition), the other half (the opposite page) is BEHIND him. To view the second half one must turn around inside the tipi; and this is conceptually the same as revolving the ledger book 180 degrees. Thus did Cheyenne artists adapt the limitations of a flat format, to suit their circular concept of the world. See further on this point the discussion in Afton, et. al., 1997: 332.
In Plates 7 – 8, the two riders are conceptually circling the viewer. In the event, they were riding in line, one after the other. In Plate 7, note that the rider's war lance has been shown twice. It wasn't abandoned behind him, sticking in the body of the prostrate Pawnee. We are meant to understand that the rider retained it in his grasp, but performed TWO valorous deeds with it. He trampled the Pawnee and lanced him en passant. The horse tracks on the victim's body illustrate this, as well as the Pawnee's dropped bow and arrows. Then the Cheyenne used the same lance (identical decoration) to kill and count coup on the second Pawnee shown in Plate 8. In Plate 7, note that only the top half of the lance is depicted, exiting the right side of the page; but in Plate 8, the lower half of the lance re-appears, entering from the left.
Plate 8. Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I.
Although the same artist made both of these drawings, he clearly is depicting two separate men, dressed differently and riding horses of different color, but engaged on the same occasion. Note that both riders have a feather with similar markings, probably striped hawk feathers, attached on lines trailing behind them. These are related to the protective nature of their identical shields.
Plates 9 – 10
Plate 9. Artist 4, possibly Alights on the Cloud (Figure 6). It is the shirt of Spanish scale-armor (compare, Figure 7), for which Alights on the Cloud was famous, that suggests his identity. Since he was killed in battle by the Pawnee in the summer of 1852, if this is a self-portrait, then it must have been created earlier. Since this artist made one fourth of the drawings in the book, this has an important bearing on the plausible date they were created.
The man is armed not only with his lance, but also an arsenal of bow and arrows, carried in the quiver and bow-case made of tanned otterskin hanging from a strap across his right shoulder and lying behind him, against the side of his horse. The curious figure ahead of him appears to be intended as a prostrate enemy, apparently a woman, doubtless another unfortunate Pawnee.
Plate 10. Artist 5. The three male figures with large feet were drawn by a man more popular with the ladies, than successful in war. He portrayed none of the battle exploits. The figures are also shown in profile, unlike most others in this ledger, suggesting he was a younger relative of one of the Bowstrings, in the artistic vanguard which, by the 1870s, would change the tribal style so that nearly all figures would be portrayed in profile. The central figure is also unusual for inclusion of the eye, nose and mouth; his blanket is decorated with a beaded strip.
Plates 11 – 12
Plate 11. Artist 4, possibly Alights on the Cloud. Compare the horse with Plate 9, especially the technique of indicating a pinto by use of black elipses around the perimeter of the body. This is a motif he shared with Artist 2 (Plates 2 & 6).
The object surrounding the waist of this rider is puzzling. The pattern of diamonds suggests that it may represent a Saltillo blanket, or other weaving from one of the Mexican trade communities in northern New Mexico. These were very popular among Plains tribes, and appear in many Cheyenne ledger drawings from the 1860s & 1870s. Compare the example in Plate 28, right, where availability of color makes a better likeness. A large felt hat, likely also of New Mexican origin, is accented with a non-descript feather. The rider's dark coat is accented with armbands of silver and a pectoral ornament of the same material.
Plate 12. Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I.
A rider leads what is probably intended as a captured horse. Note that his own mount is bridled with a commercial halter ; but in order to lead the black horse he has needed to rig a jaw-loop rein---a simple half-hitch abound the lower jaw, which was the preferred type of bridle used by many Indian riders. Others are shown in Plates 4, 6 & 9.
A quirt handle, possibly made of an elk tine, hangs from the man's wrist. Another possible indication this is a “war booty” scene is that the hilt of a cavalry saber is seen behind the rider. The blade is hidden on the far side of the horse, while the ends of a sash tied to the hilt lie against the horse's side. Compare Plates 29 & 31.
Plates 13 – 14
Plate 13. Artist 3, possibly Lame Bull.
Riding here as a “naked fighter,” with only a breechcloth and bereft of the spiritual protections inherent in his hair-fringed shirt and leggings, the artist of Plates 4 & 6 demonstrates his bravery against a Pawnee adversary. The intent of the artist is to show that the enemy had two, long distance weapons, the musket and the bow, while the Cheyenne overcame him in hand-to-hand combat. The weapon, very clearly drawn, is a U.S. Army, Model-1840 cavalry saber, nicknamed the “wrist breaker,” made by the N.P. Ames Arms Compazny, Cabotville, Massachusetts. This is an exclusionary detail which demonstrates the collection post-dates 1840. These were the “long knifes” first used during the Mexican War. Hundreds of them passed through Bent's Fort during the latter-1840s; and many of those ended up in Indian hands. Others, drawn with less exactitude, are shown in Plates 29, 31 & 33. This Cheyenne has tied to the hilt a long streamer of cloth or leather hung with dark feathers.
Plate 14. Artist 5 (tall male with large feet); Artist 2, possibly Lame Bull (couple at left, compare the feet with Plates 4 & 13); Artist 6 (woman at right---note difference of feet).
Another courting scene. The tall Lothario is elaborately dressed, with another saber folded inside his blanket. We see only the hilt, with paired streamers hung with eagle feathers. A long string of silver hairplates drags the ground. His blanket, leggings and moccasins are decorated with beadwork, again in the simple, box and triangle designs typical of the decades before 1860. The other young man also has a beaded strip on his blanket. His date is wrapped in a First-Phase Navajo “Chief's Blanket,” another article provided by the enterprising traders at Bent's Fort, and its successors.
Plates 15 – 16
Plate 15. Artist 4, possibly Alights on the Cloud.
The Pawnee get a brief respite, as this Cheyenne, armed only with a hand axe and his shield, uses the lash of his quirt to count coup on a Ute man armed with a long rifle.
Plate 16. Artist 6. Although there are similarities to the style of Artist 1 (compare Plates 8 & 31, for example), the horse, especially, and depiction of the feathers are different.
This is a rare depiction of a shield actually stopping an arrow. Before the Pawnee was able to get off a second shot, the Cheyenne lanced him in the groin.
Cheyenne informants in the 1890s told George Dorsey that only two Bowstring officers carried lances decorated with feathers (Dorsey. 1905, I: 19); whereas, by the 1870s, Cheyenne drawings depicting meetings of the Bowstring Society show each member carrying a distinctively-feathered lance. Another indication of the early period when these drawings were created is that this is the only such lance shown, harkening back to the earlier period remembered by Dorsey's informants.
Plates 17 – 18
Plate 17. Artist 4, possibly Alights on the Cloud.
The Cheyenne's mount, shown also in Plate 20, is a mule, in fact a jenny. This is indicated both by her narrow tail, and the much-larger size of her ears, in comparison with the horse. Note that her ears have been pierced near the tips and are decorated with “feather earrings.” The “white” mark on the mule's rump may be intended as a brand. The rider is using an Indian-style, high-pommel & cantle saddle. Many Cheyenne men preferred these; whereas in the modern museum and art gallery estimation such seats are routinely described as “women's saddles.” Other examples are in Plates 20, 25, 26 & 27.
Following the Mexican War, vast quantities of Army-surplus weaponry and uniforms were obtained by independent contractors and traded to Indian tribes on the Plains. The Cheyenne had a particular preference for artillery uniform pants with their red unit stripes. The legs were cut off to be adapted as leggings. A large number appear in Cheyenne drawings by the 1860s. Yellow-stripe cavalry pants were also coveted; but more examples of artillery stripes are seen, like the example here. In other drawings (Plates 1, 9, & 11) it is likely that the “white” stripes seen on leggings were actually artillery uniforms also, but no red pencil was available when the drawings were made.
Plate 18. Artist 1 (unfinished horse at left, rear), possibly Medicine Water, I; Artist 7---the large-bodied horse with arched neck, and the goggle-eyed, non-Indian rider (compare Plates 23 & 24) are the defining features.
This is a truly astonishing depiction of a non-Indian rider. The sawed-off musket he is in the act of firing demonstrates that he had attacked this artist, whose work appears only in the context of this event. Clearly, the experience was considered remarkable by the Bowstrings, themselves, because three pages of their record were devoted to getting it down in correct detail. The artist began in Plate 23, by smudging an earlier drawing, then
beginning the outline of the horse. Overawed by the large size of this animal, probably an imported European draft-breed much larger than the mustangs roaming the Plains, the Cheyenne realized, as soon as he had begun the arched neck and line of the back, that his scale was too large, so he abandoned the attempt and turned to Plate 24. There, he smudged out another drawing and began again. Although he nearly completed the composition, one can imagine his friends, kibitzing over his shoulders as the drawing progressed, objecting that the horse wasn't shown properly. It wasn't large enough! So the second attempt was abandoned before the weapon had been added.
The artist then flipped back to Plate 18, where an unfinished figure of a horse was sacrificed so that he could begin again. Note that another partial horse had been rubbed out even earlier. The impressions of its hindquarters and tail are seen at left center. Placing the head of the new figure of the giant horse in the upper-right corner of the page provided the Cheyenne just enough room to squeeze its tail into the lower-left corner. Although the legs could not be fully included, the body of the animal fills nearly the entire page, in elegant profile.
The Cheyennes were clearly fascinated by this enemy's riding gear, the like of which they had never seen before. We must understand that the artist was able to depict it all in such remarkable detail, because he had killed the man and captured his horse. The riding gear would all have been lying on the ground in the Bowstring meeting lodge, so that the artist might refer to its curious components as the drawing proceeded. What this shows is called a “running martingale.” If a horse is fractious, and prone to tossing its head because it dislikes the bit in its mouth, this can throw it off-stride so that it might fall, injuring the rider. The running martingale was designed to prevent this. Strapped to the saddle girth beneath the horse's chest, the two ends of the martingale were brought forward between the front legs; then the two reins were laced through the iron rings of the martingale straps. This prevents the horse from raising its head above normal carriage.
The seat, rigged with a double girth, may be the 1847-model Grimsley Dragoon saddle. The details are insufficient to be certain; but the iron stirrups (seen more clearly in Plate 24) are accurately shown. Various models, inspired by Mexican prototypes, had been made by Thornton Grimsley in St. Louis, since the 1830s (see S. Stephen Dorsey & Kenneth McPheeters, The American Military Saddle 1776-1945).
The man in this drawing may have been encountered with one of the hundreds of trains of freight wagons which traversed Cheyenne country on the Santa Fe Trail throughout the 1840s and 1850s. What appear to be “eyes” might actually have been eye glasses, as unusual and mysterious to the Cheyenne as the martingale. Note the included detail of the brand on the horse's rump.
Plates 19 – 20
Plate 19. Artist 6 (compare Plate 16); Artist 1 (unfinished horse, upper right, partially effaced), possibly Medicine Water, I.
This shield is discussed in the main essay. The Cheyenne is attacking a Pawnee pedestrian. Although this enemy is armed with bow and arrows, the Cheyenne rode him down and killed him with only a pipe-tomahawk, a courageous risk. In a later depiction of the same event by the same artist, collected in 1879, this Pawnee and another are both shown to have been entirely covered with blue war paint. Lacking a blue pencil two decades or more earlier, that detail could not be registered, here.
Plate 20. Artist 4, possibly Alights on the Cloud.
See Plate 17, for discussion of this mule.
Plates 21 – 22
Plate 21. Artist 8 (the two, pointed-toe ladies at right); Artist 9 (the thin, male figures 2nd & 4th from left); Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I (compare male figure with hairplates, 2nd from right, with Plates 3 & 28).
Three Bowstring Warriors are shown on a date. What appear to be cut-off human arms, above the head of the figure 2nd from right, are probably intended as a name glyph, though these were often nicknames. “Cut Arms” was an early designation for the Cheyenne tribe; but we have seen no individuals with that name.
Plate 22. Artist 2, Possibly Lame Bull (male figure, 2nd from right---compare Plate 14, feet of left couple); Artist 8 (all female figures---compare Plate 21); Artist 9 (thin male, 2nd from right---compare Plate 21).
Another scene of dating, with another obscure name glyph connected by a line to the head of the man shown at center. The women first and third from right are wrapped in expensive Navajo blankets, signaling that they are daughters of prominent and wealthy families
Plates 23 – 24
Plate 23. Artist 6 (two mounted figures, partially effaced---compare Plate 16); Artist 7 (compare Plate 18).
Not much can be discerned from what remains of the smudged, original drawing. Apparently one Bowstring warrior carrying his battle lance is leading the horse of a comrade who has been injured in the right arm by an arrow. The reason for trying to erase this composition is discussed in Plate 18.
Plate 24. Artist 10 (original composition of rider facing left, confronting large Pawnee figure at right, all now largely effaced---compare horse at left in Plate 34); Artist 7 (dark horse and non-Indian rider---compare Plate 18).
See Plate 18 for discussion of the dark, non-Indian rider and horse. The original drawing depicted a mounted Cheyenne riding down a pedestrian Pawnee who has fired two arrows at him, but missed.
Plates 25 – 26
Plate 25. Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I.
Plate 26. Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I.
It was a common practice for members of a war party to ride one “utility” horse while journeying, leading their best war horse. This premier animal would be kept fresh, to be mounted only when combat threatened. That is what is shown in both of these drawings. Note that the “utility” mount is a mare, the teats indicated; while the main combat animal is a male, probably a gelding. The Cheyenne had many, accomplished veterinarians or “horse doctors.”
Note that here, again, as in Plates 7, 8 & 9, the drawings by this artist immediately precede the one in Plate 27, depicting Alights on the Cloud. This is further evidence associating the two, and reinforcing the possibility that “Artist 1” was Medicine Water, I, uncle of Alights on the Cloud and owner of the shirt of scale-armor the younger man is depicted wearing. Also, there is a great similarity in the style of horses depicted by the two men, as if one had been taught by the other.
Plates 27 – 28
Plate 27. Artist 4, possibly Alights on the Cloud.
We believe this is a second depiction of Alights on the Cloud (Figure 6) wearing the legendary shirt of Spanish scale-armor (Figure 7). Eagle feathers are tied into the mane and tail of his horse. Here, he is shown as described in his last battle during the summer of 1852, when more than 300 Cheyenne, Arapaho and allied Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache attacked a large hunting party of Pawnee:
“When the Cheyennes attacked and chased them, the Pawnee ran. Alights on the Cloud overtook a Pawnee and touched him [counted coup with his lance]...Alights on the Cloud...was dressed in iron clothing. The Pawnees shot him with arrows, but they did not pierce the coat he wore. [He] was rushing up behind a Pawnee to strike him, and he rode up on his right side, thinking that in this way the Pawnee could not shoot him with the bow; but the Pawnee [a terrified 18-year-old named Big Spotted Horse, who thought his last moments had come] must have been left-handed, for he turned on his horse and shot Alights on the Cloud, and the arrow entered his right eye... all the Pawnees rushed forward...The Cheyennes made a fierce charge, trying to get their man, but they could do nothing. The Pawnees cut the shirt in small pieces and carried them away and scalped the man” (Grinnell, 1915: 75-76, & 79).
Plate 28. Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I---compare figure wearing hairplates with similar figure in Plate 3). Compare the forelegs of the unfinished horse with the horse at left in Plate 31.
This is an unusual and interesting example of one artist beginning a drawing (the partial horse), changing his mind, trying to smudge and scrape out the lines, because he had no eraser, then doing a second drawing on the same page.
Both figures are males, indicated by their breech cloths, meeting outside of a Cheyenne tipi. The welter of dashed lines represent footprints. The artist, probably Medicine Water, I, is the figure at left, wearing hairplates. The other man has come from a large party of horsemen some distance away. This is indicated by the circle of dashed lines and horse tracks at the far right. Dotted trails leaving this circle indicate that many men approached the Cheyenne camp, but stopped some distance away, when this single man approached (note dotted line leading to his foot) to confer with the artist. The many dotted lines leaving the tipi indicate that the artist had been expecting these visitors, and had been running back and forth for perhaps hours, to check whether they had arrived.
Returning war parties, if successful, liked to make a triumphal entrance to their home village. Often they might arrive at night, when darkness would preclude a parade, so it was common for them to “camp out” one night longer, in order to make a grand entry the following morning. That may be the explanation for the action depicted here. A delegate from the returning party has sneaked into the camp to report to the Bowstring leader, apprise him of the details of their adventure, and agree on the schedule for the following day's celebration.
Plates 29 – 30
Plate 29. Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I.
A Shirt Wearer of the Bowstring Society , wounded in the right leg by an arrow, kills a Pawnee archer. His war-surplus cavalry saber has a tanned otterskin tied to the hilt. This has been split down the spine and golden eagle feathers attached at intervals.
Plate 30. Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I.
Young Cheyenne women of good family were guarded by their female relatives, and given few opportunities to interact with young men, lest they be taken advantage of. One of the few opportunities young women had to “escape” and visit with male acquaintances, is if they were sent to fetch water or firewood for the family's needs. Knowing this, lovelorn young men were wont to stake out springs or creek sides, waiting for hours in the hope of catching a few words with a popular girl. This is a common theme in Plains ledger art.
The girl shown here, probably a teenager, is on such an errand, having been sent by her mother with a bucket to fetch water: “And you'd better be back here right away, or I'll send your father to find you!” Her Navajo 1st Phase Chief's Blanket indicates that her father was a wealthy man. As she had probably been hoping for days, Romeo was waiting to sweet-talk her. This he shows himself doing, in another historic image of sound represented in graphic media, by the zigzag line drawn from his mouth to her ear.
Plates 31 – 32
Plate 31. Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I.
The same Bowstring Shirt Wearer seen in Plate 29, wearing the same headdress of eagle feathers, is once again in battle with the Pawnee. The occasion must be different, however, because the split otterskin attached to the hilt of his saber has no attached feathers.
Plate 32. Artist 11. His horses are different than any others in the ledger. The prominent facial profiles and miniscule feet are “signature” characteristics.
The figure at the right is the artist, wearing a silver pectoral ornament at the throat. Note that his shield is simply hanging in front of his torso, not strapped to an arm. If he were being pursued, instead of chasing, the shield would be swung around to hang on his back.
Note the split ears of the Cheyenne's horse.
The enemy may be Ute. Both men are wearing large, black felt hats, and both are in the act of firing flintlock or cap-lock pistols, yet another indication of an early date. The Ute also has a musket strapped across his back
Plates 33 – 34
Plate 33. Artist 1, possibly Medicine Water, I.
This is the same Bowstring leader seen in Plate 31, but wearing a different headdress, here with a black trailer. He is fleeing from many enemies who have fired the ten bullets streaking in from the left margin.
The inscription was added by Margaret Giberson (Figure 4):
1929
Daniel Marble 12 yrs
Ambrose Asher
Coonie Pokins as called
by Indians
Above were white boys
captured by Indians.
M [indecipherable] soldiers rescued
“Coonie Pokins” may prove to be a significant clue that could help to identify the adoptive Cheyenne father of Ambrose Asher. Names were retained within families. If Ambrose was given a Cheyenne name, it might have been just a nickname---”White boy”, “dirty Face”---but could also be the name of the giver's father or uncle, if we could understand it. It may also, however, be a useless device, since Ambrose likely mis-heard it; his version was repeated two months later to Sarah Giberson; who repeated it decades later to her granddaughter Margaret; who tried to write it down in 1929.
Plate 34 (Inside Rear Cover). Artist 4, possibly Alights on the Cloud (unfinished horse at upper right); Artist 10---compare Plate 24. The narrow, rear legs of the horse and long, narrow tail are diagnostic.
Another lucky meeting of young lovers. The artist wanted the viewer to understand that SHE was talking with him.