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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 14:01:44 GMT -5
Fascinating People of Early Faribault www.ci.faribault.mn.us/history2/Alex/Alex_story.htmlsome other information to help with the understanding of whom remained on fairbaults lands would be the newspaper The Central Republican June 1863 when Fairbault wrote to tell the community that those at his place were persons who were not involved in 62. the december letter to the government where the names of the cheifs are Taopi Wabasha PayPay Anawangmani etc. Thanks Tamara, Great info... Do you have a link? I am searching... Wauhinkpe (wahinkpe) was listed as part of Taopi's band on the Ft. Snelling December 2, 1862 camp census AND on the January 23rd congressional globe petition (as well as Taopi). Wauhinkpe shows up in flaundrea in 1870 census (Francis Arrow)... I just trying to determine where he and his family are between 1863 - 1870 Thanks again,
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 15:52:20 GMT -5
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 16:04:19 GMT -5
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 17:27:15 GMT -5
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 17:43:09 GMT -5
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 17:43:45 GMT -5
One of the best-known moments in the whole story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is the surprise reunion of the party's "interpretess," Sacagawea, with her brother, Cameahwait, the "Great Chief" of the Lemhi Shoshones. It was recorded briefly and matter-of-factly by Meriwether Lewis. In artist Michael Haynes's conception of a brief and tender moment, otherwise undocumented, the proud young mother smiles broadly as if to tease little Jean Baptiste into responding similarly toward his uncle. Cameahwait, whom Clark called "a man of Influence Sence & easey & reserved manners, [who] appears to possess a great deel of Cincerity,"1 seems to be speaking softly to the 6-month-old baby. The Chief is wearing a tippet, that "most eligant peice of Indian dress," much like the one he later gave to Meriwether Lewis. The scene is inside the leather lodge Lewis purchased from Toussaint Charbonneau at Fort Mandan.2 Nightly from early April until mid-November, 1805, it sheltered the two captains and Clark's servant, York, interpreters George Drouillard and Toussaint Charbonneau, Toussaint's wife Sacagawea, and Jean Baptiste. While Lewis searched for a suitable site for their winter encampment near the mouth of the Columbia River, the rest of the company fought to survive torrential wind and rain on Tongue Point near today's Astoria, Oregon. Clark reported on November 28, "we are all wet bedding and Stores, haveing nothing to keep our Selves of Stores dry, our Lodge nearly worn out, and the pieces of Sales & tents So full of holes & rotten that they will not keep anything dry."3 Sacagawea and Cameahwait had not seen one another since their hunting camp near the Three Forks was attacked by Minitare (Hidatsa) warriors in about the year 1800. She and her sister, along with some other females and four boys, were captured by Hidatsa warriors and carried off to their village on the Missouri River near the mouth of the Knife in today's North Dakota. On 28 July 1805 the Corps of Discovery camped on the exact spot where that attack took place.4 link below- www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2665
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 18:48:20 GMT -5
The White Buffalo Excerpted from: Miracle: By Tom Laskin, Isthmus Newspaper, Madison, WI; Nov. 25-Dec 1, 1994 "To tell the truth, the first time I looked out there, I saw a million dollars, "says Janesville farmer Dave Heider as he watches Miracle, the white buffalo calf, chew contentedly on a mouthful of silage. "But once I saw how much this calf means to so many people, I couldn't see charging money for people to come and look at her. I mean, how can you put a price on something that's sacred and holy?" News of the calf spread quickly through the Native American community because its birth fulfilled a 2,000-year-old prophecy of northern Plains Indians. Joseph Chasing Horse, traditional leader of the Lakota nation, said that 2,000 years ago a young woman who first appeared in the shape of a white buffalo gave the Lakotas' ancestors a sacred pipe and sacred ceremonies and made them guardians of the Black Hills. Before leaving, she also promised that one day she would return to purify the world, bringing back spiritual balance and harmony; the birth of a white buffalo calf would be a sign that her return was at hand. Despite her enormous spiritual and cultural significance, Miracle isn't scientifically important. UW-Madison geneticist Dr. Richard Spritz, an expert in albinism and other pigmentation disorders, disputes news reports that the odds of a white buffalo being born are less than one in 10 million. "In humans, the frequency of albinism in most populations is about one in 15,000, which turns out to be a pretty handy number for buffalo because the estimated number of them in the U.S. is something around 150,000. That means, that any given time, if the frequency of albinism in buffalo is similar to that in humans, there ought to be 10 white buffalo out there." But even if other white buffalo have been born in modern times, Miracle holds special significance for Native Americans. She's female, and the bull that sired her died, just as in the prophecy. And, while recent visitors to the Heider farm are sometimes disappointed that the calf's head has turned brown and its body is now a silvery tan, versions of the prophecy state that the white buffalo calf would change colors four times, thus signifying the colors of the four peoples she would unify: black, red, yellow, and white. Joseph Chasing Horse, in a phone interview from his home in Rapid City, S.D., adds that winter counts -- which date the telling of the White Buffalo Calf Woman story in sacred ceremonies -- confirm that this is the buffalo calf of the prophecy. Larry Johns, a member of the Oneida tribe who works to preserve Indian mounds and other sacred sites, stresses the cultural importance of such recent discoveries as the Gottschall Rock Shelter in Iowa County, which includes a rock painting from CE 900 that tells a story still told by Ho-Chunk elders. "My father and grandfather went to Indian schools, and they were beaten for speaking their language," says Johns, who along with fellow Oneida and representatives of other tribes has helped put together the new Native American Council of Madison, a group dedicated to promoting cultural awareness. "They tried to beat the Indian out of us. It's imperative that we go back to these stories and find out what they mean to us -- and who we are." And how does Miracle fit into all of this? Says Johns, "There's so little understanding of Native American issues and ideas that any opportunity to get people interested -- even if it's just coming to see a white buffalo calf -- is a good thing." No matter what happens to Miracle in the coming months and years, Joseph Chasing Horse says the birth is a sign from the Great Spirit and the ensuing age of harmony and balance it represents cannot be revoked. That doesn't mean that the severe trials Native Americans have endured since the arrival of Europeans on these shores are over. Indeed, the Lakota nation mounted the longest court case in U.S. history in an unsuccessful effort to regain control of the Black Hills, the sacred land on which the White Buffalo Calf Woman appeared 2,000 years ago. "Mention that we are praying, many of the medicine people, the spiritual leaders, the elders, are praying for the world," says Joseph Chasing Horse. "We are praying that mankind does wake up and think about the future, for we haven't just inherited this earth from our ancestors, but we are borrowing it from our unborn children." link below- www.wovoca.com/prophecy-animals.htm
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 18:53:43 GMT -5
SIOUX NON-FICTION- part 1
Bleeker, Sonia; Sasaki, Kisa, illus. The Sioux Indians: Hunters and Warriors of the Plains. New York, NY: William Morrow & Company; 1962. 155 pages. (upper elementary).
This book's main focus is on the lifeways of the Sioux from 1780 through the 1870s. Religion, buffalo hunting, raids, games, the Sun Dance, and the end of the traditional way of life are described. Much attention is given to description of material culture items. Includes a map, an index, and black-and-white drawings.
Brooks, Barbara. The Sioux. Vero Beach, FL: Rourke Publications, Inc.; 1989. 31 pages. (Native American People). (elementary).
This short history of the Sioux Indians includes one chapter on the Sioux today. Illustrated with colorful drawings and archival and contemporary photographs. Includes a list of important dates in Sioux history and an index.
Brown, Vinson. Crazy Horse: Hoka Hey (It is a Good Time to Die). Reprint of Macmillan 1971 ed. Happy Camp, CA: Naturegraph Publishers Inc.; 1989. 169 pages. (secondary).
The introduction to this book states that "this is not a biography that deals in details and what men call facts...this is a book of spiritual adventure....Though I follow the main outline of what others have written about Crazy Horse, I leave their earthbound tracks for the sky at times...." While running all the risks inherent in attributing fictional thoughts and feelings to an historical figure, the book does succeed in breathing life into the character and bringing an American Indian perspective to the reader. Foreword by Red Dawn (Sioux). A map shows location of major events in Crazy Horse's life. Includes a glossary.
Charging Eagle; Zeilinger, Ron; Zeilinger, Ron, photog. Black Hills: Sacred Hills. 2nd ed. Chamberlain, SD: Tipi Press; 1992. 56 pages. (elementary/secondary).
This is a photo essay on the Black Hills of South Dakota, the spiritual center of the Lakota Sioux Indians. Full-page black-and-white photographs with adjoining text illustrate the one hundred year controversy over white possession of the Black Hills.
Clark, Ann Nolan; Beatty, Willard W., ed; Standing Soldier, Andrew (Sioux), illus. There Are Still Buffalo. Reprint of 1942 (Department of Interior) ed. Santa Fe, NM: Ancient City Press; 1992. 40 pages. (lower elementary).
A bilingual Sioux/English text follows the stages of a male buffalo's life, stressing harmony with nature and death as part of nature. Beautiful black-and-white illustrations complement the poetic text. This work was originally prepared at the request of Sioux parents and teachers to encourage bilingualism among their students. An afterword provides information on the Lakota alphabet and on the development of written Lakota.
Deloria, Ella (Lakota Sioux). Speaking of Indians. reprint of 1944 Friendship Press ed. Vermillion, SD: Dakota Press; 1979. 100 pages. (secondary).
Ella Deloria, a Sioux ethnologist, wrote this work in 1944 to examine both traditional and contemporary Indian life. General considerations about American Indians are followed by a description of the traditional life of her own Sioux people. The problems faced by the Indians after being placed on reservations and the role of American Indians in World War II are also discussed. The author concludes that European culture forced such rapid economic, social, environmental, and religious changes that American Indian society could not cope. Though some of the work now seems dated, the book is still of interest, as it reflects Ella Deloria's unique perspective. Born on the Yankton Sioux reservation in 1899, she was trained as an ethnographer at Columbia University, and then returned to the reservation to raise her younger sisters after the death of her father. Includes a useful introduction.
Dolan, Terrance. The Santee Sioux Indians. (The Junior Library of American Indians.) Chelsea Juniors. 1997. 85 pp. (upper elementary, secondary)
This well-written book describes the life and culture of the Santee Sioux while living in present-day Minnesota. It also discusses the devastating impact of White contact that brought disease, loss of land and culture, and eventually removal to the Dakotas following the Santee Sioux uprising in 1862, written about in riveting detail. A well-known Santee Sioux was physician, educator, and writer Charles Eastman. An eight-page photo essay describes the art of the Plains Indians. Glossary, chronology, and index. Doll, Don S. J.; Alinder, Jim eds; Anderson, John A.; Buechel, Eugene S. J.; Doll, Don S. J., photogs. Crying for a Vision: A Rosebud Sioux Trilogy, 1886--1976. Reprint of 1976 ed. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Morgan & Morgan; 1991. 170 pages. (secondary) *.
This book contains beautiful collection of black-and-white photographs presenting a visual history spanning almost a century of Brule Sioux reservation life. The works of three photographers---John A. Anderson, Eugene Buechel, and Don Doll---record the adjustment to and changes in reservation life from 1889 to 1976. This "dramatic evolution" is illustrated through the subtly differing styles of the photographers who spent years among the people on the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota. Some photographs are accompanied by excerpts from Buechel's correspondence and Doll's own commentary. Includes a preface, foreword (in Lakota and English by Ben Black Bear Jr.), introduction, and information on each photographer.
Driving Hawk Sneve, Virginia (Sioux).; Himler, Ronald, illus. The Sioux. New York, NY: Holiday House; 1993. 32 pages. (lower elementary).
This beautifully illustrated book opens with a retelling of the Sioux creation story for young readers. This is followed by brief chapters describing traditional Sioux life on the Great Plains and Sioux life today. e/Sioux/Plains.
Hall, Philip. To Have This Land. Vermillion, SD: The University of South Dakota Press; 1991. 170 pages. (secondary).
This informative and well-written work considers the Wounded Knee confrontation between the U.S. Army and Lakota Nation in the historical context of the Dakota frontier at that time, looking at the role of the white settlers in the events that led up to the massacre. The author hopes to make readers "more aware of the original conditions, differences in values, and misunderstandings on the frontier that led to the massacre...and have continued largely unabated...."
Halliburton, Warren J. The Tragedy of Little Bighorn. New York, NY: Franklin Watts; 1989. 64 pages. (upper elementary).
This is a simple, comprehensive guide to "Custer's Last Stand" and the events leading up to the battle at Little Bighorn between U. S. Cavalry soldiers and Sioux Indians and their allies. The accounts of historic events are well-balanced, describing Custer as an "American Hero," who was arrogant and foolhardy. He was also a deserter, who was court-martialed for "excessive cruelty to his men, and illegally ordering deserters shot." The book includes pictures of some of the artifacts found during recent excavations by the National Park Service at Custer Battlefield National Monument in Montana. These excavations have revealed new information about Custer and the battle. Includes bibliography, index, and black-and-white and color illustrations and photographs.
Hoover, Herbert T. The Yankton Sioux. New York, NY: Chelsea House; 1988. 111 pages. (Frank W. Porter III, Gen. Ed. Indians of North America). (upper elementary/secondary) *.
This is a history of the Yankton Sioux as representatives of the Sioux confederation. Early contact with Europeans, resistance to white encroachment, reservation life, and federal policies designed to discourage participation in traditional activities are discussed. Preservation of Yankton language and religion are used as examples of the survival of Yankton culture. Includes a section on the Yanktons today, a bibliography, the "Yankton-Sioux-At-A-Glance," a glossary, and an index.
Hyde, George. Red Cloud's Folk: A History of the Oglala Sioux Indians. 5th reprint ed. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma; 1984; c1937. 331 pages. (The Civilization of the American Indian). (secondary).
This is a history of the Oglala Sioux drawn from both Sioux and non-Indian sources. Where versions differ, the author sometimes analyzes and assesses the relative merits of each version. The book mainly recounts the events from 1860 on that led to the expropriation of Sioux lands and confinement of the Sioux to reservations. The author is frankly opinionated and neither whites nor Indians escape his scathing comments, especially the Eastern religious "visionaries" who wanted to turn the Sioux into farmers. The book contains some stereotypical characterizations of Indians. The term "wild" is frequently used to differentiate hostile or non-treaty Sioux from agency "tame" Sioux. Other comments include: "...compared with the Sioux...and the Blackfoot...the Crows were good people who got along well with the whites"; "...for an Indian, Red Cloud was an able man..." Appendices include notes added in 1957, estimates of Oglala population 1804--1902, and a note on Oglala social organization with identification of seven Oglala bands. Two maps show Oglala migration and the location of the White River agencies, 1871--77. Includes an index and a brief bibliography.
Landau, Elaine. The Sioux. New York: Franklin Watts; 1991, 1989, 64 pages. (lower elementary).
This book describes the history, customs, religion, and daily life of the Sioux Indians of the Great Plains. The focus is on men's roles and activities with little discussion of the roles of women. Includes further reading. e/Sioux/Plains.
Manzione, Joseph. I Am Looking to the North for My Life: Sitting Bull, 1876-1881. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press; 1991. 153 pages. (secondary) *.
This is an excellent, scholarly history of the negotiations between Canada and the United States on the question of the Sioux retreat to Canada. Carefully cited primary sources (newspaper accounts, diaries, and journals) form the basis of this detailed and gripping account of Sitting Bull's attempts to preserve his people's culture. Includes a bibliography.
Matthews, Leonard J.; Campion Geoff et al. Indians. Vero Beach, FL: Rourke Publications Inc.; 1989. 30 pages. (The Wild West in American History). (upper elementary).
See annotation under Cheyenne Non-Fiction.
McGaw, Jessie Brewer. Chief Red Horse Tells About Custer. The Battle of the Little Bighorn: An Eyewitness Account Told in Indian Sign Language. New York, NY: Elsevier/Nelson Books; 1981. 57 pages. (elementary/secondary) *.
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 18:54:16 GMT -5
SIOUX NON-FICTION- part 2 This account is based on Chief Red Horse's version, told in sign language five years after the event, of the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876), and the diagrammatic interpretations of Red Horse's story by a U.S. Army surgeon. Pen and ink diagrams of the sign language and Chief Red Horse's drawings of the battle illustrate this unique book. Osinski, Alice. The Sioux. Chicago, IL: Children's Press; 1984. 45 pages. (A New True Book). (lower elementary). This is a brief overview of traditional Sioux lifeways and history, with a section on contemporary life. Among the topics covered are: the different Sioux groups, the importance of horses and buffalo, religion, decorative arts, and battle of Little Big Horn and the massacre at Wounded Knee. The section on contemporary life stresses continuation of traditions today and the difficulties faced by contemporary Sioux. The book lacks optimism about contemporary life. Illustrated with maps, modern and archival photographs, and reproductions of prints and paintings, the book includes a glossary and an index. Paulsen, T. Emogene. Sioux Collections. Vermillion, S.D.: University of South Dakota; 1982. 243 pages. (secondary). As part of their centennial celebration in 1982, the University of South Dakota published this collection of articles from its Institute of Indian Studies' quarterly newsletter. The articles, dating from the mid-1950s to the 1980s, are presented in nine broad categories rather than in chronological order. While various articles describe Indian belief, lore, myth, history, and present-day concerns, the book overall may be difficult to use as a resource for those not already familiar with aspects of American Indian cultures. The book's appeal lies in its cumulative effect, reflecting the perspectives and concerns of the 1960s and 1970s, a period of hope for growth and renewal for American Indians. As the preface notes, given the book's different sources, the articles sometime contradict each other, and opinions are open to question. A map showing "Sioux Country" is included. Petty, Kate; Wilson, Maurice, illus. Plains Indians. Revised ed. New York, NY: Gloucester Press; 1988. 28 pages. (Small World). (lower elementary). A brief overview of traditional Plains life covering housing, buffalo, decorative art, religion, games, and wars with whites, including the Battle of Wounded Knee. It has nothing on the contemporary conditions of the tribes they discuss. Color illustrations depict grim looking people. Pomerantz, Charlotte; Stock, Catherine, illus. Timothy Tall Feather. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books; 1986. 32 pages. (lower elementary). A Brooklyn boy fantasizes about being a member of the Dakota tribe. The boy's romantic images reinforce stereotypes of American Indians. Little cultural information can be gleaned from this book. Reyer, Carolyn; Medicine, Beatrice; White Plume, Deborah Lynn; Casey Jr., Tom and Gleason, Thomas, photogs. Cante ohitika Win (Brave-hearted Women): Images of Lakota Women from the Pine Ridge Reservation South Dakota. Vermillion, SD: University of South Dakota Press; 1991. 88 pages. (secondary) *. Lakota Sioux women of all ages, living on and around Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, talk about their lives and what it means to live in two worlds---Indian and white. The material for this inspiring book was collected in 1982 and 1983 and "reflect the changes that are taking place in the role of women in Lakota society today." Illustrated with black-and-white photographs.
Sandoz, Mari. These Were the Sioux. New York, NY: Hasting House Publishers; 1961. 118 pages. (upper elementary).
As a young girl, the author and her Swiss-German immigrant family lived near a Sioux reservation, where she spent time with her Indian neighbors. The book describes traditional Sioux life from birth through childhood, puberty, courting, and marriage. Though the writing style is somewhat dated, most of the descriptions are non-judgmental and respectful. Illustrated with reproductions of pictographic records made by Sioux "historians" Amos Bad Heart Bull and Kills Two.
Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk (Sioux); Himler, Ronald. The Sioux. New York, NY: Holiday House; 1993. 32 pages. (A First Americans Book). (upper elementary).
Beginning with a brief and simple version of the Sioux creation story, this book explains the migration of the Sioux from Minnesota to the Plains in the 1700s, and the development of their traditional lifeways and culture. Included is information on the importance and use of the buffalo, as well as cooking, trading, village life, storytelling, battle, spirituality, and rituals. A final section lists the various divisions of the Dakota. The text is accompanied by delicate watercolor illustrations. Includes an index.
Spindler, Will H. Tragedy Strikes at Wounded Knee and Other Essays on Indian Life in South Dakota and Nebraska. Vermillion, SD: Dakota Press, University of South Dakota; 1972. 138 pages. (secondary) ?.
This is a collection of essays written between 1955 and 1965 by Will Spindler, who grew up and attended school in Nebraska, close to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He worked for the United States Indian Service for twenty years at the Medicine Bow Indian day school on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Eurocentrism dominates the writing, which is also riddled with stereotypical representations. Referring to the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890, the author states: "...while this was a shameful, tragic event that will never be forgotten by both the Indians and the whites, it did end all organized Indian armed rebellion against the United States and brought peace at last to the great plains area---the last stronghold of the mighty Sioux." Spindler describes Indians as "nearly naked savages," "hostiles," and having "superstitious minds." Indians participating in the Ghost Dance are described as "...filled with the frenzied spirit of the new religion...[participating in] weird rites, looking like real ghosts as they danced...dressed in the spooky white ghost shirts." Illustrated with black-and-white archival photographs.
Standing Bear, Chief Luther; Stoops, Herbert Morton, illus. Stories of the Sioux. 1988 reprint of 1934 (Houghton Mifflin) ed. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press; 1988. 79 pages. (elementary).
This book contains twenty Sioux stories, some traditional, some personal, as recalled by Chief Luther Standing Bear (1868?--1939). The preface notes "many main events and historical happenings of the tribe are told as stories and in this way the history of the people is recorded. These were not told, however, with the idea of forcing the children to learn, but for pleasure, and they were enjoyed by young and old alike...These stories were not always told by the campfire during the long winter evenings, but at any time and at any place whenever and where-ever the teller and the audience were in the mood."
Stein, R. Conrad; Cathrow, David J., illus. The Story of Wounded Knee. Chicago, IL: Children's Press; 1983. 31 pages. (Cornerstones of Freedom). (lower elementary).
This is an account for young readers of the events leading up to Wounded Knee, the last battle of the Indian Wars, in which the U.S. Army brutally slaughtered hundreds of Sioux, including many women and children. Illustrated with black, white, and brown drawings.
Wheeler, M. J.; Houston, James, illus. First Came the Indians. New York: Atheneum; 1983. 26 pages. (lower elementary).
This book contains simplistic and short descriptions of the Creek, Iroquois, Ojibwa, Sioux, Makah, and Hopi. In the two-page section on "Indians Now," the author emphasizes that Indians live much like other Americans in rural and urban areas, are employed in a variety of occupations, and hold on to many of their traditions. Includes black-and-red illustrations.
Wolfson, Evelyn. The Teton Sioux: People of the Plains. Brookfield, CT: The Millbrook Press; 1992. 64 pages. (elementary).
This historical treatment of the Teton Sioux focuses on descriptions of traditional life and important events, without emphasizing the complexity and adaptability of the Native culture. The "Facts About the Teton Sioux" section is written in the present tense incorrectly fostering the notion that the Sioux still live in tipis, ride horses, and eat bison. The effects of settlers, soldiers, and the railroad on Native culture is given cursory treatment and lacks the American Indian perspective on historical events. "The Sioux Today" section states, "The Sioux and other Native Americans had been defeated once and for all..." following the Battle of Wounded Knee. The absence of an American Indian perspective and the frequency of insensitive language affect the overall quality of this book. Includes important dates, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index.
Wood, Ted with Wanbli Numpa Afraid of Hawk (Lakota Sioux). A Boy Becomes A Man at Wounded Knee. New York, NY: Walker and Company; 1992. 42 pages. (elementary) *.
In this moving, first-person account, nine-year-old Lakota Wanbli Numpa (Afraid of Hawk) accompanies a group of more than 200 people on a reenactment of the journey made by Chief Big Foot and the Lakota from the Cheyenne River to the site of the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890. The five-day, 150-mile centennial ride through the bitter South Dakota winter is described and illustrated with many fine color photographs.
SIOUX FICTION
Dakota, Wes. Under Two Heavens. Tempe, AZ: Blue Bird Publishing; 1991. 239 pages. (secondary).
This is a highly fictionalized account of the life of Joseph Taylor (1860--1933), a Sioux and Episcopalian missionary of his own people. After being orphaned early in life, young Joseph is raised by a minister who arranges for Joseph's education and religious training. While serving as a missionary on the Sioux reservations, he witnesses the murder of Sitting Bull. At that moment "...Joseph realized that he too was only a pawn in the white man's game to exterminate the Indians...not by murder but by destroying them in another way." Feeling like "...a man suspended between two religions, a man under two heavens," Taylor leaves the ministry and becomes an activist, bringing a lawsuit on behalf of the Santee Sioux Nation against the state of Minnesota to reclaim lands taken.
Dudley, Joseph Iron Eye (Yankton Sioux). Choteau Creek: A Sioux Reminiscence. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press; 1992. 179 pages. (secondary) *.
This compelling reminiscence of a young Sioux boy living on the Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota during the 1940s and 1950s focuses on the author's grandparents, William and Bessie Bourissau, with whom he lived throughout most of his childhood. In their home, the author recounts that he "learned the social, cultural, and spiritual values that have stayed with me everywhere I have been." This touching story presents a real-life family with all its strengths and weaknesses, and the love that sustains it through the years.
Eastman, Charles A. (Santee Sioux). Old Indian Days. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press; 1991. 279 pages. (secondary).
This collection of short fiction "vividly depicts the life and customs of Sioux bands in Minnesota and the Dakotas from the early18th century through the 1860s." The stories, originally published in 1907, incorporate reinterpretations of traditional Sioux stories and oral literature. Although fictional, these works contain much valid information on traditional customs, family and social relations, and methods of survival. Includes a detailed and informative introduction by A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff, notes, and a glossary.
Frome, Shelly. Sun Dance for Andy Horn. Billings, Montana: Council for Indian Education; 1990. 124 pages. (secondary).
This action-adventure story revolves around Andy, a troubled Sioux teenager torn between his traditional roots (his grandfather is a medicine man) and the white world of his mother and stepfather. When Andy witnesses what appears to be a murder, he is caught up in a web of mystery, intrigue, and cultural politics, interwoven with his desire to rediscover his Sioux heritage. Includes some strong language and sexual references.
Hotze, Sollace. A Circle Unbroken. New York, NY: Clarion Books; 1988. 202 pages. (secondary).
This novel tells the story of seventeen-year-old Rachel Porter, who was captured and sold to an Oglala Sioux family at the age of ten. Discovered by traders, she is forced to leave her contented life on the Plains and return to her former world and family. Rachel feels out of place in the "white man's world," and is uncomfortable with both the attitudes and customs of the people among whom she lives and works. Eventually, she is allowed to return to her Sioux family.
Howe, James adaptor; Blake, Michael screenplay; Glass, Ben photog. Dances with Wolves. New York, NY: Newmarket Press; 1991. 60 pages. (upper elementary).
This account of a young, white U.S. Army lieutenant's introduction to a different culture presents a sympathetic portrait of the Sioux at the time when white encroachment on their lands and mass slaughter of the buffalo threatened their traditional way of life. The systematic dispossession of Native lands and sources of livelihood is not the focus of the story, however, but serves merely as a background to the adventures of the white hero. The book is adapted directly from the film. Illustrated with stills from the film.
Neihardt, John G. When the Tree Flowered: The Story of Eagle Voice, a Sioux Indian. reprint of 1951 ed. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. 248 pages. (secondary).
John Neihardt's (author of Black Elk Speaks) last novel tells the story of the last generation of Sioux Indians to participate in the old buffalo-hunting lifestyle, during the period of their conflicts with the U.S. Army. The story is based on the author's 1944 interviews with three Sioux: Eagle Elk, Black Elk, and Andrew Knife, merged together into one fictional character called Eagle Voice. Told in the first person, the book is rich in descriptive detail as it records the beauty and power of the traditional Sioux world and the dramatic transition of the Plains Indians with the passing of the western frontier.
Sandoz, Mari. The Story Catcher. Philadelphia, PA: University of Nebraska Press; 1963. 175 pages. (secondary).
This coming-of-age story set in the Great Plains in the mid-1800s follows the adventures of impulsive, young Oglala Sioux, Lone Lance, who eventually earns the name "Story Catcher" when he becomes a recorder of his people's history through paintings on hides. Though Lone Lance only gradually becomes aware of his "calling" to be a tribal recorder, he recalls essential details of events, and these are passed on to the reader in vivid descriptions of horse raiding and ceremonials. The book also includes a good deal of cultural information on customs and beliefs.
Worcester, Donald; Johnson, Harper, illus. Lone Hunter's Gray Pony. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1956. 94 pages. (upper elementary).
Lone Hunter, an Oglala Sioux boy, is given the gift of a swift gray pony by his father, who acquired the horse raiding a neighboring tribe's herd. Lone Hunter longs to kill his first buffalo and trains with his pony every day. When the pony is stolen in an enemy raid, the boy embarks on an adventure to recover his prized possession. Stereotypical wording is often used in describing conversations the boy has with his father, Red Eagle: When Lone Hunter displays the developing skills of his pony, his father "grunted approval"; the father's face is described as "stern and impassive." Illustrated with monotone drawings.
link below-
www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/outreach/Indbibl/bibplain.html
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 19:03:02 GMT -5
Chief Wabasha Lower Sioux Indian Community Minnesota Indians american indians Dakota Sioux Mdewakanton Dakota Bluestone Goodthunders Mdewakanton Dakota ancestors Indian Wars Jackpot Junction Indian Casino lower sioux casino Mankato hangings Cans'a yapi meaning of lower sioux traditional name Buffalo Horse Camp Minnesota Indian reservation lost tribal traditions Indian culture AUTHOR: Renee Ruble MORTON, Minn. - Gripping a cane tightly, Ernest Wabasha slowly reached to touch a pair of heavy iron shackles hanging from his mantel - the same shackles his great-grandfather, the legendary Chief Wabasha, wore during a forced march across the southwestern Minnesota plains a century ago. A portrait of Chief Wabasha hung nearby, surrounded by the strong faces of the Wabasha line before and after. The most recent are photos of Ernest and his son, Wabasha No. 6 and No. 7. MORTON, Minn. - Gripping a cane tightly, Ernest Wabasha slowly reached to touch a pair of heavy iron shackles hanging from his mantel - the same shackles his great-grandfather, the legendary Chief Wabasha, wore during a forced march across the southwestern Minnesota plains a century ago. A portrait of Chief Wabasha hung nearby, surrounded by the strong faces of the Wabasha line before and after. The most recent are photos of Ernest and his son, Wabasha No. 6 and No. 7. Ernest Wabasha's eyes are watery and his 73-year-old body is frail, but the proud lift of his chin and the straight line of his mouth echo the framed pictures of his Mdewakanton Dakota ancestors. Wabasha's band endured a bloody war and was stripped of its south-central territory in the last century, but in time they made their way back. Asked about the strength of the Dakota - why they were driven to return - Wabasha became quiet and started straight ahead. "It all comes back to leadership," Wabasha said. The Wabashas, the Goodthunders and the Bluestones are among the old names in new generations in the Lower Sioux Indian Community. Today's Mdewakanton Dakota say they are renewing a commitment toward unearthing their past from these river bluffs and surrounding prairies. "We are coming together as a group again, as a Mdewakanton tribe," said Jody Goodthunder, a council member and former chairman. "We are reverting back to our culture. A lot of our members are moving back to the old ways." The band's reservation once felt nearly hidden among the cornfields just outside Redwood Falls. Men and boys would work for local farmers, often paid with a bag of flour or some meat. Too poor to afford cars, families would walk down the hill to town, to school and to church. Today, the roads bustle with traffic to the band's Jackpot Junction casino and new Dacotah Ridge Golf Club, a popular trend among reservations that are expanding into golf to create resort-like destination points. Crews busily clean the reservation's water tower, and dump trucks roll by to the building site of a community center that will soon replace a split-level house as the center of tribal functions. About half of the almost 800 registered Lower Sioux members live on the 1,700-acre reservation - mainly in modest homes clustered in small circles off gravel roads. They have to live within 10 miles of the reservation to receive their share of the Jackpot Junction revenue, an amount that isn't disclosed to outsiders. Trust funds are held for the Lower Sioux children, who gain access to part of it at age 18. The remaining money is received at 21. In the past decade, median household income on the Lower Sioux reservation jumped 300 percent to $69,792 in the year 2000 from $16,223 in 1989, according to census figures adjusted for inflation. It was the second-highest median income on the 11 reservations in Minnesota, trailing only Prairie Island ($76,186). The new money is luring band members home, like Kaye Hester, who returned this summer after leaving three decades ago as an impatient 21-year-old. "People are gathering back together, learning the ways of each other. I never thought I'd come back. There was no hope here," Hester said. Despite the new homes and roads, there are plenty of historical markers to remind members of a past that has been difficult. They show where the Dakota, starving and ignored by local white leaders, attacked fur traders and then government posts in 1862, after years of uneasiness with settlers and treaty promises broken by the federal government. Over 500 people on both sides were killed in a six-week battle. It led to the largest mass execution in U.S. history when thousands of people gathered in Mankato the day after Christmas to watch 38 Dakota men hang under the orders of President Abraham Lincoln. On the western edge of the Lower Sioux reservation, another post marks where hundreds of Dakota were court-martialed. Hundreds more were marched to a prison camp at Fort Snelling. They were eventually shipped by boat and railroad to a reservation in South Dakota, later moving south to a reservation in Nebraska. A bounty was put on their head in case they tried to return to Minnesota. But the Mdewakanton Dakota did come home, many walking back to Minnesota from Nebraska and South Dakota. They gathered in small clusters, and 12 years after the war a Dakota leader known as Good Thunder came from South Dakota and purchased 80 acres at the Lower Sioux community. Within a few years a small colony formed, including some Dakota who had been protected by white settlers. By 1936, the census reported 20 Mdewakanton families, 18 families from Flandreau, S.D., and one Sisseton, S.D., family. Some Lower Sioux say an undercurrent of division remains between Indians and non-Indians in the area, with generations carrying a grudge without really knowing what happened, said Goodthunder, a descendant of the 19th-century leader. "We had to live the hard way, wondering why people felt the way they did about us," he said. "Our parents tried to protect us by not telling our history. It probably would have helped us if we would have understood why they had prejudice against us." Goodthunder said he didn't learn why the events of 1862 happened until he was older. He said he recalls slanted depictions from public school, including a history book with a drawing of an Indian holding a white baby by the hair. "They would call us murderer, savage," he said. The Lower Sioux, traditionally called "Cans'a yapi" or "where they marked the trees red," were the heart of the government's program to "civilize" the Dakota. The government tried to turn the Indians into Christian farmers after treaties in 1851 diminished the tribe's land to 4 percent of what they held across southern and western Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Historical Society. The band is still recovering tribal traditions that were buried with the assimilation efforts or left behind when the Dakota were forced out after 1862. Among the people leading the efforts are Crystal Mountain and her husband, Virgil, who run the Buffalo Horse Camp on the outskirts of the reservation, where children create gardens alongside elders using heirloom seeds and learning traditional methods. They've grown tobacco, teaching about its sacredness, and returned important medicinal herbs to the area like sage and sweetgrass. "If you don't use them, they will go away," Crystal Mountain said. "It's about reinstalling their sense of identity," she said. "A lot was lost culturally and the effects are still here. It's a process to really look and find the people who possess that knowledge." Among the Lower Sioux elders are 86-year-old Maude Williams and her younger sister, 77-year-old Betty Lee. Both widowed, the sisters live together in a small house under the watertower in the middle of the reservation. From their front window you can see a stone church; nearby, the Lower Sioux recently gave a traditional burial to Dakota remains they recovered from museums and universities that had held them in archaeological and Indian collections. The sisters laugh as they shuck corn, telling stories of a rooster that chased them in their childhood trips to the family outhouse. There were few families at that time living on the reservation, and no electricity or running water. Their father, Samuel Bluestone, was the first chairman of the Lower Sioux, serving in the early 1930s. He worked for a farmer who paid him with a 5-pound bag of flour or sugar. "We didn't know we were poor," Williams said. "We didn't see the other side." As girls, they were sent to Indian boarding schools and both later moved to the Twin Cities. Lee was the first to return to the reservation, in the early 1970s, to care for her mother and brother. Williams followed in 1985. The Lower Sioux was the same as when they left - no jobs and no money. Lee, who became a longtime tribal council member, was part of the reservation's transformation through gambling revenue. Lee said the Lower Sioux didn't become rich. But she could finally afford to buy foods that her brother, who is autistic, never could get, like a glass of milk or a bowl of ice cream. "At least we got caught up to what a normal person would have in life, at least we have a comfortable life," she said. "Our children get a little more food." More band members are getting an education and taking advantage of scholarships funded by the Lower Sioux. Goodthunder ticks off the places where some band members are continuing school: Arizona, California, Minneapolis. On the reservation, the band's focus is beyond the casino to how they can make the Lower Sioux a family destination with possible attractions like a water park, Goodthunder said. Just down the hill in the nearby town of Morton, furniture store owner Kate Colwell said it's fantastic to see her former classmates now managing a multimillion dollar business. The children who came from Lower Sioux were always quiet, but she said they were talented artists and respected. One of the girls was the class homecoming queen, she said. Colwell acknowledged that the reservation "probably had a whole different view than I did." But she praised the casino, crediting it for bringing some visitors to her Amish store. "They came from such poverty," she said, "It's wonderful to see the reservation now." link below- www.aaanativearts.com/article645.html
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 19:10:45 GMT -5
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 21:08:00 GMT -5
The Woman The Peace-Maker One of the most remarkable women of her day and nation was Eyatonkawee, She-whose-Voice-is-heard-afar. It is matter of history among the Wakpaykootay band of Sioux, the Dwellers among the Leaves, that when Eyatonkawee was a very young woman she was once victorious in a hand-tohand combat with the enemy in the woods of Minnesota, where her people were hunting the deer. At such times they often met with stray parties of Sacs and Foxes from the prairies of Iowa and Illinois. Now, the custom was among our people that the doer of a notable warlike deed was held in highest honor, and these deeds were kept constantly in memory by being recited in public, before many witnesses. The greatest exploit was that one involving most personal courage and physical address, and he whose record was adjudged best might claim certain privileges, not the least of which was the right to interfere in any quarrel and separate the combatants. The peace-maker might resort to force, if need be, and no one dared to utter a protest who could not say that he had himself achieved an equal fame. There was a man called Tamahay, known to Minnesota history as the "One-eyed Sioux," who was a notable character on the frontier in the early part of the nineteenth century. He was very reckless, and could boast of many a perilous adventure. He was the only Sioux who, in the War of 1812, fought for the Americans, while all the rest of his people sided with the British, mainly through the influence of the English traders among them at that time. This same "One-eyed Sioux" became a warm friend of Lieutenant Pike, who discovered the sources of the Mississippi, and for whom Pike's Peak is named. Some say that the Indian took his friend's name, for Tamahay in English means Pike or Pickerel. Unfortunately, in later life this brave man became a drunkard, and after the Americans took possession of his country almost any one of them would supply him with liquor in recognition of his notable services as a scout and soldier. Thus he was at times no less dangerous in camp than in battle. Now, Eyatonkawee, being a young widow, had married the son of a lesser chief in Tamahay's band, and was living among strangers. Moreover, she was yet young and modest. One day this bashful matron heard loud warwhoops and the screams of women. Looking forth, she saw the people fleeing hither and thither, while Tamahay, half intoxicated, rushed from his teepee painted for war, armed with tomahawk and scalping-knife, and approached another warrior as if to slay him. At this sight her heart became strong, and she quickly sprang between them with her woman's knife in her hand. "It was a Sac warrior of like proportions and bravery with your own, who, having slain several of the Sioux, thus approached me with uplifted tomahawk!" she exclaimed in a clear voice, and went on to recite her victory on that famous day so that the terrified people paused to hear. Tamahay was greatly astonished, but he was not too drunk to realize that he must give way at once, or be subject to the humiliation of a blow from the woman-warrior who challenged him thus. The whole camp was listening; and being unable, in spite of his giant frame and well-known record, to cite a greater deed than hers, he retreated with as good a grace as possible. Thus Eyatonkawee recounted her brave deed for the first time, in order to save a man's life. From that day her name was great as a peace-maker – greater even than when she had first defended so gallantly her babe and home! Many years afterward, when she had attained middle age, this woman averted a serious danger from her people. Chief Little Crow the elder was dead, and as he had two wives of two different bands, the succession was disputed among the half-brothers and their adherents. Finally the two sons of the wife belonging to the Wabashaw band plotted against the son of the woman of the Kaposia band, His-Red-Nation by name, afterward called Little Crow – the man who led the Minnesota massacre. They obtained a quantity of whisky and made a great feast to which many were invited, intending when all were more or less intoxicated to precipitate a fight in which he should be killed. It would be easy afterward to excuse themselves by saying that it was an accident. Mendota, near what is now the thriving city of Saint Paul, then a queen of trading-posts in the Northwest, was the rendezvous of the Sioux. The event brought many together, for all warriors of note were bidden from far and near, and even the great traders of the day were present, for the succession to the chieftainship was one which vitally affected their interests. During the early part of the day all went well, with speeches and eulogies of the dead chief, flowing and eloquent, such as only a native orator can utter. Presently two goodly kegs of whisky were rolled into the council teepee. Eyatonkawee was among the women, and heard their expressions of anxiety as the voices of the men rose louder and more threatening. Some carried their children away into the woods for safety, while others sought speech with their husbands outside the council lodge and besought them to come away in time. But more than this was needed to cope with the emergency. Suddenly a familiar form appeared in the door of the council lodge. "Is it becoming in a warrior to spill the blood of his tribesmen? Are there no longer any Ojibways?" It was the voice of Eyatonkawee, that stronghearted woman! Advancing at the critical moment to the middle of the ring of warriors, she once more recited her "brave deed" with all the accompaniment of action and gesture, and to such effect that the disorderly feast broke up in confusion, and there was peace between the rival bands of Sioux. There was seldom a dangerous quarrel among the Indians in those days that was not precipitated by the use of strong liquor, and this simple Indian woman, whose good judgment was equal to her courage, fully recognized this fact. All her life, and especially after her favorite brother had been killed in a drunken brawl in the early days of the American Fur Company, she was a determined enemy to strong drink, and it is said did more to prevent its use among her immediate band than any other person. Being a woman, her sole means of recognition was the "brave deed" which she so wonderfully described and enacted before the people. During the lifetime of She-whose-Voice-isheard-afar – and she died only a few years ago – it behooved the Sioux men, if they drank at all, to drink secretly and in moderation. There are many who remember her brave entrance upon the scene of carousal, and her dramatic recital of the immortal deed of her youth. "Hanta! hanta wo! (Out of the way!)" exclaim the dismayed warriors, scrambling in every direction to avoid the upraised arm of the terrible old woman, who bursts suddenly upon them with disheveled hair, her gown torn and streaked here and there with what looks like fresh blood, her leather leggins loose and ungartered, as if newly come from the famous struggle. One of the men has a keg of whisky for which he has given a pony, and the others have been invited in for a night of pleasure. But scarcely has the first round been drunk to the toast of "great deeds," when Eyatonkawee is upon them, her great knife held high in her wrinkled left hand, her tomahawk in the right. Her black eyes gleam as she declaims in a voice strong, unterrified: "Look! look! brothers and husbands – the Sacs and Foxes are upon us! Behold, our braves are surprised – they are unprepared! Hear the mothers, the wives and the children screaming in affright! "Your brave sister, Eyatonkawee, she, the newly made mother, is serving the smoking venison to her husband, just returned from the chase! Ah, he plunges into the thickest of the enemy! He falls, he falls, in full view of his young wife! "She desperately presses her babe to her breast, while on they come yelling and triumphant! The foremost of them all enters her white buffalo-skin teepee: Tossing her babe at the warrior's feet, she stands before him, defiant; But he straightway levels his spear at her bosom. Quickly she springs aside, and as quickly deals a deadly blow with her ax: Falls at her feet the mighty warrior! "Closely following on comes another, unknowing what fate has met his fellow! He too enters her teepee, and upon his feather-decked head her ax falls – Only his death-groan replies! "Another of heroic size and great prowess, as witnessed by his war-bonnet of eagle-feathers, Rushes on, yelling and whooping – for they believe that victory is with them! The third great warrior who has dared to enter Eyatonkawee's teepee uninvited, he has already dispatched her husband! He it is whose terrible war-cry has scattered her sisters among the trees of the forest! "On he comes with confidence and a brave heart, seeking one more bloody deed – One more feather to win for his head! Behold, he lifts above her woman's head his battle-ax! No hope, no chance for her life! . . . Ah! he strikes beyond her – only the handle of the ax falls heavily upon her tired shoulder! Her ready knife finds his wicked heart, – Down he falls at her feet! "Now the din of war grows fainter and further. The Sioux recover heart, and drive the enemy headlong from their lodges: Your sister stands victorious over three! "She takes her baby boy, and makes him count with his tiny hands the first 'coup' on each dead hero; Hence he wears the 'first feathers' while yet in his oaken cradle. "The bravest of the whole Sioux nation have given the war-whoop in your sister's honor, and have said: 'Tis Eyatonkawee who is not satisfied with downing the mighty oaks with her ax – She took the mighty Sacs and Foxes for trees, and she felled them with a will!'" In such fashion the old woman was wont to chant her story, and not a warrior there could tell one to surpass it! The custom was strong, and there was not one to prevent her when she struck open with a single blow of her ax the keg of whisky, and the precious liquor trickled upon the ground. "So trickles under the ax of Eyatonkawee the blood of an enemy to the Sioux!" link below- www.scienceviews.com/indian/indiandays14.html
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Post by mdenney on Jan 26, 2007 21:08:43 GMT -5
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Post by mdenney on Jan 27, 2007 20:09:02 GMT -5
Project Canterbury
The Life and Labors of Bishop Hare Apostle to the Sioux
By M.A. DeWolfe Howe
New York: Sturgis and Walton, 1911.
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Chapter VI. The Hard Road to Civilization, 1878-1883
THE year 1878 marked no line of division between primitive and more civilized conditions, no turning point from the hardships of early days in Niobrara and the handicaps of body and spirit to a more comfortably ordered life. It was only a milestone on the way towards better things, though a milestone marking a memorable ordeal. By 1878 the religious and social work for the Indians was merely well begun. The great influx of white settlers, which within the next decade was to introduce a new order in South Dakota and to call for many readjustments, was still in its early stages.
The reader of the preceding chapters will therefore be quick to understand that in continuing the narrative of Bishop Hare's many and widely varied activities it would be impossible, in any reasonable space, to follow his work year by year, school by school, mission by mission. The best one can do is to present specimen instances of the way in which he dealt with a multiplicity of problems, and, avoiding an avalanche of details, to gain, if possible, some impression of the spirit underlying all his work and of the general results it accomplished.
Of many a problem with which he was confronted, it might truly have been said, solvitur ambulando. Indeed, the very solution often lay in moving from place to place. When we read, for example, in his Annual Report for 1880, that his spring and summer visitations involved him in two thousand miles of traveling in his own wagon, besides not a little stage-coaching, we can realize into what obscure and remote corners he was carrying his message. In these pilgrimages across the unbroken prairies, where for days together he could travel without seeing a single person or habitation, there were inevitably the best of opportunities for searching thought about the nature of his work, and its fullest accomplishment.
"The Bishop's traveling equipage," wrote one of his mission workers, Miss Elaine Goodale (now Mrs. Charles A. Eastman) in The Independent immediately after accompanying him on a journey in 1885, "is famous for the perfection of its simplicity. Absolute neatness, immutable order, entire absence of the superfluous and complete success in essentials--these are its characteristics. Certainly the Bishop has mastered in all its details the art of traveling on the plains!" A two-horse wagon, a small tent, the simplest cooking utensils were the chief necessities. "The labor of 'making camp,'" to revert to Miss Goodale's description, "is very quickly and skillfully performed, under the Bishop's military direction." There were times when the weariness from a long day's drive was such that Bishop Hare must first of all spread a horse-blanket on the ground and rest his aching back. These were probably the times when he was not accompanied by guests, as in the journey described by Miss Goodale. More frequently his sole companions were his driver and perhaps an interpreter. In a letter to his sister, dated "In Camp, Chaine La Roche, June 13" (1881), there is a typical glimpse at the conditions under which his traveling was done:
"I am sitting under my wagon at noon, having this morning left the Upper Church of the Crow Creek Mission on my way to the Mission and Boarding School on the Cheyenne River Reserve. I left Yankton Agency last Tuesday and, but for mosquitoes, which have made sleep almost impossible, have had a pretty comfortable trip.
"My company consists of only my driver and my interpreter, the former a white man whom I picked up last Fall and the latter a half-breed. I am struck, as often before, with the superiority of the latter in everything which makes one a tolerable companion. The language and demeanor of the common white man are low enough. The Indian half-breeds who have been brought up in connection with the Mission have learned better manners and habits and are altogether more agreeable. After all, anyone, whether white man or Indian, needs to be pretty unexceptionable not to be an annoyance when you have to eat with him, etc., and have him all day long as a constant companion. I find it hard to take the trial sweetly!"
Six days later he wrote from Cheyenne Reserve, also to his sister: "I have been on a trip now for ten days or more, a fairly comfortable one, though a heavy storm of wind and rain blew my tent down over my head last Tuesday night and gave me hours of work and much wretchedness, and my horse balked in the middle of the Cheyenne River on Friday last as I was fording it, broke the single-tree loose and left me in the middle of the rapidly running stream with the water running into my wagon-box. But such ills are the concomitants of travel out here, and I am used to them."
One of the older South Dakota clergy, the Rev. John Robinson, has recalled in a recent letter some of these "concomitants": "I saw him in the rough and tumble of it, much the same as ourselves as we camped together; shutting himself up tight in his one pole cone-shaped tent known as a 'Sibley tent' in the hot summer nights to escape the torture of the mosquitoes; enjoying a bath in the clear stream. Yes, we all knew that if mice nibbled at our hair in the night, or that if we were liable to be roused from our slumber to see rats playing tag over our drowsy forms, our Bishop was liable to the same treatment."
Further details of discomfort are provided by a frequent fellow-traveler with Bishop Hare: "It must be remembered that almost every night during the summer the mosquitoes wherever we camped were incredibly thick, causing quite as much annoyance in one's nose, mouth and ears as by biting, and sometimes so thick in the air that you could grasp them by rolling the fingers down in the palm of the hand and having a roll of dead mosquitoes in each palm. In other words, they were almost as thick as the grass on the ground. On one or two occasions, when we inadvertently camped where Indians had preceded us, our blankets became infested with fleas, and we had to stay up all night in a wagon in our coats, nearly freezing to death. The water holes in the various dry creeks which we had to make, sometimes by forced marches, were covered with an iridescent scum which had to be pushed aside before the water was dipped up. Of course, none of it could be drunk, but had to be boiled and taken in the form of boiled coffee, and the cup of coffee was nearly always iridescent on its surface."
But enough of these petty annoyances, of which it is only to be said that the sufficient accumulation of mole-hills in the pathway of any one person may be far worse than one or two honest mountains to be climbed. The conditions themselves, the general forlornness of life, whether in camp or within four walls, are realized more through the reports of others than from the incidental references which Bishop Hare made to them. From him we gain, instead, an impression of satisfaction and triumph in the progress of an absorbing cause on behalf of which "the day's work" necessarily involved the coping with many minor obstacles. We may well turn, therefore, to some of his own renderings of adventures by the way and of the solution of problems in the very act of moving about his jurisdiction. An old saying which appealed to him so strongly that he took it for a guide in daily conduct--"In woe, hold out; in joy, hold in"---will be found to receive frequent and forcible illustrations.
Writing, on June 10, 1878, from Yankton Agency to his sister Mary, he describes a typical experience:
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Post by mdenney on Jan 27, 2007 20:09:39 GMT -5
"I had a very hard drive down, but, in spite of all hindrances and trials, reached my destination well, though exhausted. One night I had to drive till midnight. The horses were high-spirited animals, and it was all that the driver could do to hold them. We plunged along; once I was thrown out as the wagon half keeled over, but we reached the creek where we were to camp just at midnight without mishap. A heavy storm was gathering behind us and hurried us on, and it was with intense relief that I found that we had at last reached a pitch in the road which I recognized as the descent to the stream. A vacant and half-roofless log cabin was to be our refuge for the night; but, fortunately, we found a tent pitched by the road. My driver, a rough, good-hearted young soldier, called out, 'Who's there? Got any room in there? I am carrying a Bishop down the country; the old gentleman can't stand roughing it as well as I do. [Bishop Hare was then forty years old.] Can you take him in?' His care for me was very touching. I waited for a reply with mingled feelings. Behind me was the growling storm, before me the prospect of crawling into a small tent and sharing the blanket of some man of whose antecedents, habits, etc., I knew nothing. A good-natured voice answered, 'Yes, come in, as many as want to,' and in I crept, thankfulness in my heart for a cover, struggling with nausea in my stomach at the thought of my bed-fellow (or blanket-fellow, rather). Well, it is all over now. I wish I could tell you all the funny and the trying adventures which came to me, but I haven't time."
In the December, 1878, number of Anpao, where many of Bishop Hare's communications to the Church through The Spirit of Missions and otherwise were reprinted, there is a letter describing a visit to the Santee Indians, who were attempting to live as white men at Flandreau. His earlier effort to visit them, and his finding refuge from a snowstorm in a cabin crowded with a surprise-party, will be recalled as an episode of the first years in Niobrara. This letter of 1878, after describing the excellent progress made by the Indians at Flandreau, proceeds with a statement of what Bishop Hare calls "The Other Side":
"I fear the people at the East are weary with the whole Indian question, so incessantly are discouraging pictures of its condition held up to their gaze. It must be remembered that it is only the sensational side of the story, i. e., the lawless or criminal, which purveyors for the public prints find it profitable to herald. An Indian scare is always thrilling; dissensions in Spotted Tail's camp merit a flaming heading in a sensational newspaper. But how many care to note that in the midst of all this dissension and disorder a clergyman, a sister, and two day-school teachers have been devotedly working; that school has been carried on morning, afternoon and evening with an average attendance of over sixty; that solace has been carried to the sick and disconsolate; that congregations of from 100 to 150 people have regularly assembled for the worship of Almighty God; that deep religious interest has attended many of these services, and improvement in life followed them; that twenty or thirty have been confirmed, and that the little flock, though jeered by bad men of the tribe and threatened with violence by the wilder ones, kept up daily prayers on the prairie amidst all the hindrances which inevitably attended their emigration across a wild country from their old to their new home? Slip after slip cut from secular newspapers has come into my hands in which the real or imaginary shortcomings of missionaries have been served up by anonymous writers with ill-disguised relish. I have yet to receive one which narrates that a Christian lady, dedicated to the service of the Saviour, has given up the comforts and purity of her own home to minister to the sick and wretched amid scenes of wickedness like that at Sodom; that she has endured a journey of eight days and seven nights, through a wilderness in which during the whole trip not a human habitation was met with; that she has followed the people whose salvation she seeks in their migration across the wilderness, and now shares their tent life!
"Let it be remembered an unusual dearth of other news the past summer, which the pestilence at the South has only recently relieved, has led the public press to give the slightest ripple of evil upon the surface of Indian affairs a strained importance. Half the difficulty of the Indian question lies in the fact that everything about it wears the aspect of the extraordinary and grandiloquent. One familiar with the real state of affairs wearies for the time when a squabble over a horse-race shall cease to be chronicled as 'an insurrection,' preparations for a feast heralded as the 'eve of an Indian outbreak,' and a set of horse-thieves termed 'a war party.' There is a deal of truth in the remark attributed to a Piute Indian: 'When three or four bad white men stop and rob one stage, maybe kill somebody, you send one sheriff catch three, four bad men; same way when some bad white men steal some cattle, or some horses, you send one sheriff; but when three, four bad Injun stop one stage, kill somebody, steal some horse or cow, you try catch three, four bad Injun? No; all white men say, "Injun broke out, Injun on warpath," and then come soldier for to kill everybody.' "
The church building in process of erection at Flandreau when Bishop Hare made the visitation to which the unquoted portion of the foregoing letter refers, was finished early in 1879. A letter from Flandreau, April 21,1879, "to our Brethren of the Church," relates some of the circumstances attending the service of consecration:
"Sunday, April 20, was the day appointed for the consecration of the church. A roaring gale prevailed, but the consecration services were participated in by a large congregation, who gave undivided attention until I had advanced about ten minutes in my sermon, when the frightened glances of two or three of the men who were sitting near the windows which look out toward the town (about an eighth of a mile distant) turned my attention in that direction. I saw in an instant that a fire was raging there, an alarming event always in this windy region when the country has been long without rain.
"The prairie fire is the terror of the farmer, for it sweeps the labors of months out of existence in a few moments, and he is fortunate if his wife and children escape the catastrophe which falls upon his property. The story is in every one's mouth just now of a husband and wife, who, as they frantically endeavored to save some of their stock from one of these prairie fires were, for a few moments, separated from one another by a cloud of smoke, and when the smoke lifted, the husband found that the flames had swept over his wife and left her writhing in mortal agony; 'Every stitch of clothing burned off, her body burned from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet and her flesh dropping in shreds from her bones.'
"The sight which met my eye as I looked from the windows of the church excited my alarm, of course, and I immediately told the men that I thought we could best honor God by going at once to the assistance of the people of the imperiled town, doffed my robes, as did Rev. Mr. Young his surplice, and ran with him and the rest of the people towards the flames. A spark from a chimney had lighted upon the dry grass on the western side of the town, the flames had leaped then to the hay piled back of, and over, a rude frontier stable and was bounding on and threatening the whole west end of the village. We all worked as for dear life, some trying to whip out the fire with old coats, shawls, brooms, and indeed with whatever in the excitement we could lay our hands on, while others helped to empty the houses which were most threatened. The driving gale carried the sparks before it, and we whipped away in one place only to find that the grass had been ignited, here and there, ten or twenty feet beyond us and that the devouring element was gliding on from those points with alarming rapidity. A drought of many months' duration had left everything as dry and almost as combustible as tinder and it was soon evident that everything ahead of the wind in the line of its movement was doomed. Notwithstanding all our efforts, first a house, then the piles of lumber in a board yard, and then another house were consumed and the fire shot on in the direction of our new church and the houses of some of our best and hardest-working Indians. The smoke and cinders were blinding and smothering; but whites and Indians, men and women, all worked as best we could and at last had the satisfaction of seeing the fire sweep by along a line which came no nearer our holy and beautiful house than fifteen feet. One of the Indians whose houses were in the track of the fire was not so fortunate. He and his people had been so busy helping to protect the property of others, that they had not noticed in time the peril of their own, and when they rushed at last to its rescue and carried their household goods from their dwelling, the fire by a curious freak consumed the goods and left the house untouched. Providentially no lives were lost.
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