Posts Tagged ‘Joseph Henry Sharp’
In June 1876, a young warrior named White Swan was one of six Crow scouts assigned to the 7th Cavalry. The outnumbered Crow had aligned themselves with the U.S. government against their traditional enemies, the Sioux and Cheyenne, in exchange for a promise from General George Armstrong Custer of a return to their old way of life, and a return of land stolen from the Crow by other tribes.
History would have been altered had Gen. Custer followed the advise of the Crow scouts who urged him not to lead his forces into the valley of the Little Big Horn. In the ensuing battle, White Swan was severely injured, and after a long recovery, returned to Crow Agency seriously disabled.
In 1894 White Swan, crippled and unable to hear or speak, created a series of drawings on pages from an accounting ledger book to explain his role in the famous battle to his friend, the pastor at the Congregational Church.
— Billy Markland
The photo below is White Swan around 1899 taken at the Crow Agency, Montana, by Arthur M. Tinker, an inspector for the Indian Office and amateur photographer.
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum®
Another photo of White Swan holding his war club:
TMI number 00466, Photograph by F. A. Rinehart, 1898, © Omaha Public Library, 1998
TMI number 00467, Photograph by F. A. Rinehart, 1898, © Omaha Public Library, 1998
Painted at Crow Agency, 1897 by Elbridge Ayer Burbank
Joseph Henry Sharp (1859 - 1953) oil on canvas
Sharp moved to the West, establishing homes in Montana and New Mexico, in order to live among the subjects he wanted to portray. Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Whitney Purchase Fund (18.61)
— Grahame Wood
White Swan was at the battlefield with some of the survivors of the LBH battle on June 25th 1886:
http://sirismm.si.edu/naa/4605/01605403.jpg
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
By De Lancy Gill, 1913
Charles Milton Bell
By Charles Milton Bell (Two Moons, second from left, American Horse, third from left)
By Richard Trossel, 1907
By Richard Trossel, 1907
Two Moons addressing council, by Joseph K. Dixon
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
Early L.A. Huffman Photo
Two Moons by Burbank, 1896
— Grahame Wood
Shown here are some of the Cheyenne chiefs present at the Little Bighorn battle, from left to right:
Sits in the Night; Red Cherries; Brave Wolf; Two Moons; American Horse; Buffalo Hump; Spotted Wolf; Old Wolf.
According to Frink/Barthelmess in “Photographer on an Army Mule” the photo was made at a council with General Nelson A. Miles at Lame Deer in 1889.
Two Moons was the spokesman of the Cheyenne at this council. I guess that Buffalo Hump is Bull Hump, son of Dull Knife. Spotted Wolf (or Young Spotted Wolf) and Old Wolf were both members of the 1873 delegation to Washington.
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
This was taken at Little Bighorn in 1909.
— Grahame Wood
Two Moons’ grave in Busby, Montana:
— Diane Merkel
The Indian holding the star-spangled banner on the right of Two Moons (on his left) looks like Laban Little Wolf.
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
Two Moons at Little Bighorn
A different view of the 1909 shot:
Taken by Joseph Kossuth Dixon, 1909
— Grahame Wood
Wanamaker photo:
Two Moons and Major McLaughlin dated circa 1900:
— Henri/”apsalooka”
By Dixon
This photo is also in Powell’s “People of the Sacred Mountain”. It was made in 1908 at a great gathering in the valley of the Little Bighorn. Two Moons and other Cheyennes along with representatives of other tribes assembled some thirty years after the battle. Wooden Leg also described the gathering in Marquis’ book about him.
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
— Henri/”apsalooka”
By Edgar S. Paxson from 1902
— Agnes
Two Moons (left, facing the camera) and other Cheyennes at the Little Bighorn monument.
Two Moons by Joseph Henry Sharp. Painted at Lame Deer, Montana
— Grahame Wood