[The Sitting Bull Surrender Ledger]
was created in Aug.-Sept. 1881 just as the recently
returned "hostiles" from Canada were being
turned over by the military to the Indian Office officials
at Standing Rock. This census is absolutely amazing.
Not only does it list every person by name (both English
and Lakota), their age and relationships within the
family, the census taker also asked questions such
as "how long have you been at the agency"
and "how many deer and buffalo have you killed"
during the past year. A total of 1081 families, or
4293 people. Great stuff! The only thing I wish they
had done better was to have listed everyone by the
band they belonged to; in this census many bands are
lumped together. Fortunately, Agent McLaughlin did
a much better job three months later in Dec. 1881
in his annual annuity list to list everyone under
a specific chief. During this period, annuity goods
were given to the headman who then distributed to
his followers, one way in which their leadership position
was strengthened.
In
the Sitting Bull Census, the agency bands are listed
seperate from those who had just arrived from Canada
with Sitting Bull. I would suspect that most, if not
all, of those surrendering with Sitting Bull were
at the LBH. In this census, the northern bands are
listed as:
Hunkpapa:
Sitting Bull and Four Horns, 41 families, 195 people
Crow King, 63 families, 285 people
Gall, 52 families, 229 people
Rain in the Face, 39 families, 179 people
Blackfeet:
Crawler, 23 families, 179 people
Minneconjou/Sans
Arc:
Fool Heart, 26 families, 112 people
Circle Bear, 85 families, 351 people
Hump, 142 families, 714 people
Oglala:
Big Road, 13 families, 47 people
Low Dog, 82 families, 386 people
Brule:
Bull Dog, 41 families, 206 people
This
includes everyone who were transferred to Standing
Rock from either Fort Buford or Fort Keogh -- except
for one band, that of Spotted Eagle (36 families/139
people) who was transferred to the Cheyenne River
Agency just before the census was taken. I found an
issue record from Cheyenne River from the time of
the transfer, so have now been able to assign names
of the heads of families for this band, though not
their wives and children. (We do not get that for
Cheyenne River until 1886.)
Take
a look at your copy of the July 1885 annuity list;
notice that the Hunkpapa are divided into bands, under
which each family is listed. The first section are
all the agency bands, starting with Thunder Hawk,
Broken Bear Rib, through Running Antelope. Then, the
bands starting with High Bear forward through Bear
Looking Back are all "northern" bands. Most
of those were transferred to Standing Rock in 1881
with Sitting Bull. A few such as No Neck's band were
those who left Canada later -- I think No Neck came
in 1884. There were some transfers between bands during
these years, but I would suspect that most of the
people listed in these northern bands were at the
LBH.
—
Ephriam Dickson
