Post by sara on Jan 22, 2013 8:00:52 GMT -5
Printed in Sota newspaper Sisseton Wahpeton Tribe July 2012
Written and researched by Sara Childers schilders2006@hotmail.com
While visiting a dear friend in Sweden last fall, he told me he would like to show me the Native American collection at the Ethnographic Museum in Stockholm. On the drive there we had discussed the likely hood of seeing cultural items marked "Sioux" for the simple fact that Minnesota was populated by Swedish immigrants starting in the 1840's. A large portion of the Dakota "Sioux" were living in Minnesota at the time the Swedes came to the area.. I was very surprised though to see original drawings of Dakota people done at the Falls of St Anthony on the Mississippi River in 1850 by a woman artist. I was seeing their actual names in Dakota! I often see Institutions/Facilities categorize anything from the Midwest as Sioux or Siouxan. To me that is a very broad category. Today there are seven distinct tribes that are categorized under "Sioux". Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Sisseton, Wahpeton, Yanktonai, Yankton and the Teton. There had been many more but those bands merged or where entirely wiped out by other tribes and then by diseases brought from other countries. The Dakota that sat for their portraits with Swedish writer Fredrika Bremer where from the Mdewakanton band of Dakota at that time.I say at that time because they may have been descended from the bands that merged do to tribal warfare and disease. In these drawings the artist Fredrika Bremer wrote their names, the date and the location. Which is a huge help in putting it in context with Dakota history. Leave it to a woman to get it right. Even though the names are written on the drawing, when the Fredrika Bremer Association put the drawings online, they wrote the Dakota names in Swedish translation. Not so easy cataloging for the Dakota or any other non speaking Swedish person to find. I'm not knocking them for that just pointing out how things get cataloged or referenced, which makes them get lost so to speak.
As a researcher in Dakota history I sometimes can match a Dakota person up with an item in a facilities collection. That's pretty exciting. Especially when you know the Dakota descendants themselves. I get overwhelmed with emotion and then I get sad. Sad because I know these things have not been seen by the Dakota themselves. I know how long some have been searching to find a little clue of who some of there ancestors where, just hoping to find their names on a Census or Annuity payment list or listed as a prisoner or see their ancestors name on a treaty. But to have actual objects that once belonged or were made by their ancestor, well that is over whelming for them. They never thought they would see those things. The Dakota and many North American tribes often have no easy way of seeing these items that once belonged to their Ancestors.
That is why I think it is long over do that Institutions/Facilities in possession of "Sioux" cultural items start consulting with members of the Sioux Tribes and collaborate on bringing these items to light and doing the proper research or for starters proper cataloging.
There is some progress being made at certain Museums, History Society's, Universities and Institutions around the globe who own or are in the possession of Native American Cultural items. 3D digitization of museum collections are being done in order to create a permanent digital record of rare artifacts and specimens. Also to create precise, three-dimensional, true-colour 3D models and 3D prints that are identical replicas of the scanned, often rare, objects.
They are starting to put the collections online. Included in that are digital images of their original accession records. That part always excites me. I often find my "Aha"!, moments in these records.
Native American names are often spelled phonetically a long time ago. So you really have to know your Dakota names. It also helps to know where certain Bands were at different times, or who was visiting the Dakota at certain times, what treaties were being signed at that time, which Archaeologists were digging in that region, etc etc.. If you have that knowledge of who all the players where at any specific time in the last 400 years, you can make those connections to items in certain collections. Every explorer, military official, priest, writer, scientist, European tourist, American toursit etc etc, wanted to take a piece of Native Culture home with them. Some took more then others. Some traded or bought them out right. Yet others, tricked or robbed or violently took items from the Natives. However it was done, it basically took almost all of the oldest cultural items. By the time reservations were established all the belongings they had were Annuity or European and American trade goods. I'm not sure the visitors knew this would happen. I'm not sure the natives them selves knew what was slowly happening. When the trade of Indian goods became scarce the visitors started digging up relics.
But, back to that memorable day for me in Stockholm.
So when I was half way through the "Plains" exhibit, thats when I saw them, those three beautiful Dakota drawings. And they were labeled with their Dakota names!
Chief Maza Hota- Grey Iron.
Mahpiya Ingan- Checkered Cloud
Sunka Ska- White Dog.
I was speechless. I looked at my friend with my mouth wide open, pointing at the glass, then looking back at the drawings, then looking at my friend again. I said, "Holay! I know them, and I think these are the only images of them I have ever seen".
I proceeded to tell my friend, "This one is White Dog, he was hung in Mankato in 1862, and look, a picture of his wife! She's beautiful, and look they all have their faces painted, even Checkered Cloud." I had so much to tell him about them, and I was thinking at the same time the Museum probably does not know who they have under glass here.
I think I just kind of floated to the next few exhibits. My mind was racing. I couldn't wait to get back to the flat and start doing some in depth research on these three Dakota and the artist Fredrika Bremer. I had my flash drive with me of allot of my Dakota records. I couldn't find any images of Grey Iron or Checkered Cloud on it. I knew all ready there where no published image of Sunka Ska. There is one that is used in some history books but it was done many years after Sunka Ska/White Dog was hung by someone.who just imagined what he may have looked like.
When I was able to go online I found many websites with Ferdrika Bremers life story, and what a life she had.
When Fredrika Bremer arrived in New York in 1849 she was nearly fifty years old. She was short of stature, unpretentious in her external appearance, dressed in black, and wearing a laced bonnet over her hair. She traveled alone. The world -and she herself -did not consider her a beauty. Many found her "dreadfully plain" in her appearance according to Catharine Sedgwick, who at that time was the most widely read American woman writer, and one of those who met the Swedish writer in New York.
Fredrika Bremer did not make the journey to America in order to be looked at or to answer questions from interviewers. She had a certain purpose, and the destination of her travels was not chosen by chance. She wanted to look into the future of mankind. She wanted to scrutinize the American utopia.
During her two years in America she was constantly on the move. She traveled to the north to visit the Indians, to talk to them or make sketches of them, for she always carried her sketchbook with her. She traveled south along the Mississippi to meet slaveowner families. She wanted to know how they lived, how they were treated, and to hear their stories about their own lives.
She was passionately interested in America's many "societies". She visited Quakers and Shakers. She looked up settlers and descendants of Swedes. She listened to sermons in all kinds of churches. She wanted to find out how the prisons were organized, and she talked with the prisoners. She wanted to know about the opportunities for education and work for women.
She walked into that notorious district Five Points in New York to look at the slums: prostitutes, deviates and homeless people. She visited American literary colleagues -Lowell, Emerson, Hawthorne, Washington Irving -in their homes, sketched them, read their books in depth, and argued with them. She especially observed American homes: their everyday life, expectations, women's roles, and social life.
She extended her travels to Cuba where she stayed a few months during the spring of 1850. All the time she sketched. And she constantly recorded -spontaneously and vividly -impressions and reflections of what she saw. It was done in long letters home, mostly to her younger sister Agathe.
Dear Agathe! When after her return to Sweden she edited her travel impressions, she kept the letter form. The Homes of the New World. Impressions of America, in several volumes, was published on both sides of the Atlantic during the first years of the 1850s.
This and more on Fredrikas life can be found at the following web link.
www.fredrikabremer.net/aboutbremer.html
After reading a little of her Bio on the web link provided here, I was able to search online for her book "The Homes Of The New World, Impressions Of America. In this work she described her visit to the Dakota in 1850. digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin....tory.BremrHemme
October 1850 Falls Of St. Anthony
I saw in one wigwam a young woman, who, as she sat with her rich, unbound hair falling over her shoulders, seemed to me so unusually handsome that I wished to make a sketch of her. I also wished to take the portraits of a couple of Indians, and requested Governor Ramsay to prefer my request. He therefore, by means of the interpreter, Mr. Prescott, stated to an old chief named Mozah-hotah (Gray Iron) that I
wished to take the likenesses of all great men in this country, to show to the people on the other side of the great water, and therefore that I requested him to sit to me a short time for that purpose.
The old chief, who is said to be a good and respectable man, looked very grave, listened to the proposal attentively, and gave a sort of grunting assent. He then accompanied us to the house of the interpreter, from the doors and windows of which peeped forth many little faces with their Indian features and complexion, for Mr. Prescott has an Indian wife, and many children by her.
I was soon seated in the house with the old chief before me, who expressed some annoyance because he was not in grand attire, having merely a couple of eagle's feathers [p. 39] in his hair, and not being so splendidly painted as he ought to have been. He wore under his white woolen blanket a blue European surtout, which he appeared anxious to have also included in the portrait. He evidently considered this as something out of the common way. He seemed a little uneasy to sit, and not at all comfortable when the interpreter was out of the room. The Indians universally believe that a likeness on paper takes away from the life of the person represented, and on that account many Indians will not allow their portraits to be taken.
The young Indian woman followed the old chief; she came attired in her wedding-dress of embroidered scarlet woolen stuff, and with actual cascades of silver rings, linked one within another, and hanging in clusters from her ears, round which the whole cluster was fastened; down to her shoulders, her neck and breast were covered with masses of coral, pearls, and other ornaments. The head was bare and devoid of ornament. She was so brilliant and of such unusual beauty that she literally seemed to light up the whole room as she entered. Her shoulders were broad and round, and her carriage drooping, as is usual with Indian women, who are early accustomed to carry burdens on their back; but the beauty of the countenance was so extraordinary that I can not but think that if such a face were to be seen in one of the drawing-rooms of the fashionable world, it would there be regarded as the type of a beauty hitherto unknown. It was the wild beauty of the forest, at the same time melancholy and splendid. The bashful gloom in those large, magnificent eyes, shaded by unusually long, dark eyelashes, can not be described, nor yet the glance, nor the splendid light of the smile which at times lit up the countenance like a flash, showing the loveliest white teeth. She was remarkably light-complexioned for an Indian; the round of the chin was somewhat prominent, which gave rather too [p. 40] much breadth to her face, but her profile was perfect. She was quite young, and had been married two years to a brave young warrior, who, I was told, was so fond of her that he would not take another wife, and that he would not allow her to carry heavy burdens, but always got a horse for her when she went to the town. She is called Mochpedaga-Wen, or Feather-cloud-woman. A young Indian girl who came with her was more painted, but not so handsome, and had those heavy features and that heavy expression which characterize the Indian women, at least those of this tribe.
I made a sketch of Mochpedaga-Wen in her bridal attire. She was bashful, with downcast eyes. It was with a pleasure mingled with emotion that I penetrated into the mysteries of this countenance. A whole nocturnal world lay in those eyes, the dark fringes of which cast a shadow upon the cheek. Those eyes glanced downward into a depth, dreamy, calm, without gloom, but at the same time without joy and without a future. The sunlight of the smile was like a sunbeam of a cloudy day. The Feather-cloud had no light within itself. It was lit up from without, and was splendidly tinted only for a moment.
After this gentle and beautiful, but melancholy image, I must introduce to you the brave young warrior, and the great Sprude-bosse, or Dandy--"Skonka Shaw," or "White Dog," the husband of the "Feather-cloud," who entered duly painted and in great pomp of attire, with a huge tuft of feathers helmet-wise falling backward from the head, and with three dark eagles' feathers, with tufts of scarlet wool, stuck aloft in his hair, and with the marks of five green fingers on his cheeks, to indicate that he was a brave warrior and had killed many enemies. He was tall and flexible of form, and he entered with a gay, animated aspect, amid a torrent of words, equally fluent with what I had heard in the House of Representatives at Washington, [p. 41] and of which I understood--about as much. His countenance had the same characteristics that I had already observed among the Indians, the hawk nose, broad at the base, clear, acute, but cold eyes, which opened square, with a wild-beast-like glance; the mouth unpleasing, and for the rest, the features regular and keen. I made a sketch also of him; his countenance was much painted with red, and yellow, and green; there was nothing shy about it, and it looked very warlike. But that which won for him favor in my eyes was that he was a good husband and loved his beautiful Feather-cloud.
Mrs. Ramsay, in the mean time, had gone out with her, and put on her costume. And as she was very pretty--of the pure Quaker style of beauty--she appeared really splendidly handsome in that showy costume, and the Feather-cloud seemed to have great pleasure in seeing her in it. But the handsome young white lady had not, after all, the wonderful, mystic beauty of Feather-cloud. There was between them the difference of the primeval forest and the drawing-room.
I observed in the conversations of these Indians many of those sounds and intonations which struck me as peculiar among the American people; in particular, there were those nasal tones, and that piping, singing, or lamenting sound which has often annoyed me in the ladies. Probably these sounds may have been acquired by the earliest colonists during their intercourse with the Indians, and thus have been continued.
While I am with the Indians I must tell you of a custom among them which appears to me singular; it refers to their peculiar names and their mode of acquiring them. When the Indians, either man or woman, arrive at maturity, they go out into some solitary place, and remain there fasting for several days. They believe that the Spirit which has especial guardianship over them will then reveal itself; and that which during these days [p. 42] strongly attracts their sight or affects their imagination, is regarded as the image or token by means of which their guardian angel reveals itself to them, and they adopt a name derived from that object or token. When they have obtained the wished-for revelation, they return to their family, but under a kind of higher guidance, and with a greater right of self-government.
From a list of Indian names I select the following:
Horn-point; Round-wind; Stand-and-look-out; The Cloud-that-goes-aside; Iron-toe; Seek -the-sun; Iron-flash; Red-bottle; White-spindle; Black-dog; Two-feathers-of-honor; Gray-grass; Bushy-tail; Thunder-face; Go-on-the-burning-sod; Spirits-of-the-dead.
And among the female names, these:
Keep-the-fire; Spiritual-woman; Second-daughter-of-the-house; Blue-bird, and so on.
Feather-cloud must have looked especially toward heaven to find her guardian angel. May it conduct her lightly along her earthly pilgrimage, and preserve her from the fate of Winnona and Ampota Sapa! But--those deep eyes, full of the spirit of night, seem to me prophetic of the death-song.
digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin....tory.BremrHemme The entire book can be read online at this web link.
422W10ell maybe Fredrika did see the death song in her eyes but not for herself, but maybe for her entire Nation. The entire future of her Dakota Oyate. For it was only twelve years later that hundreds of Dakota acknowledged they would be pushed further west to reservations and starve or dye fighting. In August of 1862 as the United States Army was desperate for more soldiers to fight in the Civil War, hundreds of Minnesota settlers joined the Army, which left Minnesota deprived of some military protection. The Dakota Annuity payment was overdue, and they were running out of food. When four young Dakota went to hunt for some birds they came to a settlers home that they knew and began a bet with one about how good of a shot they each where. When the young settler lost the bet harsh words where said. (This is from Dakota oral history taken in Canada) The settlers were killed and it was the start of what is called "The Sioux Uprising" or "The Dakota War". All of the Dakota that could be caught would be imprisoned. President Abraham Lincoln sentenced a total of thirty eight men to be hung. They included Dakota, Winneabago and one French/Dakota. Included in those thirty eight would be Checkered Cloud's husband Sunka Ska/White Dog. They were hung on December 26th 1862 in Mankato Minnesota. Of almost 2000 Dakota prisoners 500 would die before the surviving prisoners would be released in April of 1866. The Dakota that fled Minnesota in August and September of 1862 where hunted down, they were first hung where they found them, but Military orders finally came putting a stop to the hanging on the spot method. This was happening from Yellow Medicine all the way up to Standing Buffalo and Sweetcorn's Villages above Big Stone Lake which were now deserted. The US Military had at least three major campaigns to hunt down the Dakota. During those three years of campaigns hundreds of innocent Dakota and non Dakota Natives were murdered or starved by destroying there food supplies. Eventually reservations would be established for the Dakota. But in Canada the punishment continued from US vigilante's. They tried to poison the Dakota who were working for Canadian settlers and Fur Tradiing outfits.cutting wood or bringing in hay. Poisoning their food or putting acid in their wool under clothes. These come from Dakota Oral history in Canada.
Fredrika, I'm sure, would be pleasantly surprised to find out Checkered Cloud not only survived the war and imprisonment, she became a christian and a respected elder in her community and the surrounding white community..
The Ethnological museum told me that the drawings are actually owned by the Fredrika Bremer Association and are just on loan to the Museum. There were about four or five drawings taken from Fredrika's sketch book and put in the Native American exhibit at the Ethnological Museum in Stockholm. The rest of the sketch book I believe resides at Malmo University in Sweden.
The following is the information I have gathered so far on Mahpiyahdegawin (acurate spellling), Sunka Ska and Maza Hota.
www.fredrikabremer.net/bildgalleri.html Images - Gallery
Mackpi Inga win
Checkered Cloud (Dakota tribes)
Falls of St. Anthony Mississippi
Oct 1850
Checkered Cloud or Speckled Cloud(Dakota Translation by Vine Marks) was born about 1822
Some internet sites say she is the daughter of Chief Wabasha/ Wapahash. She was first wed to White Dog-Sunka Ska
After White Dog was hung in Mankato in 1862 she was imprisoned with the rest of the nearly 2000 Dakota.
She wed Andrew Goodthunder sometime after 1866
No children where born to Sarah and Andrew. They adopted children together.
Sarah and Andrew Good Thunder Morton MN Sarah with Andrew and Daughter in law and Grandson
S
Many pictures of Sarah Good Thunder and her bead and ribbon work can be found at the MNHS and is apart of the Whipple Collection.
www.inhonorofthepeople.org/voices....ple-collections
events.mnhs.org/media/news/release.cfm?ID=987
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________
Shonkah Skaw
White Dog
Dakota Warrior St. Anthony Falls
Oct 1850
Sunka Ska White Dog :
On the 1847 Annuity payment he is listed as #14 Shonka skaw
He signed the 1851 Treaty Aug 5th at Mendota Minnesota for the Mdewakanton.
June 1860
We will now invite our dear friends to go with the Bishop and the Rev. Mr. Breck through the Dakota farming districts, and from notes taken on the spot we are sure of presenting things to their view as they were found. The beautiful prairie land along the river, convenient for wood and water, had been surveyed into eighty-acre lots, and upon these about sixty houses had been built, some entirely by the Government, others by the Indian himself, and others in part by both. Our excellent guide, Mr. T. W. Cullen, Superintendent of farms, would' not allow us to pass houses by without inspecting them. We will describe just what we saw, and the faithless on the subject of Indian civilization and Indian love of labor may then form their own conclusions.
Shahahska (White Dog) two years since was a chief, when he dropped his feathers, blanket, paint, &c., and put on the civilized dress, which he has continued to wear. We entered his house, and he was glad to see us. He looked happy and intelligent, and answered all our inquiries with readiness. A present member of the Faribault school, who was born and brought up among the Dakotas, was our interpreter. The house of this Indian was eighteen by twenty-four feet, with an outer room for a kitchen. In two corners of the main apartment were high-post bedsteads with comfortable feather beds upon them. There were curtains above and below the bedframe. A counterpane was the coverlet of one of the beds, and we asked the chief--who made it? Answer: "My wife and daughters." "Where did you get these chairs, that rocking-chair, and this large mirror?" Answer: "I sold my corn and potatoes and bought them." We observed a cupboard well filled with crockery. Both butter and milk were in clean dishes. "Have you cows?" Answer: "I have five head of cattle, eight hogs, and also chickens." "The windows were hung with red and white curtains, tastefully arranged, and about the room were the ordinary utensils for housekeeping. We passed out of the house and looked at his farm. It was well planted, and the crops looked fine. We turned to the fanner and asked how much land he had planted, and he said twenty acres.
In the gardens of the different Indians, as we passed through the farming districts, we saw the usual vegetables growing. Indians were plowing out their corn and potatoes with horses, whilst ox-teams were frequently seen driven before wagons by their swarthy masters. Besides Community fields, which contained 620 acres, there were about sixty well-fenced enclosures, containing from five to ten acres each, amounting to 480 acres. The land plowed by the Indian himself the present year is 1100 acres. The entire enclosures have been fenced by the Indians themselves. In some instances, unwilling to wait for teams, the men, after splitting the rails, have carried them upon their backs nearly a mile to their fields. Chiefs are recognized by the Government officers only when they distinguish themselves as agriculturists.
anglicanhistory.org/usa/jlbreck/letters/08.htm
from the St. Paul Pioneer Press account of the execution of the 38 Dakota/Winnebago/Mixed Blood on Dec 26th 1862
"At half past seven all persons were excluded from the room except those necessary to help prepare the prisoners for their doom. Under the superintendence of Major Brown and Captain Redfield, their irons were knocked off, and one by one were tied by cords, their elbows being pinioned behind and the wrists in front, but about six inches apart. This operation occupied till about nine-o'clock. In the mean time the scene was much enlivened by their songs and conversation, keeping up the most cheerful appearance. As they were being pinioned, they went round the room shaking hands with the soldiers and reporters, bidding them 'good-by,' etc. White Dog requested not to be tied, and said that he could keep his hands down; but of course his request could not be complied with. . . . After all were properly fastened, they stood up in a row around the room, and another exciting death-song was sung. They then sat down very quietly and commenced smoking again. Father Ravoux came in, and after addressing them a few moments, knelt in prayer, reading from a Prayer-book in the Dakota language, which a portion of the condemned repeated after him. During this ceremony nearly all paid the most strict attention, and several were affected even to tears. . . . The caps were then put upon their heads. These were made of white muslin taken from the Indians when their camps were captured, and which had formed part of the spoils they had taken from the murdered traders. They were made long, and looked like a meal sack, but, being rolled up, only came down to the forehead, and allowed their painted faces yet to be seen.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________
Mazah hotah
Grey Iron
Indian Dakotah Chief
Upper Mississippi Oct 1850
Maza Hota Grey Iron
Maza Hota also known as Big Spotted Eagle was born about 1809. His father being Wanjica and his mother Scarlet Dove.
He wed Wakanahapawin "Her Sacred Circle"- Margaret. She being the daughter of Quintana. She is laid to rest in Greenwood SD.
Their children are....
1. Wambdi Tanka- Big Eagle Born about 1839 around St. Peters area. Died February 5th 1906 in Grante Falls Minnesota.
2. Wakanojanjan -
3. Tukancandeska- John Smith buried in Greenwood South Dakota.
4. Tipona
5. Kahdiwin - Eva Eagle buried at Granite Falls
6. Runs After His Tracks - Standing Rock
familytreemaker.genealogy.com/use....1/UHP-0204.html
Signed Treaty August 5th 1851 at Mendota MN. Along with two of his sons.. Big Eagle Wambdi Tanka and Medicine Bottle/Sacred Light Wakanojanjan
1851 Mazahota sp Mahizahotain 1851 is at Black Dog Village (aka) Magayuteshni.
March 1847 Mdewakanton Annuity -
He is listed under Black Dog's band. Black Dog and Grey Iron's band often refer to the same village location.
*********************************************************************************************************************
Read more: amertribes.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=mdewakanton&action=display&thread=1707#ixzz2IhzKkWLn
Written and researched by Sara Childers schilders2006@hotmail.com
While visiting a dear friend in Sweden last fall, he told me he would like to show me the Native American collection at the Ethnographic Museum in Stockholm. On the drive there we had discussed the likely hood of seeing cultural items marked "Sioux" for the simple fact that Minnesota was populated by Swedish immigrants starting in the 1840's. A large portion of the Dakota "Sioux" were living in Minnesota at the time the Swedes came to the area.. I was very surprised though to see original drawings of Dakota people done at the Falls of St Anthony on the Mississippi River in 1850 by a woman artist. I was seeing their actual names in Dakota! I often see Institutions/Facilities categorize anything from the Midwest as Sioux or Siouxan. To me that is a very broad category. Today there are seven distinct tribes that are categorized under "Sioux". Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Sisseton, Wahpeton, Yanktonai, Yankton and the Teton. There had been many more but those bands merged or where entirely wiped out by other tribes and then by diseases brought from other countries. The Dakota that sat for their portraits with Swedish writer Fredrika Bremer where from the Mdewakanton band of Dakota at that time.I say at that time because they may have been descended from the bands that merged do to tribal warfare and disease. In these drawings the artist Fredrika Bremer wrote their names, the date and the location. Which is a huge help in putting it in context with Dakota history. Leave it to a woman to get it right. Even though the names are written on the drawing, when the Fredrika Bremer Association put the drawings online, they wrote the Dakota names in Swedish translation. Not so easy cataloging for the Dakota or any other non speaking Swedish person to find. I'm not knocking them for that just pointing out how things get cataloged or referenced, which makes them get lost so to speak.
As a researcher in Dakota history I sometimes can match a Dakota person up with an item in a facilities collection. That's pretty exciting. Especially when you know the Dakota descendants themselves. I get overwhelmed with emotion and then I get sad. Sad because I know these things have not been seen by the Dakota themselves. I know how long some have been searching to find a little clue of who some of there ancestors where, just hoping to find their names on a Census or Annuity payment list or listed as a prisoner or see their ancestors name on a treaty. But to have actual objects that once belonged or were made by their ancestor, well that is over whelming for them. They never thought they would see those things. The Dakota and many North American tribes often have no easy way of seeing these items that once belonged to their Ancestors.
That is why I think it is long over do that Institutions/Facilities in possession of "Sioux" cultural items start consulting with members of the Sioux Tribes and collaborate on bringing these items to light and doing the proper research or for starters proper cataloging.
There is some progress being made at certain Museums, History Society's, Universities and Institutions around the globe who own or are in the possession of Native American Cultural items. 3D digitization of museum collections are being done in order to create a permanent digital record of rare artifacts and specimens. Also to create precise, three-dimensional, true-colour 3D models and 3D prints that are identical replicas of the scanned, often rare, objects.
They are starting to put the collections online. Included in that are digital images of their original accession records. That part always excites me. I often find my "Aha"!, moments in these records.
Native American names are often spelled phonetically a long time ago. So you really have to know your Dakota names. It also helps to know where certain Bands were at different times, or who was visiting the Dakota at certain times, what treaties were being signed at that time, which Archaeologists were digging in that region, etc etc.. If you have that knowledge of who all the players where at any specific time in the last 400 years, you can make those connections to items in certain collections. Every explorer, military official, priest, writer, scientist, European tourist, American toursit etc etc, wanted to take a piece of Native Culture home with them. Some took more then others. Some traded or bought them out right. Yet others, tricked or robbed or violently took items from the Natives. However it was done, it basically took almost all of the oldest cultural items. By the time reservations were established all the belongings they had were Annuity or European and American trade goods. I'm not sure the visitors knew this would happen. I'm not sure the natives them selves knew what was slowly happening. When the trade of Indian goods became scarce the visitors started digging up relics.
But, back to that memorable day for me in Stockholm.
So when I was half way through the "Plains" exhibit, thats when I saw them, those three beautiful Dakota drawings. And they were labeled with their Dakota names!
Chief Maza Hota- Grey Iron.
Mahpiya Ingan- Checkered Cloud
Sunka Ska- White Dog.
I was speechless. I looked at my friend with my mouth wide open, pointing at the glass, then looking back at the drawings, then looking at my friend again. I said, "Holay! I know them, and I think these are the only images of them I have ever seen".
I proceeded to tell my friend, "This one is White Dog, he was hung in Mankato in 1862, and look, a picture of his wife! She's beautiful, and look they all have their faces painted, even Checkered Cloud." I had so much to tell him about them, and I was thinking at the same time the Museum probably does not know who they have under glass here.
I think I just kind of floated to the next few exhibits. My mind was racing. I couldn't wait to get back to the flat and start doing some in depth research on these three Dakota and the artist Fredrika Bremer. I had my flash drive with me of allot of my Dakota records. I couldn't find any images of Grey Iron or Checkered Cloud on it. I knew all ready there where no published image of Sunka Ska. There is one that is used in some history books but it was done many years after Sunka Ska/White Dog was hung by someone.who just imagined what he may have looked like.
When I was able to go online I found many websites with Ferdrika Bremers life story, and what a life she had.
When Fredrika Bremer arrived in New York in 1849 she was nearly fifty years old. She was short of stature, unpretentious in her external appearance, dressed in black, and wearing a laced bonnet over her hair. She traveled alone. The world -and she herself -did not consider her a beauty. Many found her "dreadfully plain" in her appearance according to Catharine Sedgwick, who at that time was the most widely read American woman writer, and one of those who met the Swedish writer in New York.
Fredrika Bremer did not make the journey to America in order to be looked at or to answer questions from interviewers. She had a certain purpose, and the destination of her travels was not chosen by chance. She wanted to look into the future of mankind. She wanted to scrutinize the American utopia.
During her two years in America she was constantly on the move. She traveled to the north to visit the Indians, to talk to them or make sketches of them, for she always carried her sketchbook with her. She traveled south along the Mississippi to meet slaveowner families. She wanted to know how they lived, how they were treated, and to hear their stories about their own lives.
She was passionately interested in America's many "societies". She visited Quakers and Shakers. She looked up settlers and descendants of Swedes. She listened to sermons in all kinds of churches. She wanted to find out how the prisons were organized, and she talked with the prisoners. She wanted to know about the opportunities for education and work for women.
She walked into that notorious district Five Points in New York to look at the slums: prostitutes, deviates and homeless people. She visited American literary colleagues -Lowell, Emerson, Hawthorne, Washington Irving -in their homes, sketched them, read their books in depth, and argued with them. She especially observed American homes: their everyday life, expectations, women's roles, and social life.
She extended her travels to Cuba where she stayed a few months during the spring of 1850. All the time she sketched. And she constantly recorded -spontaneously and vividly -impressions and reflections of what she saw. It was done in long letters home, mostly to her younger sister Agathe.
Dear Agathe! When after her return to Sweden she edited her travel impressions, she kept the letter form. The Homes of the New World. Impressions of America, in several volumes, was published on both sides of the Atlantic during the first years of the 1850s.
This and more on Fredrikas life can be found at the following web link.
www.fredrikabremer.net/aboutbremer.html
After reading a little of her Bio on the web link provided here, I was able to search online for her book "The Homes Of The New World, Impressions Of America. In this work she described her visit to the Dakota in 1850. digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin....tory.BremrHemme
October 1850 Falls Of St. Anthony
I saw in one wigwam a young woman, who, as she sat with her rich, unbound hair falling over her shoulders, seemed to me so unusually handsome that I wished to make a sketch of her. I also wished to take the portraits of a couple of Indians, and requested Governor Ramsay to prefer my request. He therefore, by means of the interpreter, Mr. Prescott, stated to an old chief named Mozah-hotah (Gray Iron) that I
wished to take the likenesses of all great men in this country, to show to the people on the other side of the great water, and therefore that I requested him to sit to me a short time for that purpose.
The old chief, who is said to be a good and respectable man, looked very grave, listened to the proposal attentively, and gave a sort of grunting assent. He then accompanied us to the house of the interpreter, from the doors and windows of which peeped forth many little faces with their Indian features and complexion, for Mr. Prescott has an Indian wife, and many children by her.
I was soon seated in the house with the old chief before me, who expressed some annoyance because he was not in grand attire, having merely a couple of eagle's feathers [p. 39] in his hair, and not being so splendidly painted as he ought to have been. He wore under his white woolen blanket a blue European surtout, which he appeared anxious to have also included in the portrait. He evidently considered this as something out of the common way. He seemed a little uneasy to sit, and not at all comfortable when the interpreter was out of the room. The Indians universally believe that a likeness on paper takes away from the life of the person represented, and on that account many Indians will not allow their portraits to be taken.
The young Indian woman followed the old chief; she came attired in her wedding-dress of embroidered scarlet woolen stuff, and with actual cascades of silver rings, linked one within another, and hanging in clusters from her ears, round which the whole cluster was fastened; down to her shoulders, her neck and breast were covered with masses of coral, pearls, and other ornaments. The head was bare and devoid of ornament. She was so brilliant and of such unusual beauty that she literally seemed to light up the whole room as she entered. Her shoulders were broad and round, and her carriage drooping, as is usual with Indian women, who are early accustomed to carry burdens on their back; but the beauty of the countenance was so extraordinary that I can not but think that if such a face were to be seen in one of the drawing-rooms of the fashionable world, it would there be regarded as the type of a beauty hitherto unknown. It was the wild beauty of the forest, at the same time melancholy and splendid. The bashful gloom in those large, magnificent eyes, shaded by unusually long, dark eyelashes, can not be described, nor yet the glance, nor the splendid light of the smile which at times lit up the countenance like a flash, showing the loveliest white teeth. She was remarkably light-complexioned for an Indian; the round of the chin was somewhat prominent, which gave rather too [p. 40] much breadth to her face, but her profile was perfect. She was quite young, and had been married two years to a brave young warrior, who, I was told, was so fond of her that he would not take another wife, and that he would not allow her to carry heavy burdens, but always got a horse for her when she went to the town. She is called Mochpedaga-Wen, or Feather-cloud-woman. A young Indian girl who came with her was more painted, but not so handsome, and had those heavy features and that heavy expression which characterize the Indian women, at least those of this tribe.
I made a sketch of Mochpedaga-Wen in her bridal attire. She was bashful, with downcast eyes. It was with a pleasure mingled with emotion that I penetrated into the mysteries of this countenance. A whole nocturnal world lay in those eyes, the dark fringes of which cast a shadow upon the cheek. Those eyes glanced downward into a depth, dreamy, calm, without gloom, but at the same time without joy and without a future. The sunlight of the smile was like a sunbeam of a cloudy day. The Feather-cloud had no light within itself. It was lit up from without, and was splendidly tinted only for a moment.
After this gentle and beautiful, but melancholy image, I must introduce to you the brave young warrior, and the great Sprude-bosse, or Dandy--"Skonka Shaw," or "White Dog," the husband of the "Feather-cloud," who entered duly painted and in great pomp of attire, with a huge tuft of feathers helmet-wise falling backward from the head, and with three dark eagles' feathers, with tufts of scarlet wool, stuck aloft in his hair, and with the marks of five green fingers on his cheeks, to indicate that he was a brave warrior and had killed many enemies. He was tall and flexible of form, and he entered with a gay, animated aspect, amid a torrent of words, equally fluent with what I had heard in the House of Representatives at Washington, [p. 41] and of which I understood--about as much. His countenance had the same characteristics that I had already observed among the Indians, the hawk nose, broad at the base, clear, acute, but cold eyes, which opened square, with a wild-beast-like glance; the mouth unpleasing, and for the rest, the features regular and keen. I made a sketch also of him; his countenance was much painted with red, and yellow, and green; there was nothing shy about it, and it looked very warlike. But that which won for him favor in my eyes was that he was a good husband and loved his beautiful Feather-cloud.
Mrs. Ramsay, in the mean time, had gone out with her, and put on her costume. And as she was very pretty--of the pure Quaker style of beauty--she appeared really splendidly handsome in that showy costume, and the Feather-cloud seemed to have great pleasure in seeing her in it. But the handsome young white lady had not, after all, the wonderful, mystic beauty of Feather-cloud. There was between them the difference of the primeval forest and the drawing-room.
I observed in the conversations of these Indians many of those sounds and intonations which struck me as peculiar among the American people; in particular, there were those nasal tones, and that piping, singing, or lamenting sound which has often annoyed me in the ladies. Probably these sounds may have been acquired by the earliest colonists during their intercourse with the Indians, and thus have been continued.
While I am with the Indians I must tell you of a custom among them which appears to me singular; it refers to their peculiar names and their mode of acquiring them. When the Indians, either man or woman, arrive at maturity, they go out into some solitary place, and remain there fasting for several days. They believe that the Spirit which has especial guardianship over them will then reveal itself; and that which during these days [p. 42] strongly attracts their sight or affects their imagination, is regarded as the image or token by means of which their guardian angel reveals itself to them, and they adopt a name derived from that object or token. When they have obtained the wished-for revelation, they return to their family, but under a kind of higher guidance, and with a greater right of self-government.
From a list of Indian names I select the following:
Horn-point; Round-wind; Stand-and-look-out; The Cloud-that-goes-aside; Iron-toe; Seek -the-sun; Iron-flash; Red-bottle; White-spindle; Black-dog; Two-feathers-of-honor; Gray-grass; Bushy-tail; Thunder-face; Go-on-the-burning-sod; Spirits-of-the-dead.
And among the female names, these:
Keep-the-fire; Spiritual-woman; Second-daughter-of-the-house; Blue-bird, and so on.
Feather-cloud must have looked especially toward heaven to find her guardian angel. May it conduct her lightly along her earthly pilgrimage, and preserve her from the fate of Winnona and Ampota Sapa! But--those deep eyes, full of the spirit of night, seem to me prophetic of the death-song.
digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin....tory.BremrHemme The entire book can be read online at this web link.
422W10ell maybe Fredrika did see the death song in her eyes but not for herself, but maybe for her entire Nation. The entire future of her Dakota Oyate. For it was only twelve years later that hundreds of Dakota acknowledged they would be pushed further west to reservations and starve or dye fighting. In August of 1862 as the United States Army was desperate for more soldiers to fight in the Civil War, hundreds of Minnesota settlers joined the Army, which left Minnesota deprived of some military protection. The Dakota Annuity payment was overdue, and they were running out of food. When four young Dakota went to hunt for some birds they came to a settlers home that they knew and began a bet with one about how good of a shot they each where. When the young settler lost the bet harsh words where said. (This is from Dakota oral history taken in Canada) The settlers were killed and it was the start of what is called "The Sioux Uprising" or "The Dakota War". All of the Dakota that could be caught would be imprisoned. President Abraham Lincoln sentenced a total of thirty eight men to be hung. They included Dakota, Winneabago and one French/Dakota. Included in those thirty eight would be Checkered Cloud's husband Sunka Ska/White Dog. They were hung on December 26th 1862 in Mankato Minnesota. Of almost 2000 Dakota prisoners 500 would die before the surviving prisoners would be released in April of 1866. The Dakota that fled Minnesota in August and September of 1862 where hunted down, they were first hung where they found them, but Military orders finally came putting a stop to the hanging on the spot method. This was happening from Yellow Medicine all the way up to Standing Buffalo and Sweetcorn's Villages above Big Stone Lake which were now deserted. The US Military had at least three major campaigns to hunt down the Dakota. During those three years of campaigns hundreds of innocent Dakota and non Dakota Natives were murdered or starved by destroying there food supplies. Eventually reservations would be established for the Dakota. But in Canada the punishment continued from US vigilante's. They tried to poison the Dakota who were working for Canadian settlers and Fur Tradiing outfits.cutting wood or bringing in hay. Poisoning their food or putting acid in their wool under clothes. These come from Dakota Oral history in Canada.
Fredrika, I'm sure, would be pleasantly surprised to find out Checkered Cloud not only survived the war and imprisonment, she became a christian and a respected elder in her community and the surrounding white community..
The Ethnological museum told me that the drawings are actually owned by the Fredrika Bremer Association and are just on loan to the Museum. There were about four or five drawings taken from Fredrika's sketch book and put in the Native American exhibit at the Ethnological Museum in Stockholm. The rest of the sketch book I believe resides at Malmo University in Sweden.
The following is the information I have gathered so far on Mahpiyahdegawin (acurate spellling), Sunka Ska and Maza Hota.
www.fredrikabremer.net/bildgalleri.html Images - Gallery
Mackpi Inga win
Checkered Cloud (Dakota tribes)
Falls of St. Anthony Mississippi
Oct 1850
Checkered Cloud or Speckled Cloud(Dakota Translation by Vine Marks) was born about 1822
Some internet sites say she is the daughter of Chief Wabasha/ Wapahash. She was first wed to White Dog-Sunka Ska
After White Dog was hung in Mankato in 1862 she was imprisoned with the rest of the nearly 2000 Dakota.
She wed Andrew Goodthunder sometime after 1866
No children where born to Sarah and Andrew. They adopted children together.
Sarah and Andrew Good Thunder Morton MN Sarah with Andrew and Daughter in law and Grandson
S
Many pictures of Sarah Good Thunder and her bead and ribbon work can be found at the MNHS and is apart of the Whipple Collection.
www.inhonorofthepeople.org/voices....ple-collections
events.mnhs.org/media/news/release.cfm?ID=987
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Shonkah Skaw
White Dog
Dakota Warrior St. Anthony Falls
Oct 1850
Sunka Ska White Dog :
On the 1847 Annuity payment he is listed as #14 Shonka skaw
He signed the 1851 Treaty Aug 5th at Mendota Minnesota for the Mdewakanton.
June 1860
We will now invite our dear friends to go with the Bishop and the Rev. Mr. Breck through the Dakota farming districts, and from notes taken on the spot we are sure of presenting things to their view as they were found. The beautiful prairie land along the river, convenient for wood and water, had been surveyed into eighty-acre lots, and upon these about sixty houses had been built, some entirely by the Government, others by the Indian himself, and others in part by both. Our excellent guide, Mr. T. W. Cullen, Superintendent of farms, would' not allow us to pass houses by without inspecting them. We will describe just what we saw, and the faithless on the subject of Indian civilization and Indian love of labor may then form their own conclusions.
Shahahska (White Dog) two years since was a chief, when he dropped his feathers, blanket, paint, &c., and put on the civilized dress, which he has continued to wear. We entered his house, and he was glad to see us. He looked happy and intelligent, and answered all our inquiries with readiness. A present member of the Faribault school, who was born and brought up among the Dakotas, was our interpreter. The house of this Indian was eighteen by twenty-four feet, with an outer room for a kitchen. In two corners of the main apartment were high-post bedsteads with comfortable feather beds upon them. There were curtains above and below the bedframe. A counterpane was the coverlet of one of the beds, and we asked the chief--who made it? Answer: "My wife and daughters." "Where did you get these chairs, that rocking-chair, and this large mirror?" Answer: "I sold my corn and potatoes and bought them." We observed a cupboard well filled with crockery. Both butter and milk were in clean dishes. "Have you cows?" Answer: "I have five head of cattle, eight hogs, and also chickens." "The windows were hung with red and white curtains, tastefully arranged, and about the room were the ordinary utensils for housekeeping. We passed out of the house and looked at his farm. It was well planted, and the crops looked fine. We turned to the fanner and asked how much land he had planted, and he said twenty acres.
In the gardens of the different Indians, as we passed through the farming districts, we saw the usual vegetables growing. Indians were plowing out their corn and potatoes with horses, whilst ox-teams were frequently seen driven before wagons by their swarthy masters. Besides Community fields, which contained 620 acres, there were about sixty well-fenced enclosures, containing from five to ten acres each, amounting to 480 acres. The land plowed by the Indian himself the present year is 1100 acres. The entire enclosures have been fenced by the Indians themselves. In some instances, unwilling to wait for teams, the men, after splitting the rails, have carried them upon their backs nearly a mile to their fields. Chiefs are recognized by the Government officers only when they distinguish themselves as agriculturists.
anglicanhistory.org/usa/jlbreck/letters/08.htm
from the St. Paul Pioneer Press account of the execution of the 38 Dakota/Winnebago/Mixed Blood on Dec 26th 1862
"At half past seven all persons were excluded from the room except those necessary to help prepare the prisoners for their doom. Under the superintendence of Major Brown and Captain Redfield, their irons were knocked off, and one by one were tied by cords, their elbows being pinioned behind and the wrists in front, but about six inches apart. This operation occupied till about nine-o'clock. In the mean time the scene was much enlivened by their songs and conversation, keeping up the most cheerful appearance. As they were being pinioned, they went round the room shaking hands with the soldiers and reporters, bidding them 'good-by,' etc. White Dog requested not to be tied, and said that he could keep his hands down; but of course his request could not be complied with. . . . After all were properly fastened, they stood up in a row around the room, and another exciting death-song was sung. They then sat down very quietly and commenced smoking again. Father Ravoux came in, and after addressing them a few moments, knelt in prayer, reading from a Prayer-book in the Dakota language, which a portion of the condemned repeated after him. During this ceremony nearly all paid the most strict attention, and several were affected even to tears. . . . The caps were then put upon their heads. These were made of white muslin taken from the Indians when their camps were captured, and which had formed part of the spoils they had taken from the murdered traders. They were made long, and looked like a meal sack, but, being rolled up, only came down to the forehead, and allowed their painted faces yet to be seen.
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Mazah hotah
Grey Iron
Indian Dakotah Chief
Upper Mississippi Oct 1850
Maza Hota Grey Iron
Maza Hota also known as Big Spotted Eagle was born about 1809. His father being Wanjica and his mother Scarlet Dove.
He wed Wakanahapawin "Her Sacred Circle"- Margaret. She being the daughter of Quintana. She is laid to rest in Greenwood SD.
Their children are....
1. Wambdi Tanka- Big Eagle Born about 1839 around St. Peters area. Died February 5th 1906 in Grante Falls Minnesota.
2. Wakanojanjan -
3. Tukancandeska- John Smith buried in Greenwood South Dakota.
4. Tipona
5. Kahdiwin - Eva Eagle buried at Granite Falls
6. Runs After His Tracks - Standing Rock
familytreemaker.genealogy.com/use....1/UHP-0204.html
Signed Treaty August 5th 1851 at Mendota MN. Along with two of his sons.. Big Eagle Wambdi Tanka and Medicine Bottle/Sacred Light Wakanojanjan
1851 Mazahota sp Mahizahotain 1851 is at Black Dog Village (aka) Magayuteshni.
March 1847 Mdewakanton Annuity -
He is listed under Black Dog's band. Black Dog and Grey Iron's band often refer to the same village location.
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