Eastman History.
Eastman History and Sources.
Seth Eastman
Painter Seth Eastman is known primarily for his depictions of daily life among the Dakota and Ojibwa tribes in Minnesota. He was born to Robert and Sarah Lee Eastman on January 24, 1808, in Brunswick, Maine. Eastman attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he received training in sketching and topography. While at West Point, he began to paint scenes featuring the daily life of local Native American tribes.
In 1830 (Seth)Eastman was assigned to topography duty on the frontier and spent a short time at Fort Snelling before returning to West Point to teach. While at Fort Snelling, Eastman married Wakaninajinwin (Stands Sacred), the fifteen-year-old daughter of Cloud Man, a Dakota chief. Eastman left in 1832 for another military assignment soon after the birth of their baby girl, Winona, and declared his marriage ended when he left. Winona was also known as Mary Nancy Eastman and was the mother of Charles Alexander Eastman, author of Indian Boyhood.
From 1833 to 1840, Eastman taught drawing at West Point. In 1835 he married his second wife, Mary Henderson, the daughter of a West Point surgeon. In 1841 he returned to Fort Snelling as a military commander and remained there with Mary and their five children for the next seven years. It was during this time that Eastman began visually recording the everyday way of life of the Dakota and Ojibwa people. His wife Mary also became involved in preserving Indian culture by writing books on local tales and legends, which he would illustrate for her. The most important of these books was entitled Dacotah, or Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling.
In 1847 Henry R. Schoolcraft, a former Indian agent, was chosen to conduct a study of the American Indian people. Eastman illustrated the six-volume set, published between 1851 and 1857 as Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Military Affairs also commissioned Eastman to paint images of seventeen important military forts, which he completed between 1870 and 1875. These paintings are now housed in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
Eastman died of a stroke while painting at his home in Washington, D.C., on August 31, 1875. Eastman's works are significant for Minnesota history because art historians believe that Eastman based many of his paintings and sketches on his observations in the Sioux villages of Kaposia and Little Crow, as well as in Scott, Wabasha, and Winona counties.
GET STARTED WITH SECONDARY SOURCES:
? The Art of Seth Eastman: A Traveling Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings Circulated by the Smithsonian Institution, 1959-1960, by John F. McDermott.
Washington, D.C.: 1960?
MHS call number: ND 237.E35 M3.
? "The Artist's Life, The Indian's World," by Patricia C. Johnston.
In American History Illustrated, vol. 13, no. 9 (Jan. 1979): pp. 39-46.
MHS call number: E 171 .A58 v.13:9.
? The Collection of Watercolor Drawings of the North American Indian by Seth Eastman in the James Jerome Hill Reference Library, St. Paul, by Frances Densmore.
Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1961.
MHS call number: ND 237 .E35 J3.
? Eastman, Cloud Man, Many Lightnings: An Anglo-Dakota Family, compiled by William L. Bean for the Eastman family reunion, 1989.
Lincoln, Neb.: W.L. Bean, 1989.
MHS call number: CS 71 .E137 1989.
? "Found (and Purchased): Seth Eastman Water Colors," by Lila M. Johnson.
In Minnesota History, v. 42, no. 7 (Fall 1971): pp. 258-267.
MHS call number: F 601.5 .M66 v.19.
? "Historic Minnesota In Centennial Exhibition."
Includes reproductions of paintings by Eastman and others.
In Bulletin of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, v. 38, no. 10 (Mar. 5, 1949): pp. 46-52.
MHS call number: N 582.6 .A15 v.38:10.
? Painting the Dakota: Seth Eastman at Fort Snelling, by Marybeth Lorbiecki; paintings and drawings by Seth Eastman.
Illustrated with Eastman's work, this account gives in-depth biographical information as well as the history of the Dakota tribes in the Midwest.
Afton, Minn: Afton Historical Society Press, 2000.
MHS call number: E 99.D1 E23 2000.
? "Seth Eastman: Artist-Historian of Indian Life."
In Gopher Historian, v. 19, no. 1 (Fall 1964): pp. 17-21.
MHS call number: Reference Desk F 601 .G6 v.17-20.
? "Seth Eastman: Painting the Dakota," Kristian Berg, writer/producer.
This video showcases Seth Eastman's work in history of the Dakota tribe.
Afton, Minn.: Afton Historical Society Press; St. Paul, Minn.: Twin Cities Public Television, 2001.
MHS call number: Videotape no. 946 (in the A-V Collection; 60-minute videocassette).
? Seth Eastman: Pictoral Historian of the Indian, by John Francis McDermott.
Includes a checklist of Eastman's works, pp. 228-255.
Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.
MHS call number: ND 237 .E35 M33.
? Seth Eastman: A Portfolio of North American Indians, by Sarah E. Hoehme, Christian F. Feest, and Patricia Condon Jonston.
Afton, Minn.: Afton Historical Society Press, 1995.
MHS call number: Reading Room FOLIO ND 237 .E35 S47 1995.
? A Seth Eastman Sketchbook, 1848-1849, introduction by Lois Burkhalter.
Includes a reproduction of Eastman's Texas journal for August of 1849.
Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1961.
MHS call number: NC 1075 .E16.
? "Seth Eastman's Water Colors" by Bertha L. Heilbron.
In section titled "Sources for Northwest History."
In Minnesota History, v. 19, no. 4 (Dec. 1938): pp. 419-423.
MHS call number: Reading Room F 601.5 .M66 v.19.
? Minnesota History index terms:
? Eastman, Seth
PRIMARY RESOURCES:
? Artworks by Seth Eastman
? Books illustrated by Seth Eastman:
? The American Aboriginal Portfolio, by Mary H. Eastman.
Philadelphia: Lippencott, Grambo, 1853.
MHS call number: FOLIO E 77 .E125 1853.
? The American Annual: Illustrative of the Early history of North America, by Mrs. Mary H. Eastman.
Originally published in 1854 under the title: Chicóra and Other Regions of the Conquerors and the Conquered.
Philadelphia: Lippencott, 1855.
MHS call number: Reserve E 77 .E15a.
? Chicóra and Other Regions of the Conquerors and the Conquered, by Mary H. Eastman.
A collection of engravings from drawings by Captain Seth Eastman, accompanied by descriptive text, illustrative of the history and customs of various tribes of North American Indians.
Philadelphia: Lippencott, Grambo & Co., 1854.
MHS call number: Reserve E 77 .E15.
? Dahcotah, or, Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling, by Mrs. Mary Eastman; illustrated from drawings by Captain Eastman.
? New York: J. Wiley, 1849.
MHS call number: E 99 .D1 E15.
? Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1962.
MHS call number: E 99 .D1 E15 1962.
? Afton, Minn.: Afton Historical Society Press, 1995.
MHS call number: E 99 .D1 E15 1995.
? The full text has been digitally imaged and is available through an electronic link in the library catalog record.
? Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, by Henry R. Schoolcraft; illustrated by Seth Eastman.
The information for this work collected and prepared under the direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs per act of Congress of March 3, 1847. Eastman worked for five years on his military salary producing 275 pages of illustrations for this text. While Schoolcraft was a "sloppy researcher" and hard to work with, Eastman completed the illustrations in a careful and concise manner, with a strong personal interest in the subject matter.
Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, 1851-57.
MHS call number: Reserve FOLIO E 77 .S381.
? The Iris: An Illuminated Souvenir for 1852 edited by . John S. Hart.
Most of the material is about the American Indian, and Mrs. Mary Eastman wrote much of it. Re-published in 1853 with the title "Romance of Indian Life."
Philadelphia: Lippencott, Grambo & Co., 1852.
MHS call number: Reserve E 98 .F6 I6.
? Romance of Indian Life: With Other Tales, Selections from the Iris, An Illuminated Souvenir, by Mrs. Mary H. Eastman.
Philadelphia: Lippencott, Grambo & Co., 1853.
MHS call number: E 98 .F6 R75.
? Books written by Seth Eastman:
? Memoir of General Seth Eastman, U.S. Army.
This account of Eastman's life was published after his death in 1875. It focuses on his life in the military, his art, and his relationship with his second wife, Mary. No mention is made of his first wife, Wakaninajinwin or his daughter, Winona.
Washington, D.C.: [s.n.], 1875.
MHS call number: ND 237 .E35 M5.
? Treatise on Topographical Drawing, by Seth Eastman
Eastman created this textbook to make the technique of map-making and map-reading more understandable. He created symbols that could be used on all maps and explains how to draw height, width, and depth on a two-dimensional sheet of paper. This textbook was made mandatory for all topography classes at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1837.
MHS call number: Reserve TA 616 .E2.
? Letter, 1847 November 1.
Photocopy of a letter from Seth Eastman at Fort Snelling to fellow artist Charles Lanman in New York City describing the possible sale of Eastman's Mississippi River sketches, completion of his painting "Indian Burial," and an invitation for Lanman to join Eastman in painting a Mississippi River panorama. The letter is part of the MHS "Manuscript Biographies Collections." The original letter is in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
MHS call number: P939; see the green Manuscripts Notebooks for more details.
? Map of the Military Reservation of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, 1857.
In "Fort Snelling (Minn.) Maps, 1815-1965" collection. This particular maps is a copy from Record Group 77 (Office of the Chief of Engineers) in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
MHS call number: C22 (there are 121 items in 13 folders, but only one is a Seth Eastman drawing); see the green Manuscripts Notebooks for more details.
www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/134eastman.htm-------------------------
EASTMANS PLAYED PROMINENT ROLE IN LOCAL HISTORY
By Bessie Pettigrew
Colonel Eastman was a soldier and an artist whose painting of a wild rice scene hangs in a committee room in the capitol in Washington, D. C. Cloudman, an able warrior, was the first Sioux Chief to welcome the Christian missionaries in Minnesota.
Colonel Eastman was married to Cloudman's daughter Mary. Their daughter Nancy was married to Many Lightnings. Nancy died when her fifth son w as born. At the time of the Sioux Outbreak Many Lightnings, his five sons (John, 13 years of age and Charles, 4), his mother and youngest brother were living at Redwood Agency where Rev. John P. Williamson was working as a missionary.
After the uprising the soldiers made no distinction between the innocent and the guilty. Many Lightnings, who had taken no part in the uprising, fled with his family and many other innocent Indians to Canada. When near Winnipeg the family became separated. The soldiers caught up with Many Lightnings and three of his sons, John among them and took them to the prison camp at Davenport, Iowa.
There Many Lightnings and his son John were converted through the influence of Dr. Thomas Y. Williamson and other missionaries. Determining to live hence forward like a Christian white man, he cut his hair and adopting an English name, he chose the surname of his wife Nancy. From then on, he was known as Jacob Eastman and his descendants since have used the Eastman surname.
He was exonerated by Abraham Lincoln's court of inquiry and sent to Niobrara. Form there he came with the Santee Sioux to Flandreau in 1869, filed on a claim (NW 1/4 Section 14 twp 107, R 48) and with his sons lived there until he died in 1876. He is buried in the cemetery at the First Presbyterian Church in Flandreau. The claim is now owned by the United States government.
Sharing the experiences of Jacob Eastman was his son John who was born in Shakopee, Minn. in 1849. When he was fifteen years old he had an experience at Niobrara of which he wrote later: "One day I was walking by the schoolhouse (at Bazile) and from within I heard singing and thought I will go in and hear the singing better. So I went in. Mr. Williamson (J. P.) was teaching them singing. He knew me though I had not seen him for two years. He said, you are Many Lightnings son. From that time on I began to go to school and since then I have always been near to Mr. Williamson".
His desire to continue his education led him later with Joseph Rogers to walk during winter weather, sleeping in the snow, to enroll in the Santee Normal Training School at Santee, Nebr. He was among the first pupils to enroll there. Later he went to Beloit College and in 1876 was ordained as the minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Flandreau where he served for 30 years. He bought 21 acres south of the church and built for his home the house which is now owned by Marshall Handberg.
In 1906 he was transferred to become the pastor of the Good Will Church there. He sold his home and moved with his family and his wife's mother, Mrs. Nancy McClure Faribault Huggins to Sisseton. He was a delegate to the yearly conference in Washington, D. C. where he looked after the affairs of the Sioux Indians and often interceded in their behalf with the government. In 1915 he became the general missionary to the Presbyterian Indian Church and also did much welfare work among his people.
He died Oct. 5, 1921 and was buried beside his father in the cemetery by the First Presbyterian Church northeast of Flandreau. In the words of his daughter, "He was a man of strong faith, and conviction and he was not easily turned aside from what he undertook to do."
John Eastman was married in 1873 to Viola Frazier who died shortly after their marriage. In 1874 he was married to Mary Jane Faribault.
Mary Jane Faribault was the daughter of David Faribault and Nancy McClure Faribault. David Faribault a fur trader in Minn., was "mixed blood", the son of an Indian mother and Jean Baptiste Faribault, who was one of the first Frenchmen to engage in the fur trade in Minn. Nancy McClure was the daughter of Winona, a descendant of Sioux chiefs for many generations and Lieutenant James McClure who w as stationed at Ft. Snelling. When Nancy was a few months old, her father was ordered to Florida and died there the following spring. As he had made provision for his wife and daughter before he left Ft. Snelling Nancy was able to get an education. She was constantly admonished by her mother to learn to live like a white woman; consequently Nancy attended mission schools and lived for several years in the homes of the Christian missionaries in Minnesota.
She joined the Presbyterian Church but as David Faribault was a Catholic she joined his church after their marriage. The wedding took place at Ft. Snelling and was a gala occasion. Governor Ramsey, the officials from Washington who had come to negotiate the Indian treaty of 1851, the army officers, and their wives, the head chiefs and the principal men of the great Sioux nation were all present. The bride was dressed in white. "The affair even got into the papers", she wrote later.
The next years were happy ones. In 1853 they took a trip to St. Louis to buy supplies and horses for the trading post. They lived in various places in Minnesota where David Faribault carried on his fur trading business.
Their daughter Mary Jane was born there and when she was eight years old they settled on a farm two miles from the Redwood Agency. In describing their life here in her Autobiography, which has been preserved among the publications of the Minnesota History Society, she wrote, "There were a good many settlers in the country, some few French families among them and the most of them young married people of pleasant dispositions. We used frequently to meet at one another's houses in social gatherings, dancing parties and the like. I was 25 years of age then had but one child (Mary Jane) and could go about when I wanted to and I went frequently to these gatherings and came to know a great in any people." John Eastman and his father were at Redwood Agency at this time but there is no record that Mary Jane Faribault and, John Eastman ever met here.
Then in 1862 came the Indian uprising, started at the Redwood Agency by Little Crow and his hostile band. In her autobiography, Nancy McClure Faribault tells of the destruction of their home and the loss of everything they owned and of the imprisonments of her husband, her daughter and herself with other mixed bloods and whites in Little Crow's camp. Their lives had been spared because David Faribault, unlike the traders at Redwood Agency had given the Indians credit and had given them outright 14 head of cattle to relieve their starving condition. Little Crow's band, angered because many of the "mixed bloods" sided with the whites and crazed by drinking the white man's whiskey, daily frightened the prisoners with threats of death. Finally, General Sibley liberated the prisoners.
Nancy and Mary Jane lived for a time with relatives in Minnesota and David Faribault became a scout in General Sibley's army. Four years after the outbreak the Faribaults established, in the fall of 1868, a station on the Cheyenne River in Dakota Territory where the stage drivers changed horses and they and other travelers could get food and lodging. David Faribault went to Canada to put Mary Jane in School.
While he was gone, hostile Indians attacked the camp, and though the people escaped, the Faribaults for the second time lost everything they owned. They returned to the station but they were threatened again and again by the hostility of the Indians.
Finally they gave up and came to the Sisseton Agency. David Faribault filed on a claim in what became Brookings County in 1870. He was elected coroner when the county was organized in 1871; became postmaster of the first post office in Flandreau in 1871; and when Moody County was organized in 1873, found that his claim was in Moody County.
After the death of David Faribault, Mrs. Faribault was married to Charles Huggins and they settled on a farm east of highway No. 13 and south of the river near Flandreau. Later they sold this farm and moved to Canada where Mr. Huggins died. After his death she returned to Flandreau to live with her daughter Mary Jane Eastman and Rev. John Eastman. When the John Eastmans went to Sisseton, she went also.
After the death of Rev. John Eastman she and her daughter returned to Flandreau to live with Mrs. Grace Eastman Moore until her death on Aug. 6, 1927 at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. Moore.
Mary Jane Faribault shared the joys and all the hardships her parents experienced before she was married to Rev. John Eastman. She was a devoted wife and mother quietly effacing herself as she made a happy home for her husband and took good care of their children, very often alone while her husband was away from home in connection with his Christian work. She died in October, 1946 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Grace Moore.
Of the nine children born to Rev. John Eastman and his wife Mary Jane Faribault Eastman, three are still living: Fred in Winona, Minn.; Mrs. Harry Jones (Bessie), and Mrs. Oliver Moore (Grace) both living in Flandreau.
Moody County Enterprise Centennial Edition, 1969
