Will Comstock - Army scout

 Salvete Omnes,

Will Comstock in Harper's illustration from June, 1867

a little article from Old West Magazine 1969 on this US Army Scout and soldiers' guide - William 'Medicine Bill' Averil Comstock (1842-1868). His mother, Sarah Sabina Cooper. was a nice of James Fenimore Cooper, famous American writer.  

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the contest between Buffalo Bill and Comstock in killing bison

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Fort Wallace 

From general G. A. Custer's  Wild life on the Plains and horrors of Indian warfare - the killing of Comstock by the Cheyenns near Fort Hayes in 1868- 

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W.E. Webb's recollections about Comstock from Harper's Monthly Magazine, Nov 1875.

Valete

Rosa Bonheur and Buffalo Bill & his Indians 1889

 Salvete Omnes,

 

the story of Rosa and  Buffalo Bill as told by the Buffalo Bill Center of the West

A short entry I suppose, but what a grand equestrian artist - Rosa Bonheur and her Plains Indian paintings stemming from William Cody and his Wild West show grand tour and entry  into continental  Europe, especially their visit to Paris during the 'Exposition Universelle' in French capital 1889. Apart from William Cody's troupe there were plenty of Americans displaying their creative might - here an article on the machines and Indians during the Paris Exhibit.

After becoming friendly with Buffalo Bill maestra  Rosa Bonheur painted 17 works based on her studies at the Buffalo Bill Wild West show.

Mastera Rosa had an album of Catlin's works and these sketches are clearly based on Catlin's wokr

Rocky Bear and Red Shirt - Lakotas of the Bufffalo Bill Wild West show

Rosa Bonheur's biography written by Anna Klumpke - can be borrowed from archive.

Valete

Posters from Buffalo Bill's Wild West

 
Salvete Omnes,
Spring is so near  - we have been searching for a puppy of the Old German Shepherd type - so to bring some movement there is horse Americana as exemplified by the poster art of the world famous Buffalo Bill's Wild West show:





 




nota bene after some discussion on our Facebook horse group I found some Polish press articles about the Buffalo Bill's show visiting southern Poland (under the Austro-Hungarian empire) in the beginning of the XX century, so in the future I shall look at them closer. But in general Polish media of the period - daily newspapers from Lwow and Krakow - were hostile towards the show, not only because the managers of the show treated Polish provinces as some sort of German eastern lands, where German was spoken. "Austrian' Poland was the horse country, especially in her eastern parts, with large horse exports all over Europe(including France and Great Britain) and Polish commentators knew much about horses and horse riding
Valete

Iron Tail - Buffalo Bill's Show etc

 
Salvete Omnes,

it has been a long while since we visited any Plains Indians and their horses.
meantime I have been listening to some audio books on the subject of Buffalo Bill's Show etc, and started reading one of the archive.org books on Buffalo Bill and his life
 
(plenty of some very interesting details about horses, horsemanship, hunting and adventure etc in the American West during the second half of XIX century).

On Wiki Commons there is a good collection of photos showing one very handsome elder Lakota named Iron Tail, who was both participant of the Buffalo Bill's Show and face of the American Indian Head nickel.
 
Iron Tail or Sinte Maza (1842/50-1916)was a Teton Lakota, of the Oglala tribe, and perhaps participated in some fighting against the US Army during the wars 1866-77. He went to Canada with Sitting Bull and later on, upon return joined the shows and thus he became famous as the most recognizable of the Buffalo Bill's Show performers, traveling widely in the US and in Europe. After the demise of the Buffalo Bill's Show went on to perform in other shows, all the way until his death in 1916.

 Being a traditionalist and elder he was interviewed and provided valuable information about the Akicita warrior society (here about warrior societies , a bit simplified but passable)  by Richard Nines in 1911(James Walker, Lakota Society, pp.32-34 ).

 He became even more famous for his profile, having sat for a portrait done by the NYC sculptor James Earle Frase.

Sadly he lost his son during a crash on the way to join him at the Buffalo Bill's Show.
 
He finished his days performing

 
with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show.


with the demise of the wild west shows and refusal of the reservation agents to let them perform in the growing Hollywood movie industry, most of the Plains people were resigned to eke a meager life within their windswept reservations, living on small allotments divided many times over,  devoid of purpose and losing their culture. The XX century had not been kind to the Plains Indian peoples.
Valete!

Little Bighorn - battle anniversary 1876-2014

Salve,
yesterday, June 25, it passed another anniversary of the battle of Little Bighorn. I have been renewing my interest in all things American cavalry, and hence I am bringing up the subject of this famous clash on the Great Plains.

For many years I did not care about chief American protagonist of this battle, but lately for some reasons (including the reading of the book on Custer's years during the Civil War) I have been  warming up to the great horseman from Michigan. My Life on the Plains - in audio form - is helping too.
Below a photo of dashing Custer when still a captain during the Civil war (1862).

 As the Lakota warrior saw the fighting in his ledger art:

Recent master thesis reconstructing the battle - via archive.org - M.J. Burns, Revisiting the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

On this webpage you can view some of  the ledger art drawn by one of the victorious warrior participants, Red Horse (Miniconjou Lakota), while here another victorious warrior Elk Head, Brule Lakota, tells his story of the very battle.
Custer, along with C, E, F, I, and L companies of  his 7th cavalry regiment (plus men from Major Reno and captain Benteen battalions), died fighting bravely on the Greasy Grass River (the other name for the battle). Some agree that  perhaps his victor can be identified as White Bull of the Miniconjous and author of White Bull Manuscript (nota bene the subject of one very entertaining biography written by Stanley Vestal titled ).

Short article on the battle by Charles King, another famous soldier of US Cavalry and fine writer ( this particular article wrongly attributed on archive.org) .

The battle had many famous native participants -

 Sitting Bull

Crazy Horse- from Amos Bad Heart Bull ledger

Low Dog

Gall

Rain in the Face

Crow King

and so on, and others on the government's side, including some associated with its aftermath, like Buffalo Bill Cody.

Richard Hook wrote and painted a very fine book for Osprey Miltiary Publishing titled Warriors at the Little Bighorn 1876, recreating the victorious Lakota and Cheyenne Indian participants

I will hoover, from time to time in the foreseeable future, over the Great Plains and the various horse cultures that developed, coexisted and finally clashed on the wide expanses of these harsh steppes and hillsides.

Photos and art are mostly from Wiki Commons, American master Russell painted the most native participants oriented piece, in watercolor.

I could not omit the famous horse participant and the survivor of the battle, Captain Keogh's mustang Comanche

Enjoy

ps
Boots and Saddles - by Mrs Elizabeth Custer - in audio form