Short bull

Short Bull in the spring of 1891

Short Bull , Indian name Tatanka Ptechela , (* around 1845 on the Niobrara River in Nebraska ; † around 1915 in the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota ) was a medicine man of the Brulé - ( Oglala ) - Lakota - Sioux , who lived in of the spirit dance movement of 1890 was one of the most important leaders. About this last struggle for freedom of his people, which ended bloody in December 1890 at Wounded Knee , he made several oral reports that were written down by various (white) people and published in books and magazines. To this end, he created numerous pictures in which he dealt with his life and world experience; also a number of songs (songs) have come down from him. - Short Bull, highly creative and visionary, conveyed something to the world that was of a high art.

Warrior and visionary

A picture of Short Bull depicting an argument between himself and three Pawnee Indians

Short Bull is said to have been born in an area somewhere along the Niobrara River. As a young warrior he fought against the Pawnee and Crow , the traditional enemies of the Sioux, and took part in the wars of the Plains Indians against the advance of the Americans in the 1860s and 1870s. In the Battle of Little Bighorn in June 1876, he is said to have been among the warriors of Chief Gall's Hunkpapa, who fought off the attack of Major Reno's soldiers and put them to flight. This success did not insignificantly decide the victory, because afterwards strong Indian forces were released, which could turn against Custer and so it is quite possible that Short Bull also took part in this fight. According to Little Bighorn, the Sioux tribes were forced to live on reservations within a few months.

Short Bull lived on the Great Sioux Reservation from 1877 to about 1889 . When the sun dance was banned there, he left the reservation with a group of his followers in 1879 to join Sitting Bull in Canada , but was intercepted shortly before the Canadian border and brought back to the reservation. From the next few years of his life to 1889, all that is known is that he occasionally transported goods from Valentine to the Rosebud Agency. In 1889 remaining stocks of the Sioux reservation were broken up into seven reservations and Short Bull moved to the Oglala in the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.

In the 1880s, living conditions in the Lakota reservations had deteriorated more and more. The main reasons for this were the drastic shortening of the promised beef rations and several years of drought in South Dakota, during which hardly anything could be harvested and the Indians often went hungry. In addition, there were diseases such as flu and whooping cough, from which many malnourished children died. All of this made the Lakota feel that they should be systematically exterminated. In 1889 a way out of this predicament seemed to be in sight for them when they heard something of a Messiah among the Paiute in the far west who prophesied the return of the old days. First the Lakota sent a group to the Shoshone in Wyoming to inquire . Soon after, another group was sent directly to the Prophet Wovoka , who lived on Walker Lake , Nevada . That delegation included Short Bull, his friend and brother-in-law Kicking Bear, and about seven other people. They learned from Wovoka that his prophecy would be fulfilled in the next year if they danced in a certain way for four nights every six weeks and bathed at the beginning of the fifth day. This crisis cult , known as the ghost dance, was a peaceful movement that soon spread brilliantly among the Lakota and many other Indian tribes.

From around April 1890, ghost dances were regularly performed throughout the Lakota reservations under the direction of Short Bull, Kicking Bear, and others. Probably more in line with their nature, their dance soon took on a warlike form that did not go back to Wovoka. Also new was the wearing of ghost dance shirts, the light material of which was provided with images and symbols and which should therefore be bulletproof.

Cuny Table in South Dakota on the edge of the Badlands, to which Short Bull fled with his supporters in 1890

As the ghost dance became more widespread, it was banned by government officials. But most of the Lakota ignored the ban, and so the agents in the reservations eventually called in the military. When this became known, many leaders and their groups fled to remote areas, including Short Bull, who went with his group of ghost dancers to the Badlands , where he was joined by Kicking Bear.

On December 15, 1890, Sitting Bull, who had absolutely nothing to do with the ghost dance movement but was regarded as one of its ringleaders, was shot in the Standing Rock Reservation. Two weeks later, the massacre at Wounded Knee took place, with which the "dangerous" appearance of the Indian spirit dance was officially eliminated. On January 16, 1891 Short Bull and Kicking Bear left the Badlands with their people, who are said to have counted over 3000 heads, and surrendered to General Nelson A. Miles (1839-1925). Together with other leaders, they were imprisoned at Fort Sheridan near Chicago , Illinois , and sentenced to prison terms. After Buffalo Bill aka William Frederick Cody got involved, they were offered parole if they would join his Wild West Show for a few years. She and a few other Lakota agreed and so her life took a significant turn.

Storyteller and artist

Short Bull (right) with Kicking Bear in 1891

In April 1891, the Wild West Show left America from Philadelphia on the Red Star Line's steamship Switzerland to tour Europe in various countries. In the course of time Short Bull got to know cities in Holland , Belgium , England and Germany . On the show, he will likely have performed ghost dances with the other Lakota.

As early as September 1891, Short Bull gave a first and very detailed report on the ghost dance movement, which George C. Crager, employed by Cody as an interpreter for the Indians and also a journalist, wrote down on 20 pages and named As Narrated by Short Bull (Wie Short Bull reported) titled. This report was also published immediately, and experts (such as the anthropologist James Mooney [1861–1921] for his book on the ghost dance published in 1896) soon took advantage of it. In addition, Short Bull created many pictures during the trip, some of which were also published and many others were acquired by the Museum für Völkerkunde in Leipzig .

Most of Short Bull's pictures are said to have been collected by the American ethnographer and music ethnologist Natalie Curtis (1875–1921). To this end, she printed a report ( narrative ) by Short Bull in her Indian book ( Indians' Book ) published in 1907 along with some songs . In a comment on the book, she describes Short Bull as a serious man whose face is engraved with the noble sorrow of his race : The noble sorrow of his race is graven on his face. (Natalie Curtis, originally a concert pianist, has set notes and published around 200 songs from various Indian tribes.)

Short Bull photographed by Frederick Weygold in 1909 as a ghost dancer: he wears a ghost dance shirt and is holding a fan made of eagle feathers in his right hand. The feather on the left arm, held by a strip of fox fur, shows its function in the ghost dance

In the summer of 1909 the ethnographer and painter Frederick Weygold (1870–1941) visited the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Oglala on behalf of the Völkerkundemuseum Hamburg to take photos of the country and its people. He also photographed Short Bull, who poses as a ghost dancer on this shot with a large feather hood, a ghost dance shirt painted with rings and some other ghost dance utensils. The picture, which was also used in a technically highly processed form as the cover picture for the book Hostiles ?: The Lakota Ghost Dance of 1890 (2006), confirms Natalie Curtis' impression of Short Bull. Frederick Weygold photographed Medicine Hill (Medicine Hill) , a survey on the edge of the Badlands that got its name from the fact that Short Bull spent three days and three nights at its peak in order to achieve visions. During this encounter, Short Bull also talked a lot about the ghost dance movement, about which Frederick Weygold made extensive notes, in which he casually noted that the ghost dance movement was by no means entirely dead among the Oglala and, almost two decades after its alleged elimination, still active followers in Pine Ridge. Weygold photographed small children in ghost dance shirts, which they wore to ward off illness, and he bought a ghost dance tent from Short Bull for the museum in Hamburg, which had long served as a meeting place for the ghost dancers (until 1909?).

Short Bull made a last major report on the ghost dance movement in 1915. This year, as is often stated, he should also have died. However, this year of death is not documented.

Trivia

Detail from the Fort Dearborn Massacre Monument. The figure on the left is Short Bull, the figure on the right is a Kicking Bear

• In 1893, Short Bull is said to have acted as an actor and consultant in a Wild West film (Wounded Knee Massacre?) By Buffalo Bill.
• For the Fort Dearborn Massacre Monument in Chicago (1893/94), the Danish-American sculptor Carl Rohl-Smith (1848–1900) used Short Bull and Kicking Bear as models in a group of figures depicting a dramatic event during an argument (Battle of Fort Dearbon) between US forces and Potawatomi in 1812.
• For film recordings of the inventor Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) Short Bull was hired in 1894 together with the art shooter Annie Oakley (1860-1926) as an actor.
• The American sculptor, graphic artist and writer Leonard Baskin (1922–2000) created a portrait (color lithograph) of Short Bull around 1973.

literature

• Wolfgang Haberland, Frederick Weygold: Ich, Dakota: Pine Ridge Reservation 1909 , Verlag Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-496-01038-X
• Wolfgang Haberland: The Oglala Collection Weygold in the Hamburg Museum of Ethnology , Parts 1-9, messages from the Museum of Ethnology Hamburg, Volumes 3-4, 6-8, 10-12, 14; Hamburg 1973-1984
• Rani-Henrik Andersson: The Lakota Ghost Dance of 1890 , University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 2008
• Sam A. Maddra: Hostiles ?: The Lakota Ghost Dance and Buffalo Bill's Wild West , University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 2006
• Ronald McCoy: Short Bull: Lakota Visionary, Historian and Artist , American Indian Art Magazine 1992, 17 (3): 54-65
• James Mooney: The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux outbreak of 1890 , University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1991 (first printed in 1896, Washington)
• James R. Walker, Raymond J. DeMallie, Elaine A. Jahner: Lakota Belief and Ritual , University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1980
• Natalie Curtis: The Indians' Book: Songs and Legends of the American Indians , Dover Publications, New York 1950

Web links

• Internet Archive The Indians' Book by Natalie Curtis in the first edition from 1907. The title page for the chapter Dakota (before page 37) shows a drawing by Short Bull. On page 44 Short Bull is described and a photo of him is shown (digitized) ; on page 45 a short bull's narrative by him; from page 47 onwards some songs.
• The University of Oklahoma Letters (manuscripts in English) from Frederick Weygold to the historian Stanley Vestal alias Walter Stanley Campbell with remarks about Short Bull. (Also the book The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 [1896] by James Mooney with Processing marks from Stanley Vestal.)

Remarks

1. ↑ On the Pine Ridge Reservation, Short Bull seems to have viewed himself entirely as an Oglala. Apparently you belonged to the group you had chosen yourself. This basic system, which can only be grasped in parts and in which many questions are still open, was alien to European-American ideas in its flexibility, if not incomprehensible, but ideally adapted to the unsteady life of the Indians as hunting nomads. (after Wolfgang Haberland in Ich, Dakota: Pine Ridge Reservation 1909 , [1986], page 16)