Auction Date:2009 Jun 24 @ 10:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
Location:6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
"All the Agents kept me for a fool"---a Rare, Documented Plains Indian Ledger Drawing and Accompanying Historical Letter
lot of 2. Includes a 2.5 pp manuscript letter sent from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, April 11, 1886 written on single ruled lettersheet, along with the original transmittal envelope, addressed to Buffalo Chips. Pine Ridge Agency. Montana Territory, sent by Roman Nose a Northern Cheyenne internee at the post guardhouse. While a 2 cent stamp is affixed to the cover, it has not been cancelled; the letter was never sent.
In the letter, Roman Nose informs Buffalo Chips that:
I was caught last year by Ben Clark and am in confinement at the Post Guard House now 9 months and I can't complain. I get all I want to eat and am treated well...but I can't tell you how long I have to stay here. I have been feeling well since I came here and am out to work most every day. I am confined in a room that is well ventilated and very large. I have a stove in it. Well Buffalo Chips I will write to you and wish you would let me know if my mother is well yet and my sister...How many children she has got [?] I wish you would let me know. I want to let you know that my daughter was killed by Ben Clark. One of my daughters has the name of Spotted Horse and the other Sail Along Eagle. I wish you would let me know if my [first, Lakota] wife is alive yet. I would like to know what has become of my ponnies. I have been 9 years at Fort Reno and all the Agents kept me for a fool. I was not poor but I always had enough to dress well...Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain your friend, Roman Nose.
Accompanied by a 5" x 3" ruled sheet with a drawing in colored pencil depicting the disembodied head of a Cheyenne man wearing an otter fur turban with trailing tail, and decorated with green silk ribbons, silver spots and three eagle feathers dyed red and green. His face is painted red, with a surround of lightning. Blood streams from the mouth of the figure, with 4 streaking bullets shown drawing blood. The letter clearly was dictated by Roman Nose. We believe this drawing is a self-portrait included by him in the nature of a personal "signature" which the intended recipient, Buffalo Chips, would recognize because he had been present during the battle in which Roman Nose was wounded, and perhaps rescued him. Also, the otter turban was included because it was an article of identifying clothing which would confirm the identity of the sender.
Found among the papers of General Thomas H. Ruger, this letter documents the plight of the half Cheyenne-half Sioux medicine man Roman Nose (not to be confused with the war leader of the same name who died in 1868). In the early-1880s, White immigrants illegally trespassing onto the Cheyenne Reservation in Indian Territory often tried to seize Indian land. This caused frequent conflicts, in one of which Roman Nose was alleged to have killed a White woman. The New York Times reported July 5, 1885:
Leavenworth, Kansas. Chief Roman Nose, a renegade Sioux Indian who has been living with the Cheyennes some years and who with a small following has been a disturbing element in the Indian Territory...was brought into Fort Leavenworth yesterday a prisoner of the Ninth (colored) Cavalry. He was in irons and closely guarded...He is about 45 years old and is said to have killed 12 men in various single combats. Roman Nose is of medium height, muscular, and looks like a bad Indian. He is inclined to be talkative, but the guards will not permit him to converse. He will be held for the present...
On Christmas day, 1885, The New York Times reported further:
Leavenworth, Kansas. The Indian Chief Roman Nose, who is confined in the guardhouse at Fort Leavenworth, is to be returned to the civil authorities. During the commencement of the outbreak in the Territory last spring he murdered a white woman, for which he was arrested...in June. The Attorney-general has instructed District Attorney Perry of Kansas to proceed against him in the Federal Courts on the charge of murder. He will be placed in the county jail here to await trial... A similar report appeared in the Arkansas City [Kansas] Republican, January 2, 1886, but concludes: This Indian has been at Fort Leavenworth since last June and was brought from the Territory for safe keeping, as he gave the Agent much trouble... No allegation of murder is mentioned.
The Cheyenne Transporter [Darlington, Indian Territory], March 15, 1886, gave more of the story:
A dispatch of the 6th from Leavenworth says Roman Nose, the Indian chief confined in the post guard house attempted to commit suicide last night by hanging himself to the bars at the top of his cage with a 1 1/8 inch rope. He procured a rope while doing his duties around the garrison and secreting it about his person, carried it into his cell. He then tied it into the bars with a noose at the lower end; then climbing up the side he stuck his head into the noose and swung off. The knot was not strong enough to hold him and he fell to the floor. The noise attracted the attention of the sentry and rushing in he found the would-be suicide lying on the floor, bleeding but still conscious. He is all right today and says the cause of the deed was that he was lonesome.
Five weeks later, the letter to Buffalo Chips was written. This correspondent is of particular significance, because he was an adherent of the legendary Oglala chief Crazy Horse. The day before Crazy Horse was killed, the first week in September, 1877, he traveled to Camp Sheridan, D.T. There, he was met by the commander Major Burke and other soldiers. Buffalo Chips, apparently fearing that the chief might be harmed, rushed up and interposed himself between Crazy Horse and the soldiers, saying: "Crazy Horse is brave, but he feels too weak to die today. Kill me---Kill me!" (Hardorff, The Death of Crazy Horse, 2001: 101). This suggests that during his time in the north, Roman Nose may also have been associated with the celebrated chief.
We have been unable to find any notice that the case came to trial. Either Roman Nose died while imprisoned, or was incarcerated longer than two years, for the June 30, 1887, census of the Southern Cheyenne tribe (Oklahoma Historical Society) lists as Nos. 832-834 a Mrs. Roman Nose, 37 years of age, with two daughters nine and seven years old. No husband is listed. Eight other Cheyenne men with the name Roman Nose appear in the 1887 census, but all may be recognized as different individuals than the author of this letter and drawing.
Gen. Thomas H. Ruger was in command of Fort Leavenworth from June 29, 1885, just before Roman Nose was imprisoned there, until April 8, 1886, three days before Roman Nose dictated his letter, when he was appointed Brigadier-general and transferred to command of the Department of the Missouri (Col. John Wainwright, Officers of the Volunteer Army and Navy who Served in the Civil War, 1893.) Undoubtedly he was leaving the fort on April 11th or 12th, and took Roman Nose's letter with him, along with military mail to be sent onward at the first post office. Why he did not do so must remain a mystery, but the applied stamp suggests that had been his intention. Perhaps it was overlooked in the haste of his departure.
Mike Cowdrey
San Luis Obispo, CA
Descended directly in the family of General Thomas H. Ruger
Condition:
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| Tax | Rate | Desc. |
| Ohio |
5.5% |
Ohio State Tax |
Buyer's Premiums:
| From (Incl.) | To (Excl.) | Premium |
| 0.00 |
Infinite |
17.5% |
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