Dinosaurs in the Attic (34 page)

LITTLE FINGER NAIL

The word
artifact
comes from the Latin
arte factum,
meaning something made with skill. The word hardly conveys the rich associations that are invested in each artifact. Museum collectors did not make aesthetic decisions when collecting artifacts; they were much more interested in what the artifact signified to the people who created it. An ordinary wad of feathers tied in a bundle would not be collected because of its beauty, but because it was considered an object of magic and power. As recently as several years ago, a group of Indian chiefs visited the Museum and conducted ceremonies with some of the magical objects from their tribes that are stored in the sixth-floor vaults, as these were objects of greater power than anything which survived in the tribes today.

In our own somewhat spiritually barren culture, we do not think of objects as being charged with spiritual power or meaning. Most primitive cultures, however, believe in some form of animism, a class of religions in which a spirit or power dwells in everything, including such "inanimate" things as stones and earth. Thus the so-called artifacts of a culture are not just an inert group of objects to be taken apart and studied by anthropologists. Anthropologists do not normally study
artifacts;
instead, they try to understand the great invisible body of meaning that lies behind and within an object. The concept of an object being art—that is, a skillfully made object that excites aesthetic pleasure in and of itself—is foreign to most cultures. "Art" is a peculiarly Western idea. Philosophically, this is where the American Museum of Natural History differs from an art museum: Artifacts in the Museum are displayed in their cultural context, so the visitor can understand how they were used and
what they meant.
An art museum will often display pieces more or less divorced from their historical and cultural context, because the viewer is meant to appreciate them for their aesthetic qualities alone.

An example of an "artifact" that is highly charged with history and meaning can be found in the Plains Indians Hall at the Museum. It also shows how the histories of many artifacts have become entwined with the history of our own culture—the native culture of the anthropologist. If we look into one of the cases toward the back of the hall, we will find a ledger book of the kind made during the nineteenth century—tall and narrow, with a cloth binding and ruled pages. The book has been pierced by a bullet, and faint marks—bloodstains—are on the cover. Inside the book are drawings by a young Northern Cheyenne Indian named Little Finger Nail, depicting, in scenes of courtship and battle, the last months of his life.

This ledger was one of two given to the Museum by the estate of Joseph Cuyler Hardie. Hardie's brother Francis was a cavalry officer during the Indian wars, and he had found the bullet-pierced ledger on Little Finger Nail's body following the massacre of the Indian's tribe. He sent the two ledgers to his brother with the following letter, which has been preserved in Museum archives:

Post of San Antonio, Texas

September 21, 1889

Only the canvas covered book has any special history, the book with the bullet hole in it. It was, or rather the pictures were, drawn by a Northern Cheyenne Indian while in confinement at Fort Robinson, Nebraska during the winter of '78, '79. I was then Post Adjutant. I endeavored to get the book but its owner and maker refused to part with it for any price. So I gave the matter up. It purports to depict the deeds of several of the Northern Cheyennes during their famous march from Indian Territory to Wyoming Territory. The outbreak of the Cheyennes is well known, and [as] a consequence of the outbreak, I got the book in this manner. Four troops ... commanded by Captain Wessels, who by the way was severely wounded, surrounded the hostiles and charged upon them killing all the bucks and unfortunately in the melee, some women and children, but previous to the charge I saw an Indian with the book pressed down between his naked skin and a strap around his waist, another strap went between the middle of the book and around his shoulder. I turned to private Laselle of H troop who was near me and said, "I want that book if we come out all right." Several other of the enlisted men heard me also. When the fight was over, and as the dead Indians were being pulled out of the rifle pit, they drew out finally my Indian with the book, apparently dead; the book was injured to the extent of a carbine ball through it and was more or less covered with fresh blood. This fight took place near Bluff Station, Wyoming Territory, January 22, 1879. This fight was the closing one of a series of fights with the Indians, and they perished to a man.

In haste,
Frank

Little Finger Nail was probably born in the late 1850s, and came of age while the Cheyenne and other Native American tribes were engaged in the final struggle to retain what remained of their lands and way of life. The history of the ledger really begins in 1876, during the Indian Wars, when General Ranald Mackenzie surprised the settlement of Northern Cheyennes at their camp on Crazy Woman's Fork of the Powder River. Mackenzie's attack was sudden and swift, and the Cheyenne fled into the fastnesses of the Bighorn Mountains, leaving behind their winter stores, teepees, and other belongings, which Mackenzie burned. The Cheyenne were led by two chiefs, Dull Knife (also called Morning Star), and Little Wolf. That winter the Cheyennes suffered so badly from frostbite and starvation that in April 1877 the tribe voluntarily surrendered at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

At that time the government had plans to resettle many of the Plains Indian tribes in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), where they were to learn farming, build houses, and generally behave like the white settlers. Thus the government ordered the tribe moved south, claiming that the Cheyenne had agreed to the resettlement in a treaty signed with General Sheridan in 1868. Dull Knife protested, saying that if there was such a clause in the treaty, Sheridan had lied to them about the contents of the document. But the government insisted, and at last pressured Dull Knife into acquiescence by promising him that he and his people could return if they didn't like life in Indian Territory.

In August 1877 the Cheyenne arrived at their new home, the Darlington Agency, in present-day Oklahoma. Here they were told to settle down, live in cabins, grow crops, and in general act like the white man. But it was miserable, barren land, and the Indians were unused to this foreign way of life. Almost immediately, two-thirds of the tribe came down with malaria and other diseases. The water was bad and the rations scarce, even inedible. The government, which had promised to support the Indians until they could adjust to their new, forced way of life, couldn't even provide them with enough food to survive. Mackenzie himself—that veteran Indian fighter—protested to Washington about the terrible conditions imposed upon the Indians, and called it "a great wrong." He asserted that the Indians were "starving."

Nothing was done. The Cheyenne finally told the head of the agency, "We are sickly and dying here, and no one will speak our names when we are gone. We will go north at all hazards, and if we die in battle our names will be remembered and cherished by all our people."

At dawn on September 9, 1878, the Cheyenne carried out their plan. Led by Dull Knife and Little Wolf, most of the band decamped from the reservation and started the eight-hundred-mile journey north. Thus began the famous Cheyenne march from Indian Territory to Wyoming Territory—and the events that Little Finger Nail recorded in his ledger.

Little Wolf had been fighting white men since 1856, and he warned the younger warriors that they were not to start any battles with soldiers, or attack settlers or cowboys. Any provocative actions, he realized, would likely bring swift retribution. As the march north continued, they were attacked by soldiers again and again, the tribe fighting defensively and retreating whenever it could.

When they neared Dodge City, however, the Cheyenne were again attacked, this time by soldiers and cowboys. Although the Cheyenne repulsed the attack, many of the young warriors, including Little Finger Nail, felt angry and wanted revenge. They needed horses and food, and were tired of restraint and retreat. The next day some of them raided a cow camp, killed four whites, and captured some horses and mules. As the band moved northward, the young men continued to raid settlements north of Dodge City, especially along Sappa and Beaver creeks. There, three years earlier, buffalo hunters and soldiers had massacred Cheyenne women and children. In retaliation, Little Finger Nail and his companions shot the same number of whites as the whites had killed of Indians. In a single raid they captured over two hundred horses.

Little Finger Nail later recorded many of these incidents in his book. In one drawing we see a warrior galloping through a hail of bullets, a young man on a horse counting coup on a fallen settler, a camp of buffalo hunters, and a smiling warrior galloping off with stolen U.S. Cavalry horses. One scene depicts a major battle with government troops, probably one of several skirmishes outside Dodge City. Scattered among the battles and raids are scenes of courtship, since Little Finger Nail was apparently courting one or more of the young girls of the tribe.
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In the closing years of the Indian Wars, ledger-book Indian art became increasingly common. Earlier warrior art had usually been painted on buffalo hides and tipi covers, and represented important scenes in the life of a warrior. Some warriors painted their own scenes, but more often a warrior would ask an artist in the tribe to outline the figures in paint. He would recount to the artist the incidents he wanted depicted, giving specific details such as descriptions of horses, number of troops, and brands on captured horses and cattle. The figures would then be colored in by the warrior himself. To prepare black paint, the artist would mix ashes and buffalo blood; for various earth colors, he would blend different iron-bearing clays with the gluey residue of hide scrapings. When pencils, crayons, and watercolors became available, the Indians quickly adopted them, as they offered both convenience and a wider range of colors. The Indians also acquired ledger books in which to draw. From the Indians' point of view, these were superior to hides for several reasons: first, when U.S. soldiers raided Indian villages during the Indian wars, they often burned the tipis, thus destroying the buffalo hides and the artwork upon them. The ledger books, on the other hand, could be carried away to safety. More important, the Indians believed the drawings offered magical protection and—unlike hides—could be carried into battle.

The Cheyenne continued north and finally crossed the South platte River on October 4, 1878. Here, Little Wolf and Dull Knife disagreed as to where the tribe should go. Little Wolf wanted to head farther north toward Canada, while Dull Knife wanted to go to the Red Cloud Agency, where he thought the Sioux were encamped. So the group split, and Little Finger Nail joined Dull Knife in heading toward Red Cloud.

Winter came early, and before the Cheyenne reached their destination, U.S. soldiers surprised them during a blinding snowstorm and captured the entire group. While being escorted to Fort Robinson, Nebraska, the Indians secretly took apart their best firearms and hid the parts, with ammunition, among the clothing of the women and children.

At Fort Robinson the Cheyenne were given a great deal of freedom as long as they stayed within the fort, while the fort's captain, Henry Wessels, waited for word from Washington about what to do with the Indians. It was here that Frank Hardie noticed Little Finger Nail making drawings in his ledger book.

All went well until one of the Cheyenne disappeared. Wessels immediately imprisoned all the Cheyenne in their barracks, and kept them there even after the Indian returned several days later. Meanwhile, Wessels had also received orders from General Sheridan that the Cheyenne were to go south. When Wessels relayed this message to Dull Knife, the Chief gave his famous and eloquent reply:

    All we ask is to be allowed to live, and to live in peace. I seek no war with anyone. An old man, my fighting days are done. We bowed to the will of the Great Father and went far into the south where he told us to go. There we found a Cheyenne cannot live.... To stay there would mean all of us would die.... We thought it better to die fighting to regain our old homes than to perish of sickness. Then our march was begun. You know the rest.

Tell the Great Father that Dull Knife and his people ask only to end their days here in the north where they were born. Tell him we want no more war.... Tell him if he tries to send us back we will butcher each other with our own knives. I have spoken.

Wessels relayed Dull Knife's message to Washington and received the following reply from General Sheridan: "Unless they are sent back to where they came from, the whole reservation system will receive a shock which will endanger its stability."

When Dull Knife was told of Sheridan's response, he said: "Great Grandfather sends us death in that letter. You will have to kill us and take our bodies back down that trail. We will not go."

Wessels decided to force compliance by securely locking the Indians in one barracks and cutting off all their food, fuel, and water. What he didn't know about was the Indians' secret cache of weapons parts and ammunition. On January 8, 1879, the Indians covered the windows of the barracks with blankets, in preparation for reassembling the rifles and pistols. Thinking the Indians might be planning an escape, Wessels increased the guard on the barracks and hired a blacksmith to wrap chains across the locked doors. The Cheyenne ripped up the floorboards to make clubs, and were able to assemble twelve rifles and three pistols from the cache of parts. Then, on the evening of January 9, the Indians painted their faces and made ready for their escape.

At 9:45
P.M.
, two Indians, one of whom was probably Little Finger Nail, knocked out two windows and killed the sentries at the southwestern and western ends of the barracks. Within seconds, the other Indians opened fire on the guards as the rest of the tribe began climbing through the broken windows.