Lot 1138

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Description:

CHIEF TWO BEARS
Lakota Sioux chief who participated in the destruction of Custer and his command at the Little Bighorn. Two Bears' people were attacked by Gen. Alfred Sully at Whitestone Hill in the wake of the so-called 1862 Minnesota Sioux Uprising, resulting in 300 Sioux dead, and Sitting Bull was among those present when Sully's barrage commenced. Two Bears also accompanied Father Pierre Jean DeSmet when DeSmet attempted to persuade Sitting Bull to accept the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. With the establishment of Standing Rock Agency, Two Bears' people, the Burnt Lodges, became known in agency records as the Lower Yanktonais. Two Bears' band was comprised of some fifty-five families, some of which, disenchanted, left Standing Rock and joined the great alliance of 1876. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe today state that Chief Two Bears himself left the agency and participated at the Little Bighorn, which correlates with the military records of Captain Howe at Standing Rock in 1881, who entered Chief Two Bears among those who were present during Custer's defeat. Excessively rare D.S. with Two Bears' "mark", 2pp. folio, Office U.S. Indian Agent, Standing Rock, Jan. 20, 1880, a statement by Chief Two Bears as interpreted by Charles Primeau and Elien Agard. In part: "...On the 2nd day of Jany 1880 I met Running Antelope who invited me to a council to be held that day at Genl Carlins Office where we would get guns. I went and found about forty Indians there invited by Running Antelope. Also Genl Carlin who asked whether we wanted another Agent and we said 'How'. Then he asked us how long we had been fed on guts [on guts is crossed out but still legible] by the Indian Agent. Some said twenty-one days, others said eleven days, but I said No we always got meat....I then asked Genl Carlin whether he could get the land on the east side of the Missouri river back for us. He then promised me he would write to the great Father and try and get the land back...I am satisfied with our present Agent and believe him to be a great man who works for our best interest...". An interesting primary document sourcing the uneasy relationship between the business interests of the Agents and the struggles faced by tribal leaders to preserve their existence. File holes at top, transfer stains at top not affecting any text, very good.

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May 14, 2009 10:00 AM EDT
Stamford, CT, US

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