Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Ledger drawings
Date:
1875 August
Scope and Contents:
Artist's sketchbook, now disbound, containing scenes of daily life, dances, hunting and a picture of birds. Individual leaves numbered 1 through 23. Cover of the drawing book inscribed in pencil "Drawn by Making Medicine, Cheyenne Prisoner, St. Augustine, Fla. Aug. 1875." Inscriptions on individual leaves by same hand, probably Lt. Richard Pratt.
Biographical / Historical:
Fort Marion, also known as Castillo de San Marco, is a stone fortress in St. Augustine, Florida. Between 1875 and 1878, seventy-two prisoners from the southern plains were incarcerated in the fort under supervision of Lt. Richard Pratt. The prisoners consisted of 27 Kiowas, 33 Cheyennes, 9 Comanches, 2 Arapahos, and a single Caddo. With the exception of one Cheyenne woman, all the prisoners were men. They had been accused of participating in the recent Red River War, earlier hostilities, or both. With the exception of the wife and daughter of one of the Comanche men, the prisoners families were not allowed to accompany them to Fort Marion. For further information on Fort Marion see Karen Daniels Petersen, Plains Indian Art from Fort Marion, University of Oklahoma Press, 1971 and Richard Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom, ed. by R. M. Utley, Yale University Press, 1964.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 39A
OPPS NEG 55,025 - 55,046
Local Note:
The original identification of the artist as Making Medicine based on the inscription is in error, based on comparison to other known examples of the artist's work, including Ms. 39B. Re-identified as anonymous Cheyenne artist by Candace Greene, 2002.