Amos Bad Heart Bull
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Amos Bad Heart Bull, also known as Waŋblí Wapȟáha (Eagle Bonnet; c. 1868–1913), was a noted
Early years
Born about 1868 or 1869, Amos was the son of Bad Heart Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Čhaŋtéšiča) and his wife Red Blanket (Tȟašína Lúta Wiŋ). Amos' father was a brother of the headman He Dog and a nephew of the famous Oglala chief Red Cloud.[1] Known as Eagle Bonnet (Waŋblí Wapȟáha) as a young man, Amos grew up living the traditional life of the Oglala Lakota. His family belonged to an Oglala camp known as the Soreback Band. He was eight years old when George Armstrong Custer's column attacked the large Indian village in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1875. The Sioux decisively defeated Custer's forces.
At the end of the
They were transferred to the
Becoming an artist
As a young man, Amos Bad Heart Bull showed interest in the history of the Oglala, and began to draw pictures depicting traditional lifeways and events. The people have a tradition of drawing pictographs to show history, generally drawn and painted on animal skins. This is known as the winter count. Amos' father was the tribal historian and used such a technique.
In 1890, Amos Bad Heart Bull enlisted in the U.S. Army as an Indian scout and learned to speak English. He served at
This was part of a development called
After returning to Pine Ridge after serving his enlistment, Bad Heart Bull made his living as a small cattleman. He became the tribal historian of the Oglala Lakota, as his father had been before him. After the allocation of communal lands of the Pine Ridge Reservation under the Dawes Act, Bad Heart Bull received his land allotment along Black Tail Creek northwest of Oglala, South Dakota, near other members of the Soreback Band.
Marriage and family
He married after returning to Pine Ridge Reservation. Their only daughter, Victoria, was born in 1909 but died four months later. His wife died in 1910 and Amos died on August 3, 1913.
Bad Heart Bull papers
At the time of his death, Amos' sketchbook was given to his younger sister, Dolly Pretty Cloud. In the 1930s, she was contacted by Helen Blish, a graduate student from the
In the 1930s, Hartley Burr Alexander, Blish's professor, had Bad Heart Bull's drawings photographed as a record and to accompany Blish's theses. He published them with an introduction and notes in a book, Sioux Indian Painting (1938).
Through Alexander's admiration of Bad Heart Bull's work, and Alexander's position as thematic consultant for the construction of the Nebraska State Capitol, Bad Heart Bull is noted as a primary thematic design influence on the Nebraska State Capitol, particularly in its East Chamber (its original Senate chamber).
With the rise of interest in Native American history and culture, in 1967, the University of Nebraska Press published Blish's thesis as A Pictographic History of the Oglala Sioux. It included the drawings of Amos Bad Heart Bull. The reproductions were based on copies of the original prints of the photographs of the drawings.
In the years since, scholars have come to view the Amos Bad Heart Bull images as a very important contribution to Lakota history and culture.
Translation of his name
A literal translation of the Lakota word čhaŋtéšiče is "he has a bad heart", but an idiomatic meaning is "he is sad." Tȟatȟáŋka Čhaŋtéšiče would likely have been understood in the same way "Sad Bull" would be in English. When Lakota names are translated literally into English, they may lose their idiomatic sense.
See also
- List of Native American artists
- Plains hide painting
- Winter count, traditional Plains calendars
References
- ^ Lester, Patrick D., The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters, SIR Publications, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 9780806199369, page 35-36, First edition, 1995
Further reading
- Alexander, Hartley Burr, Sioux Indian Painting ... With introduction and notes by Hartley Burr Alexander (Nice, France: C. Szwedzicki, 1938).
- Helen Blish, A Pictographic History of the Oglala Sioux (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1967).
- Ephriam D. Dickson III, "Reconstructing the Indian Village at the Little Bighorn: The Cankahuhan or Soreback Band, Oglala," Greasy Grass, 2006, pp. 2–14.