Book of Sketches Made at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Fla. ca. 1875-1878 Guide to the Collection The original sketch book has been removed to Special Collections. Photocopies, microfilm, and digital images are available for use by researchers.

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketches Sources Collection Description Acquisition Information Restrictions on Access List of Sketches Preferred Citation Access Terms

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketches

Making Medicine (1844-1931)

Making Medicine (Cheyenne name: O-kuh-ha-tuh, or "Sun Dancer") was a Cheyenne warrior who became one of the most prolific of the Indian artists at Fort Marion and first sergeant of the company of guards there. When the Fort Marion prisoners were released in the spring of 1878, Making Medicine went to New York to be educated in the Christian ministry. He took the name David Pendleton Oakerhater after the family that sponsored him (the family of Senator George Pendleton), was ordained an Episcopal deacon on 7 June 1881, and worked as a missionary among the Plains Indian tribes for many years.

Note: Oklahoma State University has digitized many items related to David Pendleton Oakerhater at: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Oakerhater/index.html.

Bear's Heart (1851-1882)

Bear's Heart (Cheyenne name: Nock-ko-ist) was a Cheyenne Indian warrior. After his release from Fort Marion, he attended the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia and worked as a carpenter on a reservation in Oklahoma. He died of tuberculosis.

Buffalo Meat (1847-1917)

Buffalo Meat (Cheyenne name: O-e-wo-toh) was a Cheyenne warrior and later a deacon in the Baptist church. He died of tuberculosis.

Etah-dle-uh Doanmoe (1856-1888)

Etah-dle-uh Doanmoe (English name: Boy Hunting, a.k.a. Edwin Dunmoe) was a Kiowa warrior who served as quartermaster sergeant of the guards at Fort Marion. After his release, he attended Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia and Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 1880, he worked briefly at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He returned to the Indian Territory as a Presbyterian missionary in 1888.

Co-hoe (1853-1924)

Co-hoe (English name: Broken Leg) was a Cheyenne warrior who attended Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute after his imprisonment at Fort Marion.

Koba (1848-1880)

Koba (English name: Wild Horse) was a Kiowa Indian warrior. After his release from Fort Marion, he attended Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, worked on a farm in Massachusetts, and studied to be a tinsmith at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He died of tuberculosis on a trip back to Indian Territory.

Tsait-kope-ta (1852-1910)

Tsait-kope-ta (English name: Bear Mountain) was a Kiowa warrior who later took the name Paul Caruthers.

Howling Wolf (1849-1927)

Howling Wolf (Cheyenne name: Ho-na-nist-to) was a Cheyenne warrior who was appointed sergeant of the guards at Fort Marion. When he was released in the spring of 1878, he intended to remain in the east to continue his education, but his eyesight was failing. After undergoing unsuccessful treatment in Boston, he returned to Indian Territory and rejoined his people on the reservation. Disillusioned by the poverty there, he spoke out for the rights of Indians and against the encroachment of Anglo-American culture, including the implementation of the Dawes Act in 1887. He died in a car accident.

Francis Parkman (1823-1893)

Francis Parkman was a Boston historian and Harvard professor who traveled extensively in North America and Europe. His books include The Oregon Trail (1849), The History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac (1851), and France and England in North America (7 vols., 1865-1892). He lived with the Sioux Indians for a few weeks in 1846.

Sources

Lookingbill, Brad D. War Dance at Fort Marion: Plains Indian War Prisoners. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.

Petersen, Karen Daniels. Plains Indian Art from Fort Marion. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.

Pratt, Richard Henry. Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian, 1867-1904. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964.

Viola, Herman J. Warrior Artists: Historic Cheyenne and Kiowa Indian Ledger Art Drawn by Making Medicine and Zotom. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1998.

See also the Massachusetts Historical Society's "Focus On: Indian Ledger Art": http://www.masshist.org/objects/cabinet/october2001/october2001.html.

See also the National Museum of American History's "Keeping History: Plains Indian Ledger Drawings": http://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/ledger_drawing_1.html.

Collection Description

This sketch book of Indian ledger art contains hand-colored sketches made by Making Medicine and others, including Bear's Heart, Buffalo Meat, Etah-dle-uh Doanmoe, and Koba, Indian prisoners at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. Indians prisoners, primarily Cheyenne and Kiowa, were held at Fort Marion for almost three years in an effort by the U.S. military to prevent further Indian uprisings after the Red River War of 1874-1875.

Also included in this collection is a map by Howling Wolf, sent as a message to his father in the form of a picture map on a postcard, of his voyage from Fort Marion to Savannah, Ga.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mrs. John Forbes Perkins, Jan. 1956. Removed from the Francis Parkman papers (Ms. N-645 Tall).

Restrictions on Access

The original sketch book has been removed to Special Collections. Photocopies, microfilm, and digital images are available for use by researchers.

List of Sketches

Use the links below to access digital images of each page.

Preferred Citation

Book of sketches made at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Fla., Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.