Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1901-08-31
INDIAN CHIEF AS AN ARTIST.
Black ncar,s Dearsikln Painting Of
the Details of the Custer
Massacre.


In the Brule Sioux encampment at
Glen island is drawn, in blue ink, q
medley of men and horses. The pic
ture in itself is so strange that it
arouses the curiosity of thousands OF
visitors, but few of them know that
It has any significance other than as
mere illustration of Indian life and
warfare, says the New York Mail and
Express.
The artist of the deerskin painting
Is Black Dear, whose family is housed
under it. Black Bear explained that
the figures on the deerskin are not
horses and men merely, but only de-
tails in q representation Of an his
toric event-the massacre OF Custer
and his men by the horde OF Sioux
under Sitting Bull.
81 was IN that fight" Black Bear ex-
planned. II was a young man then,
and / remember it was the biggest
thing in my life. think I make q
picture of it, so that all my people
know about it.
THAT man in the middle on the
horse, see him? That is Long
Hair" continued Black Bear, using
Clusters Indian name, derived from
his peculiar objection to wearing MS
hair in ordinary fashion.
"See how his hair wave out behind.
He ride alone. There is one o. his
men dead" and Black Bear pointed
to figure of man in @ SLOUGH nat
living down. "There is an other. In
dians are killing them.
"There are Indians on horses. They
ride round and round Long Hair.
They ride fast, and every time they
pass they kill some of his men. In
dams can ride fast and they can
shoot. Long Hair know that and he
fight we'll, but Indians were like the
dust the wind blows. No one can
count them. Long Hair must die and
he knows 1t. That horse he rides;
it is killed, but he fights on. 1 know
that because see It,"
Around the edge of the picture are
rows of Indians holding rifles to
their shoulders and all aiming ut the
center, where Custer stands alone.
"Those men all Sioux" said Black
Bear, "but they are different tribes.
The Ogalalas stand here. The Bruies
here. They sometimes fight each 9th.
er, but now they all fighting against
Long Hair"
Crude as the picture is, it conveys
an admirable idea of q multitude
against q handful. Nothing could
better illustrate the force Of superior
numbers than the circle of feather
hedecked savages closing in relent-
lessly on the one brave man who II
given the place Of Importance in the
center.
The artist is a good-natured Brule,
who is more than six feet tall. The
cordial way in whicn he shakes hands
with strangers, and his habitual smile
do not bear out his story, which he
tells proudly, of how he participated
in the Custer massacre and kill heap
white men,"
Black Bear is now a lieutenant in
the Indian police of the Rosebud res
ervation. Partly because of this fact
and because of his prowess in the
battle of the Little Big Horn, he is
looked upon with great respect by
the other Brules, and acts as sort OF
arbiter in disputes which arise among
them. He is never tired of telling
visitors to the Indian camp of the
glories and achievements of the Sioux
nation, He almost invariably refers
to them in the past tense, as though
his people were no longer capable OF
aa;-.- nnrtb;nor worthy of nraise from