The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-09-11

~EA the buffalo nckel' is not
@-A Chief Two Guns White Calf Of
- - the Blackfeet! For many years
II " such captions as Face You
w ~ Recognize on Buffalo Nickel"
w. TH you've His Portrait in Your
* Gg Pocket" 'You Garry His Pic
2 D ture-Perhaps" and His Face
@"NO is Worth a Fortune in Nick
els I" have appeared over pic
lures Of him in the newspapers Innumerable
tourists to Glacier National park in Montana
have exhibited to friends back home picture
which they took-of ''the buffalo nickel Indian"
In the many trips which Two Guns White Calf
has taken to all parts of the United States
he has been photographed, interviewed, adver-
tiSed and written up as the Indian whose like
ness appears every buffalo nickel" All Of
which has built up typical American myth.
And now it turns out that the buffalo nickel
Indian" isn't Chief Two Guns White Calf. In
the parlance of the day it's "two other fellows
or possibly three!
The authority for that statement is the man
who, if anyone should know. He is James
Earle Frazer, famous sculptor (if you Wis.,
tied the Panama-Pacific exposition in San Fran
cisco in 1915, perhaps you remember his strik-
ing piece of Indian statuary, (The End Of the
Trair) whose design for the buffalo nickel
accepted by officials of the United States Treas
ury department when plans for issuing that
The other day Mr. Frazer wrote a letter to
the Office Of Indian affairs in the United States
Department Of the Interior in which he said
that he had not used Two Guns White Calf as
his model. but that he had used the pro-
files of three other Indians for his design. One
was Chief Iron Tail of the Ogallala Sioux,
other was Chief Two Moons of the Northern
Cheyennes and the third an Indian whose
name he had forgotten OF course. if you in
sist upon cherishing the myth you can be-
lieve that the Glacier Park chief is the third
Indian whom Mr.. Frazer has forgotten. But
even that's difficult in face of the fact that
the sculptor was quoted as saying he chad
never seen Two Guns White Calf
But even though this does demolish our pop
ular beliefs" it has it's compensations. For one
thing it makes valid publicity story put out
by press agent! press agent yarns" espe-
cially those which have to do with the show
business-the theater, the circus, the movies,
eft cetera are more often than not of the kind
which require more than a grain of salt for
the taking. generation ago when the late
Col William F. Cody was amazing and de-
lighting two continents" with his famous Wild
West show, part of his personnel band
of Ogaala Sioux Indians from the Pine Ridge
reservation in South Dakota. Among them was
chief Cat least he was a chief in the show pro-
gram, whether the Ogallala looked upon him as
such noD named Iron Tail. Later Iron
Tail Travelled with the combined Buffalo Bill
and Pawnee Bill Wild West shows and still
later in the 101 Ranch show owned by the Miller
Brothers of Oklahoma and Edward Arlington.
Soon after the appearance of the buffalo
nickel some inspired press agent whose name
is unknown, had photograph (such as is shown
above) taken Of Iron Tail and one of the buff
faloes carried by the show and gave out the
information that this ''the original Indian
and buffalo the new buffalo nickel" Wheth-
he really knew that Frazer had used Iron
Tails profile in making his design is also I'M
known. Anyway, it was good story and the
press stuck to it. But for some reason the
story didn't "catch on" with the public. Per-
haps it was dismissed as "just another press
agent yarn even though there ele-
ment of truth in it.
In the next few years the Wild West show
business languished The automobile and i'm
proved roads began to make Americans a
of "motor gypsies." Instead of waiting for the
Wild West to be brought to them in tented
arenas they cranked up their cars and went
to see the Wild West, such there was of it
left, for themselves. Glacier park became
of the favOrte Meccas of the tourist and in adj
dition to its marvellous scenery there were also
Indians-real Indians in feathers and blankets
and paint to greet them with cultural "Howsr
One Of these who became best known was Two
Guns White Calf. And then some other I'M
known press agent-for whom or what the
present chronicler does not know-started that
yarn about Two Guns being the "original buff
falo nickel Indian" And this press agent who
had no real foundation for his story was be-
ieved where the other press agent who had
tried to tack that fame on Iron Tail and who
had real justification for his story wasn'ti
So the myth grew and grew until this year
when James Earle Frazer exploded it.
But more important than establishing the
veracity-in one at least !-of q press
agent, is the fact that Frazer's statement re-
calls once more the name of a really great In
dian chief and Americans may we'll look upon
the buffalo nickel with interest because
they now know that the Indian profile thereon
has in it some of the dignity and strength of
the features of Chief Two Moons of the
Northern CheyenneS. Both Two Guns White
Calf and Iron Tail had enough of that dignity
and strength to make them good models for
the sculptor and the painter and both have
been used for that purpose But neither was
the great native leader that Two Moons was