Tracing of a Cheyenne drawing
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: NAA MS 409978

NAA INV 08602500
name: label: Collector
content: Bourke, John Gregory, 1846-1896
label: Artist
content: Unknown
label: Depicted
content: Yellow Nose, 1848-1910
place: label: Place
content: North America
creator: label: Collector
content: Bourke, John Gregory, 1846-1896
label: Artist
content: Unknown
culture: label: Culture
content: Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne)
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: John Gregory Bourke (1846-1896) was an Army captain and prolific writer. A graduate of West Point, Bourke spent most of his military career in the Northern Plains under Brigadier General George Crook. After serving in these campaigns from 1869-1888, Bourke was given some time off from his military duties to study Native people. He compiled ethnological accounts of the Apache and several other tribes in the Southwest.
label: Biographical Note
content: Yellow Nose, also known as Little Face, Hehuwesse, He-her-we, (1848-1910) was a Ute captured as a young boy by Dives Backward and raised within Northern Cheyenne society by his adopted father Spotted Wolf. He is recorded to have participated in the Battle of Rosebud (June 17th, 1876) and the Battle of Little Bighorn (June 25-26th, 1876) where he reportedly 1) lost a famous shield made by Whistling Elk (later acquired by the NMAI) 2) captured the guidon of the 7th Cavalry and 3) strangled Custer to death with his bare hands. After the Battle of Little Big Horn, Yellow Nose traveled with a group of Northern Cheyenne led by Little Wolf and Dull Knife eventually making camp along the Powder River. The group was attacked by General Ranald McKenzie in the Battle of Crazy Woman Fork (November 20th, 1876). During this battle Yellow Nose distracted the US soldiers, allowing the women and children to escape, and sustained a shot to the chest. Eventually, the group, including Yellow Nose, was captured and removed to the southern Cheyenne reservation in present-day Oklahoma, where Yellow Nose remained for the remainder of his life.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Drawings (visual works) (colored pencil, crayon, and ink on tracing paper, laminated, 15.25 x 11.25 inches)
unitdate: label: Date
content: undated
container: label: Container
content: Box 409978
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: This tracing was received September 9, 1968 from Mrs. A.B. Richardson, the daughter of the collector John Gregory Bourke. In exchange for the tracing, Mrs. Richardson received a drawing that had been donated to the USNM by her mother, Mary Bourke, widow of John Gregory Bourke, on April 28, 1897 (USNM Accession 31963; NAA MS 176622-f). The drawing had been removed from a book that Mrs. Bourke had placed at the Joslyn Art Museum.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.MS409978
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Graphic Materials
label: Type
content: Drawings (visual works)
label: Type
content: Works of art
label: Type
content: Ledger drawings
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Media was changed from watercolor to crayon due to smudging and impressions in wax caused by lamination process.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Works of art
label: Genre/Form
content: Ledger drawings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection consists of a single leaf of thin, tracing paper laminated to a supporting board. The drawing shows a mounted warrior facing fire from a group of enemies represented only partially by their firearms. A pictorial name glyph is labeled "Gellow [sic] Nose," probably intended as Yellow Nose. Inscription on top left reads "McKenzie's fight with Cheyenne on hd Powder Riv." 

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: This is a tracing rather than an original drawing. Bourke assembled a substantial series of tracings and copies of Plains drawings. A number are now in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian (23/4251-4599), and five are in the collection of the National Museum of American History (GA08109-8113). Scholars have matched several of these copies to works in different Cheyenne books of drawings, demonstrating that Bourke's materials are from various sources to which he had access over time. The NMAI records indicate that these copies were collected 1880-81; they originally attributed them to "Chief Yellow Nose," subsequently changed to "probably non-Indian."

Other, original Plains drawings collected by Bourke are held by the National Anthropological Archives in MS 176622, and several accessions from Bourke are cataloged in the Anthropology object collections (Acccession numbers 001136, 021242 and others).