Blackfoot Dakota man, Fire Cloud
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: OPPS NEG.3117 C 2
label: Local Note
content: "The big chiefs and medicine men of all tribes gathered at the Agency to arrange the ceremony of unveiling the Standing Rock, which had been mounted upon a pedestal, where it is intended it shall stand for all time. For hours they sat in council talking over the legends connected with this historical monument, and endeavoring to decide whom they should honor with the duty of offering the prayers and painting the rock. It was decided that no man should touch the rock who had been guilty of any offence or wrong of any kind. Sitting Bull said that only the purest man in all the tribes could perform this sacred service. They must search until they found a man whose life was absolutely pure, that the sacred stone might not in any way be poluted. After discussing the merits of a hundred chiefs, Fire Cloud of Fireheart's band was chosen. That afternoon the Indians gathered about the rock to perform the ceremony.
label: Local Note
content: According to the Indian superstition no Indian could remove the covering, and they were in a quandry how to proceed, when Major McLaughlin stepped forward and removed the blanket. In a speech Major McLaughlin told the Indians that he had found this rock sacred to the Indian and of historic interest to the whites, frequently changed from place to place; that he had built for it a pedestal and there it should remain forever, for their children and grandchildren, for all ages to look upon. When Major McLauglin retired, Fire Cloud stepped forward and spent an hour painting the rock, praying meanwhile. The prayer was a remarkable one to issue from an Indian's lips. Fire Cloud was a late hostile and his audience consisted of Sitting Bull and his braves. Never before has an Indian been known to pray for peace; their prayers have always been for success in battle, or for the increase of game.
label: Local Note
content: Fire Cloud told the Indians there that if they had done any wrong in all their lives they should be ashamed, there in the presence of the holy rock, repent and live absolutely pure lives. He thanked the Great Spirit and the rock in behalf of all his nation for the peace which they had been blessed with and prayed that it might last forever. He closed his prayer with an appeal to the Great Spirit that he should not send them any hailstorm, that the crops be good and their people be kept from any sickness. A few more strokes of the paint brush and the remarkable ceremony was ended. They instructed the Shadow Catcher that he must not take a picture during the prayer and painting of the rock; but I took Fire Cloud with his paint brush. The Siouxs claim this stone was a squaw, who turned into a rock." -- Notation on photograph in the Burdick Collection of Barry photographs. (February 1937)
label: Local Note
content: Black and white copy negative
name: label: Creator
content: Barry, David Francis
topic: label: Topic
content: Sioux
creator: label: Creator
content: Barry, David Francis
culture: label: Culture
content: Blackfoot -- Dakota
label: Culture
content: Indians of North America -- Great Plains
label: Culture
content: Sihasapa Lakota (Blackfoot Sioux)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Bureau of American Ethnology negatives
label: See more items in
content: Bureau of American Ethnology negatives / Additional Materials / Barry, David Francis
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Photograph (5x7 in)
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs