Book of Cheyenne drawings by Yellow Nose and unidentified artists
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: NAA MS 166032

USNM Accession 26674
name: label: Artist
content: Yellow Nose, 1848-1910
label: Artist
content: Unknown
label: Collector
content: Voth, H. R. (Henry R.), 1855-1931
place: label: Place
content: Indian Territory
label: Place
content: North America
creator: label: Artist
content: Yellow Nose, 1848-1910
label: Artist
content: Unknown
label: Collector
content: Voth, H. R. (Henry R.), 1855-1931
culture: label: Culture
content: Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Book of Cheyenne drawings by Yellow Nose and unidentified artists
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Yellow Nose (also known as Little Face, Hehuwesse, and 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 17, 1876) and the Battle of Little Bighorn (June 25-26, 1876) where he reportedly 1) lost a famous shield made by Whistling Elk; 2) captured the guidon of the 7th Cavalry; and 3) strangled George Armstrong 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 20, 1876). During this battle Yellow Nose distracted the U.S. 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.
label: Biographical / Historical
content: Heinrich (Henry) Richert Voth (1855–1931) was an ethnographer and Mennonite missionary and minister. Voth was sent by the Mission Board of the General Conference Mennonite Church to work among the Arapaho and the Hopi people, and was stationed at the Darlington Agency, Indian Territory from June 1882 to January 1892.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Volume (disbound and laminated; 85 drawings, graphite, colored pencil, and ink, 12.25 x 8.75 inches)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1889
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: The specimen tag indicates that the book was collected by H. R. Voth in 1889 from H. Spotted Wolf. Voth acquired it on the Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation in Indian Territory, where he served as a missionary from 1882-1893. The book was purchased from Voth by the Bureau of American Ethnology through James Mooney on January 25 1893 as a part of a larger collection of Cheyenne and Arapaho materials for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. (USNM Accession 26674).  The book was transferred from the object collections of the Department of Anthropology to the National Anthropological Archives in 1970.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.MS166032
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Volumes
label: Type
content: Works of art
label: Type
content: Drawings
label: Type
content: Ledger drawings
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Works of art
label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
label: Genre/Form
content: Ledger drawings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection consists of a ledger book, now disbound and laminated, containing 85 drawings of warfare, courtship, hunting, and ceremony. The pages are numbered 1-113, with the following numbers missing: 5-6, 27-28, 31-32, 69-70, 93-96. An endpaper is inscribed "Cheyenne Agency, Darlington Ind[ian] Terr[itory]" and an additional laminated sheet contains the original collector's tag, an associated note, and an early museum label. The drawings are by several artists, the most prominent being Yellow Nose.  When possible, individual drawings have been assigned to Yellow Nose on stylistic grounds by comparison to his other known work.


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.