MS 2018 Hand colored photographs of drawings from a Fort Reno Scout ledger
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: NAA MS 2018
name: label: Creator
content: Fort Reno (Okla.). Scouts
label: Annotator
content: Mooney, James, 1861-1921
label: Collector
content: Evans, Neal W. (Neal Wiltbank), 1844-1894
place: label: Place
content: North America
label: Place
content: Fort Reno (Okla.)
creator: label: Creator
content: Fort Reno (Okla.). Scouts
label: Annotator
content: Mooney, James, 1861-1921
label: Collector
content: Evans, Neal W. (Neal Wiltbank), 1844-1894
culture: label: Culture
content: Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne)
setName: label: See more items in
content: MS 2018 Hand colored photographs of drawings from a Fort Reno Scout ledger
bioghist: label: Historical Note
content: Fort Reno (located near present-day El Reno, Oklahoma) was a military camp established in 1874 to protect the personnel in charge of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Agency in Indian Territory. Besides overseeing the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation, Fort Reno personnel also assisted with extracting unauthorized settlements on Indian land prior to the 1889 land run and employed many American Indians as scouts. Between 1885 and 1895, Fort Reno employed Native scouts to assist U.S. Soldiers patrolling reservations in Indian Territory. Many of these scouts also produced a wide variety of drawings.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 13 Photographs (hand-colored in pencil, ink and watercolor, 7.75 x 5.5 inches)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1906
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: James Mooney viewed the ledger book in 1906 when it was in the possession of Neal Evans. The photographs were made at that time.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.MS2018
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Works of art
label: Type
content: Ledger drawings
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 thirteen (13) hand-colored photographs of ledger drawings. The photographs were taken from a ledger book collected by Neal W. Evans, the post trader at Fort Reno, in 1887. The book is the work of several artists, and contains battle images and courting or social scenes.  It bears an inscription stating that the drawings were made by the scouts at Fort Reno and the battle images are from the wars of the 1860s. 

Original manuscript captions on drawings include Big Horse, Red Wolf, Bird Chief, Tall Red Bird, and Red Eagle. The photographs have hand-written numbers, apparently referring to pages in the original. One has a note by James Mooney on the reverse: "Cheyenne Pictures from Evans Cheyenne Picture Book 1906."

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: The ledger book from which these photographs were taken is now held by the Gilcrease Museum: Fort Reno Ledger Drawings. 4526.11. 1887. Tulsa: Gilcrease Museum, https://collections.gilcrease.org/object/452611.