Flying Out drawings of Cheyenne battles and a Silver Horn drawing of the Kiowa medicine lodge ceremony
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: NAA MS 233124
name: label: Artist
content: Flying Out
label: Artist
content: Silver Horn, 1860-1940
label: Names
content: Field Museum of Natural History
label: Collector
content: Mooney, James, 1861-1921
label: Depicted
content: White Shield (Cheyenne)
place: label: Place
content: North America
creator: label: Artist
content: Flying Out
label: Artist
content: Silver Horn, 1860-1940
culture: label: Culture
content: Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne)
label: Culture
content: Chaticks Si Chaticks (Pawnee)
label: Culture
content: Kiowa
setName: label: See more items in
content: Flying Out drawings of Cheyenne battles and a Silver Horn drawing of the Kiowa medicine lodge ceremony
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: James Mooney (1861-1921) was a self-taught ethnologist. He was employed by the Bureau of American Ethnology from 1885 until his death. In this capacity, he worked extensively among the Cherokee, Kiowa, and Cheyenne. Among the Kiowa and Cheyenne, his studies focused on pictorial calendars, the peyote religion, and heraldry, the term he used to refer to the designs on shields and painted tipis. In the course of his study of Kiowa and Cheyenne heraldry, he commissioned many illustrations by native artists.
label: Biographical Note
content: White Shield (nd) a.k.a. Young Black Bird White Shield, a Northern Cheyenne, was the son of Spotted Wolf and grandson of Whistling Elk. He fought side by side with his adopted brother Yellow Nose in the Rosebud fight. According to accounts of the battle, White Shield was fishing with his nephews when he heard the gunfire of Reno's attack on the south end of the village. He overtook Bobtail Horse and others who were the first to meet Custer in the fight. He was still living in 1908.
label: Biographical Note
content: Silver Horn, Haungooah in Kiowa, was born in 1860. His name also appears as Hugone, Hangun or Hawgon. He was a member of a prominent Kiowa family. His residential band, led by his father Agiati (Gathering Feathers), actively opposed the governments efforts to confine the Kiowa to a reservation. Members of his family participated in the Red River War of 1874-1875 and were among the last Kiowa to surrender to the military. In 1891, Silver Horn enlisted in Troop L of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. He served with Troop L, which was part of broader experiment involving the enlistment of all-Indian troops, until 1894. In 1901, Silver Horn secured employment with James Mooney, an ethnologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology. Mooney was interested in the designs on Kiowa shields and tipis and hired Silver Horn to produce illustrations of the designs and models of the shields and tipis. The project provided Silver Horn with steady work between 1902 and 1904 and occassional employment between 1904 and 1906. Silver Horn also produced illustrations for Hugh Scott, an army officer and avocational ethnologist. Silver Horn was active in the religious life of the Kiowa. He was a Tsaidetalyi bundle keeper and participated in the Sun Dance, Ghost Dance, and Peyote religion. He was also a member of the Ohoma society. Silverhorn died on December 14, 1940.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 8 Drawings (visual works) (graphite, colored pencil, and ink; laminated)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1904
container: label: Container
content: Folder 233124
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: These drawings were commissioned by James Mooney, an employee of the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE), who regularly employed Native artists and craftspeople to create materials for the museum's collections, particularly for display. Silver Horn was his regular artist among the Kiowa. The Cheyenne material was created as part of a collaborative project with the Field Museum, which supported Monney's fieldwork in exchange for collections from the Southern Cheyenne.

This group of drawings was transferred from the BAE to the USNM Anthropology collection in late 1904 together with artifacts that Mooney had collected for the museum (Accession 43,633).

The drawings  were originally cataloged in the onject collection under numbers 233,124 through 233,130, with two items recorded as 233,125. They were transferred to the National Anthropological Archives in the 1970s.

Sources cited:
Greene, Candace S. Silver Horn: Master Illustrator of the Kiowa. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.MS233124
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: Drawings
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Works of art
label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection consists of eight (8) drawings on large sheets of paper, now laminated. Seven are of Cheyenne battles and one is of preparations for a Kiowa ceremony. The sheets are inscribed with various notations in the hand of James Mooney, identifying some individuals depicted and naming the place and date of the fight. The Kiowa drawing (08600900) has been attributed to Silver Horn (Haungooah) on the basis of style. The authorship of the Cheyenne drawings is not certain, but they appear to be by one hand. One drawing (08600300) is inscribed "Flying Out del March 1906," which may be the name of the artist. The date is confusing, as the materials were entered into the Anthropology catalog book in May 1905.

Mooney's captions and numbers appear on the drawings. The significance of "Cheyenne Curtin" and "Elk River" prefaced to the numbers has not been determined. Notations on the drawings that depict the "Republican River" encounter refer to "Stone," probably a source giving an account of the battle.  This source has not been identified. It is possible that the drawings were made later, from material that Mooney brought into the USNM in 1904. Or the drawings may have been copied from Mooney's Cheyenne specimen collection at Field Columbian Museum, Chicago.


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 Cheyenne images were preliminary drawings made in planning production of a painted hide tipi liner in the collection of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (Cat. No. 96,808). Other drawings relating to the tipi liner are held by the National Anthropological Archives in MS 2538 James Mooney notes and drawings on Cheyenne and Kiowa heraldry. 

The drawing of preparations for the Kiowa Medicine Lodge ceremony was a preliminary sketch for the hide painting now in the Department of Anthropology object collection, Cat. No. E229,894.