Tichkematse and Etahdleuh drawings
name: label: Creator
content: Tichkematse, 1857-1932
label: Creator
content: Etahdleuh, 1856-1888
label: Names
content: Fort Marion artists
place: label: Place
content: North America
creator: label: Creator
content: Tichkematse, 1857-1932
label: Creator
content: Etahdleuh, 1856-1888
culture: label: Culture
content: Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne)
label: Culture
content: Kiowa
label: Culture
content: Osage
label: Culture
content: Niuam (Comanche)
label: Culture
content: Ute
setName: label: See more items in
content: Tichkematse and Etahdleuh drawings
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Tichkematse, or Squint Eyes (Quchkeimus), 1857-1932 was a member of the Southern Cheyenne. Together with other Southern Plains warriors he was held prisoner at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida from 1875-78, during which period he and others became well known as artists. While imprisoned, he learned to speak English and to read and write. Upon release he attended school at the Hampton Institute in Virginia for about a year before coming to work at the Smithsonian Institution. During his time at the Smithsonian (1879-1880) he was trained to prepare bird and mammal specimens for study and display, participating in field expeditions to Florida and the American Southwest. He also served as a gallery guide, a source on Plains gesture language, and acquired cultural materials for the collections from Cheyenne friends and relatives, as well as producing drawings. Upon his return to Oklahoma (then Indian Territory), he served as an Army scout at Fort Supply. 

Etahdleuh (1856-1888) was also known as Etahdleeuh, Etadeleuh, Etahdleuh Doanmoe, Boy, and Boy Hunting. He was imprisoned at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida from 1875-1878. After his release from Fort Marion, he attended the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, arriving in April, 1878. In 1879, he traveled to the Indian Territory to recruit pupils to attend the Carlisle Institute in Pennsylvania, where he would study and work on and off from 1879 to 1887. He made two extended trips back to the reservation during this period. From February to May 1880, he worked at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. He was trained as a Presbyterian missionary and returned to the reservation in January 1888 to serve in this capacity. 

Edwin Porter Upham (1845-1918) was a museum assistant who worked with the Smithsonian Institution's archeology collections for forty years. Born in Massachusetts, he received a public education there before joining the army during the American Civil War. In 1878, he was hired as an assistant to Dr. Charles Rau, an archeologist at the Smithsonian. After Rau's death, Upham worked with Dr. Thomas Wilson, with whom he cowrote a book entitled Prehistoric Art; Or, The Origin of Art as Manifested in the Works of Prehistoric Man (1898). In 1906, Upham was appointed aide in the division of prehistoric archeology, a position he held until his death.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 29 Drawings (visual works)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1879-1880
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: These drawings together with a photograph of Tichkematse were received in May 1916 from E.P. Upham, an employee of the United States National Museum (USNM). They were entered into the Anthropology collections as Accession 59,767, and assigned catalog numbers 290,844 (14 drawings) and 290,845 (5 drawings). They were transferred to the National Anthropological Archives (NAA) in the 1970s, where they retained their original catalog numbers. The total quantity of drawings does not agree with the count as originally recorded by the museum. It is not possible to determine which items were assigned to which catalog number, but as the original record offers no information on provenance, they have been treated as a single set under MS 290844. The majority of the drawings bear the signatures of the artists, either Etahdleuh Doanmoe (Kiowa) or Tichkematse (Cheyenne). Both men were held as prisoners of war at Fort Marion, Florida (1875-1878), and remained in the East for education upon release, becoming literate in English. Both men spent a period of employment at the Smithsonian, and this is likely when all the drawings were produced. One drawing signed by Tichkematse is dated Nov. 8, 1879.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.MS290844
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Drawings (visual works)
label: Type
content: Works of art
label: Type
content: Ledger drawings
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The drawings are unarranged.  They have been ordered in the same sequence as the original cataloging under MS 290844-290845 when possible.
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 twenty-nine (29) loose drawings on various types of paper, some double-sided, with scenes of warfare, hunting, and camp life. They were probably produced at different times during the period 1879-1880. Four are inscribed with the name Etahdleuh Doanmoe and the majority of the remainder with the name Tichkematse, plus other descriptive elements in the artists' hand. Two pencil drawings, which lack any identifying name, are in a Western style and may not be by either artist. In two instances, the figures in the drawing have been cut out and pasted to a new backing [08519400; 08601400].

Most of the images adhere to Plains conventions of close up views of encounters, but in three drawings, Etahdleuh used a more distant perspective to show a Kiowa village along the Washita River (08601800), a buffalo hunt (08601900), and a battle against US troops (08517900). Also unusual are two drawings by Tichkematse showing details of tipi life, including women cooking and children playing (08601500-08601600).

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: Other drawings by Tichkematse are held by the National Anthropological Archives (NAA) in MS 7500, MS 39D2, and in Photo Lot R79-24. For other drawings by Etahdleuh in the NAA, see MS 39C and MS 39D2. Two photographs of Tichkematse in Photo Lot 24 (00438200 and 00438300) are attributed to this accession.