A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historiae Literarum et Artium, 4. (Szeged, 2004)

Nagy Imre: A Preliminary Report on the Friedman Kein Canvas

This full quotation from Mooney'

s field notes illustrates how rich a source of information has remained unutilized for the past century. In analyzing the information we shall follow several threads; but first let us examine the informant himself. Mooney used the Kiowa calendars (Mooney 1898), and the major Cheyenne historical events (1833 meteoric shower, 1849 cholera epidemic, Sand Creek Massacre, etc.) in determining the age of his informants. By this methodology, Buffalo Thigh's birth date was determined as 1842. This is important for several reasons. First, consulting with the Southern Cheyenne censuses, it turns out, that a man called Buffalo Thigh was born about 1846. However, checking the Southern Cheyenne probate hearings, we learn, that this man

4

, the son of Bear Robe (?-l 864) and Bear Woman (1827-1893), died in 1900. Consequently he could not be the informant for James Mooney in 1906. Further investigating the 1891 Southern Cheyenne census, we find another name worthy of attention: Little Buffalo Thigh, whose age (50 years) implies an 1841 birth date - much closer to the one calculated by Mooney and his informant. This suggests that Buffalo Thigh's full enrollment name was Little Buffalo Thigh, and we can find an indirect reference to this fact in one of the name lists of Mooney. Number 53, in the list of Southern Cheyenne shield owners is „Hotó-ai-hitún = Buffalo Bull Rump (no little in it); rump = hitún. Red Moon" (Mooney MS #2538, Box 1). The phrase „no little in it" definitely refers to the English enrollment name of Little Buffalo Thigh. The term „Red Moon" at the same time, refers to the district where Little Buffalo Thigh lived. His younger brother Black Hawk also lived in the same district, according to the same Mooney list: „#16 Moqtä'vwiaí-nuchi = Black Hawk - Red Moon". The fact that the Cheyenne form of the name differs in the interview (Hotóa-hévis) and in the name list (Hotó-ai-hitún) might confuse us, but we should recall Harvey White Shield's saying that there are several ways to express the same idea in Cheyenne language (Mooney MS #2531, Vol. 5). In the current Northern Cheyenne orthographic system we find the form Hotóahetóne for Bull Thigh (Glenmore and Leman 1986: 120), but can discover the other noun in the second half of the Cheyenne form of Woodenthigh, Kâhamâxévèéeo'o (Glenmore and Leman 1986: 108), that is hevese (pl. hévèseo'o) for Mooney's hév is. In consulting the 1891 Northern Cheyenne census, we find a Ho-to-a-ton, whose English name is given as John Bull Thigh, and his age as 59 years. His wife, Wa-ha-aate-to-wa, alias Nora Bull Thigh was 37 years old then. They appear in the 1893 Northern Cheyenne census also, their age given as 61 and 39 years respectively. John Bull Thigh was an informant for Truman Michelson in 1910 and 1913 on questions concerning the So'taaeo'o - a dialectically related tribe to the Cheyenne which about 1830-1850 merged with the Cheyenne. Michelson wrote: „Bull Thigh, Northern Cheyenne, [his] reputed age born at time of star falling [i.e.: 1833]... Bull Thigh has been 36 years north. He was born near Black Hills but went south. Then returned. [He was present] At Custer fight and at Sand Creek. [He stayed] At Pine Ridge till he came back here" (Michelson MS #2684-a). The 1889 Pine Ridge Agency census really shows a Northern Cheyenne, called Buffalo 4 This Buffalo Thigh had two wives successively, first Killing Inside, then Kiowa Woman, and his only child reaching adulthood was Neal Bent (1885-?). His sister was Pipe Woman/Mrs. Black Hill (1847-?), his brothers were Crooked Nose (1863-1934), and Flying Man (1865-1910). His half-sister was Flying Woman (1868-1916), by the same mother, but from a different father Stone (7-1870). Ill