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

Nagy Imre: A Preliminary Report on the Friedman Kein Canvas

The next owner was Starving Coyote, the grandson of False Lame. He was an active warrior on the Kansas border during the early 1870s, and after he surrendered he was sent - as prisoner of war - to Fort Marion, Florida with thirty-one of his tribesmen. He died in prison. It is highly probable that his shield - which, according to his cousin Little Buffalo Thigh, was with him at the time of surrender - was confiscated by some army officer. This means that his shield might be a second surviving piece. Little Buffalo Thigh received his shield last, but he gave it to his younger brother Black Hawk in 1865. Black Hawk died in 1921, and he lived on the Southern Cheyenne Reservation in Oklahoma from 1874 on. His shield might be the one collected by the Dyers, but their Whirlwind attribution still requires further research. This short, and preliminary report on the Friedman Kein Canvas has helped us to identify one of the events depicted. In two selected war-scenes we have determined the origin, and the owners of the actual shield depicted. Further, we have recognized the earliest depictions of the shield in question, painted on a pre-1840 quilled shirt now in Italy. By collating contemporary depictions of the Little Buffalo Thigh shield in Cheyenne ledger drawings, we have documented that such prominent Cheyenne men carried it in battle as Little Man, the Keeper of the Sacred Arrows, and Wolf Face, an important Southern So'taa'e leader. Finally, by comparing three existing Little Buffalo Thigh shields in museum and private collections, we have illustrated the exact appearance of the implements depicted in these drawings, and we have reconstructed their collection history to some extent. A more complete analysis of the Friedman Kein Canvas could provide important ethnographical, historical and art historical data, and would allow us to draw the social background of its artistic community with greater precision. BIBLIOGRAPHY AFTON, JEAN, DAVID F. HALAAS, and ANDREW E. MASICH 1997 Cheyenne Dog Soldiers: A Ledgerbook History of Coups and Combat. Denver: University Press of Colorado and the Colorado Historical Society. BERLO, JANET CATHERINE, editor 1996 Plains Indian Drawings, J

865-1935: Pages from a Visual History. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc. CARTER, DENNY 1978 Henry Farny. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications. CENSUS 1965 Cheyenne and Arapaho Censuses 1887,1888,1891. National Archives Microfilm Publications. Microcopy No. 595: 27. Washington, D.C.: The National Archives. COLEMAN, WINFIELD in press Blinded by the Sun: Shamanism and Warfare in the Little Shield Ledger. European Review of Native American Studies 18(1). COLEMAN, WINFIELD 1993-2004 Correspondence to author. COWDREY, MICHAEL 1999 Arrow's Elk Society Ledger: A Southern Cheyenne Record of the 1870's. Santa Fe: Morning Star Gallery. 119