Interpreting the Brass Tack and Other Patterns on the Custer

Interpreting the Brass Tack and Other Patterns
on the Custer Capture Sharps Carbine
A Work in Progress
Fred N. Holabird
and
Many Western Professionals
from the fields of
Archaeology, Anthropology and Native American History
3555 Airway Drive Ste. 308 Reno, NV 89511
May 2016
Cover image: Alfred Waud (1828-1891) [Custer’s Division Retiring from
Mount Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, October 7, 1864]
Pencil and opaque white on tan paper, 1864
(Courtesy, Library of Congress)
Late Plains Biographic Signs
Indian Marks on Guns Parallel Other Written Linguistic Patterns of Native Peoples
Fred N. Holabird
Introduction
Absent the Anglicized written language, Native Peoples around the world unquestionably and irrefutably
developed unique communication methods involving
pictography and symbolism to communicate with each
other.
For millennia, mankind has used non-random hand
constructed symbols to communicate a message.
These messages were about anything – story – trail
markings – biographies – lessons – hunting and water
guides – cosmology – fertility – ethnicity – etc.
Hieroglyphics in Mayan temples were also at first
thought to be simple native art. Not so. In fact, famous physicist Richard Feynman loved to interpret
them because of their intricate and unusual forms of
communication – all non-Anglo thought processes,
but human, just the same. Because these patterns and
pictures were created by humans, they had the same
basic brain functions, so Feynman thought they must
have specific meaning. And they did.
It wasn’t very difficult, because there
are bars and dots, and pretty soon you
guess they are numbers, and then you
find out that five dots is equivalent to
a bar, and so on. After that, you notice
periodicities and funny symbols which
are presumably names of days that go
like our week …. Then you get the idea
its an astronomic thing…1
New evidence and work in the field of symbolism
has surfaced concerning guns – key weapons on the
frontier used after contact with Anglos. It is possible
that a windfall of knowledge has fallen into the lap of
a construction company owner who worked on the
Sioux Reservation in South Dakota for more than thirty
years and befriended dozens of the families over time.
Now more than eighty years old, the journals of WenHumans do not do things randomly. Native American
dell Grangaard reflect what he was told by Benjamin
and native people’s pictographs and symbols mean
Black Elk, son of Black Elk, the last Medicine Man of
something. They are a permanent record that tells the
the band.
reader a story. Sometimes the interpretation is perThese journals fall into a line of other data from both haps obvious. Most of the time it is not. As scientists,
Plains and Shoshone peoples and are deserving of
we study patterns. That’s how Feynman unlocked the
more research.
key to Mayan hieroglyphics.
The Study of Pictographs, Symbols, and Signs
Many collecting disciplines need to accept science.
Archaeologists have been studying these markings left There is a need for advanced study, especially in study
outside their fields that may bring in new ideas and
behind by pre-modern (last 500 years) and ancient
peoples at an advanced level for more than a century concepts that lead to new experiments that lead to
new theories. We may never get it right, but we keep
and a half.
investigating. From Richard Feynman:
Clues for interpretation vary from the semi-obvious,
You have to permit the possibility
such as a picture of a deer carved into rock, to more
that you do not have it exactly right.
complex aggregates of drawings utilizing unique figOtherwise, if you have made up your
ures of unknown meaning.
mind already, you might not solve it …
If we did not desire to look in any new
In the case of the two thousand plus year old hierodirection, if we did not have a doubt
glyphics of northern Africa, archaeologists fought over
or recognize ignorance, we would not
interpretations for decades. Was it art, or a language?
get any new ideas. There would be
Experts brought in eminent physicist Richard Feynman
nothing worth checking, because we
to try to interpret the unique symbols. Much speculawould know what is true. So what
tion took place, until finally, a real-world key unlocked
we call scientific knowledge today is a
the doors of interpretation. The Rosetta stone, scribed
body of statements of varying degrees
on stone in three languages including hieroglyphics,
of certainty. Some of them are most
unraveled the 2000 year old mystery.
unsure, but none is absolutely certain.2
1 Sykes, Christopher; Richard Feynman; No Ordinary Genius; 1994,
p230
2 Feynman, Richard; The Meaning of It All; 1998, pp26-27
1
Mankind developed a written language based upon
the sounds of the spoken language. The Phoenicians,
it is said, about 4000 years ago developed a system
of symbols to go with the sounds. From this came
a written language. Modern day archaeologists and
scientists have decoded many of the ancient languages around the globe. But not all. Native American
pictographs and symbolism are some of these not fully
interpreted languages.
Current study has advanced our understanding of
symbolism simply by exposing a larger database
through time. Professional papers are published each
year on both petroglyph sites and pictographs on objects. Archaeological journals publish new papers on
new sites every year.
Today, scientists have begun to unravel some of
the secrets by disassembling the thought processes
attendant to making the glyphs. We know that some
are ceremonial; some protobiographic and others
biographic. Others still tell different stories.3
It is clear that there has been a progression of the
pictographic art form, from the Phoenician time to the
near-present.
Plains Indians artistic traditions
followed a progression from
petroglyphs to paintings on rocks
to painted scenes on Bison hide
robes and tipis. In turn, these robe
and tipi paintings were followed by
ledger drawings on paper.4
Modern scientists and archaeologists are still on a
voyage of discovery. There are ledgers yet unknown.
There are Native American family stories unrecorded.
There are ways of culture and life of the past not yet
understood.
The universally accepted fact among anthropologists,
archaeologists and historians is that native peoples
independently developed their own thought processes over millennia. They are not the same as the Anglo
thought processes, and as such, become difficult,
if not impossible, to understand. Native Americans
in many sectors considered parts of their languages
as sacred, and were not to be shared with Anglos
(Whites). This has been recorded by modern anthropologists many times.
One of the keys in this voyage may be the discovery of
original ledgers that contain forms of the symbolism.
These are rare, often recorded in a manner that their
existence is known but to a few. There is a report that
the important amateur archaeologist/anthropologist
Thomas B. Marquis kept a ledger of the symbols used
by Native Americans in the Montana and South Dakota region, its whereabouts currently unknown. His
work in interviewing the surviving original participants
of the Battle of the Little Big Horn in the 1920’s was
monumental. His written works were exceptionally
important. They caused continued controversy to this
day.5
Some of the known ledgers with drawings date to the
1840’s, such as the Five Crows Ledger of the Flathead
Indians.6 Another is of the Plains Indians, 1875-1880.7
In the latter, author Petersen rendered a critically important observation about interpretation of drawings
and of those in journals:
The most heavily stressed item, the
most puzzling one, or the most usually
found in similar drawings may be the
key to the interpretation of the whole.
Conversely, a single item takes its
meaning from its relation to the other
items in the drawings; it must be studied in context.”8
The interpretations of the symbols or drawings are
thus necessary to consider in context. That interpretation is also potentially biased by Anglo interpretation
of what an Anglo thinks the symbol means. This interpretation can vary significantly from an interpretation
defined by an actual living Native American who knew
what the symbols meant and was willing to share it
with Anglos (Whites). Some Native Americans were
clearly not willing to share interpretations because
the interpretations and languages of symbolism were
considered sacred.
One such example is the ledger of Louisa Keyser, aka
Dat-So-La-Lee, the undisputed greatest Indian basket
weaver of all time. Keyser’s baskets were dutifully
recorded by Amy Cohn, Abe Cohn’s wife and co-owner
of the Emporium, a novelty store specializing in the
sale of Indian baskets in Carson City, Nevada from the
1890’s onwards for three decades. Cohn recorded
each of Dat-So-La-Lee’s baskets on a front facing page
with a description and accompanying photograph in a
3 Altman, Julia; “Warriors in Stone: A study of Shield Bearing War- separate file (now lost). Each basket was also accomriors Motif in Idaho Rock Art”, in American Indian Rock Art, edited
panied by a “certificate” describing the basket. On the
by William Hyder, Volume 39, 2013, p59
back of some certificates, and on a very few of the
4 Loendorf, Lawrence; The Horned Headgear Site, Montana; in
American Indian Rock Art, edited by William Hyder, Volume 39,
2013, p71. Loendorf also cites papers by Ed Ewers, 1968, “1968
Plains Indian Painting: The History and Development of an American Art Form”. American West 8(6):30-35; and James Keyser,
1996, “Painted Bison Robes, The Missing Link in the Biographic Art
Style Lexicon” Plains Archaeologist 52(201):9-27.
2
5 Marquis was the first to claim that many of Custer’s men saved
their last bullet for themselves.
6 Keyser, James
7 Petersen, Karen; Plains Indian Art at Ft. Marion, 1875-1880;
1971.
8 Petersen, 1971, p269.
original ledger pages are the interpretations of the
intricate patterns Dat-So-La-Lee used on the specific
baskets. These interpretations are themselves a minor
controversy today, as they were written in the ledger
and on the certificates by Anglos. Were they interpretations told to the writer by Dat-So-La-Lee herself?
Were they simply a guess by Amy Cohn? Some Washoe weavers suggested the symbols on the baskets
were meaningless. This defies common sense, but
does align with reports of native people’s symbolism
as sacred, and not for Anglos or Whites to understand.
Keyser ledger page. Louisa Keyser Ledger,
Nevada State Museum, Carson City.
From a certificate DSLL, Folder 10: Basket LK
29. Nevada State Museum, Carson City
Intricate interpretation. DSLL Folder10:
Basket LK32. Nevada State Museum,
Carson City
3
Another example of interpretation of the symbolism
of characters and symbols on Native American baskets
comes from Frank F. Latta, another early-day amateur
“ethnologist” of the same period as Thomas Marquis
and a similar period, though two decades later, of the
author of the Dat-So-La-Lee ledgers. Latta interviewed
Yokut families in the San Joaquin Valley in the 1920’s.
His uncle had grown up in a Yokuts village, giving the
youth unprecedented access to information rarely
shared outside the clan. Latta published numerous
works over his lifetime on the Yokuts, including discussion of the basketry symbolism based upon his first
hand discussions with Yokuts.9
These published and unpublished journals and certificates are priceless relics of Native American pictography and symbolism, a factual record of a past language, available in no other form anywhere else. Their
interpretation is still under study, and may remain so
for years to come.
The simple fact that these interpretations, whether by
Whites or Native American’s, follow other known patterns of symbolism is important. In the new body of
work by Wendell Grangaard, they appear to follow the
same general path, though are for Shoshone, rather
than Plains Indians.
Native American symbol used as a “brand”.
From the 1889 Crow Brand Book
The Introduction of New Data into the Collecting
World
Our efforts at understanding this pictography and symbolism today grow more difficult by the year. Present-day collectors all too often are amateur archaeologists, singular in opinion, and tempted to jump to
conclusions – particularly that there is no such thing as
a language of symbolism or pictography; the patterns
are simply “Art.”
The concept of biographic symbolism that Grangaard
presents is not new. It has been discussed in anthropological works, beyond the scope of this paper. Its
mere existence may not come into play on a greater
basis until after prolonged contact with Whites had
come into play, particularly after 1870. In the above
In making this simple distinction, we
photo and accompanying interpretation, an Anglo has
also assume that the aim of archaeused the phrase “family crest” to signify the meaning
ology, like that of all historical disof a symbol. This term is clearly the same as “clan”
ciplines, is to gain whatever access
or “tribe” or “band” in the case of Native Americans.
is possible to the past in any given
The need for authorship may be an Anglo trait. But
instance – while at the same time recthrough time, it may have become necessary to idenognizing that knowledge of the past is
tify the owner of a gun to others within the band or
inescapably filtered through the eyes
tribe, such that symbols were a necessity, marked in
of the present.11
a manner that they understood. Thus may have been
In short, our eyes of the present may limit our thinkborn the biographic symbol.10
ing, and it should not. We should be open to ideas we
Another example of the biographic symbolism was
do not yet know exist, as it is a completely different
found within the 1889 Crow Brand Book. That year,
culture than that of the American Anglo. Further to
laws were changed, and individuals (rather than a
this concept:
tribe or band) were required to create their own
… inference comes from the viewer.
symbols to brand cattle or horses. The brand book,
This underlines the fact that inferred
now on display at the Custer Battlefield Museum in
narratives rely on culture-specific
Garryowen, Montana shows a number of symbols that
knowledge, available (or not) to the
are not in the style of Anglo brands, and are instead a
viewer.12
biographic symbol of the person. An example follows:
9 See Uncle Jeff’s Story; a Tale of a San Joaquin Pioneer and His
Life with the Yokuts Indians; 1929 and Handbook of Yokuts Indians;
1949.
10 The meaning of the marking of a basket with a clan name is
unknown, and subject to discussion.
4
11 Keyser, J. et al; “How is a Picture a Narrative? Interpreting Different Kinds of Rock Art”; in American Indian Rock Art, edited by
William Hyder, Volume 39, 2013, p84
12 Ibid, p87
New Studies Under Review
Wendell Grangaard
Many archaeological studies are started by amateurs.
Perhaps the most famous among the amateurs was
Thomas B. Marquis, mentioned earlier. Some amateurs stumble upon new discoveries and pass them on
to others. Some get these discoveries under unique
circumstances. Wendell Grangaard, a contractor on a
South Dakota Indian Reservation for more than thirty
years, is one of these amateurs who moved into an
advanced area of archaeology.
A collector by nature, and a friendly and humble man
who employed hundreds of Native Americans on Reservation construction projects, Grangaard befriended
dozens if not more, Native American families. Grangaard didn’t dig into the private lives of their families
and ancestors, he simply listened. And as the years
grew through time, he became fascinated and obsessed with the understanding of their culture.
Grangaard‘s keen interest in the markings on firearms
led him to interest in the pictographic symbols. As an
outsider, Grangaard could never be a medicine man,
nor did he want to. This led to Grangaard spending
the last days of Benjamin Black Elk’s life with him and
becoming the recipient of the Togia language, as it
was told to him forty years ago. He kept tedious notes
in his notebooks. These notebooks today may thus
represent the last of a sacred written language.
Grangaard’s own interest began when one of the tribe
showed him an original ledger of gun serial numbers
with pictographs and symbols showing who the owner
of each gun was, much the same as the manner in
which other written ledgers were kept of symbols on
buffalo robes and on Dat-So-La-Lee’s baskets.
Grangaard’s work is potentially ground breaking. It
looks to translate the iron and brass tack patterns
found on some Native American held guns, as well
Grangaard became friends with Black Elk and Black
Elk’s son, Benjamin Black Elk, two of the last medicine as other unique marks. This appears to be a branch
of language not yet interpreted, but closely follows
men of the Reservation. The men were concerned
that no tribal members had come forward to learn the all other areas of Native American language art and
sacred written pictographic languages. If this held true symbolism.
through time, the language would be lost to history,
an unacceptable circumstance for Benjamin Black Elk.
Pages from Grangaard’s notebook on symbolism of the Sioux and Cheyenne
as given to him from Benjamin Black Elk.
5
The Custer Indian Capture Carbine
When Grangaard observed the Custer Indian Capture
Carbine when first on display at the Las Vegas Antique
Firearms show in January, 2016, he told us it was
something special. Grangaard had come to the show
to release his new book, The Weapons Used at The
Little Big Horn, a book based upon his experiences and
interviews with the descendants of the Little Big Horn
battle. Marquis had interviewed the original surviving
participants. Grangaard was on a mission to interview
their descendants.
down to Grangaard. Is, or can there be, agreement in
these family stories from various family descendants
today? (Can we get this kind of agreement from any
family – Anglo or Native American?) Will another archivist or collector or relative step forward with a similar ledger? Will another Medicine Man step forward to
help Anglos understand the special and unique culture
that underlies all Native American heritage?
For now, what we have is a work in progress. Grangaard has begun to publish his work. We, and others,
are looking for independent third party information
from within the Native American sphere.
The carbine, passed down through Custer’s family to
the last two Custer family members Charles A. Custer
and his wife Elsie Olander Custer, and then by gift to
In a recent letter to me, here is Grangaard’s own story:
noted firearms collector Richard Reyes, has unquestionable provenance. The mere fact that Lt. Colonel
Benjamin Black Elk once told me, “It is imCuster had the gun in his collection was an anomaly.
portant that you use the Lakota words I tell
As a major trophy collector, if Custer kept an Indian
you in telling the stories because the Lakota
capture gun, it was sure to be an important one. Larry
language has special meanings which are
Wilson and I opined that the gun may have belonged
hard to describe in English. I am going to
to the great Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle, killed by
tell you and give to you a sacred language
Custer’s troops at Washita in 1868.
which was not understood by most Lakota.
Grangaard copied the symbols on the stock of the
This is togia - to talk and write the strange
carbine and excitedly returned the following morning
language of a wakan (holy man) using oowa
with the notebook page “translation” above.
(marks). “
Grangaard said “you got most of it right”. The story he
Ben said it is best explained by using Crawas told by the descendants of Monahseetah’s family
zy Horse as an example. Crazy Horse
differ from the opinion we had about Black Kettle’s
felt his greatest events were his wakandeath. The family claimed that Custer did not kill Black
ya-wowanyanke (a sacred vision). He used
Kettle, it was another soldier.
togia and oowa to tell the story of events
Over the next few weeks, Grangaard wrote a letter
on his weapons and stones. To Crazy Horse,
regarding the symbols and pictographs on the Custer
paying tribute and honor (okinihan) was his
Indian Capture Carbine describing the stories related
prime concern. This all stemmed from his
to the battle he received from several family memvisions he had earlier in his life. In 1870,
bers. The letter is written in the style of language
Crazy Horse took his first rifle, a Henry from
that he was originally told stories from the Cheya group of miners traveling to the Colorado
enne. Grangaard’s work, unknown to him at the time,
mining country. He marked this rifle with
closely parallels much of what has been known about
his wapetogtonyan (signature) using all
biographic symbols and pictographs, as shown above
the wapetogton (signs and marks) he had
in this article. This background information certainly
been told to do in his visions. This was done
lends credence to Grangaard’s postulation about the
to show ahokipa (to value what is one’s
Custer Indian Capture Carbine.
own, to honor, reverence or fear). He would
This fascinating story is so similar to some of the work
always use the oowa of the Thunder Being
of Thomas B. Marquis that it needs third party veriand the symbols of what he was told to do
fication from other family members of the tribes, if
in his visions, such as wear no bonnet, wear
any exist or are willing to tell the stories. The stories
just a single eagle feather, no tie tail of his
of many of the Native Americans has been so whitehorse, always fight with a war club and
washed by stories coming from Anglo families, and not
take no scalps. These symbols were always
from original Native American families that history is
placed on his weapons.
lost, in effect, without them.
Grangaard’s notebooks offer unique knowledge. But
this is still work in progress. What must come in the
future is some form of discussion from the Native
American community itself about the stories passed
6
Grangaard’s Work on the Custer Carbine
Crazy Horse was a Thunder Dreamer and
through togia, he was granted unmatched
powers in warfare. Crazy Horse always said
“I am a man when I look for death.” This
was the code of all warriors. Almost all of
the weapons of the Nations were marked in
togia, but many only represent lemita (my
possession) to show ownership. This was
usually done by a wakan in exchange for a
small gift.
Grangaard was so taken with the Custer carbine that
he returned the next day with the following interpretation:
Crazy Horse knew togia and personally
marked his own weapons. Black Shawl, the
wife of Crazy Horse said, “Crazy Horse could
oikwa-itowapi (draw good pictures).” Crazy
Horse learned togia from his father, Worm,
and from his close friend Horned Chips and
Long Turd, all great wakans who spoke
wakaniye (a sacred language). Ben told
me “My Ate (father) Nicholas, also a wakan
knew and gave me the symbols of togia. I
now give them to you to use in the future.
This is wakinya (to foretell).”
Ben had told me the winter count of the
ancient language (which dated back to the
1400s). He explained to me that his people
and their weapons were the last vestige of
freedom. When they were disarmed and
dismounted, they had given up their two
most cherished earthly possessions – their
rifle and horse. The buffalo were also gone,
which had always given them their base
and life. The oowa marks were no longer
needed because lemita no longer existed (or
mattered) and so the language of togia was
no longer existed. Ben said the language
was still present on the surviving weapons of
the period, but cannot be translated without
togia.
I spent years examining many weapons
of the Nations and recording their marks,
mostly to prove to myself that the language
existed. This has been a life time goal and in
this endeavor I found the oowa marks to be
consistant.
This interpretation led to a lengthy letter that brought
forth some of the stories for the families involved that
had been shared with him over the decades that he
lived among the Lakota.
His letter follows on the next seven pages.
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
The Interpretive Process Continues.
Quite interesting. Some of this has a definite ring of truth … It would not surprise
me in the least if those old warriors tagged
their guns with symbols done in brass
tacks. They put similar symbols on just
about everything else (bull boat paddles,
shirts, horses, tipis, pipes, pipe bags, you
name it). … There would be considerable
value to such a journal (provided it could
be authenticated, but that would be
difficult). And some of these “symbols”
just seem hokey...for instance village vs.
town is unlike any symbolism in Biographic art, and swimming the river and flood
don’t look like any Biographic imagery I’m
familiar with. On the other hand (pun very
much intended) the symbols for peace, and
“I did it” are documented Biographic and
Winter count symbols.1
The understanding of the symbolism is an ongoing
project. We may never know everything. The interpretation of History is imperfect. It is a process – one
that takes time, analysis, and the interest on the part
of many researchers to look into areas of uncharted
waters to find new data, perhaps once overlooked, or
perhaps never exposed.
In this work alone, I have consulted many professionals from multiple disciplines: archaeology, anthropology, Native American history, museums and libraries.
Bill Hyder, editor of the American Indian Rock Art
Conference Proceedings, Volume 39, 2013 has been of
critical and indispensable importance on this voyage
of discovery. His career has been of studying the symbolism of mankind through history. He kindly has read,
edited and sought further opinion from other professionals. He agrees Grangaard’s work has credence, but
Grangaard’s work is an important addition to the
is in uncharted territory.
historical work of Marquis, Latta, the Dat-So-La-Lee
journals and the modern work of Hyder, Keyser and
Hyder kindly shared his emails with colleagues Jim
Keyser and Larry Loendorf, two well published authors many other specialists. This is all part of an importon symbolism and other archaeological and anthropo- ant long term process of trying to understand symbolism of Native American peoples, an uncertain
logical topics of Plains Indians.
area of exploratory work at best, because of the
Keyser to Hyder regarding the two pages of symbols
drastic differences in cultures over time.
from Grangaard:
1 Printed by permission of William Hyder, 4.30.2016
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