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Details
CLOUD-SHAPED PECTORAL, nickel silver, length 6 inches (153 mm), with hide suspension loop, engraved on front with quatre-foil and arrow design, on back etched with a Native American figure and with incised inscription: "Ornament Red Cloud." Provenance: William Starring, whose envelope with pencil note "Ornament Red Cloud Indian Chief" from his post at the Headquarters, Department of the Columbia, Vancouver Barracks, Washington Territory accompanies the pectoral; by descent to the present owner.
It is quite probable that this and the following lot were given to William Starring in the fall of 1866 at Fort Laramie, where he is known to have been stationed at the time. Plains Indians did not prefer the trade silver gorgets found in Eastern North America. They preferred the variant shape known as a pectoral, and this form was adopted mainly by the Kiowa, Cheyenne, Teton Sioux, and Shoshone. It was made primarily of German silver, an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper. The pendant is generally in the shape of a cloud, with a rounded upper edge and scalloped base. The ornament was hung from a loop curved back from the face of the top edge.
Following the harsh and deadly winter of 1865-66 and the ensuing hostilities between the various Sioux bands and the white soldiers stationed at forts along the Bozeman Trail, Red Cloud (1822-1909, Mahpiya Luta in his native language) gained new Indian allies and increased his resistance. Since fighting on the Plains had intensified with the increasing emigration of the whites in the 1860s, Red Cloud, of the Oglalas, led all Sioux in resisting them. "Shrewd and suspicious, a strategist who saw beyond the limited tactics of most Indian leaders, he shared with Spotted Tail the greatest influence over the high plains Sioux" (ibid, p. 203). In the late spring of 1866, war chiefs Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, Standing Elk, Dull Knife and others went to Fort Laramie to negotiate a treaty concerning access to the Powder River Basin. Shortly after beginning the talks, Col. Henry Carrington and several hundred infantry men reached Fort Laramie to build forts along the Bozeman Trail. The chiefs realized the treaty negotiations meant little, and that the Bozeman Trail was to be opened with or without their agreements. Thus began Red Cloud's War, which culminated in the crushing defeat of Lieut. Col. William Fetterman's column of eighty men outside Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming in December 1866, the month in which Starring and Hyer's Sioux dictionary came off the press at Fort Laramie.
The escalating tensions in the fall of 1866 were intensified by the lack of buffalo available to the tribes. The Post Commander at Fort Laramie "realized the true situation when the treaty chiefs began to come into the fort with their people late in September. Spotted Tail, with many lodges of Brulé, joined Big Mouth's Loafer band near Laramie, and asked for beef. He wanted peace and hoped he would not be forced to go into the hostile country. Next came the Cheyenne, who had only sent delegates to the treaty council in June. On October 12, they signed the treaty and were given their presents" (ibid, p. 215). Materials in the Starring archive do not establish the time and circumstances under which Starring received the two pectorals. Because of his abilities with the Lakota language, it is possible that Starring was asked to be present at the treaty negotiations, both in the early spring or the fall of 1866, and received the two pectorals as a reward for his efforts.
It is quite probable that this and the following lot were given to William Starring in the fall of 1866 at Fort Laramie, where he is known to have been stationed at the time. Plains Indians did not prefer the trade silver gorgets found in Eastern North America. They preferred the variant shape known as a pectoral, and this form was adopted mainly by the Kiowa, Cheyenne, Teton Sioux, and Shoshone. It was made primarily of German silver, an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper. The pendant is generally in the shape of a cloud, with a rounded upper edge and scalloped base. The ornament was hung from a loop curved back from the face of the top edge.
Following the harsh and deadly winter of 1865-66 and the ensuing hostilities between the various Sioux bands and the white soldiers stationed at forts along the Bozeman Trail, Red Cloud (1822-1909, Mahpiya Luta in his native language) gained new Indian allies and increased his resistance. Since fighting on the Plains had intensified with the increasing emigration of the whites in the 1860s, Red Cloud, of the Oglalas, led all Sioux in resisting them. "Shrewd and suspicious, a strategist who saw beyond the limited tactics of most Indian leaders, he shared with Spotted Tail the greatest influence over the high plains Sioux" (ibid, p. 203). In the late spring of 1866, war chiefs Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, Standing Elk, Dull Knife and others went to Fort Laramie to negotiate a treaty concerning access to the Powder River Basin. Shortly after beginning the talks, Col. Henry Carrington and several hundred infantry men reached Fort Laramie to build forts along the Bozeman Trail. The chiefs realized the treaty negotiations meant little, and that the Bozeman Trail was to be opened with or without their agreements. Thus began Red Cloud's War, which culminated in the crushing defeat of Lieut. Col. William Fetterman's column of eighty men outside Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming in December 1866, the month in which Starring and Hyer's Sioux dictionary came off the press at Fort Laramie.
The escalating tensions in the fall of 1866 were intensified by the lack of buffalo available to the tribes. The Post Commander at Fort Laramie "realized the true situation when the treaty chiefs began to come into the fort with their people late in September. Spotted Tail, with many lodges of Brulé, joined Big Mouth's Loafer band near Laramie, and asked for beef. He wanted peace and hoped he would not be forced to go into the hostile country. Next came the Cheyenne, who had only sent delegates to the treaty council in June. On October 12, they signed the treaty and were given their presents" (ibid, p. 215). Materials in the Starring archive do not establish the time and circumstances under which Starring received the two pectorals. Because of his abilities with the Lakota language, it is possible that Starring was asked to be present at the treaty negotiations, both in the early spring or the fall of 1866, and received the two pectorals as a reward for his efforts.