8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 97 



No. I 



"Sitting Bull, a young man without reputation and therefore wear- 

 ing no feather, engages in his first battle and charges his enemy, a 

 Crow Indian who is in the act of drawing his bow, rides him down 

 and strikes him with a 'coup' stick. Sitting Bull's autograph — a 

 buffalo bull sitting on his haunches — is inscribed over him. His 

 shield suspended in front has on it the figure of an eagle which 

 he considers his 'medicine' — in the Indian sense of the term." ^ — 

 Kimball. 



* See Williamson letter, p. 7. For detailed circumstances of this exploit, 

 see Vestal, 1932, p. 13. 



"1846. On Red Water. The boy Sitting Bull, as yet an unfledged 

 warrior, is shown on horseback, charging an enemy whom he strikes 

 with a coup stick. On his blue shield a black bird is painted, anrl 

 four black-tipped eagle feathers flutter from the edges of the shield." 

 — Vestal. 



No. 2 



"Sitting Bull wearing a war bonnet is leader of a war party who 

 takes a party of Crows consisting of three women and a man, so 

 completely by surprise that the man has not time to draw his arrows 

 from the quiver. Sitting Bull kills one woman with his lance and 

 captures another, the man meanwhile endeavoring to drag him from 

 his horse, from which it is supposed he is forced to desist by others 

 of the war-party. The fate only of Sitting Bull and his victims is 

 given in this history." — Kimball. 



"1858. Rainy Butte. This picture commemorates the capture of 

 three Crow women, at the time when Sitting Bull's father was killed. 

 Sitting Bull carries the lance made for him by his parents, and wears 

 a bonnet with horns and a long trail of eagle feathers. A Crow 

 warrior is represented as trying to arrest his charge." — Vestal. 



