II. THE SMITH PICTOGRAPHIC RECORD 



In June 1923, through the generosity of Mr. Rohert A. Smith, 

 the Bureau of American Ethnology archives were enriched by an- 

 other Sitting Bull document of even greater interest. This consists 

 of a later Sitting Bull pictographic autobiography drawn by the 

 great Sioux warrior himself. Although it contains drawings of only 

 22 exploits, it is well documented, and tlie explanations of the draw- 

 ings were given by Sitting Bull at the time the pictures were made. 



The drawings were made with a pencil on the pages of an army 

 ledger book, and colored by means of water-color paint. The human 

 figures are rather crudely drawn in the usual Plains Indian style, 

 but Sitting Bull shows his individuality even in the field of art, by 

 the manner in which the horses are depicted. Departing from the 

 general Plains Indian style of representing horses in a slender and 

 much conventionalized fashion, he draws his horses- realistically and 

 in a well rounded manner. The various horses shown are so consci- 

 entiously delineated that some of them can be recognized from 

 descriptions of Sitting Bull's favorite mounts given by Vestal and 

 others."" 



In the Four Plorns copy of Sitting Bull's autobiography of 1870, 

 the warrior is always identified by his name glyph in the form of a 

 seated buffalo. At the time the present picture record was made. 

 Sitting Bull had learned to write his name, and his signature accom- 

 panies each drawing in the place of the buffalo. 



The following letter from Mr. Smith accompanied the book of 

 pictures and the documents concerning them. 



^ Bob Davis, the well known newspaper writer, informed the author that 

 in an interview in 1931, he learned that Rudolph Cronau was sent to America 

 by the Gartcnlanbe, a weekly periodical published in Leipzig, to cover the Indian 

 wars as illustrator. In 1881 the artist made the acquaintance of Sitting Bull 

 shortly after his surrender at Fort Buford. Sitting Bull was much interested 

 in watching Cronau make his sketches and wishing to gain the friendship 

 of the Sioux leader, Cronau spent some time in teaching him to draw. This 

 very probably accounts for the sophisticated and un-Indian appearance of the 

 horses drawn by Sitting Bull. 



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