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Long Bull

Oglala

 

 

The SIRIS website has a Long Bull or Long Buffalo Bull, who was photographed by Mitchell. They list him only as Dakota.
I would assume that Long Bull is Oglala. Most of the photos of Mitchell I know probably are made at Pine Ridge/Red Cloud Agency, because they show Oglala Sioux, Northern Cheyenne or Northern Arapaho who were there at the time.
Catherine Price mentioned a Long Bull in her book, who among others represented Southern Oglalas (Kiyuksas?) at the Fort Sully council in 1865. The man here looks too young for being a chief in 1865, more like a akicita leader. Maybe he is a son or nephew?! — Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

I believe there was a Long Bull killed at Wounded Knee; of course, it may not be the same one. — Grahame Wood

The Oglala genealogy site gives the following information:

1. Daniel Long Bull Tatanka Hanska (#17350) was born 1841.
He married Bright Eyes 1871. ( Bright Eyes is #17351.) She was born 1853.
At 43 years of age Daniel became the father of Katie Long Bull 1884. Daniel was listed as head of a family in an American Indian census in Porcupine District, 06/30/1904.
Daniel Long Bull Tatanka Hanska and Bright Eyes had the following child:
2 i. Katie Long Bull (#17352) was born 1884. She resided in Porcupine District 06/30/1904.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mikestevens/2010-p/p206.htm#i17350 — Grahame Wood

This photo seems to be made much later, maybe 1890s:

There was a Long Bull acting in Buffalo Bill´s Wild West show, so this may be him. — Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

From the backdrop, this is a photo by Charles H. Carpenter, working for the Field Museum of Chicago at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. — Grahame Wood

The first portrait of Long Bull is by the photographer D. S. Mitchell, taken in the fall of 1877, presumably at the Red Cloud Agency in northwestern Nebraska.

Unfortunately, we do not know a great deal about Long Bull (Tatanka Haska), sometimes also translated as Tall Bull. He was born about 1841 or 1842. The earliest written reference to him that I am aware of is the 1874 census at the Red Cloud Agency, when Long Bull is recorded as a member of Bad Wound's band (probably the Tasnaheca, a prominent band within the larger Kiyuksa Tiyospaye.)

He is mentioned at the Red Cloud Agency in the spring of 1876 by Colonel Merritt and he also appears in the agency census for November 1876, listed among the Kiyuksa. His whereabouts during the summer of 1876 however is not known. Given his membership within the Kiyuksa, I doubt he was at the Little Bighorn.

Long Bull enlisted as an Indian scout in December 1876 and served until March 1877. He then disappears; his name is not among the Oglala in the census taken in the spring of 1877. A man by this name does appear in the Crazy Horse surrender list, in Crazy Horse's family, having surrendered at Red Cloud in May 1877. One possibility is that he was one of the former scouts sent out as delegates to the hostile village in an effort to persuade them to surrender. Or this may be another individual named Tall Bull/Long Bull.

Long Bull lived at the Red Cloud/Pine Ridge Agency for the remainder of his life, where his name appears in the census records for 1878-82 and from 1885 forward. By 1890, he had settled in the Porcupine District, as a member of the Wacunpa or Roaster Band. This band consisted of a mixture of various Kiyaksa bands and Brule. A few members of this band are known to have been at the Little Bighorn, including the band's leader, Knife Chief (He was the father of Eagle Bear and Fool Crow who have left eye witness accounts). Long Bull served in the Indian Scouts in 1891 after Wounded Knee. After 1898, he was known in the agency documents as Daniel Long Bull.

Long Bull, according to one source, married five times. The only documented marriage was to a woman generally known as Bright Eyes, who he married about 1876-77. He had a number of daughters, but I have not been able to track down any living descendants yet. Long Bull died Sept. 16, 1928 at Porcupine, South Dakota.

I am posting a better example of his portrait by D. S. Mitchell, scanned from a stereoview. (Incidentally, the cdv mentioned above in the Swanson Collection was later sold to another collector in South Dakota). What is interesting in this portrait is that Long Bull is shown wearing a model 1872 enlisted dress army blouse with sergeant stripes. He also holds a Model 1866 Springfield, with a cutdown barrel and a stock decorated with tacks. By the time this photograph was taken, Long Bull was no longer an Indian scout, but he certainly seems to be dressed as one. Very curious!

In addition to the later photograph of Long Bull posted above, there is a second image by the same photographer (see below). — Ephriam Dickson

If our Long Bull is Kiyuksa, he could very well be related to the Long Bull mentioned in 1865. — Dietmar Schulte-Möhring

To further span the visual documentation of Long Bull from Mitchell's 1877 portrait way into the 20th century, here's another picture, perhaps the man's last likeness. It is from a lithographed color postcard published in 1907. I am positive that this is the same Long Bull:

This, now, looks like the latest of our Long Bull portraits. There is a larger copy of your photo attached:

— Hans Karkheck


 

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