Amos Bad Heart Bull

Bad Heart Bull, Amos (c1868-1913). Noted Oglala Lakota artist and historian.

Early years

Born about 1868 or 1869, Amos was the son of Bad Heart Bull ("Tatanka Cante Sica") and his wife Red Blanket ("Tasina Luta win"). Amos' father was a brother of the headman He Dog and a nephew of the famous Oglala chief Red Cloud. Known as Eagle Bonnet ("Wanbli Wapaha") as a young man, Amos grew up living the traditional life of the Oglala. His family belonged to an Oglala camp known as the Soreback Band. He was eight years old when Custer's column attacked the large Indian village in the famous Battle of the Little Bighorn.

At the end of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, the Bad Heart Bull family surrendered at the Red Cloud Agency on April 18, 1877, several weeks before Crazy Horse. Following the killing of Crazy Horse in September 1877, the family stampeded with other northern Oglala to the nearby Spotted Tail Agency. The family then fled north with other Oglala, eventually joining Sitting Bull in Canada. The Bad Heart Bull family probably returned to the U.S. with other Oglala who surrendered at Fort Keogh in 1880. They were transferred to the Standing Rock Reservation in 1881 and the following spring, sent home to join the rest of the Oglala at the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Becoming an Artist

As a young man, Amos Bad Heart Bull showed interest in the history of the Oglala and began to draw pictures depicting their traditional lifeways and history. In 1894, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as an Indian scout, serving at Fort Robinson with his uncle Short Bull, Grant. During this time, he purchased a ledger book from a clothing dealer in nearby Crawford, Nebraska and began to draw a series of pictures.

Returning to Pine Ridge after serving his enlistment, Amos married and made his living as a small cattleman. His only daughter, Victoria, was born in 1909 but died four months later. He received his land allotment on the Pine Ridge Reservation along Black Tail Creek northwest of Oglala, South Dakota, near other members of the Soreback Band. His wife died in 1910 and Amos died on August 3, 1913.

Bad Heart Bull Manuscript

At the time of his death, Amos' sketchbook was given to his younger sister, Dolly Pretty Cloud, who later allowed a young graduate student from the University of Nebraska, Helen Blish, study it for her master's thesis. When Dolly died in 1947, the original ledger was buried with her. Blish however had fortunately had the drawings photographed some time earlier. In 1967, the original prints of the photographs were used by the University of Nebraska Press to finally publish Blish's study and figures of Amos Bad Heart Bull's drawings.

In the years that have followed the manuscript's publication, scholars have come to view the Amos Bad Heart Bull manuscript as a very important contribution to Lakota history and culture.

Bibliography

*Helen Blish, "A Pictographic History of the Oglala Si"oux (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1967).
*Ephriam D. Dickson III, "Reconstructing the Indian Village at the Little Bighorn: The Cankahuhan or Soreback Band, Oglala," "Greasy Grass", 2006, pp. 2-14.