Great Plains Studies, Center for

 

Date of this Version

1998

Citation

Great Plains Quarterly Vol. 18, No. 4, Fall 1998, pp. 348

Comments

Copyright 1998 by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska- Lincoln

Abstract

On 11 July 1869, the Fifth Cavalry attacked and destroyed Tall Bull's camp at Summit Springs, Colorado. A ledger book of Cheyenne drawings found in the village depicts a number of Cheyenne Dog Soldier exploits during the 1860s. The book passed from one of the troopers to a railroad surveyor named Ira LaMunyon. In 1903 LaMunyon donated the book, as part of his personal library and collections, to the Colorado Historical and Natural History Society, where it remained, mostly unnoticed, for the next ninety years.

Jean Afton, wife of LaMunyon's great grandson, took an interest in the ledger book and involved a number of professionals and Cheyennes in identifying and interpreting the drawings. The list of Cheyennes in the acknowledgments reads like a who's who of traditional and ceremonial leaders. Missing from the list, however, is Sherman Goose, who worked closely with Jean Afton on the material in 1993.

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