Indian ledger drawings by Koba and Etahdleuh Doanmoe
Scope and Contents
Ledger with drawings, sketches, and watercolors by Kiowas Koba and Etahdleuh Doanmoe, circa 1878-1885, while they were students at the United States Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, or imprisoned at Fort Marion in Saint Augustine, Florida. The ledger includes twenty-three pages of artwork attributed to Koba, four pages attributed to Doanmoe, and two pages of unattributed work.
Images of Kiowa material culture include depictions of strike-a-lite bags, tipis, and war shields, as well as individual images of a cradleboard, an eagle-feather headdress, a lance, a parfleche, and a shirt. Other material objects include a cooking pot, a knife, and a rifle, as well as several wagons. The ledger also includes depictions of horses and buffalo, as well as a drawing of a stag elk.
Images of religious symbols include a Thunderbird and a horned mystical creature, as well as material related to the Native American Church, including buttons of peyote (Lophophora williamsii) and geometric designs used in ceremonies. One drawing depicts Rainy Mountain (Sépyáldá), an important cultural site for Kiowas.
The ledger includes a view of a train with an engineer operating a locomotive pulling railcars with American Indian passengers, as well as a view of a stockade fort flying a United States flag.
Portraits of American Indian women and men include a representation of a man with smallpox. A copy drawing reproduces a studio portrait photograph that depicts Kiowa Indian chief Stumbling Bear created in 1869 by photographer William S. Soule.
Before its use by Koba and Etahdleuh Doanmoe, the ledger belonged to Jose P. G. Valdez, probably a butcher in St. Augustine, Florida. It includes his name and a list of clients on the front flyleaf and his name on the back flyleaf, as well a brief entry in Spanish on page 102. The ledger also lacks the first twenty-two pages, which presumably held his business entries. The remaining 185 pages are blank.
The back flyleaf includes computations to establish the ages of people in 1887 and 1889, probably students at the United States Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Dates
- circa 1878-1889
- Majority of material found within 1878 - 1885
Creator
Physical Description
1 v. (29 p. ) : ill. ; 32 cm.
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
The Indian Ledger Drawings by Koba and Etahdleuh Doanmoe. is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Formerly owned by Francis "Frank" Murray Wynkoop. Formerly owned by the Villagra Book Shop. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Purchased from William Reese Company (Heritage Auction Galleries' sale, 2009 September 19, lot 55145) on the Walter McClintock Memorial Fund, 2009.
Extent
0.1 Linear Feet (1 volume)
Language of Materials
Spanish; Castilian
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
Ledger with drawings, sketches, and watercolors by Kiowa Indians Koba and Etahdleuh Doanmoe, circa 1878-1885, while they were students at the United States Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, or imprisoned at Fort Marion in Saint Augustine, Florida. The ledger includes twenty-three pages of artwork attributed to Koba, four pages attributed to Doanmoe, and two pages of unattributed work.
Koba (1848-1880)
Koba (also known as Wild Horse) was a Kiowa. He was part of a Kiowa Indian band that surrendered during the Red River War on February 18, 1875, and accused of stealing horses and mules in Texas and participating in an August 1874 skirmish at the Wichita Agency.
In April 1875, United States authorities transferred him to Fort Marion in Saint Augustine, Florida. Following his release from Fort Marion in April 1878, Koba attended the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia. From June to October 1879, he assisted farmers in Lee, Massachusetts. Koba attended the United States Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from October 1879 to September 1880, and trained to become a tinsmith.
He died of tuberculosis during a visit to his home in Anadarko, Kiowa Agency.
Etahdleuh Doanmoe (1856-1888)
Etahdleuh Doanmoe (also known as Etahdleeuh, Etadeleuh, Hunting Boy, and Boy Hunting) was the son of a Kiowa father and Mexican mother. He was part of a Kiowa band led by Lone Wolf that surrendered during the Red River War on February 23., 1875, and accused of attacking buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls, Texas, in spring 1874.
In April 1875, United States authorities transferred him to Fort Marion in Saint Augustine, Florida. During his imprisonment, he also served as a quartermaster sergeant for prison commander Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924).
Following his release from Fort Marion in April 1878, Doanmoe attended the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia. In 1879, he travelled to the Indian Territory to recruit pupils to attend the United States Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He intermittently attended and worked at the school from 1879 to 1887. From February to May 1880, Doanmoe worked in the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution.
In 1882, he married Laura Tone-adle-mah and they had a son, Richard Doanmoe (born 1886). He also trained as a Presbyterian missionary and returned to the reservation in January 1888. Later that year he died of tuberculosis in Anadarko, Kiowa Agency.
General note
Title devised by cataloger.
General note
The front flyleaf has an ownership inscription of Francis "Frank" Murray Wynkoop, as well as a label for the Villagra Book Shop of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
Descriptions for contents of the ledger adapted from Mike Cowdrey, "Kiowa Comrade, Far from Rainy Mountain: The Productive Exile of Wild Horse (Koba) and Hunting Boy (Etahdleuh Doanmoe), 1878-1880)" in Heritage Auctions American Indian Art Auction Catalog #6029, Dallas, Texas, edited by James L. Halperin (Dallas, Texas: Heritage Capital Corporation, 2009), 88-95.
- Doanmoe, Etahdleuh, 1856-1888
- Indian art -- Pictorial works
- Indian ledger drawings -- Pennsylvania -- Carlisle
- Indian painting -- Pictorial works
- Indians of North America -- Material culture -- Pictorial works
- Indians of North America -- Pictorial works
- Kiowa Indians
- Kiowa Indians -- Pictorial works
- Kiowa art -- Pennsylvania -- Carlisle
- Kiowa painting -- Pennsylvania -- Carlisle
- Koba, 1848-1880
- Ledger drawings
- Peyote -- Pictorial works
- Shields -- Pictorial works
- Soule, William S. (William Stinson), 1836-1908
- Stumbling Bear, Kiowa chief -- Pictorial works
- Thunderbird (Legendary character) -- Pictorial works
- Tipis -- Pictorial works
- Valdez, Jose P. G.
- Villagra Book Shop (Santa Fe, N.M.) -- Ownership
- Wynkoop, Francis Murray, 1869- -- Autograph
- Title
- Guide to Indian Ledger Drawings by Koba and Etahdleuh Doanmoe.
- Author
- by Matthew Daniel Mason
- Date
- 2014
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
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