Sepia Saturday: John Grabill, Wounded Knee, and Plenty Horses

It always amazes me to see photographs taken

more than a hundred years ago.

And it makes me feel like a little part

of a longstanding tradition,

capturing moments in time via camera.

Of course I don't have to haul around big cameras

with heavy plates or worry about the harmful chemicals, 

just tripods and spare batteries and extra memory cards.

But once upon a time, a man named 

John C. H. Grabill (1866 - 1934)

made his way around the American West - 
circa the late 1880s to the mid-1890s 
and took photographs

of a way of life that's disappeared.

He sent a portfolio of images to Washington, D.C.

to obtain copyright protection for his works.

And then he seemed to disappear into the landscape.

But because he copyrighted those works, way back then,

the Library of Congress has made them available

to photography aficionados everywhere.

I searched census records, 
but never discovered Mr. Grabill.

Online sources have scant info, 
though one art site said he died in 1934. (*) 


One of the things he was famous for

was having photographed people on both sides 
of the massacre of indigenous peoples 
at what has been called Wounded Knee.

People like General Nelson A. Miles, 

who led the Cavalry Troops on their raid

to quell the outpouring of mysticism and religious fervor
led by a Paiute shaman named Wovoka.

Many Sioux followed his teachings, 
which included instructions to dance the Ghost Dance, wearing shirts that were believed to provide
 supernatural protection from the white man's bullets. 
The whole thing spooked the troops,

some of whom were determined
 to put an end to these rituals
by any means they deemed necessary.

The Sioux leader of this religious threat

was called Little.

Understanding and acceptance had no place 
in the Cavalry's world view. They, like Grabill,
saw native peoples as "hostiles."

On December 29, 1890, U.S. troops attacked and left  

some 300 native peoples dead, 
including mothers nursing infants. 


To read more about the shameful event, 
click HERE.

About 10 days later,
 a young Sioux man known to the whites
 as Plenty Horses and to his people as Senika-Wakan-Ota,

 decided to avenge the deaths 

by killing a young Cavalry officer.

He was tried twice for the murder of Lt. Edward H. Casey.

The first trial ended with a hung jury.

He was acquitted after the second trial,
 in which the judge gave instructions to the jury
 that the U.S. Army and Sioux nation were at war,
 rendering it impossible to convict Plenty Horses
 of murder or manslaughter. 

To read more about this sad case 

and the impact of growing up estranged

from your cultural heritage 

because of the values of the dominant group, 

click HERE.

(*) Interestingly, I did find stories from Bozeman, Montana

about a John Grabill who was convicted in 1924 for moonshining. He apparently skipped town before his trial

and was convicted in absentia. 

He was sentenced to six months and a fine of $1000.
And apparently he wasn't dissuaded, 
because he was busted
on similar charges 
(possession of alcohol and nuisance) in 1932.  

Don't know if they're the same guy or not.
If they were, I wonder what caused the downfall?

All photos from the Grabill Collection 

in the Library of Congress Photography Collection.