Originally published in Points West magazine Winter 2001 How the West was Written By Nathan Bender Former Curator, McCracken Research Library Writing was an integral part of personal life even in the frontier west. It permitted the keeping of diaries, long distance correspondence and business, and the formal printing of laws, books and newspapers. Despite […]
On this day, December 29, 1890, Chief Spotted Elk’s band of Mni Coujou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Sioux were intercepted by the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment fleeing from the Standing Rock Agency to the Pine Ridge Agency. At this time, the Mni Coujou and Hunkpapa mourned the death of Chief Sitting Bull, only 14 days prior […]
Originally featured in Points West magazine in Fall/Winter 2015 1904 colorized postcard of a ca. 1887 photograph of Sitting Bull Likely the best-known American Indian of his time, the Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in 1885 after long attempts by William F. Cody to recruit him. As noted in the […]
Edgar S. Paxson came to Montana in 1877, a year after the Battle of Little Bighorn. The artist was fascinated by the battle and said, “I will paint that scene…during my leisure hours. I kept dabbling with brush. Each day I saw some improvement.” He was determined to paint the battle scene as accurately as […]