July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
Stereoview of a Native American Chief “Belly Fat” in native attire, with nice feather adorned fur cap, and with large medallions on neck. Mounted on G.H. Nickerson of Provincetown, Massachusetts card, with small owl drawing affixed at center. In period ink on verso it is identified as “Belly Fat a sub chief of the Uncapapas.” Fine condition. Also known as Tejikjice in Lakota, Chief Belly Fat, was a member of the Hunkpapa Bands at Little Big Horn, and fled with Sitting Bull to Canada. The Hunkpapa are a Native American group, one of the seven branches of the Lakota Sioux tribe. The name is a Sioux word meaning "Head of the Circle". By tradition, the Hunkpapa set up their lodges at the entryway to the circle of the Great Council when the Sioux met in convocation. They speak Lakota one of the three dialects of the Sioux language. They may have formed as a tribe within the Lakota relatively recently, as the first mention of the Hunkpapa in European-American historical records was from a treaty of 1825. The United States Army general Warren estimated their population at about 2920 in 1855. He described their territory as ranging "from the Big Cheyenne up to the Yellowstone, and west to the Black Hills. He states that they formerly intermarried extensively with the Cheyenne." He noted that they raided settlers along the Platte River. In addition to warfare, they suffered considerable losses due to contact with Europeans and contracting of Eurasian infectious diseases to which they had no immunity. During the 1870s, when the Native Americans of the Great Plains were fighting the United States, the Hunkpapa were led by Sitting Bull in the fighting, together with the Oglala. They were among the last of the tribes to go to the reservations. By 1891, the majority of Hunkpapa Lakota, about 571 people, resided in the Standing Rock Indian Reservation of North and South Dakota. Since then they have not been counted separately from the Lakota.
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