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THBHenry Farny Telegraph to Indian Agent McLaughlin Regarding Sitting Bull's Baptism Ceremony
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About Auction
LiveNov 19, 2020
Cowan’s Auctions, a Hindman Company, is pleased to present the November 19 Fall Auction, featuring over 400 lots of historically significant photography, manuscript material, artwork, and other ephemera dating from the 18th through the early 20th century, including the Civil War. Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com
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- Lot Description
Farny, Henry François (1847-1916). Telegram to Indian Agent James McLaughlin. From Cincinnati, OH, dated May 24, 1883. 1p, 5.25 x 7.6 in., on War Department, Signal Service USA-United States Telegraph letterhead. Verso dates the telegram and notes the sender and content. The message from Farny is brief: "When does ceremony of Sitting Bulls [sic] baptism take place"Farny had likely seen the brief announcement in the April 13, 1883 issue of the New York Times which stated: "Sitting Bull Becomes a Catholic...Bishop Marty, of Dakota, who is no in this city, says Sitting Bull will soon join the Roman Catholic Church. There are now 2,000 Indians in Dakota belonging to the Catholic Church." This report, however, was erroneous. McLaughlin refuted the reports in an article titled "Sitting-Bull Not to Be Baptized" published in the Chicago Daily Tribune on May 26, 1883, in direct response to Farny's telegram, stating: "Mr. H.A. [sic] Farny, the artist who has been doing illustrations of Indian life, was anxious to be present at the baptism of Sitting-Bull in the Catholic Church, if it should occur. He telegraphed an inquiry to Dakota, and tonight received the following from the Indian Agent: 'Fort Yates, Dak., May 25.-The reported baptism of Sitting-Bull is erroneous. There is no immediate prospect of such a ceremony so far as I am aware. 'James McLaughlin, Indian Agent.'" In a follow-up New York Times article from September 23, 1883, it is reported that: "An unforeseen obstacle to his reception has been met in the shape of two wives, neither of whom Sitting Bull can make up his mind to part with. until the red man brings himself to put aside one or the other of his marital companions he will be debarred entrance." Sitting Bull would not forsake either wife and by most accounts, never converted. He was known to be quite close with Father Pierre De Smet who would have been the likely candidate to have baptized him. There are no records, however, of this ever happening. And Father Bernard Strassmeyer, a Catholic Priest at Fort Yates, stated: "Sitting Bull was a trouble maker and a bad man and a murderer and I did not approve of burying him in the consecrated ground of a Catholic churchyard. So he was buried outside. He was a pagan. I knew him well." Farny, who is best remembered for his illustrations and paintings of American Indians, spent many months in 1881 living with the Sioux in Dakota Territory. Sitting Bull's potential conversion and baptism must have been a fascinating and tempting subject to the artist. Farny did paint a portrait of Sitting Bull in 1899, based on a photograph to which he added elaborations not in the original image, now in the collections of Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin.
Provenance: Descended Directly in the Family of Eagle Woman Who All Look At; The Estate of Leo and Margaret HarmonOriginal creases, light toning.Condition
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