Blackfeet War Chief’s Shirt & Leggings of the 1830s Mike Cowdrey, 2016
Specialist
Douglas Deihl Department Director 508.970.3254 americanindian@skinnerinc.com www.skinnerinc.com
Auction Information Auction 2693B
Preview
Absentee Bidding
Friday, May 6 10AM
Wednesday, May 4 12 to 5PM
T: 617.874.4318 F: 617.350.5429
63 Park Plaza Boston, MA
Thursday, May 5 12 to 7PM
General Inquiries 617.350.5400
Friday, May 6 8 to 9:30AM
SkinnerLive! skinnerinc.com
Cover photo and page 1: back of shirt and front of leggings are pictured together to highlight the elaborate decoration
1830s Blackfeet War Chief’s Shirt (front), made of two bighorn sheepskins sewn with animal sinew, trimmed with red wool cloth bibs, human hairlocks, yellow-dyed horse mane, shoulder arm strips and large rosettes on the chest and back embroidered with porcupine quills and black vegetal material, and painted scenes of the owners’ warfare exploits, with nearly forty figures in black, red ocher, yellow ocher, and turquoise blue. Thirtyfour black stripes painted on the sleeves indicate the number of war expeditions led by at least two different owners.
A Blackfeet War Chief’s Shirt & Leggings of the 1830s Introduction In a February 25, 2015, sale by Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers, at Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, Ireland, previously unknown American Indian masterworks from the early 19th century were reintroduced to the world. http://www.slideshare.net/a-harvey/fonsie-mealy-fine-art-sale-feb-25th-2015-arish-art These included an 1830s Blackfeet war chief’s shirt and leggings; and what may be the earliest-surviving Eastern Ojibwa (Saulteau) war chief’s turban-headdress, from the 1840s. The Blackfeet material will be considered here. During the 1860s and later, the Castlemorres estate, where these antiques were re-discovered, was the winter home of the family of Captain (later, Major General) Reymond Hervey de Montmorency, third Viscount Frankfort de Montmorency, and his wife Rachel. The property and its contents have remained in possession of descendants of the Montmorency family until the death of the last heir, two years ago. During 1865-67, Capt. Montmorency was aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-General Sir John Michel, Commander of forces in British North America, headquartered at Montreal. In August—September of 1865, the two officers made a canoe reconnaissance west from Montreal, to investigate the Hudson’s Bay Company trading posts on Lake Huron [Stacey, 1982]. Shortly after their return, the captain had himself photographed at his Montreal quarters, posed before a sign reading: “Montmorenci [sic] Cottage, Indian Curiosities.” As he had only recently arrived in eastern Canada, it must be obvious that he had acquired this inventory on his recent journey to the west. This reconnaissance will be explored in detail, in the section on “Provenance,” below. The Blackfeet shirt which has descended in the Montmorency family is very similar to garments worn by Blackfeet chiefs depicted by the artist George Catlin, at Fort Union on the border of present Montana and North Dakota, in 1832. http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=4045 http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=3949 Made of two brain-tanned mountain sheepskins, profusely trimmed with locks of human hair and horse mane dyed yellow, with narrow neck flaps of red-wool trade cloth, it is decorated with more than forty painted war-exploit figures in black, red-ocher, yellow-ocher, and turquoise-blue, with black stripes on the sleeves; and is embroidered with arm and shoulder strips, and chest and back rosettes of dyed porcupine quillwork and black vegetal material. The shirt has a height at the midline of about 29 inches. The width, cuff-to-cuff, is 65 inches; and its greatest length, including the leg appendages, is 44 inches. The diameter of the quilled chest and back rosettes is 7.5 inches. The leggings are made of two brain-tanned antelope skins, profusely trimmed with locks of human hair and yellow-dyed horse mane, decorated with vertical strips of porcupine quillwork, and fifty-three black-painted, horizontal stripes. They have a length of 36 inches, without the pendant tie straps formed of the natural leg skins. While not entirely unique, we have found in North American collections only one other Blackfeet suit from about the same period, and with a similar combination of features, especially the painted figures of war exploits. http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/item.aspx?irn=177136&catids=1&cultxt=blackfoot&src=1-1&page=3 That shirt was collected by the artist John Mix Stanley, also near Fort Union, in 1853. The Montmorency Blackfeet shirt and leggings comprise the first complete suit of its type available for acquisition in North America in well more than a century. Provenance Although his family and the man himself preferred the French spelling of his name, “Reymond Hervey,” in official publications the name is relentlessly Anglicized: “De Montmorency, Raymond Harvey, third Viscount Frankfort de Montmorency (1835-1902), major-general, born at Theydon Bower, Epping, Essex, on 21 Sept. 1835, was only son of Lodge Raymond, second viscount (1806-1889), by his wife Georgina Frederica (d. 1885), daughter of Peter Fitzgibbon Henchy, Q.C., LL.D, of Dublin. Educated at Eton and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned an ensign in the 33rd duke of Wellington’s regiment on 18 Aug. 1854, promoted lieutenant on 12 Jan. 1855, and served with his regiment during that year in the Crimea in the war with Russia. He did duty in the trenches at the siege of Sevastopol, and took part in the storming of the Redan on 8 Sept., when Sevastopol fell. For his gallantry at the assault he was recommended for the Victoria Cross, but he did not receive it. For his services during the campaign he was given the British medal with clasp for Sevastopol and the Turkish and Sardinian medals. 3
A rear view of the 1830s Blackfeet War Chief’s Shirt.
http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/I-20566.1 http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/I-20564.1 De Montmorency accompanied his regiment to India. During the Indian Mutiny in 1857-58 he was in charge of a detachment against the mutineers in central India, and for his services he received the Indian Mutiny medal. Promoted captain on 29 March 1861, de Montmorency exchanged into the 32nd duke of Cornwall’s light infantry, and from 6 Dec. 1861 to 31 Dec. 1864 was aide-de-camp to his uncle by marriage, Major-general Edward Basil Brooke, commanding the troops in the Windward and Leeward Islands. From 4 June 1865, de Montmorency was aide-de-camp to Lieut.-general (afterwards Field-marshall) Sir John Michel, commanding the troops in British North America, and next year took part in the repulse of the Fenians, receiving the British medal for his services. While travelling in Abyssinia, he volunteered under Sir Robert Napier, afterwards Lord Napier of Magdala, in the hostilities against King Theodore (Oct. 1867). He accompanied the expedition to the gates of Magdala, when all the volunteers were recalled. For his service he received the war medal. DeMontmorency commanded the frontier force during the operations in the Sudan in 1886-87, and received the Khedive’s bronze star. In 1887 while commanding the troops at Alexandria with the local rank of major-general, he directed the operations of the British field column of the frontier force during the operations on the Nile, and was mentioned in despatches. He was promoted major-general on the establishment on 30 Nov. 1889, and succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father on 25 December. From 1890 to 1895 Lord Frankfort commanded a first-class district in Bengal, and from 1895 to 1897 the Dublin district. He retired from the service on 21 Sept. 1897, on attaining 62 years of age. A keen soldier, a strict disciplinarian, and a master of the art of drill, kind-hearted and open-handed, he died suddenly of apoplexy at Bury Street, St. James’s, London, on 7 May 1902, and was buried on the 12th in the village churchyard of Dewlish, Devonshire, with military honors. [The family seat of his in-laws, the Michels, was at Dewlish. Montmorency was buried beside his old commander and father-in-law, Sir John Michel.] DeMontmorency married on 25 April 1866, at Montreal, Canada, Rachel Mary Lumley Godolphin, eldest daughter of Sir John Michel. She survived him [dying in 1944]. By her he had two sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Raymond Harvey de Montmorency (1867-1900), captain of the 21st Lancers, distinguished himself in the charge of his regiment at Omdurman in 1898 and was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry. He served in the South African war and was killed in action in February 1900 at Molteno, in Cape Colony, at the head of the corps of scouts which he had organized and which bore his name” (Vetch, 1912: 489). Important documentation on Reymond Hervey De Montmorency’s career may be found in Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, Vol. III. Following a similar listing of his military assignments: “He Married 25 April 1866, at the Cathedral of Montreal, Rachel Mary Lumley Godolphin, 1st daughter of Field Marshall, the Rt. Hon. Sir John Michel, G.C.B. ... Family Estate—This in 1883, consisted of 4,610 acres in County Kilkenny [the Castlemorres property, noted above]; 1,653 acres in County Clare, 1,054 in County Cavan and 636 in County Carlow. Total 7,953 acres, worth £3,805 a year. Principal residence, Theydon Bois, near Epping, Essex” (Cockayne, 1890: 401-02). There was no collection information with the Montmorency pieces, except that they had been family possessions for more than a century. The Fonsie-Mealy catalog assumed that the family portrait also in the auction was a likeness of the collector. Instead, that man was the son of the collector. The son was born in Montreal, which seemed close enough. It was overlooked that he had left Montreal at the age of nine months, in 1867, and never returned. On the mistaken assumption that the son had obtained the Indian artifacts subsequent to 1890, they were described in the Irish sale as “late 19th century.” It was, however, very clearly the elder Reymond De Montmorency, who collected the artifacts. We have been unable to find mention of him in a single, Canadian source, except that he was photographed several times by the prominent photographer William Notman, during the two years he was in Montreal (McCord Museum Photo Archives); and most important, he was aidede-camp (and soon thereafter, son-in-law) to Lieutenant general Sir John Michel, commander of military forces in British North America, 1865-67. http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/I-20355.1
5
There is more information about Michel’s activities. Since Montmorency was the aide-de-camp, he would have gone everywhere with the general, who is documented as making a canoe reconnaissance from Montreal, via Lake Nipissing, and the French River, to investigate the Lake Huron area in August-September, 1865 (Stacey, 1982: 70). The general took with them Sir James Hope, Admiral of the British North American Fleet, so it must be clear they didn’t stick to the rivers, but were mainly interested in the Lake conditions, and went on to the only HBC re-supply destination on that route, Sault Ste. Marie. It seems certain the Saulteau turban-headdress was acquired at the HBC post on the Sault, which was surrounded by a large, Ojibwa community; and the Blackfeet suit may have been acquired there as well, earlier brought east from Rocky Mountain House with one of the canoe brigades. In the autumn of 1865, newly returned to Montreal, Montmorency had himself photographed in front of his quarters, on the roof of which is an advertising sign: “Montmorenci [sic] Cottage—Indian Curiosities,” indicating he had already set himself up with a sidebusiness in antiquities. http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/I-17318.1 He probably came back from the Sault with a canoe-load of Indian goods. The captain was engaged to be married the following year to Rachel Mary Michel, eldest daughter of his boss. http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/I-27321.1 The artifact business was probably intended to help with wedding expenses. This may make him the earliest-documented dealer in American Indian art in North America. Another well-known entrepreneur, Julius Meyer, didn’t open his “Indian Wigwam” store in Omaha, until 1868. ttp://digital.omahapubliclibrary.org/earlyomaha/buildings/indian_wigwam.html In 1865, control of what had formerly been Rupert’s Land (the central 1/3 of Canada), a Hudson’s Bay Company concession for 200 years, was being transferred to the newly-forming Dominion of Canada. The Governor of the HBC at Montreal was Edward Martin Hopkins, who would have been making all of the travel arrangements for Lieutenant general Michel and his officers. The chief concern of the HBC was in maintaining access to all of its trading assets, and to be seen as a loyal ally of the Crown. Hopkins, therefore, would have been greasing the political wheels at every opportunity. If the “General’s man” wanted “Indian Curiosities,” then Hopkins would have been the obvious source. It was Hopkins who donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University several of the Blackfeet quilled shirts in that museum, which he and Sir George Simpson, then Governor of the HBC, had collected at Fort Edmonton, Alberta, in 1841 (Simpson, 1847: 70). Note the very close similarities of the quilled rosettes and shoulder strips on the Hopkins shirt at the Pitt Rivers Museum, to the same features of the Montmorency shirt. http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/blackfootshirts/index.php/image-gallery/index-func=detail&id=6.html Edward Hopkins’ wife was the incomparable Frances Anne Hopkins, whose paintings of Hudson’s Bay Company voyageurs are the primary, visual resource for the entire 19th century fur trade industry. The sketches for her famous painting “Shooting the Rapids” were made in 1866, on the same route Michel & Montmorency had followed the previous year, and very possibly in the same birchbark canoe. http://education.mnhs.org/northern-lights/learning-resources/chapter-5-fur-trade/shooting-rapids The painting shows a Hudson’s Bay Company voyageur crew entering the French River from Lake Nipissing. http://www.wikiart. org/en/search/Paul%20Jacoulet/8#supersized-search-358796 After a portage midway, the river brought them to Georgian Bay, on the shore of Lake Huron. Coasting westward along the north shore of the lake brought them to the HBC post at Sault Ste. Marie. General Michel and Captain Montmorency must have gone there, because it was the only re-supply point on the lake for their return journey. http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-866&R=DC-PICTURES-R-866 The Hudson’s Bay Company post at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, was located at the mid-point of the route by which supplies were shipped westward, and the fur returns were shipped east from the Rocky Mountains to Montreal. There was a large warehouse at the Sault post, which had been in use for decades. Coincidentally, in the autumn of 1865, the storage depot at Sault Ste. Marie was being closed (Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Winnipeg: “Wemyss MacKenzie Simpson”. http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical/s/simpson_wemyss-mackenzie.pdf
6
The route, marked in red, followed by Lieutenant General Sir John Michel and Captain Reymond de Monmorency, from Montreal to Sault Ste. Marie, August–September, 1865. Detail of the map “Dominion of Canada,” by D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1891.
Its large warehouse was in process of being emptied, and the company inventory moved elsewhere. The pressing need to unload the bric-a-brac of half a century may have been the explanation for how Captain Montmorency was able to acquire his inventory of “Indian Curiosities” on this trip. Back in Montreal a few months after his return from the west, in early 1866, Captain Montmorency had himself photographed with his fiancée Rachel Mary Michel posed on a toboggan, as they would have been for a “Tableau Vivant” performance, a popular entertainment of the Victorian period, when community members would don elaborate costumes, and pose motionless on stage for several minutes, enacting genre scenes, famous paintings, or historical events. In the photo, they have dressed as “habitants,” or old French residents. Captain Montmorency wears a capot, or hooded blanket-coat, and Indian moccasins, the winter “uniform” of the very voyageurs with whom he had traveled to Sault Ste. Marie, just a few months earlier. http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/I-20269.1 Tableaux Vivants were a popular evening past-time among the members of Montreal society during the 1860s & 1870s. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/canadian-illustrated-news-1869-1883/Pages/image.aspx?Image=48771&URLjpg=http%3a %2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f026019%2ff4%2f48771-v6.gif&Ecopy=4877 Frances Anne Hopkins, whose husband Edward had certainly arranged the trip to the Sault for General Michel, also had herself photographed by the Notman Studio dressed as “Portia,” from The Merchant of Venice, and as “a shepherdess,” to memorialize performances in which she had participated. http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/I-7335.1 These silent “costume dramas,” intended to amuse or amaze one’s neighbors and associates, were also popular in the United States. In the year before he was killed at Little Bighorn, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer happily posed as an “Indian chief” (with flowing mustache) for a Tableau Vivant performance at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory. http://civilwartalk.com/threads/does-this-look-like-george-armstrong-custer.104666/
7
Blackfeet War Chief’s Leggings made of two antelope skins sewn with animal sinew, trimmed with human hair locks, yellow-dyed horse mane, and strips embroidered with porcupine quills. They are painted with fifty-three horizontal, black stripes tallying the number of war expeditions in which the owner(s) had participated.
This may be the reason that Captain Montmorency had a seamstress convert the pair of Blackfeet leggings into “trousers,” by carefully sewing a seat of chamois leather to the tops. This was their condition at the time of the Castlecomer auction. If he wished to appear on stage in Indian masquerade, an officer of Her Majesty’s army could hardly pose in a breechcloth (!) The Montmorency family tradition is that in succeeding generations of the family, one member had always dressed in the “Indian suit” when presents were opened on Christmas mornings (Mr. Fonsie Mealy, Sr., to the consignor, personal conversation, 2015). In fact, the Fonsie Mealy catalog mimicked this practice, by displaying the shirt and leggings on a mannequin that portrayed the eldest son of Captain Montmorency, Reymond Hervey Lodge Joseph Montmorency, dressed in the shirt and leggings (Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers, 2015: 60 & 62). Subsequently, this added leather seat has been carefully removed by a conservator, returning the leggings to their original, pristine condition. 8
Back view of leggings. Note that the right legging has an added gusset at the cuff, the skin of the rear legs has been retained, in traditional fashion, to be used as belt ties. The edges of the skins at the hip and ankle openings have short, integral fringing. Traces of red-ocher are from brushing against other objects, possibly the wearer’s arms rubbed with ocher grease-paint.
Early 19th Century Blackfeet War Chief’s Shirts & Leggings At Rocky Mountain House in 1810-11, then a North West Company trading post on the North Saskatchewan River, Alberta, Alexander Henry recorded the earliest description of Blackfeet ceremonial clothing: “The Ordinary dress of these people is plain and simple...The young men have a more elegant dress which they put on occasionally, the shirt and leggings being trimmed with human hair and ornamented with fringe and quillwork; the hair is always obtained from the head of an enemy” (Henry and Thompson, 1897, Vol. 2: 726).
9
The artist-explorer George Catlin was at Fort Union, the largest American Fur Company post on the Upper Missouri River, opposite the mouth of the Yellowstone River, in 1832: “I have this day been painting a portrait of the head chief of the Kainai [Blood tribe of the Blackfeet]... he is a good-looking and dignified Indian, about fifty years of age, and superbly dressed; whilst sitting for his picture he has been surrounded by his own braves and warriors... reciting to each other the battles they have fought, and pointing to the scalp-locks, worn as proofs of their victories, and attached to the seams of their shirts and leggings... http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=4045 The name of this dignitary... is Stu-mick-o-sucks (the buffalo bull’s back fat) ... http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=3949 The dress... of the chief... consists of a shirt or tunic made of two deerskins finely dressed... the seams running down on each arm, from the neck to the knuckles of the hand; this seam is covered with a band of two inches in width, of very beautiful embroidery of porcupine quills, and suspended from the under edge of this, from the shoulders to the hands, is a fringe of the locks of black hair, which he has taken from the heads of victims slain by his own hand in battle” (Catlin, 1842, Vol. I: 29-31). In 1833 at Fort Mackenzie, another American Fur Company post near present Fort Benton, Montana, the German traveler Prince Maximilian von Wied expanded on Catlin’s observations. This entire passage might describe the Montmorency garments: “The dress of the Blackfeet is made of tanned leather, and the handsomest leather shirts are made of the skin of the bighorn which, when new, is of a yellowish-white color, and looks very well...These shirts have half sleeves, and the seams are trimmed with tufts of human hair, or of horsehair dyed of various colors, hanging down, and with porcupine quills sewn [wrapped] round their roots. These shirts generally have at the neck a flap hanging down both before and behind, which we saw usually lined with red cloth, ornamented with fringe, or with strips of yellow and colored porcupine quills...Many of the distinguished chiefs and warriors wore such dresses, which are really handsome, ornamented with many fringes hanging down...Some of these Indians wear on the breast and back round rosettes...Their leggings are made like those of the other Missouri [River] Indians, and ornamented with tufts of hair or strips of porcupine quills” (Maximilian, 1843: 248).
The decorative strips have been re-purposed from earlier uses, a common expedient, since hundreds of hours went into the embroidery. The main lower sections originally were arm strips on another shirt. They are embroidered with porcupine quills in five colors: natural white, dyed red, dark brown, turquoise blue, and purple. It is unclear what the shorter, upper sections were originally intended for. They have been added to fill up an appropriate length for the leggings and are embroidered in porcupine quills dyed bright shades of yellow, red, and Kelly green.
10
On July 24, 1841, at Fort Edmonton, Alberta, one of the major posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company serving the Blackfeet tribes, the HBC Governor Sir George Simpson, recorded: “...the firing of guns on the opposite side of the [South Saskatchewan] river, which was heard early in the morning, announced the approach of nine native chiefs who came forward in advance of a camp of fifty lodges, which was again followed by a camp of six times that size. These chiefs were Blackfeet, Piegans, Sarcees [an allied tribe] and Blood Indians, all dressed in their grandest clothes and decorated with scalplocks” (Simpson, 1847: 70). Governor Simpson was accompanied by his secretary, Edward Martin Hopkins. The men either traded for or were given on this occasion a number of Blackfeet decorated shirts. A quarter century later in 1865, Hopkins, who had succeeded Simpson as HBC Governor, made all of the arrangements for the
Detail of the upper section of the left legging. Each hairlock is wrapped onto a short leather thong using a strip of animal pericardium applied wet then over-wrapped with white porcupine quills. In drying the sticky membrane “glued” the loose hair in place.
reconnaissance of General Michel and Capt. Montmorency, supplying them with HBC canoes and voyageur crews for the journey west to Sault Ste. Marie. After his retirement and return to England, Hopkins donated or sold to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University, five Blackfeet shirts decorated with quillwork and scalplocks. These were among the ones acquired at Fort Edmonton. It is probable that the shirt and leggings obtained by Capt. Montmorency also came through Edward Hopkins’ influence, and may also have been among the group acquired in 1841. In collections worldwide, we have found fewer than twenty Blackfeet shirts collected with their original leggings, from the period prior to 1850. Of these, only two exhibit all the features of the Montmorency Blackfeet shirt: quillwork sleeve and shoulder strips; quilled rosettes on the chest and back; painted coup stripes on the sleeves and/or body (also on the leggings); sleeve and shoulder fringing of human hairlocks, and yellow-dyed horse mane; and especially, painted figures on the body of the shirt illustrating war exploits. The only such Blackfeet shirt we have found in a North American Collection is the one obtained by John Mix Stanley, in northern Montana in 1853, now in the National Museum of the American Indian. http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/item.aspx?irn=177136&catids=1&cultxt=blackfoot&src=1-1&page=3 Thirty-six years ago, the ethnographer Norman Feder suggested that rather than Blackfeet “proper,” this shirt may have been a garment of the Prairie Gros Ventre tribe, who were closely allied with the Blackfeet during various periods in their history (Feder, 1980). Paul Kane found a large group of Gros Ventres encamped with the Pikuni Blackfeet near Fort Pitt, Saskatchewan, in June 1846 (Kane, 1859: 424-425). The matching leggings are closely similar to the Montmorency pair, except that they have a mixture of glass pony beads accenting the quillwork strips.
11
A close view of the front porcupine-quillwork rosette
http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/item.aspx?irn=177135&catids=1&cultxt=blackfoot&src=1-1&page=3 The second surviving Blackfeet War Chief’s shirt similar to the one collected by Captain Montmorency was obtained in 1843-44, during a visit to North America by the French Count Armond d’Otrante, who described it as the garment of a “Duke of the Pied Noir,” or Blackfeet. This is now in the Valdskultur Etnografiska Museerna, Stockholm. http://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-em/web/object/1025805 It differs from the Montmorency example in having smaller, paired rosettes of quillwork, front and back. The painted war-exploit figures on the d’Otrante shirt are so similar in style and detail to those on the Montmorency shirt, both might have been decorated by the same artist. The accompanying leggings are decorated with strips of pony beadwork, rather than quillwork. Only the back sides are painted with black stripes denoting “war journeys.” http://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-em/web/object/1025806
12
A close view of the right shoulder and arm strips, showing the colors and two different quillwork techniques. The black portions of the embroidery are vegetal material.
In 1846, near Fort Pitt, the Hudson’s Bay Company post on the North Saskatchewan River, Saskatchewan, the Canadian artist Paul Kane portrayed the six leaders of a large encampment of 1500 lodges of Blackfeet and allied tribes, the Gros Ventre and Sarcee. http://www.wikiart.org/en/paul-kane/big-snake-chief-of-the-blackfoot-indians-recounting-his-war-exploits-to-five-subordinatechiefs-1856#supersized-artistPaintings-358783 Kane’s title is “Big Snake Recounting His War Exploits.” Note that Big Snake, 3rd from right, is the only one of these leaders whose leggings are trimmed with locks of human hair (Kane,1859: 424-425) Blackfeet Painted Buffalo Robes In the same painting, the Blackfeet chief standing at far left is draped in a buffalo robe painted with war-exploit figures, very similar to those seen on the Montmorency shirt. Another Blackfeet painted buffalo robe, c. 1840, is in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Cat. No. 2006.79.1. http://www.rom.on.ca/collections/objects/blackfoot-robe/ 13
A close view of the front of the Blackfeet shirt.
Again, the dozens of figures—both humans and horses—with many standardized representations of arrow quivers, bows, fusil firearms, and “capture hand” motifs indicating weapons taken from the enemy, are nearly identical to those on the Montmorency shirt, and the shirt at Stockholm, collected by Count d’Otrante in 1843-44. This demonstrates the classic, Blackfeet character of the Montmorency shirt and leggings; and a general period when similar garments were in wide use among the Blackfeet. Suggested Date of the Montmorency Blackfeet War Chief’s Suit It should be clear from the many, foregoing examples, that although Captain Montmorency could only have acquired the Blackfeet shirt and leggings in the period 1865-67, the features of the garments, themselves, are reflective of a period 20 to 30 years earlier. The close similarity of the war-exploit figures on the shirt, to those on the “Pied Noir” shirt obtained by Count d’Otrante in 1843-44; to the garments and buffalo robe depicted by Paul Kane in 1846; to the c. 1840, Blackfeet painted buffalo robe now at the Royal Ontario Museum; and the general features of the Blackfeet shirt in the Pitt Rivers Museum, collected by Edward Hopkins in 1841; all combine to suggest that the early 1840s is the latest that the Montmorency suit could have been made. The two 1832 paintings by George Catlin very graphically document shirts of Blackfeet War Chiefs, including the Head Chief of the Kainah (or Blood) Blackfeet, which display most of the same features as the Montmorency shirt. These include: a foundation of brain-tanned bighorn sheepskins; arm and shoulder strips embroidered with porcupine quillwork and “black” vegetal material; large, quilled rosettes on the chest and back; narrow, rectangular, red-wool cloth neck pieces; and a heavy fringe of human hair
14
A careful tracing of the painted figures from the front of the shirt with their correct colors.
locks and yellow-dyed horse mane. All of these features were mentioned by Prince Maximilian in describing Blackfeet shirts he saw in 1833. This very strongly suggests that the “earliest date” for the Montmorency suit is no later than c. 1830. We have, therefore, very conservatively assigned a circa date of the “1830s” to this rare survival. It is, however, entirely likely that the Montmorency garments were created in the previous decade of the 1820s. Typical Blackfeet clothing documented by Catlin and Maximilian in 1832-33, certainly was not all newly made. Each garment reflected the entire career of the wearer; the recognized total of accomplishments which established his social standing in his community. A war leader’s shirt and leggings painted with black stripes which tallied the number of war expeditions he had accompanied (legging stripes, we believe); and other expeditions which he, himself, had led (black stripes on shirts) could only have been accrued, two or three journeys in one season. The Montmorency leggings display a tally of fifty-three black-painted stripes. The beginning of that career must have been substantially earlier than 1830. Painted Figures on the Montmorency Blackfeet War Chief’s Shirt First, some general observations. Two different artists contributed drawings to this shirt. All the figures on the front side were made by one artist; and all those on the back of the shirt (except possibly figure numbers 25 and 26) were added by a different artist. This suggests that the shirt had two Blackfeet owners, each of whom possessed a distinguished war record. It also suggests that the tally of fifty-three war expeditions displayed on the leggings reflected the efforts of both men, many of the years probably
15
The figures on the right side of the shirt front
concurrently. That is, each of them had accompanied about twenty-six or twenty-seven war parties. If only two or three of these occurred in the same year, then the beginning of their careers was 8 to 12 years prior to the early 1830s. Eager Blackfeet apprentice-warriors often accompanied their first war expedition by the age of fifteen, or even earlier, so both men would have been born not very long after 1800. There is a traditional explanation for this circumstance of dual ownership of what amounts to a general’s uniform. In 1854, Henry John Moberly was the clerk in charge of Rocky Mountain House, the Hudson’s Bay Company trading post for the Blackfeet on the North Saskatchewan River in present Alberta. In discussing a Blackfeet custom of “mutual adoption” among leading warriors, he reported: “The Indian who desired to form such a connection first notified the person selected of his wish. If this person was willing the Blackfoot appeared before him in full war dress, which comprised a leather shirt fringed heavily with human hair and strips of ermine and leather, beaded and fringed leggings, beaded moccasins and feather headdress. Divesting himself of this costume, he offered it to his prospective relative, who was required to give in exchange all the raiment he then wore. The pipe of peace was then solemnly smoked and the ceremony was complete, the relationship effected. From that moment, the warrior might be depended upon against all other Indians” (Moberly, 1929: 47). This was the “brother-friend” relationship, a bond considered deeper than blood. It carried with it other customs of consanguinity. A man was expected to sacrifice himself, to protect his brother; and if one should be killed, a man married his brother’s widow, caring for her and adopting his brother’s children. In social terms, what the Montmorency war shirt documents is a contract stronger than death.
16
The figures on the left side of the shirt front
One convention of Blackfeet pictography must be understood, to correctly interpret these drawings. The impression given by the vertical figures is that all are represented as standing erect, one next to another. This is misleading. The composition actually has a dual perspective. With a few exceptions, which shall be noted, only the figures of the triumphant Blackfeet artists are represented as victoriously “still on their feet.” Most of the enemy figures are depicted at an angle of ninety degrees to the artists’ self portraits. They are shown lying supine on the ground, dead and with their arms splayed out, as their bodies might have been viewed from horseback. The drawings also document Plains-wide customs of Indian warfare, the scalping, mutilation and dismemberment of enemy bodies. All Plains Indians were hunters, trained from early childhood in the speedy and efficient butchering of game animals. One mammal is much like another; so it is perhaps not surprising that the same techniques practiced weekly in a hunting economy, also were
17
directed toward the carcasses on a battlefield. Victory celebrations, or so-called “Scalp Dances,” commonly featured not only scalps, but also the dismembered hands and feet of deceased enemies. Sometimes, if enemies attacked and were dispatched near the home camp, whole limbs might be lopped off and carried back, to be reviled with mocking songs and celebrations that could last for many days. Drawings on the Montmorency shirt document these customs specifically. They were also recorded in one truly remarkable photograph. In 1874, while the border between the United States and Canada was being surveyed for the first time, a Royal Engineer company strayed a few miles south of the Canadian line, into the Sweetgrass Hills of northwestern Montana. There, circling vultures led them to the site of a recent battle, where Blackfeet had discovered a party of Crow warriors intent on stealing horses, and had massacred them to a man. The young Crow warriors had tried to use a buffalo wallow as a protection, but the Blackfeet undoubtedly were on horseback, and had overwhelmed the intruders. The Crow bodies lay scattered around their last rampart, the skulls entirely scalped, the heads smashed with war clubs, or shattered by gunfire, and all of the hands and feet cut off and carried away. It is the only photograph known to have been made of an actual Indian battlefield. http://ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx&BU=&T N=IMAGEBAN&SN=AUTO9389&SE=960&RN=13&MR=10&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=0&XP=&RF=WebResults&EF=&DF=WebRe sultsDetails&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&ID=&MF=WPEngMsg.ini&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=3073&NR=0&NB=1&SV=0&BG=&F G=&QS=ArchivesPhotosSearch&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 “The Blackfeet sometimes cut to pieces an enemy killed in battle. If a Blackfoot had a relation killed by a member of another tribe, and afterwards killed one of this tribe, he was likely to cut him all to pieces ‘to get even’...Often they cut the feet and hands off the dead, and took them away and danced over them for a long time. Sometimes they cut off an arm or a leg, and often the head, and danced and rejoiced over this trophy” (Grinnell, 1908: 254). The Blackfeet also suffered the consequences of these customs. Near Fort Pitt, Saskatchewan, where in 1846 Paul Kane had depicted Big Snake and the other Blackfeet chiefs, in 1859 James Carnegie, the Earl of Southesk, saw a battle in which Plains Cree killed a Blackfeet man. “They cut him into bits, and came back with his limbs hanging about their horses as ornaments” (Southesk, 1875: 287). Several of the historical descriptions of Blackfeet war garments specified that the scalplock fringes were cut from the heads of enemies killed by the wearer. All of the dead enemies depicted on the Montmorency shirt are shown as “bald.” Only the Blackfeet victors are depicted still in possession of their scalp locks. In two instances (Figs. #1 & 4), the artist depicted his own footprints leading directly to the head of a supine enemy. Three of the enemy figures are depicted with missing arms. Shirt Front Prominent features of this artist’s style include the long necks drawn as a single line; tiny, round heads; many figures with curvilinear arms, drawn like the necks as a single line; and the calves of most of the legs are accented. Vertical blue lines through the torsos of enemy figures, and blue-colored faces seem to be used in a reportorial manner, to represent the actual color of a freshly killed corpse, as the venous blood began to coagulate at the skin surface. Scene 1 – Artist 1 1. The artist shoots an enemy with a flintlock fusil. The dotted line, from his right foot to the head of Figure #2, indicates that the artist immediately ran to scalp the dying man. The artist includes his own scalp lock, to show that he is living (and victorious). Here, and in Figure #19, he shows himself with a blue-painted face, the only departures from his “blue=dead” convention. Apparently, on some occasions he used an actual blue war paint. At Fort Mackenzie, Montana Territory, in 1833, the artist Carl Bodmer portrayed a Blackfeet chief named Middle Bull (Tatsicki-Stomick), his entire face rubbed with powdered graphite that appears blue-gray. 2. This enemy figure was shot in his left side and killed, then scalped. In a very curious departure, the bullet wound is depicted outside his body, with the conventional red lines of “dripping blood.” The fact that the second artist also uses this convention (Figure #35), suggests that it was widely understood in Blackfeet society in this period. 3. The horse of the artist, with a long, jaw-loop rein trailing directly to the owner’s right foot. The round termination of the tail indicates that the hair has been gathered and wrapped, a common practice. The blue color of the animal is naturalistic, like the artist’s face paint. It represents the blue-gray coat color of a grullo stallion, or gelding. The same war steed is shown again in Figures #4 & 19. The hooves are represented by the semicircular tracks the animal made. Showing these as curving forward is unusual. More commonly in the early 19th century, the hooves of a horse were represented with its tracks curving backward, as in Figure #36. Scene 2 – Artist 1 4. Here, the artist dismounts from the grullo, to run and scalp an enemy killed by someone else. It is important to understand that many of these vignettes occurred in the midst of battles when scores or hundreds of other men were involved. The artist shows only his own actions. He did not kill this man, but he was first to reach and touch the body, meriting a first coup. The trajectory of dotted footprints indicates that before scalping the victim, the artist touched the man’s quiver, capturing it. He would also have captured the bow. 5. This figure presents the “horseback” view, looking down at the enemy lying dead on his back, his arms splayed to the sides. Scene 3 – Artist 1 6. This man is the Blackfeet hero of the encounter; but it is not clear that the scene is a self-portrait. It is possible the artist may have helped to rescue another, prominent warrior, whose identity all other Blackfeet would have recognized, from his distinctive 18
The back side of the 1830s Blackfeet Chief’s Shirt.
A careful tracing of the painted figures from the back of the shirt with their correct colors. 19
The forked blue motifs painted over the shoulder represent a “body count” of dead enemies killed by the men under command of the shirt wearer.
headdress and shield. The Blackfeet man is outnumbered, and is being hard-pressed in a hand-to-hand melée. He has been wounded in the right forearm, possibly by the dagger-wielding foeman at Figure #8. Nonetheless, he is shown in the act of counting a first coup on the enemy at Figure #7, by smashing him in the head with the barrel of his fusil. This may be intended as a “freezeframe” scene, illustrating how desperate was the situation of #6, just before the artist helped to rescue him. This potential close association suggests that Figure #6 may be a depiction of Artist 2, before the Montmorency shirt passed into his possession. If he had been rescued by Artist 1, this might well have triggered initiation of the “brother-friend” relationship described by Henry John Moberly in 1854. 7. Here, and the man at Figure #8, are exceptions to the depictions of dead enemies. Both of these men are depicted vertically, in active conflict. This enemy apparently escaped alive, because he has not been colored with vertical blue lines; and he retains his hair, so was not scalped. 8. This enemy is also not colored with the blue lines of “death.” His hairless head, however, may be a forecast that later in the encounter he was killed. The large dagger he wields was one of the armaments supplied in trade by the Hudson’s Bay Company.
20
Scene 4 – Artist 1 9. His entire body covered in red-ocher or vermilion war paint, the artist counts coup on a dead enemy by touching him with the bow in his right hand. Although depicted “alone,” it is likely that he would have been racing several of his compatriots in the midst of an ongoing battle, hence “winning by a nose” with the extended bow. 10. Interior Plateau tribes from west of the Rocky Mountains commonly traveled into Blackfeet territory, to hunt buffalo, or to steal horses. The short sleeves and heavy fringes of this man’s shirt were typical of the Interior Salish tribes on Thompson River, British Columbia. The dead man’s left arm was taken as a trophy. 11. The boys of many Plains and Plateau tribes were initiated into warfare by accompanying their fathers or older brothers on horse-stealing raids. “A war party...journey[s] on foot, always. The older men carry their arms, while the boys bear the moccasins, the ropes [for securing enemy horses], and the food...They carry also coats and blankets and their war bonnets and otter skin medicine” (Grinnell, 1908: 251). Here, a first experience has proven fatal. The boy’s right arm—light-weight & “portable”—was severed as a trophy. Scene 5 – Artist 1 12. “The Blackfeet Indians graded war honors on the basis of the degree of courage displayed in winning them... Their term for war honor, ‘namachkani,” meant literally ‘a gun taken.’ The capture of an enemy’s gun ranked as the highest war honor” (Ewers, 1958: 139). Undoubtedly, the reason the artist depicted this encounter “front & center”—his most-important coup. He is shown snatching the weapon from the hands of an enemy who was then killed, perhaps by another Blackfeet in the midst of a large encounter. 13. The enemy is depicted both “before” and “after” his demise: the rifle was snatched from his hands; then he was killed. Scene 6 – Artist 1 14. Although here, the artist has depicted himself in a position similar to the “splayed” enemy beside him, we are meant to understand that he is “on his feet,” either in the act of snatching another rifle, or counting a coup with the weapon by smashing the enemy in the head with the gun barrel. Indicating his own genitals either signifies that on this occasion he fought entirely naked, perhaps in an encounter when the Blackfeet were surprised; or that he was “more of a man” than his foe. Failure to indicate his own scalplock is a departure for this artist; however, this figure is clearly the victor in this encounter. 15. The enemy’s death appears to be indicated by the blue lines coloring his torso. Scene 7 – Artist 1 16. The artist, his scalplock accented with several feathers or plumes, depicted himself in the act of shooting the enemy Figure #18. He then immediately ran to strike the man with his open hand, counting a first coup. This is indicated by the black “hand” motif beside the enemy’s neck. He then turned to his right and counted another coup on the enemy Figure #17, by touching him on the arm. Both enemy figures have the blue faces of “death,” and although variously colored, their entire bodies are outlined in blue. 17. It is unclear what the curved “biceps” on this figure are meant to indicate. Glittering armbands made of sheet-brass were a coveted and expensive trade item. It is likely the artist is showing his acquisition “at no cost.” Another Blackfeet was first to snatch the horned, feather headdress. It is included to identify the enemy figure—who may have been known to the Blackfeet by this decoration; but the artist did not “acquire” it, for it is not shown separately, like other acquisitions at Figures #5, 20, & 27-30. 18. An omission in the drawing is that there are very faint lines of “dripping blood” indicated where the bullet trajectory strikes the torso of this figure. These were unclear in the reference photo used for the drawing. The position of the black “hand” motif may also indicate that the man’s powder horn was captured by the artist; while the rifle was grabbed by another Blackfeet. Scene 8 – Artist 1 19. The artist depicts himself riding probably the same grullo war horse as in Figures #3 & 4, and entirely covered in his blue war paint. He is not “dead.” His scalplock remains, and it is clear that he is the hero of a long encounter involving Figures #20-23. 20. “For a horseman to ride over and knock down an enemy who was on foot was regarded among the Blackfeet as a coup, for the horseman might be shot at close quarters, or might receive a lance thrust” (Grinnell, 1908: 246-47). This achievement is indicated by the line of three horse tracks crossing the body of the dead enemy. Thereafter, on parade occasions such as the sham battle during the Medicine Lodge ceremony, the grullo in Figure #19 would be distinguished by having two hand-prints, or the full figure of a man painted on its chest, to show that the animal had been ridden when this coup was performed. 21. Another youth, colored with the blue lines indicating his death, has been killed on his first war party. He was carrying the quiver of the warrior in Figure #20, which the artist captured. 22. Moments after the encounters with Figures #20 & 21, the artist—still riding the grullo, at least touched the fusil shown leaving possession of this figure. The artist may not have physically grabbed it at the moment of encounter, but his possession of the deed, hence the weapon when he later returned to claim it, was witnessed by one or several other Blackfeet. Shortly after every battle, the surviving participants would meet to state the accomplishments each claimed. Those which could be verified by a witness were thereafter acknowledged by acclamation. 23. Here, we are shown another detail of all the encounters at Figures #19-22, where there wasn’t sufficient room to depict the lance shown killing this enemy. The yellow “circles” are meant to represent that the shaft of the weapon was wrapped with two, long strips of otter fur that crossed each other, alternating from side to side as the wrapping was done. The leader of the Brave Society, one of the warrior associations, carried such a short, otter-wrapped lance (Wissler, 1913: Figure 4b). The object on this man’s head may be intended as the tail of a bird, likely a hawk, This enemy is a war chief, the leader of his party, indicated by the decorated implement in his left hand. Rather than a “lance” or “coup stick,” this probably was intended to represent a pipe stem decorated with ermine tails colored yellow. An alternate name for the leader of a war party was the “Pipe Carrier.” Among his
21
duties as leader were daily prayers for the success of his party. The pipe bowl, which was carried in a separate pouch when not in use, is either not shown; or it may be covered by the quilled shoulder strip. The fact that Figures #2, 23, 31 and 34 are partly covered by the shoulder strips, indicates that these were added at a later time. All of the painted scenes were done first. 24. See 32-33. Shirt Back Prominent features of the second artist’s style include more-naturalistic necks, drawn with two lines; round, proportional heads; the limbs are drawn with paired lines—the legs are straight, and the arms with a V-shaped bend. The use of blue venous lines and blue faces to identify dead enemy figures is repeated from the front side of the shirt. This second owner of the shirt had a war record somewhat less distinguished than that of its first owner. Scene 9 – Artist 2 25. These two figures, and also Figure #38, display a combination of the styles of both artists, an indication of their close association. Especially here, the curved arms drawn partly as a single line are typical of Artist 1. The rest of the two figures, however, principally the short necks and proportional heads, are typical of all the other figures drawn by Artist 2. We conclude that he was the creator of these two figures. Also, Figure #25 is the hero of all events depicted on the entire left half of the composition (the right side of the shirt, as worn), so it is most likely the artist created his own portrait. He shows himself grabbing the rifle barrel of a man he has simultaneously shot through one or both thighs. The fact that this man retains his scalp, and his living coloration, however, is an indication he was able to escape. 26. The events on this side of the shirt occurred during a large battle. The artist depicts encounters involving perhaps a dozen men, when the reality probably involved scores of combatants. These are merely the events for which he could claim personal credit. After shooting the enemy shown here, and capturing his rifle, the dotted line of the artist’s footprints indicate that he sprinted on across a battlefield littered with corpses. 27. Here, the black hand motif denotes that the artist grabbed the bow and arrows of an enemy already killed by someone else. “The capture of a bow, shield, war bonnet, war shirt or ceremonial pipe [as at Figure #23] was also a coup of high rank. The taking of a scalp ranked below these deeds, but ahead of the capture of a horse from the enemy” (Ewers, 1958: 139). 28. Writing at Rocky Mountain House, then a North West Company post in 1810, Alexander Henry recorded: “Young Piegans are not so much addicted to fineries as the [Siksika, or Blackfeet, proper], their only addiction being for war...The gun which they carry in their arms, and the powder-horn and shot-pouch slung on their backs, are necessary appendages to the full dress of a young [man]. The bow and quiver of arrows are also slung across the back at all times and seasons” (Henry & Thompson, 1897, Vol. 2: 726). Here, the artist depicts his acquisition of another bow, and a buffalo horn filled with gun powder 29. Nearby, he snatched an arrow-filled quiver and an otterskin medicine bag from another dead victim. The sequence indicated by his dotted tracks is that he snatched the possessions at Figure #29, first; then the bow and powder horn at Figure #28; and continued running. Probably dozens of other Blackfeet warriors were simultaneously doing the same thing across a large battle field. The rule was that whoever first touched any item became the legal possessor. The balance of plunder went to the swiftest men. Artist 2 was proud of his easy acquisitions on this occasion. 30. Continuing his collecting sprint, the artist grabbed another powder horn and shot pouch from this dead enemy. 31. A final acquisition was the quiver and arrows shown here, and possibly a bow or other plunder covered by the quilled shoulder strip. Shoulder Motifs 32. – 33. By comparison with other Blackfeet garments of the period, we made recognize that the forked, blue shapes painted across the shoulders of the shirt represent a “body count” of dead enemies. Compare, for example, the similar figures painted in black over the shoulders of the shirt at Stockholm collected by Count d’Otrante in 1843-44, where the necks and heads of the figures are included. Both there, and on the Montmorency shirt, the shape is a conventionalized section of the top of a human torso, including the V-notch of the shoulders. Compare the artist’s abbreviated self-portrait at Figure #36. Not all of these men were killed by the shirt owners, themselves. The leader of a war party had the right to claim all of the enemies killed by men under his command. Scene 10 – Artist 2 34. The artist shows himself shooting an enemy in the head. Ironically, most of his own figure was covered by the later addition of the quilled shoulder strip. 35. Again, as in Figure #2, we have the curious convention of showing the bullet wound outside of the body, with descending lines of blood. It was common among many tribes to abstract this same symbol—a black dot for a bullet wound; a black line for a blade wound; either with lines of flowing blood—painted on clothing or robes, to indicate one’s own, honorable wounds suffered in battle. Scene 11 – Artist 2 36. – 37. The yellow-orange coat color indicates this war horse was a bay roan. The enemy in Figure #37 fired two arrows at the artist, but both shots narrowly missed. Before he could fire a third time, the line of tracks indicates the artist’s charging horse trampled and crushed the man, and the artist smashed him with his rifle in the same assault. 38. – 41. This last group of four, dead men must be part of the preceding scene, because there is no other indication of how they might relate to the artist. The significant detail which explains the situation is that three of the men, though colored in the blue lines indicating death, have retained their scalps. That is, they are Blackfeet comrades who were killed in this same battle. Since
22
the enemy were defeated, the Blackfeet party were able to prevent their friends from being scalped. The fact that two are shown without arms, we conclude is merely an artistic abbreviation, and not an indication that they were mutilated. If the enemy had been able to dissect the arms, they would certainly have scalped the men, also; and the artist depicts himself without arms in Figure #36 Figure #38, however, is a different matter. In revenge for the Blackfeet men who died, one of the enemy was butchered by the removal of his arms, at the shoulders. This figure was certainly killed, but other than Figures #10 & 11, it is the only dead body on the shirt not depicted in blue. This may be intended to show that the man was mutilated while still living, a common occurrence during Plains Indian warfare. The Montmorency Family, After Leaving Canada Their main home, where Reymond had been born in 1835, was at Theydon Bois (Theydon Woods, or Bower), Epping, Essex, a rural area on the northeastern edge of Greater London. Summers were spent there. In early winter, the family would travel to Castlemorres, the 4,600-acre estate in County Kilkenny, Ireland, owned by the De Montmorency family since the 18th century. Exterior and interior views of the manor house at Castlemorres, while the family of Reymond Hervey de Montmorency resided there, may be seen in Figures #27 & 28. http://antiquefireplacesireland.com/2014/01/stock-no-1831/ It was there that the “Indian suit,” the Blackfeet shirt, leggings and the Saulteau turban-headdress, were kept safely in a trunk, being brought out only for the ceremony of Christmas morning, when one family member would don it for the distribution of gifts. In 1926, the main estate was sold to the Irish land Commission. In 1978, the manor house was demolished. Today, the area is a public park, Castlemorris Wood, with four miles of walking trails (Fonsie Mealy, 2015: 5). http://www.tripadvisor.com/Guide-g186616-i784-Kilkenny_County_Kilkenny.html Reymond Hervey Lodge Joseph de Montmorency (1867-1900) The son followed his father into a military career, also graduating from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the 21st Lancers, and in 1898, was posted to North Africa. Soon after arriving in Cairo, he was photographed seated front and center of the cavalry troop that he commanded. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lieutenant-montmorency-and-troopers-of-the-21st-lancers-a-newsphoto/85140987 On September 2, 1898, there was a major battle between British forces and a Libyan army near Khartoum. Early in the day, at a nearby village called Omdurman, the 21st Lancers were decoyed into an ambush. What appeared to be about 200 footmen were seen on a plain, half a mile ahead of the British advance. The British commander sent the Lancers to clear them out of the way. “Leading the regiment forward at a gallop from a point 300 yards away, the Lancers dashed at the enemy, who at once opened a sharp musketry fire upon our troopers. A few casualties occurred before the dervishes were reached, but the squadrons closed in and setting the spurs into their horses rushed headlong for the enemy. In an instant it was seen that, instead of 200 men, the 21st had been called upon to charge nearly 1500 fierce Mahdists lying concealed in a narrow, but in places deep and rugged khor. In corners, the enemy were packed nearly fifteen deep. Down a three-foot drop went the Lancers. http://www.nam.ac.uk/online-collection/detail.php?acc=1957-04-4-1 There was a moment or so of wild work, thrusting of steel, lance and sword, and rapid revolver shooting. http://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/M083055/The-Charge-of-the-21st-Lancers-at-Omdurman?img=9&search=21st+Lanc ers&bool=phrase Somehow the regiment struggled through, and up the bank on the south side...Then the regiment rallied 200 yards beyond the slope. Probably 80 dervishes had been cut or knocked down by the shock. But the few seconds’ bloody work had been almost equally disastrous for the Lancers. Lieutenant R. Grenfell and fifteen men had been left dead in the khor...[another 50 men were badly wounded, and a third of the regiment’s horses had been killed or maimed]. Lieutenant Montmorency, having got through safely, turned back to look for his troop-sergeant Carter. Captain Kenna went with him. At that moment they were not aware that young Grenfell had fallen. Lieutenants T. Connally and Winston Churchill also turned about to rescue two non-commissioned officers of their respective troops... Meanwhile, Captain Kenna and Lieutenant Montmorency, who were accompanied by Corporal Swarbrick, saw Lieutenant Grenfell’s body and tried to recover it. They fired at the dervishes and drove them back. Dismounting, Montmorency and Kenna tried to lift the body upon the lieutenant’s horse.
23
Unluckily, the animal took fright and bolted. Swarbrick went after it... Just then—for these events have taken longer in the telling than in happening—Montmorency and Kenna found the dervishes pressing them hard, both being in instant danger of being killed. Swarbrick had brought back the horse...and leaving Grenfell’s body they rejoined the command. Proceeding about 300 yards to the south-east from the scene of the charge, Colonel Martin dismounted his whole regiment and opened fire upon the dervishes. Getting into position where his men could fire down the khor, a detachment of troopers soon drove away the last of the enemy. Thereupon a party advanced and recovered the bodies of Lieutenant Grenfell and the others who had fallen in the khor. It was a daring, a great feat of arms for a weakened regiment of 320 men to charge in line through a compact body of 1500 dervish footmen, packed in a natural earthwork. Perhaps it is even a more remarkable feat that they were able to cut their way through with only a loss of 22 killed, and 50 officers and men wounded, and had 119 casualties in horseflesh” (Burleigh, 1899: 175-178) “[Later, 3] Victoria Crosses were given to Captain P.A. Kenna, 21st Lancers, Lieutenant R.H.L.J. De Montmorency, 21st Lancers, [and] Private Thomas Byrne, 21st Lancers, for turning back in the charge and rescuing Lieutenant Molyneux” (Burleigh, 1898: 288). The Victoria Cross, “For Valour,” is the British equivalent of the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor. The citation for Lieutenant de Montmorency’s award read: “The Queen has been graciously pleased to...confer the decoration of the Victoria Cross on the undermentioned officers... for their conspicuous bravery during the recent operations in the Soudan: At the Battle of Khartoum on the 2nd September, 1898, Lieutenant de Montmorency, after the charge of the 21st Lancers, returned to assist Second Lieutenant R.G. Grenfell, who was lying surrounded by a large body of Dervishes. Lieutenant de Montmorency drove the Dervishes off, and finding Lieutenant Grenfell dead, put the body on his horse, which broke away. Captain Kenna and Corporal Swarbrick then came to his assistance, and enabled him to rejoin the Regiment, which had begun to open a heavy fire on the enemy” (The London Gazette, November 15, 1898: p. 6688). De Montmorency was also promoted Captain. http://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/U239105/How-Lieutenant-the-Honourable-R-H-L-J-De-Montmorency-21st-Lancerswon-the-Victoria-Cross?img=3&search=Battle+of+Khartoum&bool=phrase Private Thomas Byrne’s valor on that day was perhaps even more remarkable. As the charge bogged down in the crush of men blocked in the bottom of the khor, or ravine, Byrne was shot through the right arm, forcing him to drop his lance. Another officer of the regiment, Lieutenant Molyneux was trapped nearby, bloodied and surrounded by a crowd of swordsmen, and calling for assistance. Wounded and disarmed though he was, nonetheless Private Byrne rode to the aid of the lieutenant, knocking down two of the Dervish assailants with his horse, but taking a lance thrust through his chest. The brief distraction allowed the lieutenant to break free, with Byrne following after, collapsed on the neck of his mount and barely gripping the horse’s mane as it leapt up the far embankment (Churchill, 1902: 288). Winston Churchill called it “The bravest act I ever saw.” http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/6606599/Paddys-40k-VC-for-act-praised-by-Churchill.html Although the engagement at Omdurman lasted only a few minutes, the serious losses suffered by the 21st Lancers had parallels with the Battle of Little Bighorn, twenty-two years earlier. The reaction of the English public was similar to the American reaction to the “Custer massacre” in 1876. The romantic depictions of the “Charge of the 21st Lancers” made Lt. De Montmorency a national hero. His image, sword in hand, as published in the newspapers, was framed and displayed in homes all over England. When Byrne rejoined the regiment after recuperating from his wounds, Montmorency asked the private to become his striker, or personal valet, so they were always together thereafter. In 1900, as Britain entered the Boer War, the pair were posted to the Cape Colony, now South Africa. Captain De Montmorency organized a company of scouts, who had the dangerous job of riding ahead of the marching regiments, to ascertain that there were no hidden forces lying in ambush. “On February 23rd [1900, General Gatacre] re-occupied Molteno [in the Cape Colony], and on the same day sent out a force to reconnoiter the enemy’s position at Stormberg. The incident is memorable as having been the cause of death of Captain de Montmorency, one of the most promising of the younger officers of the British Army. He had formed a corps of scouts, consisting originally of four men, but soon expanding to seventy or eighty. At the head of these men he confirmed the reputation for desperate valor which he had won in the Soudan, and added to it proofs of the enterprise and judgment which go to make a leader of light cavalry. In the course of the reconnaissance he had ascended a small kopje [isolated hill] accompanied by three companions, Colonel Hoskier, a London volunteer soldier, Vice, a civilian, and Sergeant Howe. ‘They are right on top of us! ‘he cried to his companions as he reached the summit, and dropped the next instant with a bullet through his heart. Hoskier was shot in five places, and Vice was mortally wounded, only Howe escaping. The rest of the scouts, being further back, were able to get cover and to keep up a fight until they were extracted by the remainder of the force. De Montmorency had established a remarkable influence over his rough followers. To the end of the war they could not speak of him without tears in their eyes. When I asked
24
Sergeant Howe why his captain went almost alone up the hill, his answer was ‘Because the captain knew no fear.’ [Pvt. Thomas] Byrne, his soldier servant (an Omdurman recipient of the Victoria Cross, like his master), galloped madly off next morning with a saddled horse to bring back his captain alive or dead, and had to be forcibly seized and restrained by our cavalry” (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1900: 356-57). They buried him at Molteno, and the corps went on to Pretoria, seeing some hard fighting at Wepener and other places. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?GRid=11300164&page=gr It fell to [Pvt.] Byrne’s lot to take his captain’s mount home—the same grey polo pony that had carried him at Omdurman–and which now enjoys an honored repose in the possession of Lady Frankfort de Montmorency, in one of the southern counties. When the old general met them at Southampton he burst into tears at the sight of the grey, and not long after he followed his gallant son to the Last Muster” (D.H. Parry, 1913: 339). Private (later Sergeant )Thomas Byrne had a long, military career, surviving until 1947. The Victoria Cross he was awarded for valour at Omdurman descended in his family, but was sold at auction in August 2015, for £40,000 (The Sun, 2015). Reymond Hervey Lodge Joseph De Montmorency, who had been born at Montreal in 1867, died doing precisely the same thing as the Blackfeet warriors depicted on the ancient War Chief’s shirt he had worn on Christmas mornings at Castlemorres as a youth— scouting the enemy. Mike Cowdrey San Luis Obispo, California 2016
25
Bibliography Brownstone, Arni 2001 “The Musee de l’Homme’s Fourneau Robe and Its Moment in the History of Blackfoot Painting.” Plains Anthropologist, Vol. 46, No. 177: 249-267. 2008 “Composition and Iconography in Painted Plains Indian Shirts.” In: Arni Brownstone and Hugh Dempsey, eds. Generous Man = Ahxsi-tapina: Essays in Memory of Colin Taylor, Plains Indian Ethnologist. Wyk auf Foehr, Germany: Tatanka Press, pp. 8-34. Burleigh, Bennett 1899 Khartoum Campaign 1898, or Re-Conquest of the Soudan. London: Chapman and Hall. Catlin, George 1841 Letters and Notes On the Manners, Customs and Condition of the North American Indians. 2 Vols. New York: Wiley and Putnam. Churchill, Winston Spenser (Col. F. Rhodes, ed.) 1902 The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan. London & New York: Longman’s, Green and Co. Cokayne, George Edward 1890 Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Vol. III: D. to F. London: George Bell & Sons. Doyle, Arthur Conan 1900 The Great Boer War. London: Smith, Elder & Co. Ewers, John C. 1958 The Blackfeet: Raiders On the Northwestern Plains. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. Feder, Norman 1980 “Plains Pictographic Painting and Quilled Rosettes: A Clue to Tribal Identification.” American Indian Art Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 2, Spring: 54-62. Fonsie-Mealy Auctioneers 2015 The Chatsworth Fine Art Sale: Castlemorres and the Family of Morres/ De Montmorency. Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, 25 February. The Graphic, An Illustrated Weekly Newspaper 1898 “The Battle of Omdurman, the Charge of the 21st Lancers.” Vol. LVIII, No. 1504, 24 September 1898. London. 1898 “How Lieutenant, the Honourable R.H.L.J. De Montmorency, 21st Lancers, Won the Victoria Cross.” Vol. LVIII, No. 1508, 26 November. London. Grinnell, George Bird 1908 Blackfoot Lodge Tales: The Story of a Prairie People. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Henry, Alexander and David Thompson (Elliott Coues, ed.) 1897 New Light On the Early History of the Greater Northwest, the Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry and David Thompson. 3 Vols. New York: Francis P. Harper. Hudson’s Bay Company Archives n.d. “Wemyss MacKenzie Simpson.” http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical/s/simpson_wemyss-mackenzie.pdf Kane, Paul 1859
Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts.
London Gazette 189 “Citations for the Victoria Cross.” p. 6688. Maximilian, Prinz von Wied-Neuwied 1843 Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-34. London: Ackerman and Co. Moberly, Henry John 1929 When Fur Was King. London & Toronto: J.M. Dent. Parry, D.H. 1913
The V.C. Its Heroes and Their Valour. London: Cassell and Company, Ltd.
Press, The (Christchurch, New Zealand) 1900 “Captain Montmorency, V.C.” Vol. LVII. Issue 10654, 12 May, p. 10. Simpson, Sir George 1847 An Overland Journey Round the World, During the Years 1841 and 1842. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. Southesk, Earl of (James Carnegie) 1875 Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains...in 1859 and 1860. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas. Stacey, C.P. 1982 “Sir John Michel.” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. XI. University of Toronto. The Sun 2015
“The Victoria Cross given to an Irish soldier who fought alongside Winston Churchill sold for £40,000 at auction yesterday.” August 26. London.
Vetch, Robert Hamilton 1912 “De Montmorency, Raymond Harvey.” In Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds. Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, Vol. 1: 489. London: Smith, Elder & Co. Wissler, Clark 1913 “Societies and Dance Associations of the Blackfoot Indians.” American Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Papers, Vol. XI, Pt. IV.
Captain Reymond Hervey de Montmorency. Photo by William Notman, Montreal, 1866. McCord Museum I-20563.1. He is depicted in full uniform, perhaps dressed for his marriage in the Cathedral of Montreal, a few months after returning from the expedition to Sault Ste. Marie, where he most likey acquired the Blackfeet shirt and leggings.
26
Captain Reymond Hervey de Montmorency posed in a caleche, or spring buckboard, in front of his quarters at Montreal. Photo by William Notman, late 1865. McCord Museum I-17318.1. Note the roof sign: “Montmorenci [sic] Cottage, Indian Curiosities.� This was shortly after his return from the trip to Sault Ste. Marie, when he must have acquired the inventory for this side business. Undoubtedly, he was hoping to earn some extra money toward his marriage, planned for April 25, 1866.
27
28