Army surplus

[RobSmith]

Regular, garden variety trade goods ?

Pretty common things back in the late 1800's I would think.

[TerryS]

The picture is from a museum and purports to show Sioux and Cheyenne indians. Since its dated 1876 the year of the LBH battle, and they have trapdoor carbines, I was inferring that they were battlefield pickups. But I was too subtle. Anyway, what is that rifle you are showing ?

[Pattern14]

Actually, if you look closely at the caption on the photo of the indians, the caption says Little Wolf. According to historical accounts, little wolf was an indian scout around 1880.

[jmoore]

The picture is from a museum and purports to show Sioux and Cheyenne indians. Since its dated 1876 the year of the LBH battle, and they have trapdoor carbines, I was inferring that they were battlefield pickups. But I was too subtle. Anyway, what is that rifle you are showing ?

Possible, but the "Col. Whatsisname" is in civi's and the building appears to be in a fairly well travelled area, probably a town, where Indians dressed "for war" and armed MIGHT just raise a ruckus...(Plus, if YOU were a Col. and some enemy combatants showed up w/ freshly captured weapons, would you hang about and pose for a picture? No "snapshots" back then...)

The weapon pictured is an Indian scout rifle issued and then fairly quickly snatched back (too much firepower?). Remington Keene 45-70.

Actual picture date and what the museum claims the date to be might need further investigation.

[lee sherman]

traded his father's firewater for it, duh.

[smellie]

Perhaps it might be worth checking out Col. Oelrichs, then. The Army should have records on him.

Hmmm.... all these German names in the US military: Oelrichs, Eisenhower, Schwartzkopf....

There are a couple of important people in that photo. I'll print it out and ask Chief Hi Eagle next time we have Pejuta-sapa (coffee). He knows a lot about the old days, takes it right serious even for a gg-son of High Eagle himself.

My own take on this is that this is a ceremonial photograph. The rifles have just been given. This is shown by the fact that they all have rear sights intact. When the Sioux and Cheyenne got a Springfield carbine, just about the frst thing they did was knock the rear sight off it. When they were hunting with these, they used them from horseback, at arm's length: .45-70 singleshot pistol. The rear sight was too much bother and could hang up in the homemade scabbards they used. Many of he authenticated Custer Battle carbines have had their rear sights removed; I have handled a couple, owned one which could be traced right to the Troop.

You can jump on me if you like; I'm just passing on what the Indians have told me that their Grandfathers did at the time of the Black Hills War. THIS Wasicu speak with one tongue.
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