Indian artifacts may be priceless

GREAT FALLS, Mont. – What is believed to be a priceless collection of American Indian artifacts awaits a final destination.

“I’m currently holding a letter from Black Elk in my hand, and that’s an experience I never expected to have happen,” said the Flathead Gallery’s Don Baughman, brought in to appraise the estate of the late David Humphreys Miller.

In the letter, the legendary Sioux chief wrote Miller that he would sponsor a Sun Dance and pray for his safe return from service in Germany during World War II.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” added Baughman. “This morning I’ve been asking myself how I can put a value on something that’s essentially priceless.”

If the collection is authentic, it probably is priceless, agreed George Horse Capture, retired curator of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

“If it’s all authentic, it would be a marvelous acquisition and one that Montana would be proud of,” said Horse Capture.

Miller was the author of “Custer’s Fall,” which told the Battle of Little Bighorn from the Indians’ perspective. Black Elk, subject of the classic “Black Elk Speaks,” was among the 70 warriors Miller interviewed for his book, published in 1954.

Many of those warriors became personal friends and gave some of their most-prized possessions to Miller in the 1930s and ‘40s.

Doug Johns of Johns Western Gallery in San Francisco and Brad Hamlett of the Wrangler Gallery in Montana are dealers representing a trust.

“Our hope is to be able to gift it to the Montana Historical Society,” Hamlett said. “To us, it’s very important that it remain intact and in the public domain.”

Some of the sketches Miller made of the warriors he interviewed were originally offered for sale by the Wrangler Gallery during the annual C.M. Russell auction in Great Falls, but were withdrawn so the collection could be preserved.

“We could make a whole lot of money by selling this to private collectors, but the family is ecstatic about having the collection intact and in a museum,” Hamlett said. “Miller never got the credit that was due him.”

One highlight of the collection is an eagle-feather headdress belonging to Joseph White Bull, identified in “Custer’s Fall” as the man who shot and killed George Armstrong Custer.

It contains 24 eagle feathers around the headdress and 28 more in a 6-foot cascade down the back.

“Each feather represents a war honor, and each one of them had to be verified by others,” Hamlett said.

Lyle Heavy Runner, president of the All Nations Pishkun Association, said that would involve killing an enemy, counting coup on an enemy, rescuing a comrade from danger or stealing a horse.

Black Elk’s walking stick also is among the artifacts, Hamlett said.

Another important part of the collection is a 16-foot canvas tepee with a beaded medallion facing each of the four compass points.

It was the last ceremonial tepee of American Horse, the last chief of the unified Sioux Nation, who died in 1908, and it was given to Miller by the chief’s family, Hamlett said.

“The quillwork on this tepee signifies that he was a bundle holder,” or medicine man, Heavy Runner said.

American Horse was a staunch opponent of the “ghost dance,” the religious movement among the Plains Indians that was partially responsible for the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, resulting in the slaughter of 391 Lakota Sioux, according to historians.

Miller’s collection also contains a ghost-dance shield, given him by Sam Helper.

“This is the most rare thing you’ll ever see because all these people were killed,” Heavy Runner said.

The collection includes some of the research materials that Miller used for his books, as well as the sketches of 91 Sioux, Crow and Blackfeet warriors, including the grandfather of Earl Old Person, current chief of the Blackfeet Nation.

Hamlett said Miller’s family believes the collection should be easily accessible to Plains Indians so they can see items from, and sketches of, their ancestors.

The collection also includes hundreds of historical photos and negatives taken in Montana and the Dakotas.

Horse Capture said the collection has been available to museums for several decades, but the price was high and the task of authenticating was daunting.