OCR Text |
Show Wstoricd mighlights Lf CMm. Scott 'aUo (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) Paradox in Bronze THIS is the story of a paradox cast in bronze. In the museum of the Chicago Historical society stands the statuary statu-ary group shown below: r It represents an incident which is supposed to have taken place during dur-ing the Fort Dearborn Massacre on August 15, 1812. At the left, with upraised up-raised tomahawk, is a fierce young Pottawatomie brave. The stalwart figure at the right is the noble Chief Black Partridge, who is warding off the murderous blow, aimed by his tribesman, at the young woman in the center. She is the step-daughter of John Kinzie, the trader, and the wife of Lieut. Linai T. Helm of Fort Dearborn's ill-fated garrison. The word "supposed" is used in the statement above because it is very doubtful indeed if this dramatic event ever took place. It was first recorded in Mrs. Juliette A. Kinzie's book, "Wau-Bun, the 'Early Day of the Northwest,' " published in 1856. But because of the many inaccuracies inaccura-cies in her account of the massacre, historians discount it heavily as a reliable source of information. So the first paradox connected with the Fort Dearborn Massacre Btatue is that the sculptor should have chosen an apocryphal happening to immortalize in bronze when he might have used some equally thrilling thrill-ing and more authentic incident. He was Carl Rohl-Smith, a Dane, who came to Chicago while work on the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 was in progress. He was commissioned com-missioned by George M. Pullman, the sleeping car magnate, to prepare a model for a group commemorating commemorat-ing the Fort Dearborn Massacre. At that time a party of Sioux Indians, In-dians, who had taken part in the Ghost Dance "uprising" of 1890-91 in South Dakota, were being held as prisoners of war at Fort Sheridan, Sheri-dan, north of '"Chicago. From -Gen. Nelson A. Miles, military commander of 'that district, tiie sculptor ob- Short Bull , tained Pension Pen-sion to have two of these Sioux;act as models for the principal Indian figures in the group. They were Short Bull, high priest of the Ghost Dance, and Kicking Bear, a noted warrior who had helped him spread its doctrines among his people. . According to a contemporary writer, writ-er, "the newspapers give some amusing accounts ac-counts of their , fik demeanor in the studio, their "( mixture of do- 4 cility, self - as- , 'I j sertiveness.etc. 1 It chanced that 4 the real dispo- M-' 1 sition of the two 5 r1 principal mod- I t els were the re- " ' verse of their f JJJJi 1 assumed char- .f'.T W.-iifc acters, and Ricking Bear Kicking Bear (who when wearing his native dress and war paint carried a string of six scalps) was amused that he was assigned the more humane part. " 'Me, good Injun' he cried, 'Him, bad Injun!' and he laughed loudly at the jest." So that is the other paradox of the Fort Dearborn Massacre statue. Short Bull, the dreamer, the man of peace, who urged his followers to refrain from hostile acts against the whites, is depicted as a murderous young brave. But Kicking Bear, the ruthless warrior, who used the new religion as a means of inciting the Sioux to rebellion, is the "noble red man" saving a white woman's life. And thus they are perpetuated in enduring bronze! The Fort Dearborn Massacre monument mon-ument was first erected at the foot of Eighteenth street near Lake Michigan, for it was among the sand dunes at this place that the Potta-watomies Potta-watomies swooped down upon Capt. Nathan Heald's little command and killed 26 soldiers as well as 27 civilians ci-vilians who were accompanying the military on their retreat from Fort Dearborn to Fort Wayne in Indiana. It stood there for many years, until the ravages of vandals made it necessary nec-essary to remove the statuary group to the historical society building. The memory of Kicking Bear is perpetuated in another place, far . removed from the scene of his'war-like his'war-like exploits. In the United States National museum in Washington stands the model of a Sioux Indian warrior. The face is the face of Ma to Wahnahtaka (Kicking Bear) made from a cast of his savage countenance, which was taken when he visited the museum in 1902. He also presented to the museum the costume in which this model is dressed including a war shirt decorated deco-rated with scalps he took in war! |