Sioux

1872 · rif. 63527 — Hartford CT: Mutual Publishing Co. 1872. 12mo. 285 1 pp. Steel-engraved frontisp. w/ tissue guard 11 woodcut engraved plates. Pictorial embossed brick-red publisher’s cloth gilt lettering on spine minor chipping & fraying head & foot of spine slightly shaken couple proud signatures minor wear & bumping to corners tear to ffep. still G copy w/ former ownership gilt & red morocco armorial bookplate on front pastedown of Frank Cutter Deering 1866-1939 banker lumber baron and noted Western Americana bibliophile well-known for his extensive collection of Native American narratives and captivities. Second edition Howes considers Cincinnati imprint true first of what is considered one of the best known women’s Indian captivity memoirs in the 19th-Century. This recounts the experiences of 19-year old Fanny after being taken captive by Oglala Sioux warriors from a wagon train near Little Box Elder Creek west of present-day Douglas Wyoming. Although she successfully aided fellow captives Sarah Larimer and her 8-year old son Frank escape the other young girl Mary Hurley was later found scalped and shot with three arrows. The Oglala later traded Fanny Kelly off to the Hunkpapa Sioux who figured prominently in the 1864 attacks against Captain Fisk guiding gold miners in a wagon train to Montana Territory and during a siege featuring Gall and Sitting Bull the Hunkpapa used Fanny to send a note to Fisk. She would later be freed at Fort Sully after negotiations between Jumping Bear and Major Alfred House the commander of the Fort when she darted away from the Blackfeet Sioux through the gates. See: Howes K62; Bill Markley Fort Dilts and Fanny Kelly’s Bid For Freedom Historynet 2021; Elaine Katz Women & the American West Catalogue 30 No. 154. Mutual Publishing Co., hardcover