White Buffalo (Cheyenne leader)

This status is evidenced by his portrait, taken by Frank Rinehart, official photographer at the 1898 Indian Congress held in Omaha, Nebraska.

White Buffalo was married to Medicine Woman, a widowed full blood Northern Cheyenne, and at that time in 1910, they had 3 surviving sons of seven children total.

The tribe lived in tipi villages in various locations on the reservation but faced starvation due to inadequate provisions from the Indian agency.

According to records digitized by Dickinson College,[2] White Buffalo arrived at Carlisle Indian Industrial School on February 3, 1881, for a period of three years and was discharged June 17, 1884.

As a Carlisle graduate, he was harassed at Darlington by the Cheyenne Dog Soldier society, who were determined not to allow any of the tribe to live in the white man's way, or to farm, as the agency desired.

His photo from his Carlisle days, dressed in a suit with a short haircut in the white man's style, shows that to be true.

As full blood Cheyenne, both White Buffalo and Medicine Woman received land allotments on the reservation in 1891 in Lincoln Township in present-day Blaine County, Oklahoma.

[3] According to his obituary in the Watonga Republican newspaper dated June 27, 1929, he is buried at the Indian Mission Church on the reservation and was survived by his wife and sons.

White Buffalo was one of several Carlisle alumni chosen by the Darlington agency to attend additional training in farming soon after his return.

The newspaper was the plaintiff in the case against Draper as it was felt the court would take the charges more seriously and they also wanted to set a precedent for other writers who submitted articles.

Colonel Pratt, White Buffalo, Judge James Gay Gordon (attorney for the North American), plus two editors for the newspaper appeared for the task of having Draper returned to Kansas for prosecution on the charge of criminal libel.

White Buffalo was quoted as saying that he had traveled several times to Pennsylvania as well as to Missouri and Kansas to be a witness for the newspaper's libel charges against Draper.