Traditional Indian dances such as the Sun Dance and the Ghost Dance, which had been banned, were again being performed after American Indians received blanket citizenship in 1924. The Chief headed a secret organization known as the Mad Dog Society which was attempting to preserve Blackfoot Heritage. The question would seem to have been put to rest by a letter from Fraser to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1931, in which he denied ever having seen Two Guns.īut Charles Bevard, an auctioneer who had come into possession of a number of Two Guns’ personal effects which led him into extensive historical research on the subject, suspected that the US Government wanted Fraser to “discredit” Two Guns as a coin model because they were afraid of the great influence he had on the tribes. The argument raged from 1913 to the death of both figures in 1934 and continues to resurface even now. The Great Northern Railroad, always interested in promoting tourism to its Glacier Park Hotels and passenger traffic on its trains, sought to encourage the idea that Two Guns was the model. He specifically named Two Moons (a Cheyenne) and Iron Tail (a Lakota Sioux) and “one or two others” (in his later years, he mostly said, “one other”). However, the sculptor, James Earle Fraser, always insisted that the head was a composite of several models. When Two Guns first saw the buffalo/indian-head nickel (released in 1913) he was convinced that it was his own likeness on the coin. After the death of White Calf in 1902, Two Guns became a tribal leader. “John Two Guns was born in 1871 and adopted at an early age by White Calf, a prominent warrior chief who was responsible for many of the Blackfoot Tribe’s treaties. He also acted as a publicity spokesman for the Northern Pacific Railroad*, whose public relations staff came up with the name “Two Guns White Calf.” He died of pneumonia at the age of 63 and was buried at Browning, Montana in a Catholic cemetery.Ĭhief Two Guns White Calf and the Indian-Head Nickel Story, below, was summarized from “Twisted Tails,” by numismatist Robert R. Notice the chief’s signature in the photo below taken by T.J. Hileman.Īfter the coin’s release around the turn of the century, Two Guns White Calf became a fixture at Glacier National Park, where he posed with tourists.
His visage was reportedly used along with those of John Big Tree (Seneca) and Iron Tail (Sioux) in James Earl Fraser’s composite design for the nickel. He provides one of the most readily recognizable images of a Native American in the world as impression of his portrait appears to appear on a coin, the Indian head nickel.
Two Guns White Calf, also known as John Two Guns and John Whitecalf Two Guns, was also, in time, a Blackfoot chief. Two Guns White Calf was born near Fort Benton, Montana, son of White Calf who was known as the last chief of the Pikuni Blackfoot. So sit down and pull up a mug of something to drink…. But then again….maybe not….there is a very interesting mystery. John Two Guns White Calf (1872-1934), shown above, may indeed be memorialized in a way few other Native Americans have been – on a piece of American money – the buffalo nickel to be specific.