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Who is the Indian, what is the car?


Guest stude8

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See attached image of indian posed cranking a very early car. Can anyone identify the make of car and who the indian is? My guess is Sitting Bull who performed for a short time with Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows. Stude8

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I like that guess, it gets 3 smiles, but I am sure the car is a long time before Pontiac was thought about.

I just watched the documentary the other night about the West and they said as lot about the Sitting Bull shooting and I failed to register the date, I imagined it was pre 1900 but that would make my guess wrong about the name of the indian in photo. Looks like I'll have to get on the historical trail and try to ID the photo that way. Stude8

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Great photo. And great posts.

Not sure on who, but the car is a 1907 Pope-Toledo. It is a pretty famous and often duplicated photo, I probably should remember who the person is, but I don't, right now.

There was a 1907 Pope-Toledo at Hershey a couple years ago, with this photo along side it.

Chris

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Thank you Chris for the ID on the Pope-Toledo. I knew someone on here would come up with important facts.

I still lean toward the photo being related to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Shows and looked through some Buffalo Bill literature I picked up on a trip to Golden, CO this summer where he is buried and a museum is operated by relatives of his adopted? son.

Anyway the indian in the car photo bears a strong resemblance to Iron Tail a Sioux indian that worked with Buffalo Bill and later passed away in 1916. His real claim to fame was his likeness is that portrayed on the backside of the US Buffalo nickel. I noted in a poster of hotels owned by Buffalo Bill at the turn of the last century, there is a photo of the Wapiti Inn with a car that looks a lot like the Pope in the photo I posted, related?? I'll have to search native american sites for a clue.

Stude8

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