User:Zanimum/Chief Thunder Cloud

Dominique La Plante, or Chief Thunder Cloud (b. March 1854), was an artist's model, performer, artisan, and curios dealer who lived at New York City and Dingman's Ferry, Pennsylvania.

While raised on a reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke, La Plante has often been listed as Blackfoot or Sioux.

Early life in Quebec
Plante was born to parents Ozezime Plante (or Katsitsioronkwas) and Marie, nee Kaniratschon or Kaneratison. They married before 1882. His marriage certificate lists his birthplace as being Caughnawaga, P. I., a reserve now called Kahnawake, and historically Seigneury Sault du St-Louis. It is located across from Montreal. This would imply that Marie was part of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke.

This contradicts with the 1900 United States census, in which La Plante claims that his father was Ojibway, and his mother Sioux, with 1/4 "white blood." On the 1910 census, both parents are listed as "Canada (tribal)".

His ethnicity was an ever-changing factor in media reports, sometimes being listed as Sioux or Blackfoot.

One source claims that La Plante "grew up on a reservation in Northwestern Canada."

On the 1871 census, the family is listed as residing in Seigneury Sault du St-Louis, Kahnawake. Dominique Plante is 14, living with his parents and siblings Janet (18), Ozezime (16), and Hedwige (12). He is listed as being born in Quebec, of French ancestry, and Catholic. Only mother Marie is listed as being Indigenous.

One source claims that "by the time he was 15 or 16 years old," Plante "was serving the United States Army as a scout."

On the 1881 census, Dominique Plante is 23, and living with his mother Marie (44) and sister Edwige (21). They continue to reside in Seigneury Sault du St-Louis, Kahnawake. His occupation is listed as voyageur. He is listed as Quebec-born, French race, Français nationality, Catholic. Mother Marie continues being listed as Indigenous.

Possible early reference, Campbell's Great Indian Show, 1883
While the name Chief Thundercloud or Thunder Cloud appears at various points in the press, its generally is in the context of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company. One of its lead characters was variously said to be just below or above a century old, the number varying depending on the story.

The only viable early reference is one Chief Thunder Cloud who appeared in the Campbell's Great Indian Show and Big Indian Village, which presented members of the Sioux, Saginaw, Iroquois, Warm Spring, Rocky Mountain, and Platte River nations. The company had a limited tour, with the only known stops being between August and October 1883. Thunder Cloud is credited in two of the three known stops, the third being too brief to provide details. In Washington, DC, the programme included "swift running races," including a half mile contest between Chief Thunder Cloud and Flying Cloud.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
At some point, it is purported that Thunder Cloud joined the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, and toured Europe.

Thunder Cloud was likely with the Wild West show in 1894, as an 1897 article reference him as having danced at Ambrose Park, the Brooklyn venue for the tour.

Thunder Cloud had retired from Wild West by at least 1897.

As an artist's model
At some point in the 1890s, La Plante began posing as an artist's model. He would wear headdresses and neckpieces while posing, items that he would also make and sell. Artists said to have used La Plante's services include Ben Ali Haggin and Frederick Remington. Ultimately, there is little evidence of most such luminaries hiring him.

The first confirmed media coverage of Thunder Cloud was in 1897. He is described as a Black Sioux chief from Minnesota, who owned a summer cottage at Dingman's Ferry, and artist's model during the winter in New York City, "where he makes a lucrative living in the studios." The Kansas State Register commented that "unlike the generality of his race, he is a fluent talker, with a fund of most interesting information about manners, customs and history of the Indian, which imparts in remarkably clear, grammatical English."

The Register continues: "He is about 36 or 38 years of age, his features are almost classical in their regularity, while his physique might be envied of the Greek athletes of old. His personality is so magnetic and attractive that in talking to him one forgets in a few moments race prejudices." Of his and his wife's house: "the two rooms to which the writer was admitted were strung with costumes and relics of all kinds, skins, war implements and things rare and unusual, many having historic connection—family heirlooms dating back to the days of the early French traders. The table which was set in one room was set with nineteenth century solid silver."

"His wife is a white girl, a miniature painter of high ability and a graduate of Vassar."

Chief Thunder Cloud was said to be popular among female art students. "Every new student with the longing in her soul and her fingers to draw like a man greets Thunder Cloud with joy, because he is the finest subject in all Gotham for fearless strong, broad work."

Joseph H. Boston
Artist Joseph H. Boston worked on a portrait of Thunder Cloud titled "The Last of His Race." The Brooklyn Daily Eagle described the work as "in progress" in December 1897, and in January 1898, the Times Union called it a "partly completed canvas."

The composition paints Thunder Cloud at roughly half length. He is "under arching trees," facing a sunset. "The artist has posted him in profile, showing the clear-cut features and finely shaped head of the young brave in contrast against the deepening shadows of the night. He "embodies in his expression and attitude the sad thoughts of one who is the last of a mighty race. His lithe, graceful body, his muscular shoulder and the intense blue-back shadows in the hair wherein is braided the eagle's plume, all catch like the facets of a gem, the strong points of light. This keys the entire picture up to a strong, well-arranged whole."

Bela Lyon Pratt


Connecticut sculptor Bela Lyon Pratt sculpted the images on an American coin minted between 1908 and 1929. According to the American Numismatic Society Magazine, Thunder Cloud's "striking profile is thought to be the one seen on the Indian Head half and quarter eagles." Photographs of Thunder Cloud were donated in 1919 with such a claim, to the Rochester Numismatic Association. The donor was Joseph A. Koeb, "a sculptor and medallist employed by Bastian Brothers of Rochester, N.Y."

Married life and Dingman's Ferry
Plante married Henrietta Hashagen on September 1, 1896 in New York City.

His daughter Juanita/Wanita Plante was born in March 1899 in New York. (1900 census)

As of June 22, 1900, he was renting a home in Delaware Township, Pike County, Pennsylvania, with his wife and daughter. On the 1900 United States census, he appears as Dominick Plante, and is listed as a "dealer, Indian curios."

Again in 1910, the family was in Delaware Township, but now they owned a home on Ferry Road. He is listed as a retail merchant, curios.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/168223461/?terms=%22Chief%20Thunder%20Cloud%22%20OR%20%22Chief%20Thundercloud%22&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/168378647/?terms=%22Chief%20Thunder%20Cloud%22%20OR%20%22Chief%20Thundercloud%22&match=1

Physical appearance
Working as an artist's model, many press references take particular note of Thunder Cloud's physicality.

The New York Herald was effusive in praise of his physicality, noting "a man six feet in his moccasins, or out of them, with terra cotta skin; lithe of limb, broad of shoulder, slender about the loins, straight as an arrow, supple as a panther—where can his match be found in all Europe?"

Clear complexion Long hair

Unconfirmed
https://www.newspapers.com/image/699837473/?terms=%22Chief%20Thunder%20Cloud%22%20OR%20%22Chief%20Thundercloud%22&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/489469586/?terms=%22Chief%20Thunder%20Cloud%22%20OR%20%22Chief%20Thundercloud%22&match=1

https://www.newspapers.com/image/375320250/?terms=%22Chief%20Thunder%20Cloud%22%20OR%20%22Chief%20Thundercloud%22&match=1 https://history.nebraska.gov/publications_section/nebraska-indians-baseball-team/