User:Zanimum/Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company

Chief Thundercloud, Kickapoo, born ca. 1798
The moniker does not appear again until 1888, when an Old Chief Thundercloud performed in Pennsylvania. Said to be of the Kickapoo tribe, he arrived in Franklin on December 31, to lead the Dale Bros. show at the Opera House. "He is one of the most prominent and most powerful chiefs and is much respected among the Indians," claimed the Franklin Repository. At an appearance the following year, it was said that the Old Chief "reads diseases from the eye, free of charge." From Louisville, Kentucky, Dr. Will Dale was said to "own" an Indian band.

As of 1892, he was being billed as part of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company, and said to be age 94. Later in the year, a Chief Thundercloud appeared with the National Circus, in the Baltimore building that previously displayed the Gettysburg Cyclorama; they performed "in a fierce war dance."

In the Camden Daily Telegram, an 1892 brief mentioned "There is an Indian in Bridgeton named Chief Thundercloud, who is 109 years old and weighs 265 pounds. He is worth close on to three million dollars." No reference to the Kickapoo is made. Kickapoo Medicine Company, however, toured with a 265 pound Chief Thundercloud as of 1893, a mere 100 years old. No mention of his purported wealth is made, but this Thundercloud also has the ability to diagnose, as did the one with younger billing in 1892.