26 Facts About Iron Tail

Iron Tail was an Oglala Lakota Chief and a star performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West.

Iron Tail was one of the most famous Native American celebrities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and a popular subject for professional photographers who circulated his image across the continents.

Iron Tail is notable in American history for his distinctive profile on the Buffalo nickel or Indian Head nickel of 1913 to 1938.

Chief Iron Tail is often mistaken by historians for Chief Iron Hail, being Lakota contemporaries with similar sounding names.

Iron Tail was not a medicine man or conjuror, but a wise counselor and diplomat, always dignified, quiet and never given to boasting.

Iron Tail seldom made a speech and cared nothing for gaudy regalia, very much like the famed War Chief Crazy Horse.

Iron Tail was an international personality and appeared as the lead with Buffalo Bill at the Champs-Elysees in Paris, France, and the Colosseum in Rome, Italy.

In France, as in England, Buffalo Bill and Iron Tail were feted by the aristocracy.

Iron Tail was one of Buffalo Bill's best friends and they hunted elk and bighorn together on annual trips.

Chief Iron Tail was one of Kasebier's most challenging portrait subjects.

Several days later, Iron Tail was given the photograph and he immediately tore it up, stating that it was too dark.

Iron Tail appeared with his fine regalia as the lead with Buffalo Bill at the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris, France, and the Colosseum of Rome.

Iron Tail was a superb showman and chaffed at the photo of him relaxed.

Bee Ho Gray, the famous Wild West performer, accompanied Iron Tail to act as an interpreter and guide to Washington DC and New York where Iron Tail modeled for sculptor James Earle Fraser as he worked on designs for the new Buffalo nickel.

Iron Tail was the most famous Native American of his day and a popular subject for professional photographers who circulated his image across the continents.

Chief Iron Tail was a friend of Major Israel McCreight and a frequent visitor to The Wigwam, his home in DuBois, Pennsylvania.

On June 22,1908, Iron Tail presided over a ceremony at the tent of Buffalo Bill adopting McCreight as an honorary Chief of the Oglala Lakota.

In 1915, McCreight hosted a grand reception for Iron Tail and Flying Hawk at The Wigwam.

Iron Tail performed the ceremony assembled at Buffalo Bill's tent and attended by Chief American Horse, Chief Whirlwind Horse, Chief Lone Bear and 100 Oglala Lakota members of the Wild West Congress of Rough Riders.

The Oglala Lakota chiefs formed a small circle around McCreight and his wife Alice, and Iron Tail began the ceremony with a speech in Lakota, a hearty handshake all around, and then placed a war bonnet McCreight's head and moccasins upon his feet.

Iron Tail then presented McCreight with a tepee on which an owl had been traced with yellow chalk and told this was for him and Alice to live in.

Iron Tail had fulfilled his social obligations when he had submitted to an hour of incessant hand-shaking, as he could not talk in English, further crowd mixing did not appeal to him.

Iron Tail preferred to relax and smoke his redstone pipe and wait his call to the big dining room.

Buffalo Bill was obliged to go on with his show next day to Baltimore, Maryland, and Iron Tail was left alone in a strange city with doctors and nurses who could not communicate with him.

On May 28,1916, when the porter of his car went to wake him at South Bend, Indiana, Iron Tail was dead, his body continuing on to its destination.

Iron Tail's body was transferred to a hospital in Rushville, Nebraska, then to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where he was buried at Holy Rosary Mission Cemetery on June 3,1916.