Chief TWO GUNS WHITE CALF (1872-1934) Also known as John Two Guns and John Whitecalf Two Guns, this Blackfoot chief provided one of the most readily recognizable images of a Native American in the world after an impression of his portrait appeared on a common coin, the Indian head nickel. Two Guns White Calf was born in 1872 near Fort Benton, Montana, son of White Calf, who was known as the last chief of the Pikuni Blackfoot. His visage was used along with those of John Big Tree (Seneca) and Iron Tail (Sioux) in James Earl Fraser's composite design for the nickel. After 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. 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. After the death of White Calf in 1902 he became a tribal leader and he died of pneumonia in 1934 at the age of sixtythree. He was buried in a Catholic cemetry at Browning, Montana. 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 but Fraser sent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1931, a letter in which he denied ever having seen Two Guns. But 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 Chief headed a secret organization known as the Mad Dog Society which was attempting to preserve Balckfoot Heritage. 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. Bevard believed that the US Government feared that Chief Two Guns, like his father, might again take the fierce Blackfoot warriors on the warpath in an attempt to regain their land.. . #NativeAmerican #Indigenous #NativePride #NativeCulture #IndigenousRights #NativeArt #LandBack #MMIW #WaterIsLife #NativAmericanJewelry #IndigenousArt #NativeAmericanCrafts #AuthenticNativeAmericanProducts #nativeamericanclothing