Total Number Of Pages: 1
Source: Scanned from the original photograph which is 10 inches in width and 8 inches in height.
Date: 1961-00-00
Language: English
Coverage: Unknown
Creators:
Red Thunder Cloud [Cromwell Ashbie Hawkins West]
Rights: No Known Copyright Restrictions
Description: The reverse reads:
"When the author of these three series was conducting ethnological research among the Montauk Indians of the Freetown Band at East Hampton for Dr. Frank G. Speck of the Univ. of Pa., he brought his eleven year old cousin Running Beaver along to meet Ethel Butler and her son, Robert of the Montauk Tribe.
From the instant that they met, young Butler and the Catawba lad recognized immediately that each was an Indian to the core. Ethel Butler was overjoyed to see that Running Beaver had the same strong Indian feelings that she had instilled in her son. She took to the young Catawba boy as if he were her son. It was a thrilling experience for the young Montauk boy for he had never met an Indian boy from another tribe before and there were he had never met a boy from another tribe.
Bob Butler (Poniute III) and Gerard Brown (Running Beaver) became fast friends and remained so up until the tragic death that took the life of the Catawba boy in 1952. Poniute played an important part in the Indian Death rites of his Catawba friend.
This photo with the tall corn in the background in Hiran Lynch's corn field used to be one of the favorite playing spots of the two boys.
As a result of his friendship with Running Beaver, Bob Butler travelled with the author to Indian Pow Wows all over the east and established himself as a young but capable respresentative of his tribe. He became an accomplished Indian dancer and has appeared in numerous schools, theaters, camps and television. At present (1968) he still lives in East Hampton in which town he is very popular and respected as the last Montauk to adhere to the ancient traditions of his people. This photo as taken in 1961 and for three years he wore shoulder length hair in honor of his late uncle Charles and William Butler since this was a custom among the males of the Butler family."
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