ROLLING THUNDER / CHIEF / MEDICINE MAN / OF THE / KIOWA NATION / IS HERE / TONIGHT / with his / Medicine & Vaudeville Co.......
[Chicago, IL ? np, 1890]. Broadside, 12 x 4 1/2 in. approximately 40 lines of text, 200 words, illustrated with 2 portraits, one of Rolling Thunder and one of his wife and business manager. "Known to his family as Belmont and to the public as Chief Rolling Thunder, Louis Belmont Newell was born around 1858 to Thomas Newell and Marie Parsons of Indian Island, Old Town, Maine. Newell appears to have married several times and his first daughter Blanche was born to Victoria Tahamont around 1886. It is around this time that Newell is first referred to as Chief Rolling Thunder and that his company, the Kiowa Medicine Company, begins touring. The show was comprised of "moral" entertainment and lectures given on the customs, habits, manners and religion of tribes. Newell would also sell "traditional Kiowa" medicines and give out health guides. It is uncertain when the company was actually formed and though Newell claimed that he was a descendent of the First Chief Medicine Man of the Kiowa Nation, Teet-Toot-Sah, this was most likely just for his public image. It is much more likely that his parents were Penobscots from Maine. Newell married Louisa Stump of Iroquois descent in 1891. Louisa was an expert shot and travelled with the Kiowa Medicine Company for some time. In 1894, Newell married his fourth wife Jeanne "Jennie" Congleton who served as business manager for the Kiowa Medicine and Vaudeville Company for many years. Newell died December 1, 1933 and was buried in Randolph, NY. More information on L.B. Newell has been compiled by descendants of Newell and can be found on Ne-Do-Ba, a geneological website for the Wabanaki people." [see the Smithsonian Institution SOVA site]. Item #63182
Price: $225.00