L.A. Huffman, whose friends called him 'Late', was born on a farm near Postville in 1854. His father, Paul, was a photographer in Waukon and he set L.A. up in the photography business in Postville in 1873. It was rather a tough struggle for young Late, but it was hard times and most of Postville people had all they could do to get enough to eat and to keep a roof over their head, besides saving a little for the proverbial rainy day.

Late did some advertising in the Postville paper:

Secure the shadow ere the substance fades
Photography in its perfection -- new studio, no stairs to climb.
At L.A. Huffman's Photo Gallery, Photographs taken on cloudy days as well as clear.

Late fell in love with a red-haired piano teacher by the name of Gusta Boardman, somewhat his senior. Her mother ran a boarding house in town. After some time she jilted him and married an older man, a traveling salesman by the name of J.G. Oyler. Feeling frustrated and restless, Late decided to pull up stakes in Postville. In 1878, just two years after the disastrous Custer battle, he took Horace Greeley's advice -- and headed for the great wild West. He ended up at Fort Keogh, Montana Territory where he became post photographer. In 1880 he settled in a studio in Miles City. He learned the soldiers life, the life of the Indian and the horrible economics of the buffalo slaughter. He went into the forbidden reservations among the Indians. He made pictures of sights no white man had seen before. Famous warriors like Dull Knife, Little Wolf, Gall, Two Moons and Rain-in-the-Face -- he counted as his friends.

He photographed the Indians, the animal hunter, the man hunter, the buffalo killing, the hostile Sioux villages and the racks of bones on the field where General Custer had stood. And more importantly, he kept letters, diaries and notes of every description to go along with his pictures.

One of Huffman's stories appeared in the Postville Review:

I rode up to the head chiefs Two Moons lodge, where I expected to remain for the night. the chief came out and received me, while at the same time, his squaw unsaddled my horse and placed the camera equipment alongside their tepee. I asked Two Moons if they would be safe there, whereupon he observed "Yes, there isn't a white man within 2 days ride of here."

In 1880 Huffman wrote his father from Fort Keough about life in the wild and woolly West:

There has been a big herd of buffalo across here lately. They have eaten the grass off close. Saw a herd of buffalo running across the hills east of our camp. Indians after them of course. Here in Miles City, the frontier society seems to recognize not 10, but 4 commandments ....
1. Thou shalt not concern thyself with thy neighbors affairs
2. Thou shalt not steal
3. Thou shalt not comit murder
4. Thou shalt not speak disrespectfully of, or harm a decent woman.

In the 1880's Late sent dozens of stories and letters to the Editor of the Postville Review:

From the Porcupine clear to Miles City, the bottoms are liberally sprinkled with the carcasses of dead buffalo. In many places they lie thick on the ground, fat and the meat not yet spoiled. All murdered for their hides only, which are piled like cord wood all along the way. 'Tis an awful sight, and such a waste of the finest meat in the world. Probably over 20 thousand buffalo have been killed in this vicinity so far this winter. The buffalo are rapidly passing out of existence, and unless something more is done, for their protection, it will not be long before they will become entirely a thing of the past.

And one of his jokes:

An old rancher went to town to get some needed supplies. While there he decided to buy his wife a present. He told the clerk to wrap it up real nice, and top it with a red bow. On his way back home he stopped to pick up an old lone Indian. The Indian gazed at the package and then at the old rancher. Finally the old rancher said, "I got that for my wife" The old Indian looked at him and said, "Good Trade!"

Late wrote in another letter that Sitting Bull was not in the Custer battle at all .....

So says Gall and Rain-In-The-Face to me, not long ago. Sitting Bull watched it from a bluff some distance off and at its close he rushed down and took three or four scalps and rode away and painted himself a hero. Gall, Two Moons and Rain-In-The-Face were the actual leaders and they are regarded as very brave warriors. Sitting Bull was merely a medicine man and had the reputation of being a coward.

1882, Postville Review:

Huffman and Rain-In-The-Face
Young Huffman accompanied Gen. Miles party that negotiated the actual surrender with Spotted Eagle and Rain-In-The-Face, these were the first of Sitting Bull's force in Canada to come in and surrender. Spotted Eagle was a wild, fierce chief, tall and rather slender, and very graceful. He was about 45 years old. The other was by far the best known warrior, Rain-In-The-Face, was a handsome chief who hobbled on crutches, lamed permanently by wounds received in the battle of the Little Big Horn. Several years earlier, Rain-In-The-Face boasted he had killed two white men, and while drawing rations at the Standing Rock Agency about a year later Custer had his brother Tom arrest him and bring him to Fort Abraham Lincoln. When questioned, Rain-In-The-Face admitted to the killings and gave the details. Custer had him confined to the guardhouse and chained to a civilian prisoner, but some of his friends cut a hole in the wall one night and the next morning the room was empty. Rain-In-The-Face went into the camp of Sitting Bull and sent back a message that he would revenge himself for his imprisonment. Immediately after the battle of the Little Big Horn, the story became current that Rain-In-The-Face had revenged himself by cutting out Tom custer's heart and eating it. This story was soon amended to include the heart of General George Custer. An officer who helped identify both bodies on the battlefield wrote later that General Custer had been shot in the left temple and left breast, that there were no powder marks or mutilation. Of Tom Custer, he noted that his belly had been cut open and his entrails protruded.

Huffman went to almost any lengths to photograph many prominent Cheyenne and Sioux who had surrendered and this story is told of one such incident which happened in the year 1880:

General Miles kept the Indians in a new camp, and posted guards to keep whites away. These regulations posed a problem to Huffman, but he soon made the acquaintance of a young Irishman who drove a delivery wagon. This individual was not only on good terms with the sergeant of the guard, but had struck up an acquaintance with Rain-In-The-Face, the Indian, whose photograph was most desired. Late and the Irishman had no trouble getting into the camp and Rain-In-The-Face, although surly and unfriendly toward the soldiers, soon made up with the two and fell in with the plan Huffman proposed. They hid the Indian in the back of a delivery wagon and drove back to Huffman's studio at the post. Here Huffman kept the warrior for three hours or more while he photographed him in different poses and in full regalia. After he had taken pictures to his heart's content, Late and the Irishman smuggled the Indian back into camp in the same manner as they had taken him out. Just before Rain-In-The-Face was returned, the adjutant happened to visit the camp and observed that the Sioux were greatly excited. Investigating he discovered that they were worried about the absence of their chief, and many feared that he had been removed by the soldiers to be killed or sent away. Huffman related that he did not have long to wait before an orderly came and told him he was wanted at headquarters. When he went in the adjutant merely motioned over his shoulder with his thumb toward General Miles office. Miles did not look up as Huffman came in and it was obvious that he was "hot under the collar." "Young man," he said, "If you ever take another prisoner out of camp without permission from the adjutant or myself, you will find yourself in very serious trouble." Huffman obeyed.

Late Huffman stated in the early 1900's that "One of the greatest tragedies ofhistory is that the Indian and the white man had to meet. No two races could have understood each other less." "Say what you will about the cruelty and savagery and the bloody deeds of butchery and ofh is present sorry look and sad estate, and even at the risk of having hurled at me the old-timers most withering taunt: 'Indian Lover', I say that it is my belief such attitudes could be modified or changed only with the coming of new generations."

Late Huffman always believed that it was the Indian chief, Rain-In-The-Face who killed both Tom and General Custer.

One L.A. Huffman's favorite jokes was about an old Indian who petitioned a judge for permission to change his name to a shorter one.

"What is your name now?" asked the Judge.
"Chief Screeching Train Wistle", answered the Indian.
"And what do you wish to change it to?"
The Indian folded his arms and grunted ---- "Two Toots"

In December 1931 L.A. Huffman and his wife journeyed to Billings, Montana to spend the holiday season with their daughter. On the morning of the 28th he went downtown to read and visit with his friends. As he climbed the steps from the street he was stricken with a heart attack and died a few minutes later. Thus passed away a pioneer who watched with pride the development of a frontier country, but who loved best those wild free days that he recorded with is camera -- and he left behind a priceless collection of pictures.

- published on the Allamakee co. IAGenWeb with the generous permission of Stan Schroeder
- original transcripts provided by Stan Schroeder & transcribed by Sharyl Ferrall

Continue on to the next program

Back to the Pale Past Index

Return to 'other history' index