One of the great things about the internet is that we have a vast abundance of history at our fingertips. Yet, that same aspect that makes the internet great also makes it incredibly frustrating. With the internet open to virtually everyone, distorting history, on purpose or not, has become so much easier as well.
Part of the issue is that we naturally want to put a face to a name. This is how an unnamed solider from the 25th Infantry, that was stationed at Fort Meade, has been misidentified as Isaiah Dorman, the only black man to die at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Isaiah Dorman
Dorman has captured the imagination of many who are deeply interested in wild west history. Part of this fascination is that he largely remains a mystery. Where he was born, and whether he was born free or as a slave, is debated. One account portrays him as a former slave from Louisiana who would escape a terrible fate and found his freedom out west.
Regardless, by 1850, Dorman would make work his way out to Dakota Territory, settling close to Fort Rice. There he supported himself by cutting wood for the camp’s garrison. It was also here that he most likely became acquaintances, if not friends, with the famed Lakota leader, Sitting Bull.
Eventually, Dorman would marry a young Santee woman, of the Inkpaduta band, named Celeste St. Pierre.
Dorman’s familiarity with the area, and the Lakota, would lend him to working first with the Northern Pacific Railroad, as a guide and interpreter, and then the United States Army. This work may have taken him, with the 7th Calvary, to the Black Hills during the 1874 Black Hills Expedition.
The big reason why he would be remembered though was because of his death on June 25, 1876, during the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He is most often cited as being the only black man killed during the battle.
The Photo
With so much fascination surrounding Dorman, many have desired to put a face to a name. Yet, no known photo exists that for sure depicts this man. Very little description even exists of Dorman, besides that he was “very big” and “very black.” However, that hasn’t stopped people from associating other photos with him.
The most common photo attached to Dorman is one of a young buffalo solider. Doing a quick Google search for Dorman brings up this photo, and popular wild west sites, such as True West Magazine, even mistakenly label this man Dorman.
A close look at the full photo though, which is a cabinet card, tells a different story. What the photo itself tells us is that it was taken by John C.H. Grabill, in Sturgis, Dakota Territory.
The date of the photo is often given as 1886, and it’s known that Grabill didn’t open his photo studio in Sturgis until 1886, a full decade after Dorman’s death. Who this soldier was isn’t known, but we can be certain it was not Dorman.
When pursuing history, we have to be careful. Misattributions such as this can have long reaching impacts, in that it continues to promote a false historical narrative. And sometimes, we just have to be okay with the fact that there just isn’t as much information about an individual as we may want.
