Rain-in-the-Face: A Warrior’s Own Hand
Few figures of the 19th century carried a reputation as powerful as Rain-in-the-Face (c. 1835–1905). A Hunkpapa Lakota warrior and leader, he became one of the most famous Native figures associated with the “Indian Wars.”
By Danica Farnand, Vice President, Head of Department, Native American Art
This work, pencil and watercolor on cardstock, depicts a warrior pierced and bound to a Sundance pole. Rather than a conventional portrait, the drawing evokes an act of ceremony. The scene is rendered with dramatic movement and intensity—the warrior twists against the vertical pole, his body conveying both physical endurance and spiritual resolve.
The drawing, which has descended through the Sacks family, is inscribed on the back: “Painting made by Rain-in-the-Face – himself / C.O. Sacks Sr. – Who knew him personally – D.F.S.”
Lot 139 | Rain-In-The-Face (Lakota, 1835-1905) untitled, Sundance Scene
Few figures of the 19th century carried a reputation as powerful as Rain-in-the-Face (c. 1835–1905). A Hunkpapa Lakota warrior and leader, he became one of the most famous Native figures associated with the “Indian Wars.” By the 1890s, the warrior who had once moved freely across the Plains had become a living symbol of a rapidly changing world.
In 1893, that world came to Chicago.
The World’s Columbian Exposition drew millions of visitors to the city, where dazzling architecture, electric lights, and technological wonders were presented alongside exhibitions of Indigenous peoples and cultures. Among the attractions was Sitting Bull’s cabin, purchased and transported to the fairgrounds by three entrepreneurs, along with a collection of Lakota objects. Rain-in-the-Face was hired to appear at the cabin, giving visitors a rare opportunity to meet one of the legendary figures of the American West.
It was here that Rain-in-the-Face and Clarence O. Sacks Sr. (1878–1960) are believed to have crossed paths. According to Sacks’s obituary, at the age of 16 he joined “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show” as a rider, placing him within the colorful world of cowboys, scouts, Native performers, and frontier personalities surrounding Cody.
Preserved through the Sacks family, the drawing offers a rare and intimate connection to Rain-in-the-Face, not simply as a warrior, but as a man whose own artistic expression provides a glimpse into his ceremonial world at a moment of profound change in American history.
INQUIRIES: danicafarnand@freemansauction.com
VIEWING: September 21 – 23
1550 W Carroll Avenue, Chicago, IL
TO BE OFFERED SEPTEMBER 24, CHICAGO
Rain-In-The-Face (Lakota, 1935-1905)
untitled, Sundance Scene
cardstock painted with a sense of movement and motion; image depicts a warrior pierced and tied to a Sundance pole
Estimate: $3,000 – 4,000
Collected by Clarence O. Sacks, Sr., and descended through the family.
