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Frank Zahn was born in a tepee at the Redfish camp near
the Cannon Ball River on this date in 1890. Like his father, he would
enjoy a wide array of colorful and diverse careers.
William Zahn, Frank’s father, had been a soldier under General George
Custer until his discharge in 1875. For the next three years, he drove
bull-teams between Bismarck and Deadwood and also established a trading
post on the Cannon Ball River. After a time, he joined Buffalo Bill’s
Wild West Show as an interpreter and counted among his friends people
like Calamity Jane, Father De Smet, Sitting Bull, Rain-in-the-Face, Gall,
and noted mountain man, Jim Bridger.
Young Frank’s Indian name, Flying Cloud, came from his mother, Kize-win,
daughter of the Sioux Chief Flying Cloud. After graduating from Carlisle
Indian University, he fought in World War I and then spent two years attending
Aaker’s Business College in Fargo. Frank had learned English and
also his mother’s native Sioux dialect, so when he returned to Ft.
Yates, he followed in his father’s footsteps and worked as an interpreter
for such legends as White Bull, Red Tomahawk, General H.L. Scott, Queen
Marie of Rumania, and President Herbert Hoover.
Zahn’s life took a dramatic turn in 1940, when he and fifteen of
Sitting Bull’s descendants went to Hollywood to act in western movies,
including “Wild Bill Hickock Rides” and “Sioux City.”
In “They Died with their Boots On,” Zahn played the role of
the lead Indian chief.
Zahn later returned to North Dakota and moved in yet another direction—politics.
Before getting into acting, he had served on the Standing Rock Agency
Tribal Council. Now, upon his return, he was appointed Senior Judge of
the Standing Rock Indian Jurisdiction.
When author Erling Rolfsrud visited Frank Zahn in the 1950s, he described
the judge’s home as a virtual museum, including such possessions
as a silver peace medal given by Lewis and Clark to Chief Cottonwood in
1803 and another peace medal presented to Chief Crazy Horse by Indian
commissioners at Ft. Laramie. He also owned Sitting Bull’s scalping
knife, a brass crucifix given to Chief White Bull by Father De Smet, and
s a fine assortment of Sioux Indian clothing, headdresses and weapons.
Among his more personal treasures were awards of appreciation from Presidents
Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
Another piece—a black cowhide, which now upholstered one of his chairs—had
once served as circumstantial evidence in a trial against a local alleged
cattle rustler. Which rustler, you ask? North Dakota’s very own Mustache
Maude.
Source: Rolfsrud, Erling Nicolai. Extraordinary North Dakotans. Alexandria,
MN: Lantern Books. 1954: p 52-54.
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