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Charity in ownership dispute over holy man's pictographs.
MEDFORD, Ore. -- The dreams of a Sioux holy man who lived more than a century ago were saved in a 76-page pictograph book that has become the center of controversy on the west coast.
The volume of pencil drawings were done during the winter of 1880-81 by a 65-year-old Lakota named Black Hawk. In a typed letter dated 1963 and fixed into the front of the book, Dorothy Caton of Carmel Valley, Calif., explains the origins of the pictographs.
She wrote that her father, William Edward Caton, an Indian trader at the Cheyenne River agency about 30 miles north of Fort Pierre in the Dakota Territory, learned that Black Hawk and his family were facing starvation during a hard winter.
After learning the spiritual leader recently had "a wonderful dream," Mr. Caton offered him pencils, ink and paper to illustrate his vision....