Volume 90, Number 1 - California Historical Society

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In 1854, Sully began frontier service on the northern Plains, building or repairing forts in the Dakotas,
Minnesota, and Nebraska. The proximity of Indian encampments to the forts inspired his paintings of
Sioux Indians, including this representation of Sioux Indian Maidens. While serving at Fort Pierre in
what is now South Dakota, he fathered a daughter, named Mary Sully, by a Sioux woman.
Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
he returned in 1863 to the northern Plains and
led troops against rebellious Sioux and their
tribal allies.
Sully’s marriage in 1866 to Sophia, with whom
he had two children, was preceded by a relationship
he entered into before the Civil War with
a young Yankton Sioux woman he met while at
Fort Pierre in what is now South Dakota. In 1858,
she gave birth to a daughter named Mary Sully
(also known as Akicitawin, or “Soldier Woman”),
California History • volume 90 number 1 2012
who later wed Philip Deloria (Tipi Sapa), an Episcopal
missionary to his fellow Yanktons and other
Sioux. Among their descendants were several
notable Native American authors, including their
daughter Ella Deloria and their grandson Vine
Deloria, Jr., who wrote about the family’s ties to
Alfred Sully in his book Singing for a Spirit: A
Portrait of the Dakota Sioux. He identified a Yankton
Sioux pictured in a group portrait painted
near Fort Pierre by Sully—a capable artist if not