One of the benefits of having done all that research necessary to write Lone Star Dietz’s biography is that people who come across artifacts related to him contact me. The most common things people ask about are paintings attributed to Dietz. Based on the number I’ve seen and know about, plus those people own and ask about, Lone Star must have been fairly prolific. The most unusual thing someone has inquired about was a button/pin for the 1923 Thanksgiving football game between the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and Centenary College Gentlemen. The image of Lone Star Dietz, Louisiana Tech’s head football coach at the time, adorned the button.
This week, I was sent images of three undated photos of Lone Star Dietz. They appear to be early photos of him, probably the earliest in Indian regalia. I can’t identify the origin of this regalia because I don’t know how to discern the differences between the designs employed by the various tribes and nations. And what he wore was very different than the elaborate Sioux outfit that he was often photographed wearing. The earliest known photo of Dietz was as a member of the 1903 Macalester College football team. Whether these photos predate that one is an open question.
The earliest dated photo of Dietz in his Sioux headdress, war shirt and leggings was published in the January 26, 1908 St. Louis Globe-Democrat Sunday magazine. That photo was likely taken in late 1907 in Carlisle, PA or in St. Louis, when the Carlisle football team made train connections in St. Louis. Dietz had probably established a relationship with someone on the paper when he worked at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. The photos I was shown this week were very different from anything I had seen before. He was wearing a breechcloth, pipebag, simple leather headband with two feathers, and above-the-calf bells.
My guess was that, since one of the three poses in these photos, appeared to be one of a dancer, complete with bells, these photos were taken in or before late fall of 1907. Shortly after arriving at the Academy of Industrial Design in Philadelphia on his outing period, Lone Star put on a demonstration that included a dance. But the newspaper coverage of his dance described him as wearing a war bonnet, probably the headdress he commonly wore in photos. So, I have little to go on with regard to dating these photographs.
The photos are not shown here, nor is the name and location of the owner. That person wishes to remain anonymous due to the acrimonious treatment so often meted out by those people who oppose the use of Redskins for the name of the Washington NFL team.
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