| Issue | #290 |
| Published | August 1950 |
| Cover Price | 0.10 USD |
| Pages | 52 |
| Editing | ? |
| Notes | Indicia title is "THE CHIEF, No. 290." Code number is CHIEF O.S. #290-508. Copyright 1949, 1950 by Western Printing and Lithographing Co. First Four Color issue. Continues as The Chief (Dell, 1951 series) with #2 (April-June 1951). |
| Synopsis | American Indians doing a night-time dance. |
| Genre | western |
| Pencils | Morris Gollub (painting) |
| Inks | Morris Gollub (painting) |
| Colors | Morris Gollub (painting) |
| Letters | typeset |
| Notes | Pencils, inks, and colors credits for this sequence from Alberto Becattini (May 14, 2007). |
| Synopsis | head-and-shoulders portrait of a Blackfeet chieftain, wearing a head-dress/ |
| Genre | Fact |
| Pencils | Mo Gollub ? |
| Inks | Mo Gollub ? |
| Letters | typeset |
| Notes | Inside front cover; black and white. |
| Characters | Running Wolf ["Buffalo Caller"]; Pawnee Chief War Eagle |
| Synopsis | While his three comrades eat breakfast, Running Wolf, a Pawnee, nephew of Chief War Eagle, finds a buffalo herd that could feed the tribe for a year. Three Cheyenne enemy hunters appear, rivals for the herd, and liable to scalp him. Running Wolf's bow-string breaks. He flees, diving in the river, hiding underwater against a rock in the rapids. The Cheyenne believe him dead. Running Wolf runs home; he alerts War Eagle of the herd and the Cheyenne. Running Wolf's friends return. At sunlight, the Pawnee break down the village, and the hunting party sets out for the herd. War Eagle's job is to lure the herd into the trap. Two Cheyenne jump him. He subdues one. Running Wolf hears, and saves his uncle (struggling with the remaining Cheyenne) from a charging buffalo cow. The other Cheyenne is finished, but War Eagle has wrenched his knee. Running Wolf dons War Eagle's buffalo hide, and undertakes the risky task of calling the herd into the trap. The herd runs after him, the hunters rise from hiding and chase the herd over the cliff. At the last second, Running Wolf sprints for his life. "Tirawa -- Great Spirit help me!" A lead buffalo trips on a prairie dog hole, and Running Wolf is able then to leap to safety behind a boulder. "Tirawa heard me!" The herd stampedes over the cliff, providing a year's supply of hide, meat, and horn, for many uses. War Eagle praises his nephew, renaming him "Buffalo Caller." |
| Genre | western |
| Script | Gaylord Du Bois |
| Pencils | Mo Gollub ? |
| Inks | Mo Gollub ? |
| Synopsis | Illustrations of war clubs, tomahawks, and lacrosse sticks, with hand-lettered text |
| Genre | Fact |
| Pencils | Morris Gollub |
| Inks | Morris Gollub |
| Notes | Pencils and inks credits for this sequence from Alberto Becattini (May 14, 2007). |
| Characters | Pawnee Chief War Eagle |
| Synopsis | Spring rain has come. At the shrine with the others, War Eagle, keeper of the sacred bundle, opens it. (It contains a toy stone tower of four walls.) He prays to "Tirawa, Mighty Sky Father," for blessing of "corn and children," and gives thanks for the rain. Later, Curly Wolf asks elder brother War Eagle to tell the tale of "Little Tower pierced by an arrow kept in the sacred bundle." The story ... Once upon a time there was a nearby Pueblo Indian town of stone and brick. One rainy night a Pueblo band sneaked in the Pawnee village and stole the Pawnee's sacred bundle. The next evening, Pawnee Chief Wounded Bear led a band of his braves to attack the Pueblo town and retrieve the sacred bundle, but they were surprised by the Pueblos, and only Wounded Bear escaped. He raised an army, but they found the Pueblo town deserted, but for some corpses. The sacred bundle was missing. The trail was lost, and Pawnee fell ill with the Pueblo sickness. Come Spring, they took up the trail, tracking the Pueblo far to the Southwest. There were battles. Prisoners were taken, and questioned. Intelligence was gathered. The Pueblo had built four-walled stone towers. The Pawnee army laid seige to the Pueblo towers. It was tribal warfare. Setbacks occurred, then the Pawnee routed the enemy, and recovered the sacred bundle which, ever since, has contained a miniature of a Pueblo tower. |
| Genre | western |
| Script | Gaylord Du Bois |
| Pencils | Jon Small (signed) |
| Inks | Jon Small (signed) |
| Notes | Art signed in splash panel. |
| Synopsis | The building of thatch huts among the Apache in New Mexico and Arizona. Informative text accompanies borderless panel illustrations, with dialogue balloons, of an Apache family building a winter home: Clearing a circle, cutting of saplings for a dome frame, tying bundles of bear-grass to the frame, from bottom to top. (Chippewas use birch bark.) For a summer home: a three-sided house thatched on top, and thatched only part-way up on three walls. |
| Genre | Fact |
| Pencils | Mo Gollub |
| Inks | Mo Gollub |
| Notes | Title reads, "Home Builders No. 1 Apache Grass Hogan," suggesting this is intended to be a series about different types of dwellings. Running along the bottom of both pages are a sequence of small illustrations of 12 different types of dwelling-structures, including African huts, bark hogan, tee-pee, south sea stilt hut, log cabin, suburban home. Pencils and inks credits for this sequence from Alberto Becattini (May 14, 2007). |
| Characters | Badger Cub; Little Doe; Auntie Crowfoot; Pawnee Chief War Eagle |
| Synopsis | Those little rascals of the Pawnee village, Badger Cub and Little Doe, play mischief with Auntie Crowfoot at her labors, as Badger Cub shoots a blunt arrow, knocking over her water gourd for target practice. In her ire, Auntie Crowfoot gives chase. They elude her, and Badger Cub continues target practice, knocking down a cottontail. They come upon a dead rattler, trampled by the hooves of a mare, herself dead of snake-bite; and her colt who will not desert his mother's carcass. The children attempt to catch him, and, with a rope Little Doe braids with the hair from the mare's tail and mane, Badger Cub lassos the colt in a dead-end arroyo, and mounts him. Little Doe takes her turn astride the colt. Badger Cub hears a whinny, climbs the arroyo bank, and espies three Sioux scouts riding their way. He sends Little Doe on the colt, galloping home along the arroyo to warn War Eagle. The head-start enables her to leave the pursuing Sioux scouts far behind. They seek out Badger Cub, and catch sight of him, but he escapes into a cave hole, and propitiates (with the cottontail) a mama bear and her cubs. One of the Sioux peers into the hole, and Badger Cub shoots his forehead with another of those blunt arrows. The Sioux shrieks in pain, provoking the mama bear to lunge, defending the cave entrance. The retreating scout and his companions attempt to smoke Badger Cub out of the hole: they toss a torch of burning grass in the narrow cave opening. The flaming grass hits the bear, who comes out charging. The Sioux run for their horses, but the horses are already on the run from the bear, who kills two of the Sioux scouts. The third Sioux escapes. Badger Cub's father, Pawnee Chief War Eagle, rides up with a compliment of his warriors. Badger Cub tells his tale, and asks if he can use sharp arrows, now. "Yes, my son, you may use sharp hunting arrows now -- so long as you keep out of sight of Auntie Crowfoot." |
| Genre | western |
| Script | Gaylord Du Bois |
| Pencils | Mo Gollub |
| Inks | Mo Gollub |
| Notes | Pencils and inks credits for this sequence from Alberto Becattini (May 14, 2007). |
| Synopsis | Head and shoulders portrait of a warrior with mohawk haircut and war paint |
| Genre | Fact |
| Pencils | Mo Gollub ? |
| Inks | Mo Gollub ? |
| Letters | typeset |
| Notes | Inside back cover; black and white. |
| Synopsis | Four mounted Indians, three wielding lances, and one wielding a tomahawk, gallop over a small grassy bluff. The lead Indian wearing a head-dress, holding his lance forward, in a charge. The caption of this house-ad reads, "Authentic stories, portraying the life and customs of the American Indian before the coming of the White Man." |
| Genre | western |
| Pencils | Morris Gollub (painting) |
| Inks | Morris Gollub (painting) |
| Colors | Morris Gollub (painting) |
| Letters | typeset |
| Notes | Back cover. Pencils, inks, and colors credits for this sequence from Alberto Becattini (May 14, 2007). |