Background
Miller was born in Van Wert, Ohio, into a family of artists.
Miller was born in Van Wert, Ohio, into a family of artists.
University of Michigan.
He was most notable for painting his 72 portraits of the survivors of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Miller also wrote several books on Indian history. In 1948, he arranged the last meeting of the Bighorn survivors at the dedication of the Crazy Horse Memorial.
He spent most of his childhood sketching and painting to develop his artistic talent.
At the age of only 16, and with the aid of a translator, he first visited the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota and began interviewing the remaining survivors of the Battle of Little Bighorn, most of whom were over 70 years old. Most of them had never before conveyed their stories to a white manitoba
As the Indian warriors were a majority of the battle survivors, these assorted interviews proved very important to later historical study of Custer"s fall. He went on to study art at the University of Michigan, New York University, and at the Grand Central School of Art under Harvey Dunn.
He also worked privately with Winold Reiss, continuing his work on the Bighorn survivors with his family"s blessing during the summer.
In 1942, he went into service for the 14th Air Corps in China during World World War World War II By the time of his return to the United States, there were only 20 living survivors of the battle. Furthering his study of the Plains peoples, Miller learned 14 Indian languages, including sign languages, and was adopted into 16 separate Indian families. Eventually, he was given the name Chief Iron White Manitoba by Black Elk, in honor of the Oglala Sioux medicine man who had been at Little Bighorn.
He later served as a technical advisor for 25 "Western" films.
In 1971, he wrote an extensive article on the recollections of the Custer survivors for American Heritage magazine.