Chief Lone Bear, Oglala Lakota

[rich00]

Does anyone know the history of Chief Lone Bear, the Oglala Lakota, who traveled with Buffalo Bill's Wild West? His later years, when he died?
Thank you.

Attachments:

[Dietmar]

What I´d like to know... is this the Lone Bear who was involved in the events that led to the killing of Crazy Horse?

[rich00]

Dietmar, I believe that this is the same man. He must have been a U.S. Indian Scout and/or Indian Police. Michelle Delaney's book on Kasebier has photos of him on p.66-67, and he is noted as wearing a badge reading "Buffalo Bill's Police."

[kingsleybray]

I went through my notebooks and find that Lone Bear was enlisted as a US Indian Scout on July 1, 1877 at Camp Robinson and enrolled in Co. B. This comprised 46 officers and men, all of whom seem to be Oglala. The sergeants were all Oglala chiefs - First Sgt Little Wound, Sgts Young Man Afraid of His Horse, Red Cloud, Yellow Bear, American Horse; corporals all Oglala akichita leaders, Keeps the Battle (Bad Face band), Three Bears (Kiyaksa), White Bird (Spleen), Red Shirt (Loafer band).

Lone Bear was a Bad Face "on his mother's side", and a "brother to Little Wolf" - Billy Garnett statements to Ricker. Little Wolf was an Oglala identified by John Colhoff as an Oyuhpe band warrior, a chum of Frank Grouard's. So my guess would be that Lone Bear's father was an Oyuhpe. His name, Mato Ishnala, was that of a prominent Bad Face warrior, a kinsman of Red Cloud's, fatally wounded in the Fetterman battle 1866. A guess would be that Lone Bear no. 2 was the older warrior's sister's son.

Lone Bear enrolled as a scout for the Mackenzie campaign fall 1876 and according to Garnett was sent as a 'spy' into the Northern camps during winter 76-77, returning to Red Cloud Agency before the mass surrenders in spring 1877.

Lone Bear no. 2 is listed in the Wazhazha band in the Red Cloud Agency register Feb. 1877, but is not included among the majority of Wazhazhas who transferred to Spotted Tail Agency in April.

Hope this helps

[chicheman]

This week I was going back to "The killing of chief Crazy Horse" (Robert A. Clark).
Now this very subject was brought up here.

Anyway, this is what I could learn of Lone Bear´s role in connection with that, quoted from
William Garnett´s account (p 96 - 98) :

Nine or ten years afterwards I found out that what Woman Dress said about attempting to kill General Crook was not true. This was all framed up against him (Crazy Horse); not by white people, but by Indians who were jealous of him. About years later, I was in the guard house here and Little Wolf and Lone Bear were policemen. Little Wolf was sitting in the guard house one night iwth me and he said: "Now we came in from the north with Crazy Horse; we intended to be peaceable with the white people - the same as the other Indians. I wonder why Crazy Horse was treated the way he was and finally died". And I thought back and I said, "You killed him". And he said, " I killed him ?" And I said, "Yes, you killed him". And he said, "I killed Crazy Horse when I came in from the North with him and was a scout with him ? Come, how did I kill him ?"I told him that his talk killed him. I said, "You told your own brother, Lone Bear, that Crazy Horse was going to kill General Crook". He said, " I never told my brother I heard Crazy Horse say it". . . . I never knew that I had anything to do with this. I´m going to see my brother". So the next time I met him he came to me with Lone Bear, and he denied that he told Woman Dress that Gen. Crook was going to be killed. "I never told Woman Dress any such thing," he said.
About three month afterwards, they caught Woman Dress near Fort Robinson, and W.D. came up to me with Louis Shangreau (his nephew) and said, "You can tell as good a lie as any one I ever saw". I said, "Woman Dress, what am I lying about?" And he said, "You lied about me. I heard Crazy Horse "Tomorrow there is going to be a council on over at White Clay, the Indian Village, and Crook´s going to be there. I will catch Crook by his hand and pretend like I was going to shake hands with him and make quick owrk of him and whoever he will have with him". Now that is what I heard Crazy Horse say. You said in the gourd house (we resume with the Friswold manuscript at this point. Ed.) that Little Wolf was the one who told Lone Bear and Lone Bear told me. It was me, myself, that heard Crazy Horse, and now you tell lies about me and saying that I got it from this Lone Bear".
Just about the time I got this roasting and I was facing these two men, Louis Shangreau and Woman Dress, I felt something toch me behind and it was Baptiste Pourier. I turned around and shook hands with Bat and said "You came here just in time". I told Louis Shangreau that Bat knew all about this and he will finish it with you. I told them that I was not afraid of them. I told him that he and his uncle were not telling the truth, and Bat explained this whole trouble about what took place back in 1877 when Crazy Horse was killed.
Bat said, "I will tell - I know just exactly how it happend" He told just how it occurred and Louis Shangreau was mad at his uncle then and turned around and said, "You are a big liar and you are the cause of a good man´s death and you´re jealous of him". The Bat, with the finger pointed on Woman Dress, told him " You are a liar and you are the cause of a good man´s death". And Louis Shangreau said the same thing and Woman Dress never said a word.
He is now all broken and lives on Wounded Knee and draws pension.

Well, you all did read this story already once of course, but thought to post neverthless.

[rich00]

Thank you Dietmar, Kingsleybray and Chicheman. The information you shared was valuable. I'm still looking for vitals such as birth and death dates. At least minimal data for a short, concise biography.

[kingsleybray]

In the 1890 Pine Ridge Census, the family of Lone Bear, 11 people, is listed as part of the Pesla (Bald Head) band, a community settled in the Porcupine District of the Rerservation. Lone Bear's age is given as 42, suggesting that he was born c. 1847-48.

His wife's name is given as Her Many Brothers, age also 42, they have eight children aged between 2 and 20 living with them, plus a 35 year-old female cousin.

The Bald Head band in 1890 is based round two elder males, Daylight Man (age 62), and High Wolf (age 66). Daylight Man is in the next household to Lone Bear, suggesting some kind of family connection. In the 1870's censuses he is listed as a Wazhazha. In fact, most of the communities that settled Porcupine District at Pine Ridge have some offshoot relationship to the parent Wazhazha band.

The other headman High Wolf is listed as belonging to Old Man Afraid of His Horse's Payabya band in 1873-74; and to Red Cloud's band in 1877 (when Red Cloud's camp comprised both Bad Face and Oyuhpe contingents). He was a Sun Dance priest, and had been wounded in the leg in warfare sometime before 1868, consequently having the nicknames The Lame Warrior and Sits Like A Woman (because he couldn't sit cross-legged, like males).

So Bald Head seems to be an example of a camp or community created in the 1880s through intermarriage between two distinct bands from distinct backgrounds. Lone Bear was a part of this group.

Lone Bear left an account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, given to Walter Camp in 1909. It is printed in Richard Hardorff's edited volume LAKOTA RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CUSTER FIGHT (Arthur H. Clark Co., 1991).

[kingsleybray]

Some notes on Lone Bear's early life:

On the basis of the above I suggest Lone Bear (Mato Ishnala)was born c. 1847, that his mother was a Bad Face band woman. At the moment we don't know who his father was. I suggest it's likely that he was either an Oyuhpe or a Wazhazha. Lone Bear's brother Little Wolf belonged to the Oyuhpe band. He seems to be a couple of years younger than Lone Bear, born c. 1849-50.

Both the Oyuhpe and Wazhazha bands were involved in the fighting along the Bozeman Trail, 1866-68. Our Lone Bear must have been involved in the fighting. His namesake and maybe uncle was fatally wounded in the Fetterman battle in December 1866. The elder Lone Bear was a kinsman of Red Cloud's and belonged to the Bad Face band of Oglalas, as did the mother of the younger Lone Bear - our man. I suggest the possibility they were brother and sister, the elder LB giving his name to his nephew.

Lone Bear married c. 1868-69, at the age of 21 or 22, to Her Many Brothers, and they began to have children no later than 1870.

Red Cloud Agency census: April 1874, lists two Lone Bears.
Another Lone Bear is listed under 2nd quarter, 1874; and yet another "Lon Bear" under July 1874.
It's not clear which one would be our Lone Bear, but I think it points to the likelihood of his being at the agency in 1874.

His family continued to have links to the non-treaty bands in the north, e.g. his brother Little Wolf lived in the north till 1875 when he came to Red Cloud Agency with Frank Grouard. In 1876 Lone Bear seems to have joined the movement of 'summer-roaming' bands from the agencies to join the non-treaty Lakotas. Hence his participation in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He must have been among people who slipped back into Red Cloud Agency during the late summer-early fall of 1876.He lived with relatives in the Wazhazha camp at RCA and subsequently Pine Ridge. (He was allotted land on Porcupine Creek.)

At RCA he enlisted as a scout for the Army (along with scores of other warriors) serving in the Mackenzie campaign fall 1876, and later as a "spy" (Billy Garnett's phrase) visiting in the hostile camp. There is an official report by Col. Mackenize in which he details Lone Bear's visit to the non-treaty camps on Little Powder River in March 1877.

Probate or allotment records might help us track down more details on Lone Bear's parentage.

[Dietmar]

Portraits of Lone Bear, Oglala:


Lone Bear by Gertrude Käsebier


Lone Bear by Gertrude Käsebier




Lone Bear by Heyn


Lone Bear by D. H. Spencer




Lone Bear (edit)


Lone Bear (edit)

[rich00]

Wonderful! Thank you again Dietmar and Kingsleybray. My historian question, when did Lone Bear pass to the Sand Hills?

[kingsleybray]

Lone Bear was one of the first contingent of Indian Police enlisted at Pine Ridge in 1879. His age at enlistment was given as 31, 6 people in his family, band given as Wazhazha.

[Dietmar]

I just noticed that we have a thread in the Minicoujou section about Lone Bear´s daughter Alice aka Plenty Brothers:

amertribes.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=miniconjou1&action=display&thread=978


Please note in Ladonna´s post the connection to Bad Face.


In Donovin Sprague´s "Pine Ridge Reservation" we find the following comment:

"Alice Lone Bear was the wife of Oliver Lone Bear “Mato Wanjila”; her maiden name was Plenty Brothers “Tibloku Ota.” She was born in 1853 at Pass Creek and her children were Henry Lone Bear, Susie Lone Bear, Foot, and Samuel Lone Bear."

There seem to be some confusion about whether Alice Lone Bear is the daughter or wife of Oliver Lone Bear.
Omer Call Stewart in "Peyote Religion - A History" on page 178 confirms that Sam Lone Bear (born 1879) was the son of Alice Plenty brothers and Oliver Lone Bear.

That is because Lone Bear´s 2nd wife is called Alice and his daughter bears the name Alice as well.
Then who is the woman in the Rinehart portrait? Wife or daughter?... possibly the daughter, I think.

[Dietmar]

Mike Stevens´site also has some info on Lone Bear´s family:

freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mikestevens/2010-p/p204.htm

[miller7513]

Mike Stevens is partially right-
census for Plenty Brothers
Jun 1886 Pine Ridge Alice
1887 Pine Ridge pg 185 Her Many Brothers
30 Jun 1888 Pine Ridge Her Many Brothers
1 Jul 1890 Pine Ridge pg 21 Her Many Brothers
30 Jun 1892 Pine Ridge pg 426 Plenty Brothers
1 Jul 1894 Pine Ridge pg 159 Plenty Brothers
30 Jun 1893 Pine Ridge pg 398 Plenty Brothers
30 Jun 1895 Pine Ridge pg 410 Plenty Brothers
30 Jun 1896 Pine Ridge pg 30 Plenty Brothers
Alice was married to a Garcia before Holy Eagle
LaDeane

[kingsleybray]

Lone Bear died 16 April 1919, according to Indian Scout pension records. A claim for an Army pension was made in 1917 and in the evidence presented it is mentioned that Oliver Lone Bear was born "near the head of the White River". In a deposition his widow Plenty Brothers stated that Lone Bear was briefly married to a woman called Eagle Track early in 1868; but that Lone Bear separated from this woman after a few weeks, or "a month or a little over". Lone Bear soon after married Plenty Brothers in spring 1868 on Powder river. Plenty Brothers herself died 8 January 1933. (Thanks to Tom Powers for these details.)

In the 1890 Pine Ridge census the Lone Bear family is given as follows:

Lone Bear, Mato wanjila, age 42
Her Many Brothers, Tibloku ota win, wife, 42
Alice, daughter, 20
Julie, daughter, 16
Susie, daughter, 14,
Talks About Him, Oiyapi, son, 10
Make him Stand, Najin kiyapi, son, 8
Stand for him, Kici najin, son, 6
Henry, son, 4
Big Hair, Pehin Tanka, son, 2
Sophia Fat, cousin, 35

So Alice was definitely the eldest daughter's Christian name; perhaps it was her mother's name also.

Interesting the connection to the Bad Face-Woman Dress family. This is what I would expect. Consider the family resemblance between Lone Bear and for instance Jack Red Cloud. But why did Billy Garnett specify that Lone Bear was a Bad Face on his mother's side? The implication is plain that his father was not a Bad Face.

Nevertheless, it looks more likely to me that Lone Bear was born c. 1847-48 and grew up in the Bad Face band of Oglalas, as part of the extended family grouped around Old Smoke and the latter's nephew Red Cloud.