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Post by carlo on Mar 20, 2012 4:11:38 GMT -5
Brave Bear, itancan and former shirt wearer, was a prominent Oglala leader. He signed the 1868 treaty and traveled to Washington a year later with other Lakota heavy hitters. He supposedly was a proponent of peace with the US.
It is said that his sons were Red Cloud's nephews, so Brave Bear was Red Cloud's brother in law, married to one of his sisters.
But do we have any more details about Brave Bear? I'm specifically interested in his sons; we know two of them, Sword Owner and Hunts The Enemy/Enemy's Bait (George Sword), but did he have any others?
I'm working on a story from 1861/1863, when an Oglala warrior named Sword was killed in a battle with the Crows. Red Cloud was in this battle and he left us a detailed report (Eli Paul 1997). This Sword was a "nephew of Red Cloud" and the story states that George Sword took his name after his death, but this is obviously incorrect as George Sword actually took the name of his older brother and shirt wearer Sword Owner in 1877, after his death in 1876. Could this Sword killed in 1861/1863 be their older brother? In that case, Sword Owner actually took his older brother's name, which was in turn taken by George Sword. So three brothers were named Sword at some time in their lives. This would make perfect sense to me, but do we have any additional proof?
Carlo
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Post by kingsleybray on Mar 20, 2012 5:15:12 GMT -5
ok Carlo, you asked for it! Here is my working paper on the Brave Bear-Sword family. The detailed genealogy, listing Brave Bear's wives and their children, is taken from the George Sword interview material given to James R. Walker, transcripts at the Colorado Historical Society and in the Ella Deloria papers. Ray DeMallie is editing the George Sword mss for publication by the Smithsonian Institution. In the 19th Century the Bad Face, or Ite Sica band was one of the most prominent bands in the Oglala tribe. In this paper I shall first try to reconstruct its history in the 19th Century, centring on the tiwahe that I think was the core of the band, that associated with the Sword-Owner brothers and their father Brave Bear (ca. 1815-74). In the Pine Ridge Census of 1890 all Pine Ridge families were listed by their reservation district (White Clay, Wounded Knee, Porcupine, and Medicine Root), and then within district by their Community. These communities were with few exceptions the tiyospaye or lodge-groups – clusters of extended families linked by blood, marriage and hunka. Most descendants of the Bad Face band settled in the White Clay District, including the famous chief Red Cloud. It is interesting that by 1890 the name was already going into disuse, and most Bad Faces were listed under other Community names – Flat Bottle (Red Cloud’s tiyospaye); Hoka-yuta (No Water’s tiyospaye); and Sore-Backs (He Dog’s tiyospaye). All these tiyospaye had been identified with the Bad Face band in the 1850-75 period, when the band peaked at 100 or more lodges (600+ people). In 1890 only four families, fifteen people are actually listed as belonging to the Ite Sica Community. These included two families of in-married traders or ‘half-breeds’ (James Janis and Charles Giroux), plus the household of the Captain of the Pine Ridge Indian Police, George Sword (1847-1910). The fact that he was uniquely identified with the Bad Face name strongly suggests that the original core lineage of the Bad Faces lay within the ancestry of George Sword. What can we record of this family? Bear Runs Fearless, 1815-1874 Fundamental to this study is George Sword’s own statement, made in documents prepared for Pine Ridge physician James R. Walker. Translated by Ella Deloria, ‘Sword’s acts related’ states that he was one of the children of the Oglala chief commonly called Brave Bear. His name, Mato Kagisni Inyanke, literally means Bear Runs Fearless. He was also called Shot in the Eye. According to his own statement in Washington, June 11, 1870, he was then “55 years of age”, therefore born ca. 1814-15. (A statement by his son Afraid of Bear indicates that Brave Bear was older – born in the Winter When the Good White Man Came – ca. 1802: Walker, Lakota Belief and Ritual, p. 201.) His names were given for his exploits in war, and we know that by 1840 Brave Bear was a blotahunka or war-party leader: in Red Cloud’s Autobiography he records a warpath against the Crows in which Brave Bear and Old Man Afraid of His Horse were the pipe-owners. From his exploits the family became wealthy – his father owned “many horses and fine ones”, remembered Sword. An accomplished orator, Brave Bear was recognised as a chief in 1856, and by the mid-60’s was the Bad Face band’s principal peace chief. Brave Bear married two sisters. Four Times Hunka, the eldest, was a virgin when they married “in the most honorable manner” – that is, through gift exchange arranged by the two families. The younger sister, Returns Last, was “a mere girl”, but she subsequently married Brave Bear also, as was accepted practice when a man had married the elder sister by gift exchange. The generational spread of the children indicates that the first marriage took place ca. 1835-36. The two wives were sisters of Red Cloud III (1821-1909), and daughters of Red Cloud I and his wife Walks As She Thinks. Red Cloud I was the son of Two Arrows, a leader in the Miwatani Society and a headman in the Kuhinyan band of Oglalas. Walks As She Thinks was the sister of Smoke, an important man in the Tasnaheca, Ground-Squirrel band of Oglalas. (Smoke’s father Parts of Body, and grandfather Looking Walker were originally Sihasapa, Blackfoot Lakota.) In the period 1800-25 both the Kuhinyan and Tasnaheca tiyospayes were part of a larger band, the Kiyuksa or Kiyaksa band, whose leadership was focused on the brothers Bull Bear and Mad Dog. Mad Dog, born ca. 1785, probably had married a daughter of Two Arrows, their son (killed 1837) being Red Cloud II. (A 1923 statement by V. T. McGillycuddy claims that Bull Bear was “a brother of Red Cloud[‘]s mother”, and therefore an uncle (leksi) to Red Cloud. This would make Bull Bear and Smoke ‘brothers’. While certainly not biological brothers, it may be that the family of Smoke’s mother was connected to that of Bull Bear, again likely on the mother’s side. It would make sense that Bull Bear’s father had married an Oglala woman of the Tasnaheca band, explaining Walker’s tabulation of the Tasnaheca as Bull Bear’s band. Parts of Body married a Tasnaheca woman ten or so years later, conceivably a kinswoman (‘sister’) to Bull Bear’s mother, to whom Smoke was born.) From these connections Red Cloud III was said to have been “originally Kiaksa” (He Dog statement to Scudder Mekeel, 1931). His father died before he was born, and although his mother re-married Red Cloud I’s brother Lone Man, Red Cloud III and several of his siblings moved in with his uncle Smoke’s family. This is important because Smoke himself was by 1840 identified with the Bad Face band, as was Lone Man. Moreover after their marriage the teenage Red Cloud was raised by his sisters who were also Bad Faces. These sisters were, or included, the two wives of Brave Bear. Another sister married Little Bad Wolf, in whose family tipi Red Cloud was actually living before his own marriage (1848?). Another sister of Red Cloud’s, Blue Day Woman, married Black Stone, member of a junior branch of the Bad Wound tiwahe, the leading family of the Tasnaheca band. Their family too would become identified as Bad Faces. A common thread here seems to be marriages between certain Kuhinyan and Tasnaheca families, creating a newly independent tiyospaye, the Bad Faces, across the frame 1820-40. This would be consistent with family memories that the mother of Woman’s Dress – i.e. Smoke himself – was scolded by his wife as a ‘bad faced’ man. It would confirm He Dog’s belief that the Bad Face “was originally a Kiaksa camp.”
Remembering the Sword connection, however, makes me think that Brave Bear himself carried the birth-right of the Bad Face lineage. It is important to note that the Cloud Shield Winter Count records for 1794-95 that a man named “Bad-Face . . . was shot in the face.” The pictograph shows a man with a pock-marked face, an image possibly related to American Horse’s entry for 1784-85: a young man afflicted with smallpox shot himself. What this could mean is that, prior to the smallpox epidemic of 1780, there had been a significant Oglala band called the Bad Faces. It all but died out, but family member Brave Bear married into the Kuhinyan-Kiyuksa band late in the 1830’s. He married in the best way, he helped to bring up Red Cloud, he was a successful war-leader: this built up his name and that of his family so that adherents soon came to be identified as Bad Faces. This situation was compounded by an emerging factional divide within the greater Kiyuksa band: the Bull Bear family interest was increasingly opposed by Smoke and his adherents, and it was natural that the name Bad Face stuck to the dissident faction.
Bear Runs Fearless was named as Oglala spokesman in the talks with General Harney, spring 1856. Possibly this coincides with his being selected as a Shirt Wearer, a rank passed on to his son Sword-Owner II in 1868. An accomplished orator, he consistently favoured peaceful relations with the U.S.A., rejecting the arguments of his nephew Red Cloud in 1864 to go to war with the Americans. The Bad Face band became among the key opponents to the Bozeman Trail, and Bear Runs Fearless was effectively marginalized by the new generation of leaders, including Red Cloud and Black Twin. After peace was made in 1868 he presided in a ceremony in which a new generation of leaders were seated as Shirt Wearers: Young Man Afraid of His Horse, Crazy Horse, American Horse, and his own son Sword-Owner II. Increasingly withdrawing from public life, he settled at Red Cloud Agency and died on April 1, 1874 (George Sword statement to Eli S. Ricker, 1907).
The Family of Bear Run Fearless, Four Times Hunka, and Returns Last
Four Times Hunka bore four sons:
• White Calf: known subsequently as (a) Grey Eagle, (b) On the Front or Side-of-Face Born ca. 1837 (?)
• Sokila, Skinny: known subsequently as (a) Poor Dog; (b) Sword-Owner II. Born ca. 1840-died ca. 1876. Made Shirt Wearer 1868.
• Tukila, Little Clam Shell: known subsequently as, beginning 1860, (a) Afraid of Bear (Bears Fear Him), (b) Pole (i.e. for meat-drying racks). Born 1843-44
• Iciblecahan, He Shakes Himself; known subsequently as (a) Good Boy, (b) Touches Something Soft, (c) Red Dove; and, beginning 1863 (d) Speaks Holy, beginning ca. 1865, (e) Enemy Bait, beginning 1877, (f) Sword-Owner III, beginning 1879 George Sword. Born 1847
Returns Last bore three sons and a daughter:
• Little Cat: known subsequently as (a) Fast Horse, (b) He Frightens Himself, (c) Sword Owner I Born before 1840 (?) Killed 1862
• Beaver: known subsequently as (a) Brave Bear (Bear Runs Fearless, i.e. his father’s name), (b) Little Bridge Builder
• Beautiful Snake Woman
• Bad Nostrils: known subsequently as (a) Sinewy One, (b) Tetepa, (c) Woluka
When Bad Nostrils, her youngest child, was two years old, Returns Last was struck by lightning and killed. It was about that time that Brave Bear adopted the name Shot in the Face. I suggest that to be about 1850.
Sword-Owner I (ca. 1838-1862)
The name Sword-Owner was borne by three successive brothers in the family. The first to bear the name was Little Cat, the eldest son of Returns Last. From Winter Count traditions and the Red Cloud Autobiography, we know that he was killed in April 1862, in a skirmish with Crow raiders. For him to have already been a famous warrior, he must have been born prior to 1840, suggesting that Brave Bear had married his second wife about 1837. The name Sword-Owner might indicate that he was one of the Oglala warriors serving in Agent Thomas S. Twiss’s ‘soldier’ force. In 1859 Twiss requisitioned “50 Common Swords” (as well as the same number of pairs epaulettes, shako caps and neck ties, plus 10 shot guns for the officers) with which to equip his force.
Sword-Owner II (ca. 1840-1876)
After the death of Little Cat, the name Sword-Owner was assumed by Skinny, the second son of Four Times Hunka. He was selected as a Shirt Wearer in 1868, succeeding his father who evidently then assumed the rank of Wicasa Itancan. Both father and son accompanied the first Red Cloud delegation to Washington (May-June 1870). They were both present at the June 1871 councils to locate Red Cloud Agency No. 1. Despite Brave Bear’s continued support for peace with the U.S.A., Sword-Owner II was more ambivalent in his attitude. He told Commissioners that he approved the 1868 Treaty in the belief that ammunition would be supplied to the Oglalas – still unforthcoming in 1871. In October 1872 he was involved in a serious incident at Red Cloud, urging warriors to attack the agency. Over the next few months he consistently opposed pro-American chiefs and policies, threatening with death any leaders who favoured removal to the proposed new site on White River. However, he remained living at the agency and gradually was won back to a pro-treaty stance. With fellow Shirt Wearer Young Man Afraid of His Horse he over-ruled his uncle Red Cloud in fall 1874, permitting the agent to make a head-count census. Again in 1875 he supported Young Man Afraid of His Horse in facilitating the diplomacy at Red Cloud Agency concerning the Black Hills issue.
He died on Ash Creek, a popular Oglala campsite just east of Red Cloud Agency II, evidently sometime in 1876. Before his death he had been divested of his ceremonial Shirt of office, allegedly because he had beaten his wife.
Sword-Owner III (1847-1910)
Enemy Bait (Tokicuwa, translated as “Revenger No. 2” in the 1877 Red Cloud Agency Register) assumed the name Sword-Owner in 1877, after returning from his peace mission to Crazy Horse. His brother’s chieftainship was transferred to him this year, according to his own statement. He accompanied Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show that fall. He played a key role in locating Pine Ridge Agency in 1878. In 1879, Young Man Afraid of His Horse recommended that Agent V. T. McGillycuddy appoint Sword-Owner III as the chief of the new Pine Ridge Indian police, a role in which Sword-Owner served for fourteen years. In June 1879 he was baptised into the Episcopalian Church, and he assumed the name George Sword.
Sword’s first marriage (early 1870’s?) was to 22-year old Bear Nation Woman, daughter of Charger, who belonged to the Badger-Eaters tiyospaye. He subsequently also married her fourteen-year old sister She Is Adorned with a Hawk. At an Omaha Dance he divorced both women. No children came from these two wives.
He next married Black Road Woman, who was the eighteen-year old daughter of Blue Wasicun, who belonged to the Siksicela band of Miniconjous. She also bore him no son, so he divorced her at another Omaha Dance meeting. He remained unmarried for some time, ultimately marrying Lucy Different Eagle (born 1866). She was the daughter of One Hollow Horn (Wazhazha band, married to an Oyuhpe band woman). On March 26, 1882 their ‘Indian marriage’ was solemnised by the Church.
In a famous statement, George Sword stated that he was a wicasa wakan. He had both danced and conducted the Sun Dance, was a Bear Medicine man, and was also a healer with herbs – a pejuta wicasa. A famous warrior against the Crows, he had also fought in the Bozeman Trail War, notably in the Fetterman battle and the Wagon-Box Fight. He was a blotahunka or war-party leader. He had been selected as Wakicunze or Decider. After his retirement from the Tribal Police in 1893, he became a deacon in the Episcopalian Church, learning to write in Lakota. He was a key informant of James R. Walker on Lakota religion, from 1896 until his death. He died November 18, 1910 (No Ears Winter Count). Afraid of Bear
The third son of Bear Runs Fearless and Four Times Hunka was in adulthood known as Afraid of Bear, Mato Kokipapi (literally Bears Fear Him). He gave some important details of his life and background to James R. Walker and Clark Wissler, which I summarise here.
Afraid of Bear was born in the Winter They Brought In Captives. This corresponds to the year 1843-44, and refers to the Lakota re-capturing from the Pawnees one of the four Cheyenne Sacred Arrows. His name in childhood was Tukila, Clam or Little Clam Shell, “after a chief among the northern tribes”. This may mean one of the Northern Teton divisions. The name was “conferred upon him by the father of American-horse.”
(American Horse (born ca. 1839) was the son of a very prominent man named Three Bears (Mato Yamni, born 1805-06), himself the son of Sitting Bear (Mato Iyotanke). This lineage according to George E. Hyde belonged to the Oglala-hca (True or Original Oglala) band. According to Tom American Horse (statement to Scudder Mekeel, 1931) Three Bears was often known by his own father’s name of Sitting Bear, while Sitting Bear himself had another name – Brown Eagle Tail. I do not know – and it would be important to find out – if there is a connection between Brown Eagle Tail and the Yellow (or Brown) Eagle, Wambli Zi, who was an important leader in the Hunkpatila band, and a kinsman of Old Man Afraid of His Horse. American Horse told Addison E. Sheldon that he was a grandson of Smoke – it therefore seems that his father Three Bears had married a daughter of Smoke. Since Four Times Hunka was a niece of Smoke, she probably called his daughter ‘cousin’, sicepansi (shee-chey-pan-shi). Hence there is a family connection between the American Horse and Smoke lineages, explaining why Three Bears conferred this name upon the infant Afraid of Bear - the son of his wife’s cousin. This marriage may also be the founding link between the True Oglala and the Bad Face bands – by the period ca. 1870 they were considered the same band.)
When nine years old (1852-53) the boy Little Clam Shell joined the Cante Tinza or Strong Heart warrior society (perhaps the youth chapter). At age seventeen (1860-61) he joined the Sotka Yuha, Plain Staff Owners warrior society. The following year he went to war and killed three enemies, and upon his return Four Times Hunka gave away a horse. She then went to her brother Red Cloud and “asked him to select a new name as the old one was to be discarded. Red-cloud then said, ‘Once I dreamed that I visited a certain group of stars and after I got there found the inhabitants to be bears. Hence I will name him Afraid-of-bear. He is the bear and the enemy will all be afraid of him. In after years his name will be well-known on account of his killing many enemies.’ Then the herald announced in public that the name Clam was discarded and the new name Afraid-of-bear was taken and that everybody should take note of it. Then the horse was given to someone to whom the family owed a present or to someone in need.”
Afraid of Bear’s men’s society affiliations
• Cante Tinza age 9 1852-53 • Sotka Yuha age 17 1860-61 • Kangi Yuha age 18 1861-62 • Wiciska age 25 1868-69 • Tokala age 27 1870-71 • Omaha age 30 1873-74 • Naca Okolakiciye age 34 1877-78
According to his statement he “did not remember that [he] ever withdrew from any of these” societies.
He had a distinguished career as a warrior, climaxing in 1867 when he was selected one of the blotahunka in a raid on the Crows, being given a rattle to count coup with. That fall in another raid on the Crows he was not selected as a blotahunka (obviously resented!) – but during the fight was shot in the breast. “One of the enemy struck him after he had fallen, but the rest beat off the Crow and he was taken care of by his people. The following spring, [probably 1868, the Wiciska or White Pack-strap society] gave him a lance on account of his bravery.”
(information from Clark Wissler, ‘Societies and Ceremonial Associations in the Oglala Division of the Teton-Dakota,’ pages 35, 61, 66.)
In the 1890 Pine Ridge Census Afraid of Bear is listed in the Flat Bottle Community (chief Red Cloud), White Clay District. His family is given as:
• Wambli, Eagle wife age 46 born 1844 • Ptesanwanyankapi, Saw White Cow daughter 27 1863 • Maza Wakan, Gun son 12 1878 • Maka winla, Skunk daughter 8 1882
His elder daughter’s name indicates that her family sponsored her for the (costly) puberty ceremony. Like his younger brother George Sword, Afraid of Bear was an informant of James R. Walker. He died in 1911-12 (No Ears Winter Count).
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Post by carlo on Mar 20, 2012 6:46:20 GMT -5
That is absolutely perfect Kingsley! Many thanks for sharing this, really appreciated.
Carlo
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Post by carlo on Mar 20, 2012 8:33:48 GMT -5
This encounter took place in late April or early May 1843, and is significant for this thread because Bear Runs Fearless saved twenty-one year old Red Cloud and his young Miniconjou comrade from getting a beating by the other warriors for going to the Crow village in advance of the group without them knowing. Angry warriors were already riding towards them with their quirts raised, but Man Afraid Of His Horse and Bear Runs Fearless called them off. The fact that Bear Runs Fearless was Red Cloud’s brother-in-law likely saved the two warriors from receiving a beating!
Carlo
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Post by hreinn on Mar 21, 2012 4:29:22 GMT -5
Kingsley: Thanks for sharing this great work. In reply #1 above we have 2 brothers; Red Cloud 1 and Lone Man. Red Cloud 1 = Red Cloud's 3 biological father who died in 1820 or 1821 before Red Cloud 3 was born. Lone Man = Red Cloud's 3 stepfather and uncle. Is this Lone Man the same Lone Man who was killed at Chugwater Creek in 1841 in the same fight as when Bull Bear was killed ? If not: 1. When did Lone Man (Red Cloud's 3 stepfather) die ? 2. What was the family background of Lone Man who was killed in 1841 at Chugwater Creek ? The above from reply #1 would fit to what Wendell Smoke wrote in the thread Chief Smoke and his family: Red cloud had no blood siblings! If: 1. Walks As She Thinks had her only son Red Cloud 3 with Red Cloud 1 2. Walks As She Thinks had all her 5 daughters with Lone Man Hreinn
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Post by hreinn on Mar 21, 2012 4:37:09 GMT -5
Good and interesting remark Carlo.
Yes, the family ties to both Brave Bear and Man Afraid With His Horse explains in full detail why Red Cloud got away with his mistake in the attack on the Crow village.
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Post by gregor on Mar 22, 2012 2:34:52 GMT -5
This is Afraid-of-Bear in 1909 He resembles a little bit to George Sword in my view.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2017 18:24:58 GMT -5
Wonderful thread! This information is going to take days to digest. Making sense of the Lakota tiyospaye is a monumental challenge.
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