Quick Bear - Mato Ohanko

[Dietmar]

Here is a new article about Quick Bear, which can be found at the Mellette County website of South Dakota (there´s also information about his son Reuben Quick Bear and Spotted Tail):
genealogytrails.com/sdak/mellette/nativeamericans.htm

Thanks to Shaw-lee Haynes for allowing me to use it here:


Quick Bear (aka Fast Bear)

Contributed and written by Shaw-lee Haynes
(Descendant of Quick Bear via his son Reuben Quick Bear's daughter, Eva Quick Bear)


Quick Bear (aka Fast Bear)
by Stanley J. Morrow, Fall 1876

My gg grandfather was Quick Bear (aka Fast Bear) 1827-1916. He was a sub chief to Red Leaf who was the principal chief of the Wazhazha Band/Brule Nation. He later became a representational "chief" of the Black Pipe district upon Rosebud's then transitional process to select leaders to represent Rosebud's Local Districts in the late 1880's.

There are many photos of Quick Bear (Mato Ohanko) in his later years; however, since both his Indian and English name was earlier mistranslated as "Fast Bear' (Luzah Mato) we were unable to discern that both were the same person much earlier. In fact the Indian name "Luzah Mato" actually belonged to Chief Swift Bear of the Corn Band/Brule Nation. Unfortunately their names were documented incorrectly in the 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty.
However, fortunately both names were later corrected to their rightful owners.

Quick Bear (aka Fast Bear) is shown in three photos with Spotted Tail at Ft. Laramie in 1868. Quick Bear was considered an influential warrior of his band as well and when Spotted
Tail was asked in 1870 to choose someone to attend a Washington DC event with him to meet high officials he chose Quick Bear--as documented in various books referencing Spotted
Tail.

Because the Quick Bear family was not aware that Quick Bear was "Fast Bear" and only found it in our probate records recently, we were not in a position to convey that Quick Bear was known as "Fast Bear" in his earlier life due to a mistranslation of his name.

Oral history conveys, which Archie Fire Lame Deer affirms in his book: Gift of Power, that ". . . Quick Bear was a great warrior. As a young man he earned his eagle feathers fighting white soldiers who were trying to build a road through our ancient hunting grounds, in violation of treaties that bore Quick Bear's thumbprint. This was the "Bloody Bozeman Trail," which the Indians called "The Thieves Road."

Quick Bear had plural wives due to his position as a sub-chief and, as a result, there are many descendants today.

In the photo you will see that there is a pipe under the blanket (note the eagle down feathers to the right). This pipe, according to author, Claes H. Jacobson's Rosebud Sioux, was, along with the pipes of "Red Cloud, American Horse, Hollow Horn Bear, Two Strike, William Spotted Tail, Stranger Horse, Quick Bear, Little Bald Eagle and High Horse," featured at the "1939 San Francisco exhibition and World Fair." I'm not sure where the collection is today. (The photo is part of Dietmar Schulte-Möhring's collection submitted to the Quick Bear's as a gift.)


[Entered to get photo to show -- Diane]

[Dietmar]

Here are two John Anderson photos of Quick Bear:

[jinlian]

Interesting article (can't wait to see the Anderson photos!) and website, Dietmar. Thanks for sharing.

[Dietmar]

Quick Bear 1889

[Dietmar]

We had this photo below last week in the "Gardner at Fort Laramie 1868" thread in the photographer section, but it belongs also here. It shows Quick Bear, Mato Ohanko, who was identified/translated as Fast Bear in some sources.
He looks a bit heavier and older than in other photos, but generally his facial features are recognizable.
I have been assured that at the time there was only one man by that name. His father, for example, had another name, so it can´t be him.


photo available at the British Museum
William Blackmore collection

Photograph (black and white) from an album; portrait of (from left to right) Fast Bear, Shotted Tail, John, Long Hair, and Palladay (sitting in the front); Fast Bear is standing on the far left, wearing a hat, and wrapped in a blanket with tassels; Shotted Tail, stands second from the left, wearing a piece of cloth tied around his neck, a shirt, and a blanket wrapped around himself; John is standing on the far right, wearing a hat with a feather and a section of his hair wrapped in cloth and wearing a shirt, and wrapped in a blanket; Long Hair, sits on the far right, with his hair in two section wrapped in cloth, wearing a piece of cloth tied around his neck, a shirt, and a blanket wrapped around himself, whilst holding a pipe(?); Pallasay, sits in the foreground in the centre, wearing a hat, a shirt, and a pair of trousers; in the background on the left, is a western-style building; directly behind the men, is a pile of tree logs;
(text from British Museum site)

Shotted Tail is of course Sicangu chief Spotted Tail, John is clearly Flatnose John, also a Sicangu. There are other portraits of him, by W.R. Cross for example. Palladay is Leon Palladay, a well known figure at Fort Laramie. Fast Bear should be Quick Bear, the Wazhazha. I know nothing about Long Hair.

[Dietmar]

...from the Nebraska State Historical Society:


2nd row: Quick Bear (Wajaje) & Good Voice
front row: Hollow Horn Bear (Sicangu)& He Dog (Wajaje)

I think the photo was taken on a delegation trip to Carlisle and Washington in 1888.

[Dietmar]

posted by Grahame in another thread;


Quick Bear (aka Fast Bear) by William R. Cross

[henry1990]

Hau Hau...I am the 5th generation, Henry Quick Bear Sr.
A couple weeks ago I got to see his sacred pipe. it was awesome to feel & pray with it. I felt his presence.