Standing Bear's Letter

[Diane Merkel]

Rare Indigenous eyewitness account of Battle of the Little Bighorn found in Ontario

In Standing Bear's letter, written in the early 1930s, he tells of how his uncles took him hunting as a boy, and how they would often swim across the Missouri River. One day, his uncle told him they would attend a Sun Dance near the Rosebud River, and that legendary Hunkpapa Lakota leader, Sitting Bull, encouraged many people to attend.

Standing Bear says he witnessed this ceremony and included a painting of Sitting Bull leading the Sun Dance with his letter. The sacred ceremony, according to Standing Bear, lasted three or four days. One more day passed, and that's when Custer's men arrived.

www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/battle-little-bighorn-letter-brampton-1.6404159

Diane

[rodthomas]

Thanks Diane! This is a major addition to Standing Bear's story and his artwork. I'm going to contact the archivist at Standing Rock to see what and when may be viewed by non-tribal members.

Hope all is well with everyone and please have a great day!

Regards, Rod Thomas

[Historian]

The Oglala Lakota/Mniconjou Lakota man known as Mathó Nájin (aka Standing Bear, aka Stephen Standing Bear) with his Austrian wife known as Mrs. Louise (Rieneck) Standing Bear, and their two granddaughters Rose Two Bonnets and Lula Martha Two Bonnets, in front of their home near White Horse Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota - 1919

{Note: When Stephen Standing Bear was in Austria as a paid performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, he caught Pneumonia and was hospitalized. Louise Rieneck was a nurse at the same hospital in Austria at that time, and later they were married in 1891 and she came to South Dakota with him.}

[gregor]

Apr 4, 2022 12:04:12 GMT -5 Historian said:

The Oglala Lakota/Mniconjou Lakota man known as Mathó Nájin (aka Standing Bear, aka Stephen Standing Bear) with his Austrian wife known as Mrs. Louise (Rieneck) Standing Bear, and two of their three daughters, in front of their home on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota - 1912

{Note: When Stephen Standing Bear was in Austria as a performer with a Wild West Show, he caught Pneumonia and was hospitalized. Louise Rieneck was a nurse at the same hospital in Austria at that time, and later they were married when he got better and she came to South Dakota with him.}
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This is what I have about Stephen Standing Bear and his European wife:

In 1889, Standing Bear (no relation to Luther Standing Bear) decided to join Buffalo Bill's Wild West for two seasons in 1889 and 1890, where he toured Europe. In Austria, he suffered an injury that forced him to be left behind to recover.
In 1890 or early 1891, while convalescent in an Austrian hospital, Standing Bear met nurse Louise Rieneck. Both fell in love.

Louise Rieneck (1866 – June 21, 1933) was actually born in what is now Czechoslovakia, as was her mother Hedwig “Hattie” Therese Amalie Klepsch-Rieneck (1847 – 1914 in Chicago). Her father Ernst Georg Rieneck (*1836 in Ahrweiler/Germany – died in Chicago?) was born in Germany. In 1891, Standing Bear and Louise were married and returned to the United States in February, along with Louise's family.
Some sources say that Louise spoke German, English and Czech. Obviously gifted with languages, she learned Lakota from Standing Bear.

According to a newspaper article, Louise was a widow with a young child? Nothing special is known. Who was this kid? What happened?

Louise and Stephen Standing Bear had 4 children together: Hattie (*1891), Lillian (*1894), Christina (*1897) and a son Maximilian, who died a few days after birth.
Louise and Standing Bear lived near White Horse Creek until 1933. Louise died in a car accident that year and Standing Bear died shortly thereafter, wracked with grief and exhaustion.
According to family sources, the two children in the above photo are grandchildren.


Montreal Daily Witness, Feb. 20, 1891


Louise Rieneck at age 16

[gregor]

Just found this on the Internet:

In 2020 Canadian Historians in Ontario discovered in a collection two documents of great historical and cultural importance to the Lakota people. A letter from Stephen Standing Bear, dictated to his austrian wife Louise Rieneck. The exact recipient is not known, but was most likely the Canadian lawyer and businessman William Perkins Bull (1870-1948). The letter was most likely dictated in Lakota, but Louise wrote it down in a now disused Old German script. Therefore it took some time before it could be translated. The second letter is a note by Louise.

For details look here peelarchivesblog.com/2022/06/08/your-friend-standing-bear-coming-together-through-repatriation/

Translation of the Standing Bear / Louise Rieneck letters
(By Veleda Goulden with contributions by Renate Maassen)

I [Standing Bear] was born in Montana. My father died when I was four years old and so I lived with my mother and sister, my grandparents and my uncle. When I was quite young my uncles took me hunting for deer, stags, and buffalo. I think I was twelve when I shot my first buffalo with a bow and arrow and we butchered it. But I was unable to lift the meat on to my horse so I called my uncle to help me. He praised me highly and told me I was a good hunter which really pleased me. From then on, I brought home many deer, stags, and buffalo [to my mother and my brothers and sisters].

Once when we set out I saw a big bear coming toward me and I wanted to shoot, but my uncle called out for me to climb a tree. Not too far off a bear was standing upright before me; I wanted to shoot at it and I did. The bear came toward me, when I noticed two bear cubs come running from the hill not far off. When the bear saw them, it ran toward the cubs and we saw no more of them. From that time on they called me Standing Bear.

Frequently, when we went hunting we had to swim across the [icy] Missouri River but never did any one of us get sick. I was probably seventeen or eighteen years old when my uncle told me we would have a Sun Dance near the Rosebud River that Sitting Bull [had vowed] and many Indians would to attend. I watched them dance for three or four days without eating anything or drinking water. Some of them had sick wives or children and asked Sitting Bull to heal them. They offered him deerskins and young buffalo hides on frames [or that they attached to the pole]. When I was young we did not know about religion, [but we knew, that there was a God, to whom we did pray, and I know that what we Indians vowed, so he did].

The next day we moved from Rosebud River [to Greasy Grass River] (Little Big Horn River) where [our people had a fight with the soldiers]. Five of our people were shot but I did not see any of this. The next day we moved on and remained there for two days. The third day we moved to a river where all the others had set up their tepees. It was a large group. The following morning my mother, my aunt and my siblings got up early to look for wild turnips and many men went hunting. My uncle asked me to fetch the horses and water them. I went swimming first.

Then I heard a man shouting that the soldiers were coming. They had shot a boy that was on his way to get our horses. I ran back and saw that another man was bringing our horses, I sprang onto a horse, but I didn’t have time to dress, I had only my shirt but no shoes. I rode with my uncle in the direction toward Reno when on the hill we saw Custer advancing. Before we got closer we saw hundreds upon hundreds of our people around us. A few of them had guns and most of them had bows and arrows. I saw a few of ours bleeding, lying on the ground.

Then I saw the soldiers let their horses run to the river. I wanted to catch one of them but there were too many ahead of me. Even so, I saw some soldiers heading for the river, but they did not get too far and although they ran in different directions two of them were shot immediately. The third one had run quite a distance when one of our men cried out to let him go, but someone had already shot him. I think that they were all dead. [Likewise] I think it is a lie that a Crow Indian was ever in Custer’s fight.

After Custer’s fight we rode toward Reno. I stayed until evening; the powder dust and the blood made me sick. . The next day we rode toward Reno, but I did not stay very long because my siblings were young and I wanted to help my mother. Toward evening we moved on because we heard that more soldiers were coming. As we arrived at the place where we had had the Sun Dance .

I do not know if Sitting Bull was in the battle. Since his tepee was not in our area I did not see him. But I did see him in the Sun Dance and send you the picture. A year after the battle he moved to Canada where I saw him again after Crazy Horse died.

All of our people wanted to know why some of the whites wanted to drive us out of the Black Hills. We knew that there were forests, animals and gold (in the hills) and the white people wanted these riches. They attained wealth and we were in great distress. We were led in a band to a place where we could not make any headway and if we did have anything to spare we could not sell it because we were too far from the train station.

When I think back to the time when we were free and had stags, deer and buffalo, I feel very sad especially when I go to bed hungry. I could tell you much more of my youth but since you wanted to know if Sitting Bull was in Custer’s fight I cannot tell you much more than I have.

Your friend,
Standing Bear

--------------------------------

Honoured Sir,
I have written what my husband told me and hope you can find someone to translate it. You will notice the mistakes but I have been here for 42 years and have no one to whom I can speak in German.
Respectfully,
Louise Standing Bear

[Californian]

thanks Gregor for sharing this text - I am able to read the old German script (a.k.a. Deutsche Kurrentschrift) of the 19th century