Yellow Bear
Yellow Bear | |
|---|---|
| Mato Gi | |
Oglala leader | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | circa. 1844 South Dakota |
| Died | September 1, 1913 Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, United States |
Yellow Bear, Mato Ǧí (c. 1844–1913), was an
The first Yellow Bear
The first Yellow Bear was a prominent headman among the Tapisleca Tiyóšpaye (translated as the Spleen or Melt Band), one of the major divisions of the southern
As the Lakota reservations were being established following the
Great Sioux War of 1876-77
Born about 1844 or 1845, Yellow Bear was one of several younger Oglala leaders who came into prominence among the Lakota during the
By February 1877, Yellow Bear had been promoted to sergeant in Company B, Indian Scouts, and he was recognized as the primary headman or spokesman of the Tapisleca band at the Red Cloud Agency, indications of his growing influence. Photographer
Later life
Yellow Bear married his first wife, Wild Horse, about 1870. About four years later, he married his wife's younger sister, Holy Day. Together, the family bore eight children, four of whom grew to adulthood.
As the Oglala settled on the Pine Ridge Agency after 1878, the family bands within the Tapisleca established various communities. Yellow Bear's community, known as the Shkokpaya, settled just northwest of Allen, South Dakota, within what later became known as the Pass Creek District of the reservation. The 1890 Pine Ridge census lists the Shkokpaya with 22 families or 99 people. Among the band members listed was Imitates Dog (Sunka Onca), a brother of Yellow Bear. Other sisters of Yellow Bear's wives married Yellow Hawk and Little Crow, both also members of the Shkokpaya. Another prominent member of the Shkokpaya was Pawnee Killer, though his relationship to Yellow Bear is not known.[6]
Yellow Bear continued to serve as a prominent Oglala leader at Pine Ridge, again traveling to Washington, D.C., in 1888. He died September 1, 1913, near Allen, South Dakota.[7]
Notes
- ^ William Garnett Interviews, Ricker Papers, Nebraska State Historical Society. Published in: Donald F. Danker, "The Violent Deaths of Yellow Bear and John Richard Jr.," Nebraska History 63 (1982):137-51; Richard E. Jensen (ed.), Voices of the American West, Volume 1, The Indian Interviews of Eli S. Ricker, 1903-1919 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005) pp. 104-113.
- ^ Catherine Price, The Oglala People, 1841-1879: A Political History (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996)
- ^ Register of Enlistments, Indians Scouts, National Archives. Charles M. Robinson III, The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke, vol. 2 (Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 2005) p. 155.
- ^ Ephriam D. Dickson III, Crazy Horse's Contemporaries: D. S. Mitchell's Native Portraits from the Red Cloud Agency, Nebraska, 1877 (in prep.)
- ^ James C. Olson, Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965)p. 243-248.
- ^ Pine Ridge Agency Census, 1890, National Archives.
- ^ Annuity Rolls, 1914, Pine Ridge Agency Records, Kansas City Regional Archives.