Bear's Heart (''Nock-ko-ist'',

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

, 1851–1882) was a Cheyenne ledger book artist who was one of 72 Native Americans to be imprisoned in 1875 at Fort Marion, in St. Augustine, Florida. While imprisoned, he created a series of drawings on ledger book pages using ink and colored pencils. In November 1876 he created a set of drawings known as the ''Bear's Heart Ledger Book''.

Early life

Bear's Heart was born in 1851 into the

Cheyenne tribe The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enrolle ...

. After his father died he joined a group of 20 other young men to fight the Utes in Colorado. In 1874 he rode with the war leader, Medicine Water. In November of that year, he camped with Grey Beard's encampment. In December he was taken prisoner and transferred in chains to Fort Sill. He and over seventy other prisoners were taken to a railroad station 165 miles away where they were then chained to eight army wagons.

Ledger book drawings

During his imprisonment, he made many drawings on ledger book pages using colored pencil and ink. In November 1876 he made a group of drawings known as the ''Bear's Heart Ledger Book''. He was given his own drawing book, which was unusual at the time, as other artists shared the use of discarded accounting ledger books to create their drawings. The 24 drawings in his book were rendered in graphite and crayon. Lieutenant

Richard Henry Pratt Brigadier General Richard Henry Pratt (December 6, 1840 – March 15, 1924) was an American military officer who founded and was longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He is associa ...

wrote notations on the drawings. This work documented the American military occupation of Native lands and daily life at Fort Marion. He continued to produce drawings from 1875 to 1878 at Fort Marion. Pratt oversaw 26 prisoner artists at the fort. He took Bear Heart's book to

William Tecumseh Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his com ...

as part of an appeal for increased educational support at the

Carlisle Indian School The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from 1879 through 1918. It took over the historic Carlisle ...

. Pratt also sold some of Bear's Heart and other ledger artists' work to tourists to fund "Indian education." A monograph on his drawings, ''Bear's Heart: Scenes from the life of a Cheyenne Artist of One Hundred Years Ago with Pictures by Himself'', with text by Burton Supree and Ann Ross was published in 1977 by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.

Later life

After his release, he was schooled at the

Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association afte ...

in Virginia. He later returned home to the Cheyenne Arapaho Reservation, which had newly been formed in Oklahoma, where he worked as a carpenter. He died of tuberculosis in the year 1882.

Collections

His work is included in the collections of the Hampton Institute, the

Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian–New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in Manhattan, New York City. The museum is part of the Smi ...

Heye Foundation George Gustav Heye (1874 – January 20, 1957) was an American collector of Native American artifacts in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in North America. He founded the Museum of the American Indian, and his collection became the core of ...

, the

Massachusetts Historical Society The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history. The Massachusetts Historical Society was established in 1791 and is located at 1154 Boylston Street in Bost ...

, the Oklahoma Art Center, and the Yale University,

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library () is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts. Es ...

, among others.

Gallery

File:Bears Heart - Transfer from Cars to Seamboat, 1875.jpg, Bears Heart - Transfer from Cars to Seamboat, 1875 File:Bears Heart - Entrance to Harbor, 1875.jpg, Bears Heart - Entrance to Harbor, 1875 File:Bears Heart - On the Road to Florida, 1875.jpg, Bears Heart - On the Road to Florida, 1875 File:Bears Heart - Cheyennes Camp, 1875.jpg, Bears Heart - Cheyennes Camp, 1875 File:Bears Heart - One of the Camps Between Ft. Sill and Caddo, 1875.jpg, Bears Heart - One of the Camps Between Ft. Sill and Caddo, 1875 File:Bears Heart - Catching a Shark, 1875.jpg, Bears Heart - Catching a Shark, 1875

References

{{Authority control Cheyenne people Native American illustrators 1851 births 1882 deaths Native Americans imprisoned at Fort Marion 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Oklahoma