Yellow Bear, ''Mato Ǧí'' ( 1844–1913), was an
Oglala Lakota
The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota people, Dakota, make up the Sioux, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority ...
leader.
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
Oglala Lakota
The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota people, Dakota, make up the Sioux, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority ...
. He accompanied the first Oglala delegation to
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
in 1870. By the following year, Colonel John E. Smith rated the size of this leader's village at about 40 lodges, one of the largest family groups within the Tapisleca Band. Yellow Bear was murdered in 1872 near
Fort Laramie
Fort Laramie (founded as Fort William and known for a while as Fort John) was a significant 19th-century trading-post, diplomatic site, and military installation located at the confluence of the Laramie and the North Platte rivers. They joined ...
during a fight with the controversial white trader John Richard Jr.
As the Lakota reservations were being established following the
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868
The Treaty of Fort Laramie (also the Sioux Treaty of 1868) is an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota and Arapaho Nation, following the failure of the first Fort ...
, the majority of the Tapisleca gave up their buffalo hunting way of life and settled at the
Red Cloud Agency
The Red Cloud Agency was an Indian agency for the Oglala Lakota as well as the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho, from 1871 to 1878. It was located at three different sites in Wyoming Territory and Nebraska before being moved to South Dakota. It w ...
. By 1874, leadership of Yellow Bear's band appears to have passed to his younger brother, Black Hawk. At about this same time, another Oglala named Yellow Bear began to emerge among the Tapisleca, perhaps another "brother" (in the widest Lakota sense).
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
Great Sioux War of 1876-77
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 in an alliance of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The cause of the war was the ...
. With the traditional avenues of a warrior no longer available, he is an example of how a new generation of leaders found success as an intermediary between the U.S. government and the Lakota people. Yellow Bear enlisted as a scout in General
George Crook
George R. Crook (September 8, 1828 – March 21, 1890) was a career United States Army officer, most noted for his distinguished service during the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. During the 1880s, the Apache nicknamed Crook ''Nantan ...
's Indian Scouts in the fall of 1876 and he participated in the Powder River Expedition, fighting alongside the Army against the
Northern Cheyenne
The Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation ( chy, Tsėhéstáno; formerly named the Tongue River) is the federally recognized Northern Cheyenne tribe. Located in southeastern Montana, the reservation is approximately ...
in the
Dull Knife Fight
The Dull Knife Fight, or the Battle on the Red Fork, part of the Great Sioux War of 1876, was a battle that was fought on November 25, 1876, in present-day Johnson County, Wyoming between soldiers and scouts of the United States Army and warrio ...
.
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
D. S. Mitchell included a portrait of Yellow Bear in his series of prominent Oglala portraits taken that summer or fall. During the excitement over
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse ( lkt, Tȟašúŋke Witkó, italic=no, , ; 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by wh ...
in the fall of 1877, Yellow Bear attended the council with other Oglala headmen. When Indian scouts were used to surround Crazy Horse's village on September 4, Yellow Bear was not present but he sent word that he agreed with the action. In the fall of 1877, he was selected as one of the Oglala delegates together with
Red Cloud
Red Cloud ( lkt, Maȟpíya Lúta, italic=no) (born 1822 – December 10, 1909) was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western ...
sent to Washington, D.C. to meet with the president. "I want to know now which is the best way we can live for a long time," he told President
Hayes. "I have a band of my own and I have come down to work for them."
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
Allen (Lakota: ''Wagmíza Wakpála''; "corn creek") is a census-designated place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Bennett County, South Dakota, United States, that was named for the Allen Township (civil township), which it encompasses. ...
, 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.
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.
[Annuity Rolls, 1914, Pine Ridge Agency Records, Kansas City Regional Archives.]
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yellow Bear
1844 births
1913 deaths
Lakota leaders
Native American people of the Indian Wars