Poor Bear takes spiritual journey to honor Greasy Grass victory

Oglala Lakota man on his 20th solo trip to Little Big Horn Memorial



GREASY GRASS –– He may travel solo like “an old bull buffalo,” but on his back Enos Poor Bear Jr. carries the spiritual weight for thousands of Oglala Lakota warriors.

It’s a sobering, but joyful, journey, Poor Bear told Native Sun News just before his Pine Ridge Indian Reservation departure for his 20th journey to Greasy Grass country, where he will once again honor the battle victory of his people.

On June 25, Poor Bear, 50, will join hundreds of modern-day warriors in a dawn prayer service that marks the 134th anniversary of the day that Northern Plains Indians were victorious on what became the battlefield at the Little Big Horn, where field Gen. George Armstrong Custer rode to his death with the entire Seventh Calvary.

Poor Bear, son of Enos Poor Bear Sr., will leave his Martin home on June 23 for Little Big Horn Memorial in Montana, for three days of prayer, meetings and celebrations, including a powwow in nearby Busbee, Mont.

“On June 25 – the anniversary of the battle, we will have a sunrise pipe ceremony, where we will pray for world peace,” said Poor Bear, who will participate in that prayer service and later join about 40-50 Oglala Lakota riders for the three-day weekend honoring celebration.

Poor Bear said he usually sees more than 200 residents from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation attend the annual event. Lakota, Dakota and Nakota bands also will be represented at the victory celebration, according to Poor Bear, who carries the memorial’s founding vision shared with him by his father – a popular and effective leader for the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

Poor Bear late father served on the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council as a district representative before climbing the administrative ladder to secretary/treasurer, vice chairman and chairman. Enos Poor Bear Sr. died in 1991.

Like his father, the junior Poor Bear has been a life-long student of the Greasy Grass battle, where the presidential dreams of an over-ambitious Indian-fighting field general died at the hands of Native American warriors – warriors defending their way of life, their families and, particularly, the lives of their children.

“I would never publicly exploit my father,” said Poor Bear, who said that for the 20th year a war bonnet that belonged to his father will accompany him to the celebration that draws thousands of Indians and non-Indians.

“He gave it to me just before he died,” said Poor Bear, who does not wear the war bonnet. “It’s very old, sacred, huge and heavy. The eagle feathers are much larger than those you can find today. They were gathered at a time when eagles were bigger.”

He said the eagles are smaller today after surviving pollution and poisons that have ravaged “most all the animals” on Mother Earth.

“You can see the evidence of that everywhere,” he said, noting that he takes the war bonnet because it remains a sacred symbol for his father, his family, his people and his tribe – and the joint force of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapahoe who destroyed Custer and his Seventh Cavalry on June 25, 1876.

Poor Bear said his father – Wannikisie, or Defender of the People, who “didn’t even have a sixth-grade education” but spoke and wrote in Lakota, was instrumental in turning the earlier Custer-oriented memorial into an spiritual honoring and victorious-warrior celebration for American Indians.

The memorial is there “to tell the world that we were protecting our culture, our land, not out of spite,” Poor Bear said.

A self-appointed representative at the memorial, Poor Bear said that each year the journey gets more expensive. To date, he’s been able to shoulder the journey’s financial challenges himself. However, he does welcome donations for such things as fuel, accommodations and food.

“We used to camp, but things have changed now and we do use motels,” said Poor Bear, who travels solo to the site.

“I’m like an old bull buffalo,” he said. “I always travel alone” on the journey, Poor Bear said. He said that several Pine Ridge residents already have kicked in funds. However, Poor Bear said those who would like to donate can do so by sending funds to him at PO Box 504, Martin, S.D. 57551.

That solo trip gives Poor Bear time to once again contemplate the sacrifices of “my people after they won the battle” at Greasy Grass.

“In all of my time there as a youngster and an adult, I have represented my tribe with pride, dignity and the utmost spirituality,” said Poor Bear. “I do it based on what our ancestors would have wanted. And I will do so until the day I die.”

After the June 25 ceremonies, tribal representative will participate in the business matters of the memorial site, renamed the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in 1991. The bill that changed the name of the national monument also called for an “Indian Memorial” to be built near Last Stand Hill. That now has happened.

The first memorial – a granite pyramid-like structure – was built a century before that in 1881. Poor Bear’s father was instrumental in getting the memorial to reflect the monument’s American Indian spirit behind the battle.

To Poor Bear, however, it also gets more personally spiritual.

“I always pay homage to my father and my tribe,” he said. “We had to rewrite (non-Indian) history” to make it happen. Notice that in our way, it is not ‘I’ but always its ‘we’ when we pay tribute to the Lakota.”

Poor Bear, who often accompanied his father to the battlefield on the anniversary, said he was proud of him “for taking the initiative to mend the circle” that was broken in 1876. “We won, but we were dismantled” as a tribe because of it (the victory),” he said.

Once again, Poor Bear will see markers honoring the Indians who fought at Little Big Horn, including Crazy Horse.

On Memorial Day, 1999, the first of five red-granite markers denoting where warriors fell during the battle were placed on the battlefield for Cheyenne warriors Lame White Man and Noisy Walking.

The warriors’ red-speckled granite memorial markers dot the ravines and hillsides just as do the white-marble markers representing where soldiers fell.

Since then, markers have been added for the Sans Arc Lakota warrior Long Road and the Minniconjou Lakota Dog’s Back Bone.

On June 25, 2003, an unknown Lakota warrior marker was placed on Wooden Leg Hill, east of Last Stand Hill to honor a warrior who was killed during the battle, as witnessed by the Northern Cheyenne warrior Wooden Leg.

“Today, it’s an Indian warrior tribute – a tribute that we must keep living,” Poor Bear said.



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