John Grass aka Charging Bear Sihasapa

[kingsleybray]

Just a line to say thanks to everyone for some great information and photo's on a neglected leader. LaDonna, this new information is just phenomenal!! Thanks again, and I'll post some thoughts later

Kingsley

[ladonna]

Grass talks about ancestors, about 1915:

Chief Grass told me that he could count many grandfathers; that they had borne the name of Mato Watakpe or Charging Bear, because it was a good name and through their works had now become famous in Indian History. He had always remembered that his name was Mato Watakpe, and so had tried to live right and not bring dishonor to the name and thus to his father’s fame and memory.

Grass talks about his Father, 1915:

Chief Grass said to me, “My grandfather was born somewhere in Nebraska. The time those men fought the Rees with the soldiers was about 91 years ago (Blue Thunder Count 1831-32 “Below Fort Yates above Grande river, Mandan Gros Ventre and Ree had a village, a double one there. Soldiers and Dakotah attacked village. Eight Dakotah dilled. Soldier French and Dakotah”). My grandfather was one of the leaders in that time. I got my name by fighting the Rees when I was seventeen years old. My grandfather gave me his name with a dog feast and the sun dance was made then.”

Welch note: He also told me that the Hunkpapas came into this prairie country about ninety five years before.

Cloud Bear talks to Welch, undated:

“Chief John Grass’ own father’s name was Wahacankayapi (Shields All...also Peji or Grass). Grass’ grandfather was Oglala Teton. I do not think his name was Mato Watakpe.”

Fire Heart talks, undated:

His mother was a sister of Chief Grass’ father (Oglala) so these two noted old Dakotah men are blood cousins. He said Grass’ father and grandfather were both great chiefs and that Grass was too.

Red Tomahawk note, undated:

Red Tomahawk’s grandmother and Grass’ grandmother were sisters
Other Children of Uses Him as a Shield, continued:
Pejuta Sapawin (Black Medicine Woman) was another daughter of Uses Him as a Shield and one of his wives. She married a white man named John Dailing, who was a cordwood contractor for steamboats along the Missouri river. His name among the Lakota was Chakaska (Wood Chopper). She also married another white man, a Lieutenant of the U.S.Army. by the name of Belden.

Iteywintapiwin (Gracious Face Woman … this is a hard name to translate) It was given to her in commemoration of an episode of her father, who, having dragged a Crow woman from her horse in a fight in Montana, was going to kill her, when that woman made the sign of greatest thanks across his face and down his body with her two hands, and named some of his relatives. This saved her life. This Crow woman was desired by Lieut. Belden, but did he not arouse her romantic desires, and she married a Hunkpapa named Kaptanyan (Turn over). Belden then married Gracious Face Woman.

Oglalawin (Oglala Woman) was another daughter. Her name was given by their close tribesmen. She died single.

Oyuhpewin (Drags Down Woman). Name given from an incident in which her father pulled an enemy from his horse in a fight. She was born in the vicinity of the present Lemon, S.D., at White Clay Butte, while her people were on a buffalo hunt - in 1855. Her own statement was that she was 84 winters. According to the Hunkpapa Winter Count, this was the winter when “A White Man named White Beard held the Indians in camp all winter at Pierre.” Drags Down Woman married Louis Cross, whose Sioux name was Mato Ocinsica (Cross Bear) and sometimes called Sanica (On One Side). He was a Sihasapa. He paid her father one horse and one gun for her, in the custom of the Sioux at that time. She was present at this interview, has a keen mind and a store of historical events in mind, which she freely related to me. She is quite well-known among her relatives as Auntie Cross; has a typical, creased, but kindly, face and, at the gathering for the dance that evening, made speech regarding her famous brother, Chief John Grass, making the statement that, “he was the friend and protector of the whites, always.”

Ite Wakanwin (Holy Face Woman) was another daughter of Uses Him as a Shield. She married Noel Burchia (unknown to me) and they had two children, both of whom died in infancy.

Hoksila (Good Boy) was another son of Uses Him as a Shield, long since dead, without issue living.

[ladonna]

Other Children of Uses Him as a Shield, continued:

Waniyocekapi (Jerked with Arrows) was another son. He received his name from a war incident, in a running fight with the Toka (enemy) which was probably a Crow Indian. This fight and flight was of four days duration, during which he was shot with several arrows which could not be immediately removed, and they jerked him severely before they had an opportunity to cut them out. Several Sioux women were captured and kept by the Crows in this fight. Drags Down Woman told us that that was the reason why there were some good people among the Crows - descendants of these captured Sioux women prisoners.

Uses Him as a Shield was the father of two other children, both of whom died in infancy.

Chief John Grass (Pezhi), also called Mato Watakpe (Charging Bear) and Siyowipi (Full of Prairie Chicken) married three women as follows:

The first wife was a woman of the Sicangu (Brules or Burnt Thighs), a tribe of the Tetonwanna or Tinton (People of the Prairie) Dakota. Little is known of her, except that “she went away.”

The second plural wife was Ptesanmaniwin (White Cow Woman Walking).

The third plural wife was named Kampeskaimanipewin (Walking the Shell Woman). She was the sister of White Cow Walking Woman and they were daughters of a famous Miniconjou Chief named Mga Ska (White Swan). They were taken at the same time by Chief Grass - White Cow Woman Walking being but seven years of age at that time. This little girl never knew that she was the wife of John Grass until one day, she was told to accompany her husband for Fort Pierre, with pack horses loaded with buffalo hides dressed for the St. Louis trade. Walking on the Shell Woman was the only wife known to the writer, and was called Ina (Mother) by him.

Children of Chief John Grass ...four boys (only one of which is mentioned herein):
Hoksila Waste (Good Boy) who married a woman from among the Yanktonaise. This woman gave birth to a son whose Sioux name was Hehaka Mani (Walking Elk) and called, by the whites, Albert Grass. He enlisted in the World War (WWI) as a volunteer, under the wrtier, A.B.Welch, who was the commanding officer of Co. “A”, 1st N.D.N.Guard. This regiment was reorganized and combined with the 2nd N.D.N.G. to make a war-strength regiment known as the 164th Inf., and which was made a replacement, mainly to the 1st Div., and, in action at Soissons, France, in June 1918, Hehaka Mani was killed in action in the wheat fields there; buried where he fell. After the war, his body was disinterred, returned to the Cannon Ball river, and buried in the Catholic Cemetery at Cannon Ball Station, North Dakota. His mother, after the death of her husband, married the grandson of the famous Yanktonaise Sioux named Mato Nopa (Two Bears). She still lives. Her name is Anne Two Bears.
Children of Chief John, continued:

Chief John Grass and Ina (Walking on the Shell Woman) had several other children, all dying or being killed in early youth. Among these was a set of twin girls of which they were exceedingly proud. They were named Wacinyanpi Win (Faith Woman) and Wacatkiyapi Win (Charity Woman). Both died in early childhood.


More Comments by Leo Cadotte, talking to Welch at Mandan, September 6, 1943:

“We can trace our family far back. We have made a study of this thing.

“It is a kind of tradition that the Grass family was started by Oompah, which means Moose. They got it wrong in the archives (i.e. Treaties) and the clerk put it down as Big Deer. Maybe that’s the way the interpreter said - that it was a big deer.

“Then his son was Tatonka tonka (Big Buffalo); that was a very long time ago.

“Then came Sicolau, which means Barefooted.

“Sicolau’s son was Uses Him as a Shield.

“Grass (Pezhi) known also as Charging Bear, was the son of Uses Him as a Shield.

“Grass had a son named Many Spotted (Horses), whose son was Albert Grass, known to the Indians as Hehaka Mani (Walking Elk), who was a soldier who volunteered under Capt. A.B.Welch in the N.D. 163-164th Infantry for the first World War and was killed in action at Soissons, France, 1918.

“War Eagle in the Air was also a relative and is frequently confused with another Indian named High Eagle. But they are two different men, although the names are spelled identical. They kept them apart with nick-names, so they would know which man they meant. War Eagle in the Air was known as Big Rim or Thick Seam (like in the edges of cloth when it is turned back and sewed).

“Another relative of Chief John Grass was the Oohenopa (Two Kettle) named Black Moon. Auntie Cross says that he and John Grass were cousins by blood. These Two Kettles and the Blackfeet were closely related and nearly always camped together and took part in each other’s undertakings.

“Another Two Kettle relative by blood of John Grass was the influential man named Tall Mandan.”

[ladonna]

Notes on John Grass, as given by some of the Sihasapa who knew him, Wakpala, S.D., May 5 and 6, 1941:

Bird Flying Over (Swiftly) was Lame Woman’s name (she was the wife of Sicola).

Used as a Shield had eight wives.

Two Packs was also called Hawk Shield. He was Herbert Welch’s father. Mary Pleets is a half-sister of Herbert Welch

Tall Mandan is an uncle of Mrs. Theresa Cross. He was Sihasapa.

Leo Cadotte says, that at Washington (Indian Bureau Department), Indians are still considered ‘hostile’ if they had relatives in the Custer Battle

John Grass ‘sold’ his sisters so they would live a long time. He ‘sold’ Drags Down Woman to Cross Bear, who was a medicine man.

John Grass went to Oklahoma (The Indian Territory) to look over the land when the Government wanted to send all the Indians there. He reported that our Dakotas could not live there.

White Cloud (or, End of Cloud)’s mother was a first cousin of John Grass’ mother

The Calf Robe Pipe was brought to the Indians before Columbus touched the shores of the American Continent.

Good Voice Bull is a first cousin to Mrs. Theresa Cross. Thomas Good Voice Bull (his son) is still living.

Sitting in the Sky Woman would not sell her allotment. Had heard her husband say there would be many whites, and that land would be needed. She saved it for her children.

Sitting in the Sky Woman sewed the clothes that Fanny Kelly, the white captive, wore when she was taken by the Indians to Fort Sully in the winter of 1864….Dresses, leggings, moccasins, robes. This was in the lodge of Used as a Shield.

The Sihasapa think the picture of Barefoot with the three other Sioux was taken in 1864 at the Black Hills Treaty. They will find out. (Note: picture was apparently never in Welch’s possession).

[ladonna]

Welch and Angela Boleyn interview Leo Cadotte (son of Grass’ sister), Mandan, N.D., September 6th 1943:

(Angela Boleyn was a writer-friend of Welch creating a life story about John Grass .. but, cannot locate this ‘book’)

Now this is what I want to talk about: You have said that Chief John Grass was the man who planned the campaign when they killed those men in Montana (W-This refers to the Custer affair). You are writing a book about our relative Grass. He has told you what part he played in that. I have talked with many people, old ones, who knew. They always denied that thing. But you know.

Now they think that they are placing John Grass in a bad position before you. They say: “He (Welch) has the truth now. If he has the truth, and does not tell it - what is the use of having it if he cannot tell it.” That was a long time ago; the archives cannot be changed now; We think that it is time to tell it now. It cannot hurt anyone now. The claims we have against the Government will be put off from time to time anyhow. Auntie Cross is very old and will die pretty soon. She wanted Charging Bear to know but was afraid of punishment by the Government. She wanted to tell him (W-Welch) but was fearful of consequences. etc., etc.

Cadotte continued: So I believe it is all right for you to write it. The truth cannot hurt now. The archives have the Sihasapa as a ‘peaceful Teton tribe.’ Too much has been written and is now in the archives and they will remain that way.

Asked about details, he continued: The Oohenopa (Two Kettles) and the Sihasapa were together there. They nearly always camped together. Black Moon was with them - he was Headman of the Brave Hearts (Police). (W-the Brave Hearts was the largest of the Soldier Societies, and there were members in every tribe of the Tetons and even in the Isanti Division of the Dakota). Tall Mandan was also a Head Man of the Brave Hearts and was with the camp. They broke camp down somewhere along the Padani Wakpe (W-Grand river - meaning the River of the Arikara on account of their villages being at the mouth of that river) and went west into the valleys of the rivers flowing northward into the Hehaka Wakpe (W-Elk river, as they called the Yellowstone).

Before this time, General Custer had seen Grass and some other powerful men and wanted them to go with him into Montana country. Chief Grass told him like this: ‘You have smoked with me You have said that as long as water flows there will be peace between us. Therefore, you will not need me with you because you are going in peace. You have Padani Scouts with you who know the trails that way.’
Welch and Angela Boleyn interview Leo Cadotte (son of Grass’ sister), Mandan, N.D., September 6th 1943:

But, he could not believe that Custer would take so many soldiers with him if he was really going in peace. He did not want to be identified with a war expedition against his own people. When they broke camp they moved west to be out there. We believe that Grass laid out the general plan to congregate in the valley of the Greasy Grass. (W-This is the Big Country). Crazy Horse was a young man. He could not have made the plan or he would have kept away from Gen. Crook. No one ever said that Sitting Bull laid out the plan. Gall was doing just what Sitting Bull wanted him to do. Therefore, Gall did not do it. It was not Black Moon because he was not a Chief, but a Head Man of the Soldiers Society. Then came the battle. Crazy Horse obtained much notoriety because he was where Custer came into the valley and started for the ford. Gall was fighting at the south end of the village and did not reach the Custer ground until the battle was almost over. Sitting Bull did not fight.

After the battle Chief Grass went back fast to the Grande River. Tall Mandan probably went with him because he appeared there too. You ask who Scabby Head was and I cannot tell you because I do not know. Black Moon talked much after that and it is said that he was a great warrior at that fight. The old people never did call him Scabby Head. But the Sihasapa, nearly every young man among them, were there together with the Two Kettle fighting men. Their camp was about in the middle there. They probably fought with those of Crazy Horse. As the camps came in, they extended the camp line from Sitting Bull’s camp toward the north - so Chief Grass’ Sihasapa and Two Kettle must have appeared there and camped about the third in line toward the north. Crazy Horse’s band must have come in at the about the same time as the Cheyenne, and camped at the far north. (W-This seems logical according to the ‘map’ made by One Bull which shows the arrangement of the camps just before Custer struck them. It also agrees with the map made for me by Red Fish, a hostile Yanktonaise Chief, who made a mark on it and said ‘Chief Grass sat here.’ This last mentioned map shows the Council held after they had left the battlefield as troops started up the Big Horn after ferrying across the Yellowstone).

During this long conversation, Cadotte said several times, that he thought it would be all right now to tell the truth about it, and that it should be written by Mato Watakpe (Welch) and Mrs. Boleyn.


Excerpt from Angela Boleyn letter to Welch, referring to the foregoing conversation:

...Most interesting about Tall Mandan and Black Moon. But I think Scabby Head was Grass. A name he took or thought up at the moment he needed one, for Leo said it was not Black Moon. So Grass must have said something like this, ‘Say Scabby Head was in charge of the Sihasapa.’ Yes? and we have the story of the chiefs who smoked with Custer before he went after Sitting Bull and his hostiles and which culminated in the Custer Battle.
Welch interview with Grass, c. 1915:

Some one has said this: ‘We think of the Indian as of a mysterious, stern, unforgiving, dim silhouette upon a hill; the grey light of a departing day and setting sun in the west shows their shadow for a moment and they are gone.’

They who said that were almost right. But with our back burdened with the labors and griefs of a people just emerging into the light of hope; when we who reasoned deeply could see a better way than the superstitious and blind wanderings of the past; just as we could begin to see a grand future for our people and our loved Nation, we were rushed, too fast for us to understand, over the top of the grey hill spoken of and into the disturbed shadows of the dim lighted ‘beyond.’

But I do not answer you. In the presence of my son, Mato Watakpe, I speak what is in my mind. He told me you were a great friend of ours, so I speak to you as to him. Those were all great men I told you about. Red Cloud was perhaps the greatest. Gall was the second one. I, who am chief today, have problems as great as they had then. I am through. Tomorrow I will speak again. Hao.

[ladonna]

This some new information on Grass the tribe recieved

[crawdaddo]

That is some really interesting information Ladonna.For me reading what the old originals had to say is the best thing of all, thankyou.crawdaddo

[grahamew]

Here's a Bell photo of Gall and Grass from 1888.



Seeing it, makes me wonder about the dates of the photos Dietmar posted on page 1 of this thread. Interestingly, he looks youngest in the third photo down (by Bell) from 1880 if the SIRIS info is right; he seems to have grown his hair long after this period through the 80s, at a time when you'd expect the reverse to be the case. I'll ask Diane to post the Gilbert photo which I'm guessing comes from the mid 80s, later than Dietmar's Scott photo.

[ephriam]

Ladonna:

Wow! Thank you for all the great information on John Grass. It will take some time to study everything that you have posted.

I know that Welch understood Grass was at the Little Bighorn, but I have some doubts about it. If he was, he must have come in to Standing Rock immediately afterward (as one of the sources above suggests). This certainly deserves some more study.

Thank you again for sharing this wealth of information!

ephriam

[ladonna]

It is said that he return the same time as Kills Eagle.

[harpskiddie]

Ladonna:

Wonderful stuff, for which you have my heartfelt thanks. If neither Welch nor Boleyn published a John Grass biography, do you happen to know if any other of their interview notes or transcriptions exist, and where these might be found?

Gordie,
you find my body here, but my heart is in the Powder River Country......................................

[ephriam]

U.S. Indian Agency
Standing Rock, D.T.
September 7, 1876

To the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
I have the honor to state that on my assuming control of this Agency, I immediately called a council of the chiefs, and from 30 to 40 of the principal ones responded thereto. I told them that their Agent, Mr. Burke, had been relieved, and that I had been detailed as their Agent. I gave them to fully understand that the "Great Father" was very kindly disposed towards all peaceable Indians, and that I was directed by him to do everything in my power for their protection and comfort. I told them that he was angry with the young men that had gone off to the Hostile Camp to fight his soldiers, and that I had been directed to say to them that all these young men must come into the Agency, lay down their arms and surrender themselves to the Military Authority.

After I had completed what I had to say to them, "John Grass," the leading chief of the "Black Feet," and one who has a number of young men out with the hostiles, spoke about as follows: -- "That his young men would not come in and be arrested by the military; that they would not be slaves; that he had never had anybody talk to him before as I had done; that he was a great chief and could stand up and look any one in the face; that he had expected soft words; that he did not believe that the "Great Father" had sent any such word; that if he had, his young men would not come in; that they would go to Cheyenne [River] Agency where they would receive better treatment; that he had heard from there that the young men that had been out with the hostiles and had come in and laid down their arms had been given traionts and were allowed to go where they pleased, and that they had not been made slaves."
...

R. E. Johnston
Captain 1st Infantry
Acting U.S. Indian Agent

[Dietmar]

I think I remember that John Grass should be in this photograph, taken around 1890 by Trager, Morledge or some other.

If he is (the photo must have been made at Pine Ridge!), he must be the man standing second from left with big hat. American Horse, Young-Man-Afraid and Bill Cody are also in the photo.

[Dietmar]

Here´s another article about John Grass with a photo I haven´t seen before:

www.sdhalloffame.com

Chief John Grass from Standing Rock Reservation
Inducted in 1978
Category: Indian Heritage



DOB: 1837
POB: Along the Grand River, SD
DOD: 1918
Buried at: Ft. Yates, ND

Chief John Grass was born in 1837 near the Grand River in South Dakota. He became Chief of the Blackfoot Sioux. The surname Grass was dynastic and was born by his father and grandfather, both of whom were with the Sioux allies in the expedition under Colonel Henry Leavenworth against the Arikaras in 1823.

Young Grass was baptized and received into the Roman Catholic Church, according to tradition. Early in life he distinguished himself in battle; and at seventeen, for exploits performed against the Crows and the Mandans, he received his warrior name, Mato Watakpe (Charging Bear) which also had been born by his ancestors. About the same time, to prove his endurance, he underwent the extreme ordeal of the sun dance.

Although Chief Grass was later to become one of the leading exponents of a peace policy, he probably took part in some of the conflicts with the whites in the 1850's and 1860's.

Fanny Wiggins Kelly, in an account of her captivity among the Sioux in 1864, mentions Chief Grass as Jumping Bear. She gratefully credits him with having saved her life on one occasion and with having subsequently aided in effecting her ransom.

In his youth Grass became noted as an orator, and in the agitation against the whites during the early 1870's, he made full use of his powers. He strongly opposed war, which he declared would be ruinous, and urged upon his people the necessity of gradually abandoning the chase for more settled occupations.

Though Chief Grass' counsels for the time went unheeded, after the conflict of 1876-77 his prestige returned. A few years later, with Gall, the former chief at his side, Grass became a dominant influence among the Sioux.

At Fort Yates on the Standing Rock Agency Chief Grass served for many years as Chief Justice of the Court of Indian Offenses, an office that he held until his death. He also took part in many treaty councils with the whites, stoutly defending the rights of his people. As an Indian Commissioner at the Council of 1888, relating to the cession of certain lands in the present South Dakota, Grass brought the proceedings to a close when it appeared that the government commissioners were seeking an unfair advantage.

A new commission, headed by Charles Foster, former governor of Ohio, offered more favorable terms the following year. Grass, though for a time demanding further reconsessions, in the end encouraged his people to accept the proposed treaty.

When the U.S. entered World War I, Grass advised the young men to enlist. His grandson, Albert Grass, was killed at Soissons, one of the first of the American Expeditionary Force to fall in battle.

Chief John Grass died after a winter’s illness at his home south of Fort Yates and was buried in the local Catholic cemetery.