Kicking Bear aka: Matȟó Wanáȟtake ( 1846? – 1904)

Kicking Bear, Short Bull, and other Ghost Dance leaders were arrested and imprisoned. The government offered to release them if they would perform in a European tour of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.

Kicking Bear agreed but was angered and humiliated by the depiction of Native people in the show. He quit the tour and was sent back to prison. He was released in 1892.

In 1896, He was part of a Native delegation that traveled to Washington, D.C. to discuss Native grievances with government officials. Kicking Bear made his feelings known about the drunken behavior of traders on the reservation, and asked that Native Americans have more ability to make their own decisions.

While in Washington, agreed to have a life mask made of himself, which was to be used as the face of a Sioux warrior to be displayed in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

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Kicking Bear was also a gifted artist who painted his account of the Battle of Greasy Grass at the request of artist Frederic Remington in 1898, more than 20 years after the battle.

Kicking Bear died on May 28, 1904, and was buried with an arrowhead as a symbol of his desire to resurrect the ways of his people. His remains are believed to be buried somewhere in the vicinity of Manderson-White Horse Creek.