Hollow Horn Bear

Hollow Horn Bear (Lakota, Matȟó Héȟloǧeča) (March 1850 – March 15, 1913) was a Brulé Lakota leader during the Indian Wars on the Great Plains of the United States.

Quotes

• The bullets bursted [sic] at the time of the war, and we used to die with bullets, but now let us die quietly.
  • During negotiations with Crook and others, in Books on Google Play Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1890. p. 59. Retrieved on 1 March 2018. 
• [Speaking to a crowd regarding the sale of tribal land to the US Government] My friends, you have all heard what my father-in-law says, but I do not think he is right. He believes what the white people tell him; but this is only another trick of the whites to take our land away from us, and they have played these tricks before. We do not want to trust the white people. They come to use with sweet talk, but they do not mean it. We will not sign any more papers for these white men.
  • Standing Bear, Luther (November 1, 2006). My People the Sioux. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 211-12. ISBN 9780803293328. Retrieved on 1 March 2018. 
• Just a few minutes.
  • Response to Walter Mason Camp when asked how long the fighting took on Custer Hill, in Fox, Richard A. (February 16, 2015). Archaeology, History, and Custer's Last Battle: The Little Big Horn Reexamined. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 195. ISBN 9780806129983. Retrieved on 1 March 2018. 
• Mr. Lelar gave me a paper for the arrest of Crow Dog. Found defendant on a hill between White River and Rosebud Creek, where I made the arrest. Defendant had no clothes at the time, except a blanket, breechclout, and leggings and was on horseback. I did as I was ordered and took defendant to Fort Niobara.
  • On the arrest of Crow Dog, in (1989)"Crow Dog's Case: A Chapter in the Legal History of Tribal Sovereignty Harring". American Indian Law Review 14 (2): 191-240. Retrieved on 1 March 2018.
• About the hides I will ask you. Those that are killed on the block. That ought to go to the poor people and the old women. The Great Father [US Government] when we went down there said he would agree to take all our hides at $3 apiece, but we don’t get that and I wish you would fix that again. I would rather get $4 for my hides. There are a good many poor people and old women that have no one to look out for them, and they ought to get those hides.
  • During negotiations with Crook and others, in Books on Google Play Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1890. p. 64. Retrieved on 1 March 2018. 

Quotes about Hollow Horn Bear

• One of the handsomest men in his race. His profile ... reminds one of Alexander the Great, so strong and chaste it is outline ... a good type of intellectual and progressive man.
  • The biographer of Frederick Cummins, in Dodge, Richard Irving; Rogers, Will (2000). The Indian Territory Journals of Colonel Richard Irving Dodge. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 62. ISBN 9780806182131. Retrieved on 1 March 2018. 
• Talking to you through an interpreter is a good deal like a man trying to kiss his wife through a pane of glass.
  • A weary William Warner during negations with Hollow Horn Bear over the sale of Sioux lands, in Burnham, Philip (2000). Indian Country, God's Country: Native Americans And The National Parks. Island Press. p. 34. ISBN 9781475959024. Retrieved on 1 March 2018. 
• Captain Cragie U. S. A. arrived from the Rosebud agency. He says that Hollow Horn Bear is inciting the Indians. The hostiles will permit no freight to be handled until the old rate is restored. The captain looks for trouble very soon.
  • News report in "Inciting Indians to Hostility". The Brooklyn Eagle. September 11, 1895. Retrieved on 2 March 2018. 
• Hollow Horn Bear was a friend of the white people and a Christian. He had few equals among his people.
  • Father W. H. Ketcham, speaking at the funeral service in Washington D.C., in "Christian Rites for Big Chief, Impressive Services Held at Washington for Chief Hollow Horn Bear, After Ceremonies Body was Taken west to its Last Resting Place". The Bismarck Tribune. March 21, 1913. Retrieved on 2 March 2018. 
• Hollow Horn Bear hopes to take home about 50,000 copies of his picture on the $5 certificates.
  • On his travel to the Indian Bureau in an attempt to secure around $300,000 in payment to his tribe, in "Hollow Horn Bear at Indian Bureau". The Aberdeen Democrat. February 05, 1909. Retrieved on 2 March 2018. 

Misattributed

• Some day the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you too will die.
  • Attributed to John Hollow Horn, 1932, in Wilson, James (December 1, 2007). The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America. Grove/Atlantic, Inc. ISBN 9780802136800. Retrieved on 3 March 2018.