“ Kicking Bear's Revenge “

Mato Wanahtaka or “ Kicking Bear “ was born about 1847, the son of the chief of a band of Ogalala Sioux. Kicking Bear became a famed warrior-prophet and medicine man. In his earlier days he was also notable as an artist. In 1876, shortly after the battle of Little Bighorn, he painted a now famous pictograph of his role in the defeat of Custer. The pictograph shows Kicking Bear joining Crazy Horse, his first cousin, in an ambush of an oncoming cavalry battalion. Early in 1890 Kicking Bear received national notoriety for his role in spreading the Ghost Dance and preaching its virtues. Practitioners of the Ghost Dance predicted the revival of the old ways, restoration of the buffalo and the destruction of Whites. This started the chain of events that led to Wounded Knee, the last major Indian battle in the United States. During the battle of Wounded Knee, Kicking Bear was a few miles away with a band of 1300 warriors. For the next eighteen days Kicking Bear led the last uprising of the Sioux. It is this moment in time that I tried to capture in my sculpture of Kicking Bear the avenger!