Four Bears Bridge

Transcription

The Mandan Chief, Four Bears, was given his name after a battle in which he charged his enemy with the strength of four bears. His generosity and fearlessness in battle gained him the respect of the Mandan people who honor his memory to this day. (Marilyn Hudson) It is one of the primary questions we get here at the museum, why is everything around here called Four Bears? What was Four Bears? Who was Four Bears? We have the Four Bears Bridge, we have the Four Bears Casino, we have Four Bears Village, and sometimes they even call us the Four Bears Museum. People are sometimes a little bit surprised to learn that there were two Chief Four Bears or two warriors Four Bears, the Mandan Four Bears and then the Hidatsa Four Bears. They lived at different times in the history of our tribe, the Mandan Four Bears being the earlier of the two. The reason that the Mandan Four Bears is so revered is because of his reputation as being a great warrior and defending the rest of the tribe from enemies and people that would be seeking to harm them. The Hidatsa Four Bears is known for being a great leader and negotiator at the Fort Laramie Meeting in 1851. The life of the Mandan Four Bears began probably about 1800. At the time he was born, there was already a tremendous change in the society of the Mandan People. Prior to that time, they probably lived a fairly peaceful life along the Missouri River. They were planters, farmers, planted huge crops, lived permanently in earth lodge villages and had a highly-developed social structure. About that time, the influx of the Europeans began to impact on Four Bears and his people. He probably saw a lot of changes. At the coming of the white man, he saw the harassment of the Sioux. That's when the warfare between the tribes on the Great Plains began. [ceremonial drum beats; man sings in his native language] Everybody had allies and enemies, so Four Bears was born into that as a young man and distinguished himself as a warrior. The warrior status was very highly thought of. That's probably his legacy now as a very distinguished warrior and a protector of the people and the village where he lived. The most interesting thing about Four Bears is, how did he get that name? With Indian people, a person could have several names. They could have a name at birth, they could have a name when they became a young person, they could distinguish themselves in some manner and get another name. Four Bears acquired his name from the fact that he was a great warrior in a battle he had with one of the enemy tribes. They were amazed at how he could fight, and they called him that he fights almost like four bears together. That would be quite a strong fighter I would say! [laughs] He was also noted as being very congenial. When the white man first arrived, he was very hospitable and very welcoming. In June of 1837, and a boat came up the river, and they had a sick man onboard, and he was left at the Mandan Village and they said, we'll pick him up on the way back down; well, he had smallpox. The Mandan People were told leave your villages, outrun this epidemic, outrun this germ. They couldn't because they had permanent villages, they had gardens, they had fields. So they stayed, which was probably the worst thing they could do, because the earth lodges were not conducive to getting rid of the smallpox germ. So as a result, almost the entire population of the Mandan People and, Four Bears being one of them, that perished in that epidemic. There's a speech, sort of a farewell speech, where he talks about I've always been a friend to the white man, we've welcomed him, we've given him food, we've given him lodging, and look what he's done to us. In 1832, there were two very prominent artists, George Catlin and Karl Bodmer. Now, Karl Bodmer was accompanied, Prince Maximilian, he's an explorer; Karl Bodmer did a lot of sketching and painting while he was on this journey. George Catlin came from back East. He was also interested in making sketches of Indian people before they disappeared. Both Catlin and Bodmer did artist sketches and portraits of Four Bears, so we have those, we know they're very well done. Catlin and Bodmer did only the Mandan Four Bears. The Hidatsa Four Bears would have been perhaps too young, or still a child, so we don't have any images of the Hidatsa Four Bears like we do of the Mandan Four Bears. Four Bears to me signifies a time when the Mandan People were probably at the pinnacle. Ideally, he represents that kind of lost society that everybody's trying to acquire. The reason it's important to remember Four Bears is, for any historical reason that we remember Thomas Jefferson and we remember George Washington, to really have a full understanding of why we're here and how we're here. We've got to look back and see the path, the journey. Indian history is a big part of it.