Luther Standing Bear

(1868 - 1939)

Born to Chief Standing Bear and Pretty Face in present-day South Dakota in the 1860s, Luther Standing Bear attended the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, where he selected his first name from a list on a chalkboard. “I took the pointer,” he recalled, “and acted as if I were about to touch an enemy.” Luther served as an interpreter and chaperone in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1902; became a Sioux chief in 1905; published his autobiography in 1928; and, along with athlete Jim Thorpe, formed the Indian Actors Association in 1936.