Literary Encyclopedia

Luther Standing Bear

  • Michelle Raheja (University of California, Riverside)

Luther Standing Bear is a remarkable figure in Native American literature, film, history, and politics. He was born ca. 1868 in what is now known as South Dakota to an Oglala Lakota family. His family named him Ota K'Te (Plenty Kill), but he later took his father's first name as his surname. Raised in a traditional manner, Standing Bear learned how to hunt buffalo with his father until, at the age of eleven, he was sent to Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a federal boarding school for Native American children in Pennsylvania, and became a member of the school's first graduating class.

The trip from his home on the Plains to Pennsylvania was a long and arduous one that exposed him to non-Indians for the first time, but

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First published 31 October 2002

Citation: Raheja, Michelle. "Luther Standing Bear". The Literary Encyclopedia. 31 October 2002

[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4189, accessed 30 July 2010.]

 

Life, Works and Times

Related Groups

Dates:

  • 1868 to 1939 (Life Span)
  • 1928 to 1937 (Activity Span)

Places:

  • United States (Birth)
  • United States (Primary Activity)

Cultural Identities:

  • Native American/Canadian (Primary)

Activities:

  • Autobiographer (Primary)
  • Revolutionary, Activist (Primary)
  • Story-writer (Primary)
  • Theatre Actor/ Actress (Primary)