Bear's Heart

Bear's Heart (Nock-ko-ist, Cheyenne, c. 1851–1882) was a Cheyenne ledger book artist who was one of 72 Native Americans to be imprisoned in 1875 at Fort Marion, in St. Augustine, Florida. While imprisoned, he created a series of drawings on ledger book pages using ink and colored pencils. In November 1876 he created a set of drawings known as the Bear's Heart Ledger Book.

Early life Bear's Heart was born in about 1851 into the Cheyenne tribe. After his father died he joined a group of 20 other young men to fight the Utes in Colorado. In 1874 he rode with the war leader, Medicine Water. In November of that year, he camped with Grey Beard's encampment. In December he was taken prisoner and transferred in chains to Fort Sill. He and over seventy other prisoners were taken to a railroad station 165 miles away where they were then chained to eight army wagons. Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt wrote notations on the drawings. This work documented the American military occupation of Native lands and daily life at Fort Marion.

Pratt oversaw 26 prisoner artists at the fort. He took Bear Heart's book to William Tecumseh Sherman as part of an appeal for increased educational support at the Carlisle Indian School. Pratt also sold some of Bear's Heart and other ledger artists' work to tourists to fund "Indian education."

Later life After his release, he was schooled at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia. He later returned home to the Cheyenne Arapaho Reservation, which had newly been formed in Oklahoma, where he worked as a carpenter. He died of tuberculosis in the year 1882.

Collections His work is included in the collections of the Hampton Institute, the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Oklahoma Art Center, and the Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, among others.

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