Lean Bear

Cheyenne Peace Chief believed to be Lean Bear. Taken 1863, in Washington, D.C. Lean Bear (Cheyenne name Awoninahku, c. 1813–1864), alternatively translated as Starving Bear, was a Cheyenne peace chief. He was a member of the Council of Forty-four, a tribal governance devoted to maintaining peace with encroaching United States settlers. Lean Bear's most notable peace deals include the Treaty of Fort Wise Lean Bear brushed it off as a result of him simply being too nervous to stand.

Relations Lean Bear had a brother called Bull Bear. In 1864, Bull Bear was the leader of the Dog Soldiers, a position he would hold for many years.

Lean Bear also worked closely and served on the Council of Forty-four with fellow peace chief Black Kettle, especially in the last decade of his life. Agent Thomas Fitzpatrick was hosting a council in Fort Atkinson to convince plains tribes to attend a larger peace council at Fort Laramie later on. Because Cheyenne culture considers striking even a male child to be an insult, Lean Bear was incredibly indignant about the assault. The council worked to sway their people towards a preference for peace with the Americans. Once named a chief of the council, one would have to give up membership in the war societies that new chiefs often came from. They stole livestock and fought with troops and settlers. The Dog Soldiers were exiled for their behavior and deemed renegades, operating independently of the tribe. Nonetheless, their provocative nature caused a lot of trouble for the peace-seeking Cheyennes.

Treaty of Fort Wise In October 1857, Chief Lean Bear and three other Cheyenne chiefs approached William Bent with concern about attacks on his people by Sumner's troops along the Republican River. This treaty was made with Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs, cutting roughly 40 million acres of land from their territory. The Cheyennes were not ready to forced into the confines of the small reserve, where there were not many buffalo, allocated for them in the treaty.

Meeting in Washington, D.C. The delegation of chiefs meeting with Lincoln on March 27, 1863. Lean Bear is believed to be one of the people in the lower left of the image. On March 27, 1863, a delegation of fourteen chiefs of Plains tribes, including Lean Bear, War Bonnet and Standing-in-Water of the Cheyennes, and two Kiowa women met with President Abraham Lincoln in the East room of the White House. The meeting was called after skirmishes with Native tribes and white settlers created fear that Southern Plains tribes would side with the Confederacy. Lean Bear implored the president to stop his white Americans from being violent so that Indians and whites alike could travel across the plains without risk. Lincoln told the chiefs that their Native people were naturally more tempted to violence. Lincoln also requested that the southern Plains Indians remain neutral in the American Civil War, ready to provide peace medals to those that he could reach an agreement with. Lean Bear then made a request to the president to expedite his and the other chiefs' journey home. Positive that this would be a peaceful encounter, Lean Bear went alone to meet the militia to show his peaceful intentions. Eayre ordered his men to shoot Lean Bear, who was wounded and fell off his horse. He was then shot repeatedly by the soldiers as they rode past his body on the ground. Despite Black Kettle's best efforts to keep the peace, attacks by Native warriors in the Southern Plains skyrocketed as the vengeful tribes burned ranches and trails, kidnapping settlers and their livestock. In common usage by sources about Lean Bear is an image of a Cheyenne peace chief who is typically believed to be Lean Bear.

Parts of Lean Bear's life are described in the book of folklore, By Cheyenne Campfires, compiled by George Bird Grinnell.