After 28 years of research, interviews and support from dozens of family and friends, the biography of the late Lakota medicine man and spiritual leader, Martin High Bear is being released September 11, 2024. Martin was a spiritual advisor to thousands of people and conducted many ceremonies throughout the Northern Great Plains and beyond. His life was revered by many whose stories are included throughout his biography.
The Seven Commandments of the Sacred Buffalo Calf Woman: Martin High Bear (1919-1995) includes his life story, the history of his family, and the vision of the Seven Commandments, or Seven Teachings. These teachings were recited to him in his vision quest altar in the mid 1970’s shortly after he became a medicine man. Traditional cultural values and rich spiritual qualities along with special messages of race reconciliation for strengthening healing and hope were gifted to him with instructions that they be shared with not just his Native people but also the peoples of the four colors in today’s world.
The biography includes the 19th and 20th Century history of High Bear’s family, including excerpts from the Biography of Martin Charger, Martin’s paternal great grandfather (1833-1900) that was written by Martin’s grandfather Samuel Charger (born in 1882) and published in 1946 in the South Dakota Historical Collections by the South Dakota Historical Society.
From Tribal Historian Preservation Officer Ben Rhodd (Potawatomi):
This treatise is a tribute to a remarkable and extraordinary man who lived in concordance to a way of life. Such men are few and far between in this world. In my life I have only known a handful and they are all gone to the world of the spirit. Martin was such a man who walked with Lakota values in an alien society and during a time when Native spirituality was suppressed and outlawed. It was not until 1978 that Indigenous Americans were able to openly practice the ways of their ancestors. (As an ikce wicasa (ick-chay we-cha-shaw) translated as an ordinary, common man in the Lakota language is the greatest compliment one can be called among the People.) Martin, upon learning of his lineage lived his life in service to the Creator and by doing so served all people with the gifts bestowed by the Mystery upon him. The story as written goes beyond simple events, facts, and facets of his life as it flows and captures us all within the intricacies of Indigenous spirituality as portrayed in the written word by the author. May the teachings Martin lived by continue onward to the generations yet unborn and his journey in the celestial worlds be good.
The High Bear biography will be available at bookstores and at the Native American nonprofit Elderberry Wisdom Farm’s website at https://www.elderberrywisdom.org. Proceeds of sales will be used to provide copies of the biography to Native schools and organizations.
Comments