Chief Hollow Horn Bear by Adolph F. Muhr, 1898.
Hollow Horn Bear was a Brulé Lakota leader who fought in many battles of the Sioux Wars, including the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Known to his people as Matihehlogego, he was born in Sheridan County, Nebraska, in March 1850. At 16, he accompanied a band led by his father against Pawnee Indians, whom they fought on the present site of Genoa, Nebraska. Two years later, in 1868, he joined a band of Brulé in an attack on United States troops in Wyoming and later in another battle near the Crow Agency in Montana. The following year, he participated in a raid on railroad workers who were constructing the Union Pacific Railroad.
Later, he became the captain of the police force at the Rosebud Agency in South Dakota. During his tenure, he arrested his predecessor, Crow Dog, for the murder of Spotted Tail. Five years later, he resigned and was appointed second lieutenant under Agent Spencer, but he was compelled to resign because of ill health.
He also became a key speaker and negotiator for the Sioux, making multiple trips to Washington, D.C., to advocate on their behalf. When General George Crook was sent with a commission to Rosebud in 1889, the chief was involved in peace negotiations.
In 1905, Hollow Horn Bear was invited to take part in Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C. In 1913, he led a group of Indians to President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration parade. While he was there, he caught pneumonia and died on March 15, 1913.
Buckskin Charlie (Ute), American Horse (Oglala Sioux), Little Plume (Piegan Blackfeet), Geronimo (Chiricahua Apache), and Hollow Horn Bear (Brulé Sioux), inaugural parade for President Theodore Roosevelt, March 4, 1905.
A funeral service was held in Washington, D.C., and newspapers reported several hundred people in attendance.
Chiefs of the Blackfeet, Crow, and Sioux Indians, resplendent in feathers and colors, followed the body to the altar with heads bowed in grief. Kneeling in the front pews of the dimly-lit church, the red men paid their last homage to the dead chief. The funeral attracted a great crowd.
— Sacred Heart Review
Afterward, his body was shipped back West by railroad under military escort. They returned it and buried it at the Rosebud Reservation at the St. Francis Mission.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated October 2026.
Also See:
Native American Heroes & Leaders
See Sources.