Bear Butte - NE of Sturgis, SD
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 44° 27.577 W 103° 25.742
13T E 624974 N 4924124
"Many Native Americans see the mountain as a place where the creator has chosen to communicate with them through visions and prayer." ~ Vacation South Dakota
Waymark Code: WMM3QG
Location: South Dakota, United States
Date Posted: 07/16/2014
Views: 5
County of site: Meade County
Location of site:
Also know as (AKA): Mato Paha; Nowahawus
Was made a State Park in 1961
Text of marker located on 206th St. (SD 79/SD 34) Sturgis:
BEAR BUTTE
Cheyenne: (Nowahawste) Mountain of the Plains Indian Sioux: (Mato Paha)
The 1,422 foot high volcanic bubble rises 1,200 feet above the plains, a guide for centuries for Indians, fur traders, soldiers, cowboys, and travelers. It was visited or passed by Verendrye, 1743; Lt. G. t> Warren, 1855; Hayden, the scientist and Reynolds, 1859; Custer, 1874; and since by a galaxy of geological scientists.
This was a sacred mountain for the Cheyenne, the first Indians known to white man to live adjacent to it and here Sweet Medicine, their spiritual leader received the four sacred Cheyenne Arrows and the code of ethics many centuries ago. Many a prayer has been said on its rugged slopes and many a smoke signal from its lofty summit has told watching eyes of travelers on Bismarck - Deadwood Trail to its porto and other sojourners within its vista.
Near here, in 1857, a great council of the Indians determined to hold the Black Hills inviolate from the white man and for two decades and this policy dictated their defensive actions.
Custer's annihilation at the Little Big Horn in 1876; the establishment of Camp Sturgis, July 1, 1878 on its Northwest slope spelled the passing of the red man and his brother the buffalo. Today Bear Butte stands, an outpost of the Hills, still a shrine to the Cheyenne, who come here to worship and a monument to man made history and to natures weird handiwork.
Visited this site several times in 2003, 2006, 2007.
Never had to do this for a National Registered building or site...but this mountain is in the middle of a state park, and is often the middle of controversy, because it is a Holy Site to Native Americans, and yet made a State Park by the white eyes.