Martin High Bear Biography Giveaway to Tribes Continues

By Rose High Bear (Deg Hit’an Dine, Inupiaq)

Founding Director

Last year, we gave cases of the Martin High Bear book to tribal colleges throughout the Northern Great Plains and other tribal locations. The Seven Commandments of the Sacred Buffalo Calf Woman: Martin High Bear (1919-1995) was shared with Oglala Lakota College: Rapid City Campus, Sitting Bull College in Ft. Yates, North Dakota and United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota. I’m so grateful to colleagues who thankfully expanded that to include other tribal colleges and tribal elders in the region.

Photo of Martin High Bear

This year we are repeating that giveaway by sending cases of books to these colleges along with a Zoom session to introduce the book followed by the giveaway. I am unable to travel this year so Zoom is a wonderful gift. We are now adding the Culture Center at Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Martin’s home reservation. I became acquainted with Rufus Charger’s grandson, Leon Charger who called me last month and sent him 10 copies. He immediately contacted me and asked for additional copies because there were numerous requests from others, so I sent my last case of books to him. We are in the process of ordering more cases and sending them to the tribal colleges and other cultural centers, including at Eagle Butte, for giveaway during this holiday season. 

I worked on this book for 30 years before it was published on Martin’s birthday (9/11) last year. I didn’t realize my work would be continuing with promotion and distribution work needed to get the books out there. I had planned to step back from the vision I had been given in 1988 when the grandmother spirit came to me and advised me (almost like a prophesy, not instructions) that I would be writing his book and that it would have an impact on the world. She was concerned that the cultural values and spiritual qualities of the ancestors would be forgotten and so this was why she gave me this work to do. I am still doing it and hoping I can help to support some breakthroughs. 

This past year, my work here at Elderberry Wisdom Farm has expanded our TEK Workforce Development Internships with new partnerships, but I am now balancing my time better by remembering to get Martin’s stories out there. The teachings are “transformational” according to one of our close friends who has been joining us in sweatlodge here at the farm since reading his biography. I maybe overworked but it comes with a lifetime of blessings.