Eugene George Standingbear

Brief biography

A self-taught artist, Eugene Standingbear began drawing in his youth. Pen and paper in hand, he sketched at his mother’s side while she did beadwork. Standingbear also painted, sang, acted, and danced. These art forms kept him connected to his American Indian heritage, and they reflected his life experiences—the joyful and the sorrowful.

Born in 1906, Eugene Standingbear was the son of Sioux Chief Luther Standing Bear (1868-1939) and Laura Cloud Shield. An Oglala Sioux, he grew up on the reservation at Pine Ridge, South Dakota. In his youth, he traveled with his parents in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and in the Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch Show. He went on to work as a barnstormer, mechanical engineer with the U.S. Navy in the Puget Sound Naval Area, miner, cab driver, and musician. He even worked in Hollywood including acting as a medicine man in “Grizzly Adams.” Standingbear eventually settled in Roggen/Keenesburg, Colorado, where he met Jennifer Okada, the collection’s donor.

Source: “Touring Colorado’s Collections: The Art of Eugene George Standingbear.” By Leigh Jeremias: Published on October 31, 2019. < link >

"The previous installment described how Eugene’s life unraveled in the 1950s through heavy drinking. He had lots of experiences in the 50s… some grueling, others not so bad… some actually heroic. He:

• saw men get killed in jails and alleys,
• woke up in hospitals, barely remembering how he got there,
• did the “wino dance” on several occasions, when his misfiring neurons and GABA imbalances from alcohol saturation made muscles throughout his body suddenly all start jerking at the same time,
• worked the rail lines as a “gandy dancer” in Alliance, Nebraska,
• tap-danced as a blackface hoofer,
• unloaded coal cars,
• sold newspapers on the streets of Denver,
• picked fruit and harvested peas alongside migrant workers in California,
• joined a circus,
• talked a suicidal man off a bridge in Bremerton, Washington, and
• saved the life of a beautiful 21-year-old girl, apparently on drugs, who “wanted to experience the power of the ocean” by wandering out into the surf at Carmel by the Sea, wearing a flowing, black chiffon dress, and nearly drowned." https://noblesavageworld.com/2019/02/03/standingbear-12-peace-at-la...

https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/... pp. 16-23

Family

Parents: Luther Standing Bear and Laura Cloud Shield
Spouses: 1) Nora Mary Lookout (divorce) 2) Velma (divorce) 3) Stevie Offutt
Children: George Eugene Standingbear (by first wife)

Married: Mary Lookout in 1926 of the Osage Nation. They were both age 20. She was the daughter of Fred Lookout, who had been friends with Luther Standing Bear at the Carlisle School. “Little did he know that the two young men, 40 years earlier, had both committed themselves to help unify and revitalize the Native American people… and Eugene would play into the plan.” Her first husband, marriage annulled, (?) was the white man Bill McKinley. Their son was George Eugene Standingbear, in 1929, who would later marry Barbara Wright and raise four children together.

”1926 is also the year when “Standingbear” and “Standing Bear” became prominent names among the Osage. Not long after the wedding, a bank officer told Eugene George Standing Bear that he couldn’t open an account with two last names, so from that point on, for the rest of his life, he called himself Eugene George Standingbear. Over the years various family members would begin to reclaim the original surname, and today (2018) Geoffrey M Standing Bear is principal chief of the Osage.”

Source: “Standingbear 3: Life Among the Osage” (Posted on 2018 September 10 by Mark Macy) < Link >

Obituary

The Osage Journal News, Pawhuska, Oklahoma
Volume 71, # 29
Friday, July 18, 1980

His daughter in law Barbara Jean Hoge arranged for his burial next to where she would be.

Self portrait

Gene Standingbear self-portrait for the author. Pencil sketch. < link >

Records

• "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP74-8Y9Q : Tue Apr 04 10:48:11 UTC 2023) page 136. 6082 Lallie Levering Head 1873* F. 6083 George Standing-Bear Son 1905 M.
• Ancestry.com. U.S., Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. < AncestrySharing > Name Geo Standing-Bear Gender Male Relation to Head of Household Adopted Son Residence Age 1 Record Type Census Birth Date 1906 Residence Date 30 Jun 1907 Reservation Pine Ridge Reservation Page 5 Household Members 3. Kangi Gleska. 206. William Spotted-crow. M, Head, 34. 207. Ellen Spotted-crow, F, wife, 28. Geo, Standing-bear. Ad. S. 1-3.
• "Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1890-1995." Database with images. FamilySearch. "Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1890-1995," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVPX-CTZ9 : 23 February 2021), George E Standing Bear and Nora Lookout, 21 Sep 1926; citing Oklahoma, various county courthouses, Oklahoma; FHL microfilm.
• "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9W8-7KS3?cc=2761958 : 26 September 2018), > image 1 of 1; citing (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1967). Osage 1930-1931 (births and deaths 1925-1931 included) (NARA Series M595, Roll 324)
• "Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1890-1995," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C91C-LS75-V?cc=1709399 : 28 November 2018), > image 1 of 1; various county courthouses, Oklahoma.
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/83352535/eugene-george-standing...

References

• Sprague, Donovan Arleigh. (2005). Rosebud Sioux. Page 40. < GoogleBooks >
• “CHIEF: The Noble-Savage Life of Eugene Standingbear (1) - Intro” (Posted on 2018 August 26 by Mark Macy) < link >; Standingbear 3: Life Among the Osage (Posted on 2018 September 10) < Link >; “Standingbear 7: Indian Schools” (2018 November 14); < link > “Standingbear 12: Peace At Last.” (Posted on 2019 February 3) < link >.
• < IMDb >
• Gilcrease Museum, Oklahoma Native American Photographs Collection. Native American, Osage, 1930. “Eugene Standing Bear and family” < Photograph >
• Kansas Historical Society. “George Eugene Standing Bear” < link > This is a photograph of George Eugene Standing Bear, the son of Mary Lookout and the grandson of Chief Fred Lookout. George's father was an Ogallala Sioux from Pine Ridge, and his father's mother Laura Whirlwind made the cradleboard like the Sioux baby boards. She wanted the baby to have Osage and Sioux baby boards.
• Drawing by Eugene George Standingbear “Between Two Worlds.” < digital image >
• < AncestryTree >
• Between Two Worlds: The Life and Art of Eugene Standingbear (NOV 20, 2014) < link > History Colorado received more than 300 drawings by Sioux artist Eugene George Standingbear, a gift to Jennifer Okada from the artist in the 1970s.
• Zahller, Alisa. “Between Two Worlds: The Life and Art of Eugene Standingbear.” Colorado Heritage, September / October 2014. Pgs 16-23. < PDF > “The blending of cultures on the reservation was a serious challenge, as many American Indians in Luther’s day resisted the changes forced upon them—viewing Anglo ways and those who adopted them with skepticism. Later, in his son Eugene’s time, Indians returning to the reservation often found themselves between the two cultures, never fully accepted by either. … “. The author’s sources include:
  • Charles Eldridge Griffin, Four Years in Europe with Buffalo Bill, 1908;
  • “Indians Die in a Wreck,” The Daily Review (Decatur, Ill.), April 7, 1904;
  • Luther Standing Bear, My People the Sioux, 1928;
  • Luther Standing Bear, My Indian Boyhood, 1931;
  • Eugene Standing- bear, Student Case Files, 1910–54, Pipestone Indian School, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, National Archives at Kansas City;
  • U.S. Indian Census Rolls, 1885–1940;
• 1940 United States Census Record, Eugene Standingbear;
• “Indian Offers the Real McCoy,” The Denver Post, August 13, 1975;
• Mark Macy, “Chief: Experiences in the Life of Eugene George Standingbear, an Oglala Sioux” (unpublished manu- script), March 28, 1977;
• “Weld Man Returns to Moviedom in Popular TV Series,” Town & Country News (Greeley, Colo.), October 20, 1977;
• “Indian Adventurer Makes Lifelong Hobby a Career,” Greeley Tribune, August 25, 1978;
• Authentic Indian Art, an exhibit at the James A. Michener Library, July 11–August 11, 1979;
• Mae Sakasegwa, editor, The Issei of the Salinas Valley: Jap- anese Pioneer Families, 2010;
• “Eugene Standingbear Honored at Greeley” (citation unknown); History Colorado Eugene Standingbear Collection (2014.31 and R.136.2014).