Laura Cloud Shield

Laura Cloud Shield was born circa 1868.

She married:

1. Edward Janis, 3 children
2. Luther S. Standing Bear circa 1899.1, 3 children
3. Levi Levering, No Issue (he had 5 children with 1st wife). Married after 1910.
4. Whirlwind Soldier after 1902.1 (after 1920)
5. ? Woodlock?

Child of Laura Cloud Shield and Luther S. Standing Bear

1. Eugene George Standing Bear+ b. circa 1900, d. 1980

Notes

from Between Two Worlds: The Life and Art of Eugene Standingbear by Alisa Zahller, 2014

Note: "While touring with Buffalo Bill, Luther and Laura Standing Bear’s second child was born, a daughter named Alexandra Pearl Olive Octavia Birmingham England Cody Standing Bear. Born June 7, 1903 in Birmingham, England, her birth made the papers. A day later, she was part of the show—Laura held Alexandra on an Indian cradle while people filed past the side show, dropping money in a box. Eleven months after leaving for Europe to tour with Buffalo Bill, Luther and his family returned to Pine Ridge in the fall of 1903. Sadly both Alexandra and Luther Standing Bear Jr. died the following year. "

Source: History Colorado Online Collection < link >

Laura (Cloud Shield-Standing Bear) Levering and her new husband Levi Levering had both attended Carlisle, where strict discipline and a “kill the Indian but preserve the man” philosophy had converted many young, traditional Native Americans into Christian Americans. The couple agreed on the importance of sending 10-year-old Eugene to Indian school. Laura (Cloud Shield-Standing Bear) Levering and her new husband Levi Levering had both attended Carlisle, where strict discipline and a “kill the Indian but preserve the man” philosophy had converted many young, traditional Native Americans into Christian Americans. The couple agreed on the importance of sending 10-year-old Eugene to Indian school. (Some sources say he was sent to Pipestone in 1914 at age 8, and his mother visited him there in December of that year. Eugene told me he went in the fall of 1916, and I’m not sure which is correct, and it’s not really important to the story.) ….

Source: “Standingbear 7: Indian Schools.” 2018 November 14 9:22 am). < link

Around 1920, Laura divorced < Levi Levering > on the Omaha reservation and brought her son Eugene back home to Pine Ridge in South Dakota near the town of Kyle in the Medicine Root district. During this period in his life, Eugene would play in a honky-tonk band by night, perform as a rodeo clown by day, and eventually get recruited into popular Haskell Indian University in Kansas, which had the best college football team in the USA at the time and was famous for developing top all-around athletes like Jim Thorpe. (We’ll talk about those experiences in the next article.)

But first, as they got settled into their new life, Laura’s daughter died, leaving her five children in the care of Laura and her son Eugene, who suddenly had to support the family. At age 16 he got into the booming fencepost business while barbed wire was slashing scar after scar across the western landscape …

Source: Standingbear 8: Scars—the Burial of Chief American Horse < [Posted on 2018 November 29 link] >

Pencil drawing (color) depicting Laura Standing Bear (Eugene Standingbear's mother) as an elderly woman--facing left. Drawing is a bust portrait depiction showing Laura Standing Bear wearing a beaded shirt with blue horse designs, an earring and hair in ponytails. Page torn from sketchbook--tear holes at top of paper.

Source: History of Colorado, Online Collection. Title: The Sioux Lady ; Colored pencil Drawing of Laura Cloud Shield Standing Bear (Standingbear) Levering Whirlwind Soldier Woodlock < link >

Source: American-Tribes.com. “Standing Bear Family” (Sep 6, 2012). https://amertribes.proboards.com/post/23766

Sicangu Lakota and Osage family at Woolaroc Lodge near Bartlesville, Oklahoma - 1930.

• Standing L-R: Eugene George Standing Bear (Sicangu Lakota), the son of Luther Standing Bear & Laura Cloud Shield, with his wife One Eagle or Mrs. Mary Nora Lookout-Standing Bear (Osage), and his mother-in-law Mrs. Julia Pryor Mongrain-Lookout (Osage), the wife of Fred Lookout.
• Sitting: Mrs. Three Soldiers (Sicangu Lakota), the mother of Eugene George Standing Bear, holding her grandson, Child Chief or George Eugene Standing Bear (Sicangu Lakota/Osage), the son of Eugene George Standing Bear & Mary Nora Lookout.

Source: American-Tribes.com. “Standing Bear Family” (May 29, 2018)
https://amertribes.proboards.com/post/22049/thread

References

• Sprague, Donovan Arleigh. (2005). Rosebud Sioux. Page 40. < GoogleBooks >
• Standingbear 7: Indian Schools (2018 November 14 9:22 am). < link >
• Source: Touring Colorado’s Collections: The Art of Eugene George Standingbear. By Leigh Jeremias: Published on October 31, 2019. < link >
• https://amertribes.proboards.com/post/24510 Gene George Standing Bear had been steeped in Lakota heritage [thanks mostly to his Uncle and Aunt White Bull (Laura's brother and sister-in-law at Pine Ridge)]; he'd had a brush with Omaha culture when Mom Laura married former Carlisle classmate Levi Levering (who then headed the Omaha Indian agency on the reservation).
• https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/56249485/person/31...
• "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.
• 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.
• "California, County Marriages, 1850-1953", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K824-TH7 : 18 August 2022), Laura Cloud Shields in entry for George Eugene Standingbear and Stevie Whiteflower, 1950.
• http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~mikestevens/genealogy/2010-p/p77.htm...
  • 1. [S146] Geoffrey M. Standing Bear, Mike Stevens.
• https://amertribes.proboards.com/thread/1593 For your information also...Her full name was Laura/Sallie Cloud Shield Levering...her first husband Edward Janis was the son of "Old Nick Janis" brother of Joesph Antoine Janis..Laura had three children from Edward before divorcing..and marrying Luther Standing Bear.
• Zahller, Alisa. “Between Two Worlds: The Life and Art of Eugene Standingbear.” Colorado Heritage, September / October 2014. Pgs 16-23. < PDF > “Around 1901, Luther married his second wife, Laura Cloud Shield, a fellow Carlisle student. A short time later, their first child, Luther Jr., was born. In 1902, Luther took a job as an interpreter, chaperone, and performer in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. The show opened in London in December 1902. Laura and Luther Jr. not only traveled with Luther, they also performed in the show. A circus-like attraction, the show traveled in the United States and Europe, feeding the public’s fascination for the exotic and for romantic notions of the disappearing western frontier. … In 1907, after becoming an American citizen, Luther decided to leave his family. Citizenship meant freedom to leave the reservation but only for Luther, not his family. Certainly a difficult decision, it was not a unique one. In the end, Luther found that he could serve his people better by moving off the reservation.
• https://www.loc.gov/resource/npcc.13158/
• https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/people/whirlwind-soldier
• https://amertribes.proboards.com/post/20340/thread [Note that Whirlwind Soldier was not a son, but a son-in-law of Spotted Tail.]
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GM9Z-GXJ