Bear Butte (Mato Paha) Indian Camp

The bronze says Oglala under a leader it calls Chief Lips held this ground along Bear Butte Creek for years after 1878, and that the new Fort Meade was obliged to house, feed and clothe their camps until settlers and reservation lines pushed them off. It sets the Grand Council of 1857 here or close by, the gathering of many bands that resolved to keep whites out of the Black Hills, and has a young Crazy Horse take his vow from it. Grooves from sharpening tools still score the rocks.

What the plaque says

Bear Butte (Mato Paha) Indian Camp This area, extending along Bear Butte Creek, was for centuries a select camp site for the Plains Indians, who found here mountain spring water, wood, protection from the bitter north winds, together with much game and wild fruit in season. Here, or nearly adjacent, was held the Grand Council of 1857 attended by many bands of Plains Indians. This council determined to resist white advance into their lands and most particularly the mountainous area, now known as the Black Hills. Crazy Horse, an Oglalla, then a young man, was inspired by this plan of resistance and vowed to dedicate his life to this cause. While the participants did not strictly adhere to the principles then agreed upon, the hostility and discontent of the next two decades culminated in the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876. Ft. Meade, adjacent hereto, first established as Camp Ruhlen in August 1878, was often obliged to house, feed and clothe Indian encampments here. For years Oglallas under Chief Lips claimed this as their abode but with the coming of settlers and the establishment of Reservation boundaries the site was abandoned. Today, mute testimony to the use and extent of this site by the Indians is to be seen in the numerous scars, made by sharpening tools, in the great rock walls to the north and on the huge flood- plain boulders lying near the Creek. Erected 1959 by Meade County Commissioners and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bear Butte — 4.5 mi
  Mato Paha to the Lakota and Noahvose to the Cheyenne, a lone mountain off the plains where both nations still come to fast and pray.
• Mount Moriah Cemetery — 12 mi
  The hillside where Deadwood moved its dead: Wild Bill and Calamity Jane side by side, Seth Bullock looking at his friend's tower, and the Chinese burner of 1908.
• Deadwood Historic District — 12 mi
  A gold-rush town on treaty land, rebuilt in brick after the 1879 fire and rescued a century later by a vote to let casinos pay for its preservation.
• Homestake Open Cut & Sanford Lab Visitor Center — 14 mi
  A 1,250-foot pit on Lead's Main Street, the visible top of a gold mine that went down 8,000 feet in 125 years and is a physics laboratory now.

More markers nearby

• Civilian Conservation Corps Camp - Ft. Meade — steps away
• It Started Here — 0.6 mi
• Charles Nolin — 0.6 mi
• Charles Nolin, Pony Mail Carrier — 1.5 mi