Bear Butte

This 1955 bronze announces the passing of the red man and his brother the buffalo, then two sentences later calls the mountain still a shrine to the Cheyenne, who come here to worship. The second line was the true one: Cheyenne and Lakota people still pray on its slopes. The bronze also spells the Cheyenne name Nowawaste, where Noahvose is the usual form, and calls the mountain a volcanic bubble. Bear Butte is a laccolith, magma that cooled underground and never erupted.

What the plaque says

Bear Butte Mountain of Plains Indians Cheyenne (Nowawaste) Sioux (Mato Paha) This 4,422 foot high volcanic bubble rises 1,200 feet above the plains, a guide for centuries to Indians, fur traders, soldiers, cow- boys, and travelers. It was visited or passed by Verendrye, 1743; Lt. G. K. Warren, 1855; Hayden, the scientist and Reynolds, 1859; Custer, 1874; and since by a galaxy of geological scientists. This was a sacred mountain to 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 watchful eyes, of travelers on the Bismarck - Deadwood Trail to its north 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 this policy dictated their defensive actions. Custer's annihilation at the Little Big Horn in 1876; the establish- ment 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. Erected 1955 by Meade County Commissioners and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bear Butte — 3.2 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 — 14 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 — 15 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 — 17 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

• It Started Here — 1.5 mi
• Civilian Conservation Corps Camp - Ft. Meade — 2.1 mi
• Bear Butte (Mato Paha) Indian Camp — 2.1 mi
• Charles Nolin — 2.7 mi