96 histories and the creation tales of all of these tribes, and even though

Congress confiscated Bear Butte in 1877, and South Dakota tUITIed the site into a state park in 1962, Native Americans have continuously used the butte for religious ceremonies since that time.

Larry Red Shirt describes the sacred nature of Mato Paha (Bear

Butte), which the Lakota traditionally used for vision quests: "The Lakota originated in the Black Hills and the sacred instructions given to us by the creator were given to us on Bear Butte. This makes Bear Butte the central and most sacred mountain to the Lakota people .... The sacred calf pipe is the most sacred object with which to pray with in the Lakota religion. _Bear Butte is the most sacred place to pray with that pipe.

Bear Butte and the sacred calf pipe hold the secret to the past, present, and future of the Lakota people in this life cycle."42 Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Lakota, used Bear Butte as a vision quest site, and his parents probably buried him there after his murder in September 1877 in

Fort Robinson, Nebraska.43 Cheyenne oral tradition regarding Bear Butte is similar, but not identical. Walter R. Hamilton, Cheyenne elder,

describes the importance of Bear Butte to his people: "The four sacred

arrows of the Cheyenne came from within Bear Butte as a covenant with the Almighty God/Maheo ... [and the mountain, therefore is] ... the

Investigation," and "Did Fire Purify Mato Paha?" Indian CountIy Today 9- 16 September 1996, sec. A, p. 1-2.

42Mario Gonzalez, "The Black Hills," 67. See Vine Deloria Jr., God is Red: A Native View of Religion (Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 1994), 78-97 for more on Native American creation myth.

43Mari Sandoz, Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1942), 101-104.