Bear
Foot is a mistake for Bare Foot, Si
Chola, the paternal grandfather of John
Grass. He was probably born in the 1790s,
and was a prominent Sihasapa headman in the 1840s
and 1850s. F. V. Hayden's band list (ca. 1857) lists him
as chief of the Jawbone (Che Hupa) band. Unfortunately,
this is the only mention of that band. According to the
Welch papers, Bare Foot was born an Oglala, and married
into the Sihasapa. In 1823 he was one of the
war-leaders in the Lakota force enlisted by Col. Leavenworth
to fight the Arikaras. In 1851 he attended the Horse Creek
Treaty councils. At some point in the 1850s his son Used
As A Shield (or Grass I, father of John Grass)
succeeded him as chief. Used As A Shield was prominent
Sihasapa leader from ca. 1855 through 1872 (when
he was part of the Grand River Agency delegation to Washington).
He must have died in 1873 or '74, because his son John
Grass starts to appear as chief in 1875. Grass senior's
widows are listed in the Standing Rock Agency censuses
(my run begins in 1876).
—
Kingsley Bray