Little Bear was a Miniconjou leader of this name active in the 1870+ period. He was the son of one of the six Wicasa Itancan or band chiefs of the Miniconjou, Helogecha Ska, White Hollow Horn. According to the statement of Lakota historian Josephine Waggoner Little Bear belonged to a band known as Maka-mignaka, meaning Skunk-Belt. This band name is nowhere else recorded. Because the Miniconjou were declining in numbers throughout the 19th Century, I suspect that this once autonomous group was absorbed by one of the larger bands. My supposition has been that White Hollow Horn's family were identified with the Unkche Yuta or Dung Eaters, one of the major bands of the Miniconjou tribe.

Little Bear was born about 1840. Beginning in 1875 he increasingly takes centre-stage in band affairs. His band (like Lone Horn's) was one that settled near Cheyenne River Agency in January 1875, having left the hunting gounds west of the Black Hills during the drought of the previous summer. The old way of life was perceived by such moderate bands as no longer sustainable in the long term. He was a delegate to Washington in May-June of that year, and represented them again at the September council at Red Cloud Agency. The band fled Cheyenne River Agency in Sept. 1876 when the Army took over. In the October parleys with Col. Miles White Hollow Horns gave himself up as a hostage, and Little Bear surrendered at Cheyenne River on Nov. 30.

Joseph White Bull gives an account (in Stanley Vestal's WARPATH) of the investiture of a new generational cohort of Wicasa Itancan at Cheyenne River Agency in 1880-81. Little Bear was formally seated to succed his father, invested with ceremonail shirt etc. I am not sure when this Little Bear died. — Kingsley Bray

Additions to my Little Bear posting:

Cheyenne River Agency census rolls, 1886.
Little Bear, age 43
Hurts Herself, female, age 36 [wife?]
Brave, male, 16
No Neck, male, 3
White Cow, female, 10
Short Spear, male, 3

Little White Bull [White Hollow Horn], age 70
Black Beaver, female, 68
White Weasel, male, 22
Leader, female, 26
The Enemy, male, 2
Close to the Lodge, male, 12
Short Woman, female, 50

From Josephine Waggoner mss, Museum of the Fur Trade:

details as first posting, plus: Little Bear and his brother Brown Eagle were not involved in wars with USA after 1868. Little bear and his band settled near Cherry Creek on the Cheyenne River Res. Little Bear died June 9, 1920, and is buried at Cherry Creek. — Kingsley Bray