The Face on the Fourteen-Cent Stamp — Hollow Horn Bear Comes Home to St. Francis

When Chief Hollow Horn Bear died in Washington in March 1913, his body came home by train to the Rosebud, and he was buried at St. Francis Mission, in the land of the Sicangu people he had spoken for all his life. In his last years he had been baptized a Catholic, taking the name Daniel; his mother took the name Susie. Nine years later, the United States put his face on its postage. The 14-cent "American Indian" stamp of 1922–23 — engraved from a De Lancey Gill photograph taken on one of his Washington delegations — carried Hollow Horn Bear's portrait onto letters in every corner of the country. Generations of collectors have known his face, sometimes without knowing his name. His likeness appeared again on a $10 Military Payment Certificate used by U.S. service members in the early 1970s, and by some accounts he was among the models for the Indian-head five-dollar silver certificate of 1899. A state historical marker on U.S. Route 18 in Todd County remembers him as warrior, police captain, and "the Indians' chief orator and negotiator." The story did not end there. His personal beaded leather shirt had found its way into a museum in Frankfurt, Germany. In June 2021, at a ceremony at Rosebud, the Museum der Weltkulturen returned it to his great-grandson, Chief Duane Hollow Horn Bear — citing, simply, moral and ethical reasons. One hundred and eight years after he came home to St. Francis, a piece of him came home too. His name is still carried at Rosebud today — by his descendants, and by those they inspire. ——— CREDITS & SOURCES About: Chief Hollow Horn Bear (Matȟó Héȟloǧeča), Sicangu Lakota, 1850–1913. Compiled account, drawn from the sources below. Sources: "Hollow Horn Bear," American National Biography (2000), written by his great-grandson Duane Hollow Horn Bear; Smithsonian National Postal Museum records on the 1922–23 regular issue; reporting on the 2021 repatriation ceremony at Rosebud; Wikipedia (with full citations). Image: U.S. 14-cent "American Indian" stamp, 1922–23 issue, bearing Hollow Horn Bear's portrait after a photograph by De Lancey Gill (public domain, U.S. government work). Shared in honor of Chief Hollow Horn Bear and his descendants.