Ray Young Bear - 1951

Mesquakie

By Mary Pippert
Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa

I.  Biography
Ray Young Bear was born at the Mesquakie Indian Settlement (near Tama) in 1951.  His great-great-grandfather helped to purchase the land that he was born on back in 1856.  Young Bear is a poet and has attended Claremont College in California.  In Iowa he attended Grinnell, University of Iowa, Iowa State and the University of Northern Iowa.  After attending Claremont, Young Bear returned to the Mesquakie Settlement to write Native American poetry.  His Native American poetry include the dreams, mythology, and events that have occurred in the lives of his mother and grandmother.  In 1983 Young Bear and his wife Stella founded the Woodland Song and Dance Troupe of the Arts Midwest.  Arts Midwest includes ten drummers, singers, and dancers who perform in the U.S. and abroad.

II.  Literary Works
 "Winter of the Salamander" (1980)
 "The Invisible Musician"
 "Remnants of the First Earth"

This essay was submitted by a student of Rod Cameron, a teacher at Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa.