Chief Seize the Bear Seizes Moment to Share the Evidence of a Rare Honor

In his early years, Claude Miller, was a dazzling and reckless halfback at North Dakota Agricultural College. The Sioux Indians liked that so much they made him one of their own.

“I never really did understand what it was all about when I was a young man, but I was proud,” said Miller, 82, who was singled out to become a white Sioux brother.

Miller said the wily Sioux chiefs at that time were thinking of the future of their young warriors: “The chiefs may have been trying to set an example by picking a college guy to show that education would benefit their young men.”

At that time, only a small group of people, including President Theodore Roosevelt and some foreign dignitaries, were so honored by the Sioux. In a sacred ceremony in 1926 with tom-toms and peace pipes and 1,500 people watching, Miller was given the name Chief Seize the Bear. And a 78-year-old chief, who already had that name, also presented his feathered war bonnet to Miller.

In a newspaper story printed then, the writer noted: “In relinquishing his title, the old chief made an impressive speech . . . telling of the history of his name. Particular emphasis was placed on the distinction which the name carries with it in fighting qualities. It was evident that the chief was highly honored to see his name passed on to a fighter with the qualities of the gridder.”

“I didn’t think much about (the bonnet) until recently,” said Miller, of Laguna Beach, who was a football and basketball coach at various high schools and occasionally visited his alma mater (now called North Dakota State University).

“A college official wondered what I was going to do with the headdress,” he said after one of those visits.

That prompted Miller in recent months to take the war bonnet off the wall in his Leisure World home and give talks to community groups, telling about its history and make-up of eagle feathers, red-tail hawk feathers, ermine tails, horns from a cow buffalo and sewn with leather.

It is more than 100 years old.

“I’m sort of leaning toward giving it to the college,” Miller said, “Although I haven’t completely made up my mind.” A recent appraisal values the headdress at $7,000.

“As the years go by and I think back on the ceremony and what took place,” Miller said, “I realize I was pretty honored.”

In 1977, Nelda G. Wilson was beside herself with grief after her 26-year-old son was killed in an industrial accident. “I cried all the time and it hurt,” she said.

So she turned to poetry.

“I would sit down and write to myself, and it helped,” said Wilson, 66, of San Clemente. “I know it helped me, and now I can talk about him without crying.”

Besides helping reconcile his death, “I began a new life style. I never wrote poetry before.”

And it appears she’s got a talent. The American Poetry Anthology just published three of her poems, titled “Pockets of My Mind,” “His Last Home Run” and “What Would You Have Done.”

“At the begining I mostly wrote about death,” she said. “Now I’ve turned to writing humor.”

What do you give a couple celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary? How about a nostalgic ride around town in a fully restored 1929 Model-T Ford!

“We (four grandchildren) hired the car as a surprise for them,” said Kathy Malchow, of La Habra, who hosted the anniversary party for grandparents Harold, 84, and May, 86, Elwood. Malchow is the eldest grandchild.

“We surprised them with the car,” said Malchow, who was joined by 35 other family members, “but a bigger surprise was when we brought in a minister for them to renew their wedding vows.”

When Edythe Hogg, 81, of Santa Ana, one of the Sunshine Gals who plays piano at the senior citizen center in Garden Grove, read about herself in this column, she was understandingly miffed. Her late husband, Jack (Curly) Hogg was identified as a well-known ukulele player.

Actually, he was a famous banjo player, recognized by Billboard Magazine as “King of the banjos.”

Acknowledgments--Robert Perry, of Westminster, is a Southern California Gas Co. success story. He joined the utility as a serviceman in 1962 and was just named district manager for the company in north Orange County.