top of page

Bear Heart

1918-2009

& Regina Waterspirit

BearHeart.JPG
BearHeart.png
Bear Heart with hat.jpg
BearHeart as Youth.png

“If we can come together in harmony, a sense of blending, forgiving, loving, tolerating, if we could live that way then perhaps the whole outlook of our world, which is the greater circle, might be better for all of mankind.”

– Marcellus “Bear Heart” Williams

BearHeart as Young Boy.png
Book Wind is My Mother.JPG

Bear Heart's Book

The Wind is My Mother

Wind & Bear Heart.JPG
BeardrmWhl.jpg
Bear Heart with Creator.JPG
Screenshot_2019-07-18 Grandfather BearHe
Bear Heart Before Passing.jpg

Marcellus “Bear Heart” Williams

Wise Elder & Teacher

Sweat Lodge Water Pourer & Sacred Pipe Carrier

Bear Heart was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, was a full-blood spiritual leader of the Muskogee-Creek Nation trained in the traditional ways of his tribe.

Highly regarded as a healer and counselor, he was also a respected leader of the Native American Church, Sun Danced with both the Northern and Southern Cheyenne people, and was an ordained minister in the American Baptist Church.

Bear Heart was asked to be one of the spiritual counselors for the fireman and their families after the Oklahoma City tragedy and put down prayers with the Fire Department at Ground Zero, New York in November, 2001. Bear Heart helped thousands of people over the course of his life and his book, “The Wind Is My Mother,” continues his life work of sharing wisdom and inspiration.

                                                                  -  Ram Dass

                                www.ramdass.org/marcellus-bear-heart-williams

"Nokus Feke Ematha Tustanaki," Bear Heart, "Dov Lev, " the heart of the bear, in Hebrew, was a man of many gifts. Marcellus L.Williams was born in Okemah, Oklahoma on April 13th, 1918.  He jokingly said, "in a leap year during a lunar eclipse and that is why I have no astrological sign! " His father was of the Bear Clan and his mother of the Wind Clan, of the Muskogee Nation-Creek Tribe.  His great grandmother, Yebe, died on the Trail of Tears and is buried in an unmarked grave in Ft. Gibson, Oklahoma. He became an American Baptist minister, a medicine man, and a Road Man of the Native American Church.

In 1938, BearHeart won the title of World Fancy Dance Champion at Andarko, Oklahoma. He performed at Madison Square Garden.  His singing voice was sonorous, and at one time his family urged him to attend a music conservatory.  After college and theology school he went into the Army, where he served as an aerial map maker and taught hand to hand combat. He was limited due to having sight in only one eye. Bear Heart was the Director of Cultural Retention for the State of Oklahoma. He spoke 13 native languages along with his tremendous command of English. He was invited to the White House, and prayed with President Harry Truman. He relocated to New Mexico to be an adjunct consultant at the invitation of the Memorial Psychiatric Hospital, and was a member for seven years of the Advisory Board for The Native American/ Alaskian Native Public Institue of Health at John Hopkins. In 1996, Bear Heart's story was published as The Wind is My Mother by Bear Heart with Random House and is still in print in 14 countries, including many oriental languages and Hebrew.

His native traditions and western education, an honorary Ph.D. in Humanities, blended together to give a unique perspective on life and healing that demonstrated true wisdom. His compassion and love for all people characterized his journey for 90 years of extraordinary living.  He is beloved the world over as "Grandfather Bear Heart."  In addition to his vocation as a medicine person he was a multi-tribal spiritual leader functioning as the intercessor for many vision quests in his tradition.  For many years he and his companion, medicine helper, Reginah WaterSpirit, have been teachers at Medicine Wheels and workshops all over the country and Europe. Bear Heart was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather. Although he faced many challenges and personal tragedy, he never gave up...nor became bitter. He enfolded the pain of his own experiences into his understanding of others, the sign of a great teacher. 

Perhaps his own Motto, taken from a newspaper clipping his mother, "Aunt Katie," as she was called by many, put in his lunch bag one day, says it best.  "There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher."     - Henry Jackson van Dyke

Bear Heart has done all that for many people all over the world.  He will be greatly missed by all whose lives he touched and loved.

ReginahBearHeart1993.jpg
BearHeart Regina Water Spirit.png

Reginah WaterSpirit  

Healer

Over the past 23 years Reginah has consulted for and conducted hundreds of workshops in companies and organizations interested in improving communication, and creative thought. Before his passing in 2008, Reginah had been in collaboration with multi-tribal spiritual leader, Muskogee Nation-Creek Tribe, Marcellus Bear Heart Williams. Together they created the "Inner Vision Quest" workshop which combined her work with Dr. Hal and Dr. Sidra Stone and the American Indian philosophical ideals imparted to her by Bear Heart. Her own unique experiences within a culture unlike the one she was raised in brought a seasoned deepening.


Highlights of Reginah's years in teaching are the opportunity to share her work at the National Security Agency (Native American Forum) at Ft. Mead, Md. and for Daimler Crysler in Warren, Michigan. Her heart is still connected with retired U.S. Forest Service people who managed our nations forests and those who directed employee development programs.

Reginah's workshops are interactive, exciting and experiential. She feels that our ability to support significant change in others, depends on our ability and willingness to integrate change into our own lives.

            

https://reginahwaterspirit.weebly.com/bio.html

Regina & Bear Heart.jpg
ReginahwHorsecrop.jpg
Join our monthly NEWSLETTER email list.
"Circling Around the Medicine Wheel"& our Blog


Never miss an Update, Upcoming Events or News from the
Panther Lodge Bear Tribe Medicine Society.
Enjoy our monthly newsletters of teachings from the
Medicine Wheel!  

- Wind Daughter, Panther Wind Woman

PLEASE NOTE: 

If you don't open your email Newsletters when received,

our platform will classify you as not interested or as inactive,

therefore will be removed from this List

according to their good business practices.

You can unsubscribe yourself anytime with the Unsubscribe link

on the bottom of each Newsletter, or on this form.

Thanks for SUBSCRIBING to Newsletter

"Circling Around the Medicine Wheel"and our Blog.

Wind Daughter - West Winds

Panther Lodge Bear Tribe Medicine Society

PO Box 851927  Mobile, Alabama, USA 36685

  1-251-583-5984 cell/text

wdwinddaughter@gmail.com

© 2018 by Wind Daughter West Winds

Updated 2023

Website Design by Joanne Brophy

joannebrophy@outlook.com

bottom of page