KICKING BEAR gained his notoriety from his participation in and leadership of the Ghost Dance movement among the Sioux Indians in the period around 1890. This religion was started in Utah in the year 1888 by Wovoka, a Piute Indian, and within two years had spread over most of the western half of the United States. Kicking Bear had been a member of a delegation sent to Utah by the Sioux, and upon his return to the reservation became active in exhorting the Indians in the ritual of the Ghost Dance.

Records indicate that Kicking Bear was born in 1853, but the place of birth is unknown. His father was named Black Fox, and his mother's name was Wood Pecker. He was a husky, vigorous man. Kicking Bear died May 28,1904 and he may be buried in the vicinity of Manderson, South Dakota. This would make his age at his death about fifty-one years.

Kicking Bear married a niece of a Minneconjou chief, and paid the marriage price with horses which he had taken from the Crow Indians, who were always at odds with the Sioux. By his marriage to the niece of a chief, Kicking Bear became a minor band chief in the Sioux Nation, but he attracted the most attention by his advocacy of the Ghost Dance.