Black Bear (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} native_soul) wrote,@ 2009-06-22 00:03:00 |
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| Name: Bear True Name: Maheo Mo'ohta Gender: Male Age: 21 Birthday: April 6, 2000 Greatest Ambition: To keep his history and his culture alive in the world today. Physical Description: Hair: As a symbol of loyalty to his tribe and its heritage, Bear wears his thick, dark hair in a long and silky fall down his back. It's slightly wavy in texture, and would be a bit on the curly side if the sheer length of it didn't weigh it down. He pulls it back on occasion, when he's working and needs it out of his way, or when he performs his tribal dances and rituals. But for the most part, it falls in a warm cascade down his back. Eyes: Like his hair, Bear's eyes are warm and dark- so deep a brown that at times they appear black. The have a shocking intensity, a mystery and a pull that comes from Bear's bloodline and the beauty of his Tribe's background. They dance when he is happy, with an inner light like the ritual fires of the Cheyenne. When he's angry they glow like the coals of those same fires, and at any time a person can see themselves in their depths, past an ordinary reflection to see their flaws and their perfections. Height: 6'6" Weight: 215 lbs Build: Bear has the build of a Warrior. Tall, long and lean, he doesn't seem like he would weigh what he does, but every ounce is pure muscle. He had his gangly phase, that period of time where he was growing taller but still had the cheeks and belly of a child. Now, he looks every bit the grown man, the kind of man who would ride off to protect the women and children of his lands. His height is beautifully and proportionately filled out and sculpted with muscle that is toned and cut, but not bulky. The overall effect is a solid and secure presence that seemingly cannot be moved. Clothing: Can most often be seen in jeans and t-shirts, the kind you buy in packs of five for six dollars. If he's not bare foot, he's wearing a pair of old black converse or moccasins, but he prefers to stand skin to soil. On special occasions and not so special occasions, Bear dons the beautifully dyed and braided clothing that his mother made for Cheyenne ceremonies. Distinguishing Marks: Perhaps the most notable thing about Bear is all of that gorgeous hair, but besides that, Bear has the symbol of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation on the inside of his left wrist. He also has numerous scars ranging from minor cuts and scrapes to one large burn scar across the middle of his back. Sexual Orientation: Straight Single or taken: Single Best friend: Human - TBD Non-Human - A dapple gray Mare that goes by the name of Chey. |
| Personality: Bear is often mistaken as shy of stand offish while, in truth, he just doesn't talk much. He enjoys interacting with people, just being around them and witnessing so many lives, but he doesn't speak unless it's absolutely necessary. When he does speak, his words are usually rife with meaning and intent, if only the intent to make a friend laugh or to warn an enemy of his intentions. His quiet nature does not keep him from being a little bit of a goof ball. He loves playing with children and just playing in general. His main goal in life, after keeping the spirit of the Cheyenne alive, is to bring as many laughs to as many lips as possible and his fun and quirky nature has him well on his way to accomplishing that goal. He also has a brutal honesty that can either make or break a friendship, depending on the other person's personality. |
| Personal History: Bear was born into a poor but proud family on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southern Montana. His father was low in the chain of power on the Res, his mother even more so, so they family had little to get by, less even than the other families. But pride had its uses. Bear's childhood was full of glorious stories, stories of the ancient Cheyenne Warriors and women, of the Great Spirit, Maheo, his namesake, and Vihio, the spider trickster that taught his people all the knowledge of the world. Bear absorbed every story, wrote them down countless times as he grew older and came to radiate pride from his beautiful bronzed skin. His mother, Veheah taught him every sacred dance or song ever performed by the powerful people, as well as many of the remedies used by the ancient healers and his father taught him the ways of the Warrior, the use of weapons and the tricks of the hunting trade. By the time bear was nine, he knew most, if not all there was to know about the Cheyenne, and he was not praised for the knowledge. At the school on the Reservation, Bear often got in trouble for speaking, for correcting his history teacher when she misread the facts of the tribe. When he corrected the Music teacher's chant lyrics, he was sent to the office for punishment, and when the Literature teacher ruined the moral or story of one of the old tales, Bear became simply furious. He was not like by his fellow students, his pride giving him an uppity air and making him seem like he thought himself better than the other children, even if he had less than they did. But Bear didn't mind when they ganged up in him, hurting him with words or fists. He held his head high like the Warrior he believed himself to be and took the beatings in stride, fighting back even when he was sorely outnumbered. His parents did not fault him for fighting, actually encouraged the rage when it was backed by a need to defend tradition and heritage. But even they could not ignore the injustice that happened at the hands of the white boys and girls outside of the reservation. The week after Maheo's tenth birthday, he was sent to visit his grandfather in the hills just north of Devil's Tower, Wyoming. James Standing Bear Mo'ohta Sr. possessed, if possible, even more pride and history than his son and daughter-in-law combined. He lived the way the Cheyenne had lived before the white man had taken their lands, in a home made of hides, kept warm by a fire and painted with the natural colors that the earth provided. His little abode was set back in the hills, isolated from the nearest town, which could only be reached by an hour on horseback. Bear was to live in the wilderness with his Grandfather and his six horses for one year, helping with the horses and with his Grandfather's greatest passion: The record keeping of the Cheyenne. Bear was astounded by the amount of paper in his grandfather's home, books and sheaves of paper, old hides that told the Cheyenne's stories in brilliantly painted pictograms, and a family tree that traced every major family in the Cheyenne lineage. It would be one of the most meaningful years of Bear's life... and also one of the most pivotal. James Sr. preferred to stay out in the wilderness, digging into the past and compiling every ounce of information he could dig up from the Cheyenne's past. Now that young Bear was staying with him, he didn't even have to go into town for groceries, losing precious time away from his books- he could send the boy into town on his own. Bear made the hour-long trek to the city during his first week in his grandfather's home and he made it every week after that for seven months. He was never paid much attention to by the adults in the town, who took his money and gave him his supplies before turning there backs on him. But he was live meat to the cruel little white children that the town had bred into being. Every visit to town was like the vicious taunting and beating that Bear had been victim to on the reservation. Only now, it was about more than just his pride. It was about his blood. The children mocked the beautifully beaded vests his mother had made him, tugged at the river of hair flowing down his back and at the soft leather moccasins on his feet. He often came home weary and bloodied from a fight, back still proud and straight in his dappled mare's saddle. And each beating got worse. The taunts echoed in his ears, resounding calls of filthy savage and stupid Indian bouncing inside his skull. And the adults did nothing. They turned away when the other children beat him and didn't say a word as he rode away into the hills each week. One week, however, it got too violent to be ignored. A group of seven teenage boys waited outside the grocery store, standing between the door and Chey, Bear's horse, with ropes, a pint of gasoline, and a single lighter. They were sick of the filthy little savage coming into their town, week after week, and they intended to be rid of him for good. A worker at the grocery store managed to call the police, who arrived just moments after flames began eating away at the flesh of Bear's back and licking at the ends of his long hair. The golden-red tongues were washed away but not before third-degree burns covered most of his lower back and his left shoulder. Through all of this, Bear was completely silent, stoic as a Warrior about to be killed by a neighboring tribe. The once talkative and correcting little boy grew up that day, learning that his heritage, proudly displayed on his sleeve, was a flag to those who believe Natives were savages, animals unfit for living. Bear spent his twelfth birthday in the hospital, recovering from his burns and from various other minor wounds, cuts and bruises from the beatings. And while he no longer spoke without occasion, he was still the proud and sometimes goofy little pre-teen. His grandfather moved in closer to a town called Sundance, so that he could visit Bear in the local hospital daily, and his parents moved from the Reservation to Sundance to be with him as well. They kept up contact to the reservation; the family still so strongly buried in the pride of their heritage and began a newsletter for other Native Americans in the area so that they could keep in touch with others who shared their beliefs and traditions. Bear began attending the local school system in 2013, joining the seventh grade a year later than he would have if he'd stayed on the reservation. He was a bit of a loner still; bit more easily accepted here where there were circus kids and river rats who also attended the school. He floated rather happily through middle school, joining the school paper and making friends that he had never really had the chance to make on the reservation or out in the hills. The Mo'ohta's settled happily into Sundance and their lives were relatively smooth until news of a "cure" broke out. Their beliefs and their heritage influenced all that they heard. They didn't like the idea of such a drug, of taking more life than was gifted to them by the Great Spirit and, still resting near the bottom of the monetary scale, they had no way to afford it even if they'd desired it. So, for the most part, any and all news about the treatment was ignored. Bear, of course, could not escape the gossip that floated around his high school, even his fellow freshmen, still so new to the world, dreamed of being young forever. He stood firm in his belief this "antidote" was wrong, even going so far as to write articles in the school paper about it and, in the end, the "cure" backed his beliefs more than any of his own written pros and cons. The news of the ANS virus did not go unnoticed by the Mo'ohta's and they were among the first groups to protest, peacefully of course. But it did little good. People died even while people like the Mo'ohta's strongly cautioned those that they could reach. The virus spread more quickly than they could have imagined and before any one of the family members knew what had happened, the news that the virus had gone airborne was being announced. In a desperate attempt to save his family and himself, James Sr. retreated once more to the hills just north of Devil's Tower. But it reached them nonetheless and Bear stood vigil of his mother, father, and grandfather when each of them contracted the virus and descended to their sickbeds. He watched, preyed and chanted to the Great Spirit, and wept over them as he watched them whither away and finally perish. Bear went back to Sundance after burying his family in the shadow of Devils Tower. As much as he would have liked to bury them on the Reservation, on their ancestors' land, it wasn't logical to carry three bodies so far. He performed simple burial rites that his mother had taught him, fasted for three days, and then began packing up his grandfather's camp. He would take the three horses that his grandfather had not sold before his death, including his favorite dappled mare, and move back to Sundance to join the survivors there. He associated himself with Wolf and his tribe when the time came for the Mountain Lions to be pushed back, and he helped build the Twin Feathers' nests in the trees, not far from where his family was buried, and settled into the role of hunter and historian for his tribe. |
| Birth Location: Northern Cheyenne Reservation near Lame Dear, Montana Blood Family: Father - James Standing Bear Mo'ohta Jr. (deceased, ANS Virus) Mother - Veheah Mo'ohta (deceased, ANS Virus) Grandfather - James Standing Bear Mo'ohta Sr. (deceased, ANS Virus What tribe do they belong to if any?: The Twin Feathers How long have they been with that tribe?: From the beginning. Personal Strengths: Brilliant speaker when he chooses, knows who he is and where he's from, very comfortable in his skin and with his heritage. Personal Weaknesses: Proud to a point of recklessness at times, Can miss an opportunity to be heard while he thinks about what to say. Personal Skills and Training: Journalist and Historian training, learned while living in the hills with his Grandfather. Survival and naturalistic skills that one would expect from a Native American as proud of his Heritage as Bear. Job: Dabbles in the business of a Historian or Journalist, traveling into the city once or twice a week to work in the Library and bring back news to the Feathers, but for the most part helps out with repairs around the Canopy, a skilled hunter if meat is desired and an excellent help in the garden, great with horses and other animals. PB: Solomon Trimble Plot ties Plot tie 1: Friends, acquaintances and/or a lover from before and after the Virus? Most probably from the Feathers but possibly from the Wolves. Plot tie 2: Work to be done at the Library, possibly start a newsletter that goes out to all tribes or just to the Wolves, Feathers, and Carrion? Plot tie 3: Used as a Diplomat between tribes? Valued for his honesty and his carefully spoken words. |
| Characters Insanejournal Name: native_soul Your Name (Real or Internet): Sherese Your Email reeseegurl91@yahoo.com Your Messenger (Yahoo!): reeseegurl91 Link to color photo of PB for the Character page:  http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v What interested you in this RPG: Desi dear, one of the Mods, is a dealer. She pulls in friends like me and makes them addicts. Sample Third Person Post of the Character: See examples in the journals of nature_girl or our_cajun_gent. |
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