I wrote this a few years back for our bluegrass band. Thought I would post it.

THE WINTER BEAR
written by Mitch Dickson

With the snows he should sleep,
But the hunger burns too deep.
The need to kill now drives him from his lair.
You haven’t got a prayer, if your scent is on the air.
In terror you will stare at the winter bear

Chorus
The Winter Bear
He walks the earth when the snows fly in the air
The Lakota tell the tale
Of the demon sent from [Please excuse my language... I'm an idiot],
And the warriors who fell to the winter bear.

At the rendezvous in spring
He would trade for many things
He sat his riffle down to skin the buck
There was no time to run or reach his Hawken gun
That the first blow broke his neck was his only luck.

Now in eighteen forty two
In a village of the Sioux
In a blizzard the man-eater came to call
By the ending of the spree he had taken twenty-three
Now the mournful wail of the fathers tells it all