Carl Lil Bear

Born deaf as Carl Romano to immigrant Italian parents at New Haven, CT; two siblings also were deaf. Entered the American School for the Deaf at age 4, graduating 1969. Graduated the Technical Vocational Institute in Minnesota ag ate 22. An interest in hunting and trapping in the Northwest led to an encounter with an Indian, who taught him through signs and gestures to hunt in the Indian way. This led to more interest in Native Americans and the Haida totem poles. Given the name "Lil' Bear" by an Indian woman friend, he took that name about 1990. In 2001, he was formally adopted into a North Cheyenne family.