Wooden Native American Bear Clan Figurines – Teepee, Chief on Horseback

Life in the Bear Clan

Many Indigenous nations of North America organised families into clans named after animals, and the bear clan appears among peoples as different as the Ojibwe, the Haudenosaunee and the Hopi. On the Great Plains, life changed after horses spread north from Spanish settlements in the 1600s and 1700s: families could move camp farther, hunt bison more easily, and a good horse became a measure of a family's wealth. Warriors carried round rawhide shields, often painted with designs meant to protect their owner.

Like the other Noelino Native American sets, the Bear Clan is a play scene inspired by these traditions, not a reconstruction of one specific nation.

• Teepee – Bear Engraving
• Chief on Horseback (chief and horse)
• Warrior with Shield
• Woman with Fruit Basket
• Mother with Child on Back
• Boy Standing
• Campfire

Grow the village with the Native American River Camp and Native American Wolf Lodge sets, or see the complete Native American Village set.

Teepee – Bear Engraving

• Height × Width × Depth: 22.0 × 17.0 × 17.0 cm (8.7 × 6.7 × 6.7 in)

Chief on Horseback

• Chief – Height × Width × Depth: 10.2 × 4.6 × 3.2 cm (4.0 × 1.8 × 1.3 in)
• Horse – Height × Width × Depth: 10.6 × 11.2 × 2.8 cm (4.2 × 4.4 × 1.1 in)

Warrior with Shield

• Height × Width × Depth: 10.4 × 4.2 × 2.4 cm (4.1 × 1.7 × 0.9 in)

Woman with Fruit Basket

• Height × Width × Depth: 10.2 × 3.4 × 3.8 cm (4.0 × 1.3 × 1.5 in)

Mother with Child on Back

• Height × Width × Depth: 10.2 × 3.8 × 3.2 cm (4.0 × 1.5 × 1.3 in)

Boy Standing

• Height × Width × Depth: 6.4 × 2.4 × 2.4 cm (2.5 × 0.9 × 0.9 in)

Campfire

• Height × Width × Depth: 2.2 × 4.6 × 5.6 cm (0.9 × 1.8 × 2.2 in)

All pieces are shaped from solid ash wood and hand-sanded to a smooth finish with no sharp edges. They are hand-painted with water-based paints and finished with olive oil, which protects the wood against moisture. No plastics, no solvent-based finishes, no MDF, no veneers. Made in conformity with the European toy safety standard EN 71. Small variations in colour and grain are a natural part of handmade production, not defects.

A camp in motion, gathered around the fire.

The Bear Clan gives children two kinds of play in one scene: journeys and gatherings. The chief on horseback rides out and returns, while the campfire pulls everyone back together – to cook, to rest, to tell what happened. Children practise sequencing and storytelling, and start asking how families lived and travelled before cars and roads.

The set is inspired by Montessori and Waldorf principles: real materials, simple forms, and figures with no batteries, sounds or buttons. Each figure carries something – a shield, a basket, a child – which gives children a starting point for a story without telling them how it ends.

Solid ash is dense and hard-wearing, and every piece is sanded and painted by hand in our workshop in Romania. Each piece is sold individually, so the clan can grow over the years and join the River Camp and Wolf Lodge in one larger village.