Andrea High Bear

Photograph of Andrea High Bear, courtesy of Clara LeBeau, by way of Rapid City Journal.

On April 28, 2020, Andrea “Andi” High Bear, also known by her married name, Andrea Circle Bear, left behind six children and a legacy of love, grit, and determination. Andrea, 30, belonged to the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe and lived on a reservation in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. Her memory persists in her children, her father, her grandmother, her aunt, and many others whose lives she impacted.

Andrea was the oldest of eight brothers and sisters and grew up in South Dakota, spending her summers on the reservation with her grandmother, Ms. Clara Lebeau. A loving mother of six, Andrea attended community college before withdrawing to take care of her children, and she planned to return to complete her degree as soon as possible. Ms. LeBeau emphasizes her resilience among numerous other exceptional aspects of her character. Andrea was also known as an avid baker of breads and pies, with which she spread her joy and kindness. Loved ones remember her on the tribute wall of her obituary as “beautiful”: as a woman, a mother, and simply a person.

Photograph of Andrea with on of her children, obtained from her obituary by Charles Brooks Funeral Home.

Andrea never got the chance to resume her robust life. Despite being eight and a half months pregnant and at an increased health risk due to her five prior cesarean-section deliveries, she was transferred from a county jail in her home state of South Dakota to Federal Medical Center Carswell, a federal prison for women with medical needs in Fort Worth, Texas. In a heart-wrenching op-ed in the Washington Post, her grandmother reveals that prison employees “made her stand on the airport tarmac with no coat on” while she was “[f]eeling sick, [with a] big pregnant belly” during her transfer to the Texas prison, a facility that has since come under scrutiny for its lack of precautions against the spread of COVID-19. Not even a hasty visit to a hospital for pregnancy-related concerns nor Andrea’s repeated accounts of her COVID-19 symptoms could prompt prison officials to address her medical needs.

Photograph of Elyciah Elizabeth Ann High Bear, Andrea’s daughter born on April 1, 2020, obtained from NBC Dallas/Fort Worth.

On March 31, 2020, Andrea returned to the hospital with urgent symptoms and was placed on a ventilator. Unconscious, she gave birth to her daughter, Elyciah Elizabeth Ann High Bear, via a cesarean section the next day. Andrea remained in this unconscious state throughout the month of April. Despite the severity of her condition, her family was not properly informed. Her grandmother writes, “There are so many things the [Bureau of Prisons] never told us as they were happening: that Andrea was moving out of quarantine to a hospital, that she had covid-19, that she was dying… The only time I heard from the BOP was after she died.” Ultimately, Ms. LeBeau drove more than one thousand miles to retrieve the young Elyciah without being allowed even a glimpse of her ill granddaughter. Ms. Lebeau recounts to Elle, before Andrea lost consciousness in the hospital, they talked on the phone. “She told me to tell her kids that she loved them, and loved me, and then we prayed together, and that was the last time I talked to her.”

Andrea passed away on April 28. Grief had racked the family for years; in 2014, Andrea’s sister-in-law died while in custody at a South Dakota jail, and two of Andrea’s sisters Elizabeth and Ann also preceded her in death. She paid tribute to them by deciding to give the young Elyciah the middle names “Elizabeth” and “Ann.” Elyciah now resides with Ms. LeBeau in South Dakota, while Andrea’s five older children live with her father. Ms. LeBeau laments the needless risks and inhumane failure to communicate that the Bureau of Prisons chose for her granddaughter, actions that resulted in the painful, avoidable death of a young, loved, motivated woman.

Family photographs of Andrea, obtained from her obituary by Charles Brooks Funeral Home.

“In prisons and jails right now are granddaughters, daughters, mothers,” Andrea’s grandmother writes. “And some of them are pregnant, and some of them will die, like Andrea. And their families are in the dark.” And what can we do about it? 

“Honor Andrea by making sure no other family has to go through what we have,” she says. “Don’t send me your condolences. It’s too late.”

This memorial was written by MOL team member Eliza Kravitz with information from an obituary published by Charles Brooks Funeral Home, an op-ed  by Clara Lebeau published in the Washington Post and reporting by Arielle Ziontz of the Rapid City Journal, Scott Gordon of NBC Dallas/Fort Worth, and Stephanie Clifford of Elle.

If you would like to help support Andrea’s children, please consider contributing to this fundraiser.