They Had Names

 

They had names...

 

Enumeration of persons belonging to Big Foot Band of Minniconjou of the Cheyenne River Tribe of Indians residing on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, in the State of South Dakota, who were slaughtered regardless of sex after their weapons included needless were confiscated. Many of their names can still be found in the community. Note that first names are mostly lacking because they had not been Christianized. If you are someone who prays, please lift them up. We have forgotten them, God has not.

 

1. Big Foot (m)

2. Confiscated Bow (m)

3. Whirlwind (m)

4. White Face Sun (f)

5. Light Hair (f)

6. Whip (f)

7. Her Sacred Blanket (f)

8. Bad Hand, or ring (m)

9. Son of Wing (m)

10. Audacious Bear (m)

11. First (f)

12. Minnikowoju win (f)

13. Her Good Cloud (f)

14. Wooden Core (f)

15. Beaver Woman (f)

16. Male Crow (m)

17. Handsome (f)

18. Her Good Cloud (m)

19. Slippery Hide (m)

20. White Haired Bear (m)

21. Scarlet White Buffalo (f)

22. Distrust Ahead (m)

23. Comes Last (m)

24. Dogskin Necklace (m)

25. Weasel (m)

26. Brown Turtle (m)

27. Cannu (m)

28. Arousing Squirrel’s Mother (f)

29. Arousing Squirrel

30. Feather Man (m)

31. Use Horn For Toilet (m)

32. Rattler (f)

33. Brown (m)

34. High Hawk (m)

35. High Hawk’s Mother (f)

36. Bring Earth To Her (f)

37. WhirlWind Bear (m)

38. Appears Twice (m)

39. Handsome (f)

40. Blind (f)

41. White Day (f)

42. Son of White Day (m)

43. Wears Calfskin Robe (m)

44. Bad Owner Without Rope (m)

45. Mrs. Bad Owner Without Rope (f)

46. Bad Owner’s Mother (f)

47. Black Hawk (m)

48. Cheyenne Woman (f)

49. Weasel Bear (m)

50. Wounded Hand (m)

51. Battle Woman (f)

52. Loud Voice Thunder (m)

53. Elk Tooth (f)

54. Wm. Horn Cloud (m)

55. Nest (f)

56. Mrs. Wm. Horn Cloud (f)

57. Kills Who Stands In Timber (m)

58. Mrs. Kills In Timber (f)

59. Fools Bear (m)

60. White Woman (f)

61. Bad Spotted Eagle (m)

62. Yellow Bird (m)

63. Scarlet Otter (f)

64. Long Bull (m)

65. Burnt Thigh (f)

66. Sherman Horn Cloud (m)

67. Mrs. Dewey Beard (f)

Enumeration of persons from the Bald Head Band:

1. Brown Woman (f)

2. Bird Shakes Itself (m)

3. Brown In The Ears (m)

4. Son of Brown In The Ears (m)

5. Knife Scabbard/Kills We (m)

6. Mrs. Knife Scabbard (f)

7. Wolf Ears (m)

8. Good Boy (m)

9. Feather Earrings (m)

10. Son of Feather Earrings (m)

11. Mrs. Little Bull (f)

12. Close To Lodge (m)

13. Young Deer (m)

14. Shoot With Hawk Feathers (m)

15. Mrs. Shoots With Hawk Feathers’ mother (f)

16. Red Eagle (m)

17. Ghost Horse (m)

18. Kills (m)

19. White Horse (m)

20. Log (m)

21. Day (m)

22. Male Eagle (m)

23. His War (m)

24. Brown Hoop (m)

25. Mrs. Male Eagle (f)

26. Peaked (m)

27. Girl (f)

28. Shoots The Bear (m)

29. Shoots The Bear’s mother (f)

30. Small Bodied Bear (m)

31. Scarlet Calf (f)

32. Son of Scarlet Calf (m)

33. Kills Assiniboine (m)

34. Kills Crow Indian (m)

35. Brown Bull (m)

36. Mrs. Brown Bull (f)

Enumeration of persons belonging from Cherry Creek District, who were also slaughtered with Big Foot Band, 1890.

1. Strong Fox (m)

2. Brown Leaf (f)

3. Successful Spy (m)

4. Charger (m)

5. Battle Leaf (f)

6. Runs Off With Horses (m)

7. Unintentionally Brave (m)

8. Grey In The Eyes (m)

9. Good Enemy (f)

10. Scatters Them (m)

11. Wind (f)

12. White Hat (m)

13. Used For Brother (f)

14. Unafraid Of Camp (m)

15. Benefactress (f)

16. Brown In Ears (f)

17. White Dog (m)

18. Sacred In Appearance (m)

19. Red Horn (m)

20. Good Hawk (m)

21. Her Red Horse (f)

22. Wing Eagle (m)

23. Shot At Accurately (m)

24. Son of Shot At Accurately (m)

25. Wounded Hand (m)

26. Clown Woman (f)

27. Loud Voice Thunder (m)

28. Elk Creek (m)

29. Have Scarlet (f)

30. Speckled Chief (m)

31. Pretty Voice Elk (m)

32. Good Bear (m)

33. Cotton Wood (m)

Enumeration of persons from the Hunkpapa Band of Standing Rock Reservation, who were subsequently dead of wound, after the battle of Wounded Knee Massacre, 1890.

1. Runs With Fussy Hair (m)

2. Mrs. Eagle Hawk (f)

3. Dependable (f)

4. Mrs. Stands With (f)

These were wounded at the Big Foot Massacre, but lived:

1. Looks Back (f)

2. Bear Gone (f)

3. Turns Back (f)

4. Red Fish (m)

These are Hunkpapa who were slaughtered outright with Big Foot band:

1. Ashes (m)

2. Breaks Arrow With Foot (m)

3. Bird’s Belly (f)

4. Brings Choice (m)

5. Sacred Face (f)

6. Swift Bird (m)

7. Flying Hawk (m)

These persons were in the Big Foot Massacre, but were not wounded: (Hunkpapa)

1. Squirrel Bear (m)

2. Tall Hair (m)

3. Lives Reckless (m)

4. John Spotted Bear (m)

5. Red Belt (f)

6. Scarlet Rotation (f)

Gift of Sweet Grass and Wild Sage

Reflections on Wounded Knee

     As I looked upon the mass grave I felt tears well up in my eyes and a helpless anger filled me.  I thought of conversation between God and Cain immediately after the murder of Abel. 

“…now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.” (Genesis 4:11)

     Is there an act of repentance which could undo the scar inflicted on this place?  The population of Wounded Knee continues to decline and its people have scattered.  I pondered this as I loaded my bike, received a blessing from Fr. Harold, and pedaled east.

     Twenty miles later, I passed through the village of Batesland, South Dakota (population 100).  I breathed a sigh of relief that there was a small store which sold frozen sandwiches and made available a microwave to travelers.  It was air conditioned, and I could feel much of the accumulated stress cycling from cycling in the heat.  The store had a small table (as do most of the small stores in region) and I sat down and started eating my micro waved burrito.

      There was a television turned in the dining area.  I remember from my youth that there were classic western movies and televisions showed broadcasted on Saturday afternoons (in the days before you could watch whatever you wanted to watch whenever you wanted to watch it).  The show “Raw Hide” began as I began to eat.  I have not seen this show in over 50 years, though the theme song often bounces within my head.  It is horribly racist and I could feel my anxiety rise.

       The clerk at the store said I could turn the channel if I wanted.   I asked if it would be okay if I was to turn it off, and she consented.  Her name is Emily and she began to chat with me as I ate.  Though it was over 90 degrees outside, every inch of her was covered in clothing. She wore a long sleeve shirt and a skirt which covered here ankles.  She even wore a knit cap on her head.  She was intrigued about the possibility of bicycling across the country.  She had never been more than 10 miles from Batesland.  Over the course of our conversation she mentioned that her mother was about to “make her journey.”  It was only after a confused silence did I realize that this was the Lakota term for death.

      As I sat there in the cool silence finishing up lunch, she disappeared to the back room.  A few minutes later she appeared with a baggie which looked to be filled with marijuana and a plant with long leaves which had been woven into the braids.  She informed me that this was wild sage and braided sweat grass.  To breathe the smoke caused from burning such plants will cause healing.  She gave me the plants as a present and ignited some there on the table in the store.  We sat and inhaled the sweet smoke.  I was deeply moved, and thanked her.

      After she presented me with these gifts I told her that I was making a photo diary of the kind people I have met along the way and would she mind if I took her photo?  She looked down at the ground and said “I don’t look so good in photos”.  I replied “you are beautiful!”  One of the blessings that come from becoming an old man is that you get to say such things. 

       With some embarrassment, she sat down and allowed me to take her photograph.  I gave her a hug and proceeded to cycle towards the town of Martin.       

      “Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose.  There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from”- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

At the Site of the Massacre

 

Sign at the sight of the Massacre

 

Tombstone in Wounded Knee

 

Fr. Eagle Bull by the mass grave at Wounded Knee

 

Day 51 Wounded Knee

 

Day 51 Wounded Knee

    I am very grateful to Fr. Harold Eagle Bull who gave me a place to stay at Church of the Messiah Episcopal Church in Wounded Knee.   This Church is the only one still standing after the uprising in 1973.  When I arrived he told me that I should not open the door during the night even if someone knocks.  Many of the inhabitants are addicted to crystal meth and had seen me arrive with my bright yellow cart and would view me as a funding source.  This led to a restless night.

    In the morning, Fr. Harold came over the chat with me as I dismantled my bike and removed copious amounts of mud from its inner recesses.  He informed me that the lovely hall in which I slept had been recently renovated in the hopes that people from around the country might come and see this place.

    The history of Wounded Knee is a painful subject to ponder.  I am grateful to Fr. Eagle Bull for bringing me to the mass grave of the victims of the 1890 massacre. Unless you have a local person bring you there, it is exceedingly difficult to find it.  It is surrounded by a chain link fence to protect it from vandals.  The remaining Lakota in the community maintain that the massacre was motivated primarily by the humiliation which Custer had experienced at Little Big Horn. 

     There is a plaque commemorating the names of all that could be remembered in the hopes that they will not be forgotten.  These names are can still be found on the mail boxes in the surrounding houses, though few people ever come here visit.  It is a painful experience to stand in that place. Fr. Harold told me that the current governor wants so eliminate references to Wounded Knee in the school history curriculum because it makes white people feel uncomfortable.

     As I getting ready to leave he blessed me in the Lakota language and anointed my feet for my journey.  I left that place changed.