* * *
Vernell stands by himself near the edge of the cemetery. There is one more task for him before the day is done. As a sign of his grief and respect for his father and as a symbol of his willingness to sacrifice for his people, Vernell asks the medicine man to cut off his ponytail.
I stand for the longest time watching Vernell, marveling at him, his sturdiness, his big heart. Finally he slowly turns around, walks back through the melancholic cemetery, says “hau” to his nephew, stops to shake my hand and offer me one of his nonsensical good wishes:
“Before you leave, David, don’t you want to know what it is all about?”
“No, but I’ll guess it is about money.’”
“No Jack Daniel’s for you!”
“What is it about, then?”
“It’s about land. All along, you wasicus have only cared about land. But this time it will be different. While you are busy stealing our land and as much of our wealth as you can, we’ll be building our Sinn Féin, gaining control of our reservation, and bringing back Wovoka. Imagine Indians dancing everywhere! Old blind Indians seeing again. Dead Indians come back to life, strong like young men. Imagine that whites can’t hurt Indians. Aromas from cooking pots. Buffalo everywhere. Plenty of grass in the spring.
“Imagine the medicine man saying, “‘Keep on dancing.’”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to: Don Nace for his encouragement and boundless enthusiasm; Rodnay Zaks for convincing me that I just had to read Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck; Ken Kalman for the perfect map—combining the best of the old rez with the best of the new; Eve Kramer for thinking of me as a photographer (not just a writer); Linda Daney for helping me remember the adventures we had together; Jacqueline Poitier for tirelessly reading and rereading my manuscript; and Suzy White Thunder for enriching all my experiences on the rez.
Added thanks to: My Native American daughter, Buffy Daney, and Becky Thomas at the Knight Museum and Sandhills Center, who let me spend many hours in their research room.
In memory of: Guy White Thunder, Hugh Bunnell, Aaron Bunnell, and John Essay.
Note: Most of what I know about the Hare brothers’ trial came from reading my dad’s Yellow Thunder articles and ninety pages of notes I found years later in a file folder as part of his extensive archive on Nebraska’s Native Americans, which he willed to the Alliance Knight Museum.
NOTES
ACT ONE
“Memory is like…”: Joseph M. Marshall III, The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History (New York: Viking Press, 2004), 57.
ALLIANCE
Old Man Hayes Chandler: Knight Museum Board and Partners, Images of America: Alliance Nebraska (Mt. Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000), 55.
only significant minority: Mark Monroe, An Indian in White America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994).
Sioux, slang for “snake”: Stacy Makes Good, “Sioux Is Not Even a Word,” Lakota Country Times, March 12, 2009, http://www.lakotacountrytimes.com/news/2009-03-12/guest/021.html.
Arthur Gene Black Horse: Hugh Bunnell, “Citizens Question Indian Jail Suicides,” Kansas City Star, September 15, 1971, 1. (Hugh Bunnell Archives, Knight Museum, Alliance, NE.)
“He may have hidden…”: Ibid.
“The Elks Club has a tendency…”: Ibid.
“Some of our jail guards…”: Ibid.
“those noisy squaw…”: Hugh Bunnell, “More Repercussions from Indian Jail Suicides,” Lincoln Journal Star, October 24, 1971, 5. (Hugh Bunnell Archives, Knight Museum, Alliance, NE.)
“God, we’re not doctors!”: Hugh Bunnell, “Nebraska Police Chief on the Hot Spot,” Kansas City Times, September 18, 1971, 7. (Hugh Bunnell Archives, Knight Museum, Alliance, NE.)
from 160 acres: Kathy Weiser-Alexander, “American History: The Homestead Act—Creating Prosperity in America,” Legends of America, http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-homestead.html.
Nebraska Sandhills, twenty thousand: “About the Sandhills,” West Central Research and Extension Center, http://extension.unl.edu/statewide/westcentral/gudmundsen/sandhills/.
Warren Buffett purchased: W. Hanson, “Buffett Buying Burlington Northern Railroad,” NBCNews.com, November 3, 2009.
“America’s Top Roadside Attractions”: TripAdvisor, March 3, 2015, http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g29693-d209202-r257457838-Carhenge-Alliance_Nebraska.html.
HAY SPRINGS
Great Sioux Reservation: “Establishment of the Great Sioux Reservation,” the Web site of North Dakota State Government, http://www.ndstudies.org/resources/IndianStudies/standingrock/historical_gs_reservation.html.
“the country north of…”: Transcript of Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), Our Documents, http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=42&page=transcript.
“scientific mapping expedition”: Brian Dippie, Beyond Lewis and Clark: A Symposium on Army Exploration and National Expansion, Washington State History Museum, Tacoma, WA, September 27, 2004, http://www.friendslittlebighorn.com/Georgecuster.htm.
GOLD!: T. J. Stiles, Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015).
Elder warriors from the Lakota: Helen Winter Stauffer, Mari Sandoz: Story Catcher of the Plains (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 25.
three-thousand-mile trip: Ibid.
Crazy Horse “surrendered”: Thomas Powers, The Killing of Crazy Horse (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010).
damn thing about: George E. Hyde, Spotted Tail’s Folk: A History of the Brulé Sioux (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961).
American Indian Religious Freedom: L. Irvin, “Freedom, Law, and Prophecy: A Brief History of Native American Religious Resistance,” American Indian Quarterly 21, no. 1 (1977): 35–55.
“Light-in-the-Lodge”: Hyde, Spotted Tail’s Folk, 333–34.
hated Spotted Tail: Ibid., 313–15.
night of August 5, 1881: Ibid., 332.
case against Black Crow: Sidney L. Harring, Crow Dog’s Case: American Indian Sovereignty, Tribal Law and United States Law in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
RUSHVILLE
“The whole country…”: American Civil War: The Shenandoah Valley, HistoryOfWar.org, http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_american_civil_war04_shenandoah.html#intro.
“Find and destroy…”: Stiles, Custer’s Trials.
“me Tosawi … were dead”: Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970).
rich ranchers, the Modisett: Katie Gardner, “Extra Innings: The Story of the Modisett Ball Park,” Donning Company Publishers, January 27, 2015, http://www.donning.com/2015/01/27/extra-innings-story-modisett-ball-park/.
porcupine quillwork: Royal B. Hassbrick, The Sioux: Life and Customs of a Warrior Society (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964), 223.
Edward Curtis’s: Gilbert King, “Edward Curtis’ Epic Project to Photograph Native Americans,” Smithsonian.com, March 21, 2012, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/edward-curtis-epic-project-to-photograph-native-americans-162523282/?no-ist.
Sitting Bull danced: Ernie LaPointe, Sitting Bull: His Life and Legacy (Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2009).
WHITECLAY
four liquor stores that sell: Paul Hammel, “Nebraska Governor, Attorney General Turn Their Attention to Whiteclay,” Omaha World-Herald, October 14, 2015.
Whiteclay on-premises: David Kelly, “In Nebraska, Ministry Reaches Out to Lakota on an Alcohol-Ravaged Skid Row,” Los Angeles Times, September 13, 2015.
Lakota Women’s Day of Peace: Vincent Schilling, “Whiteclay Fallout: Women’s Day of Peace March Ends with Arrests and Youth Being Maced,” Indian Country Today Media Network, August 29, 2012.
calling the women “white bitches”: Debra White Plume, “Solidarity Gathering, Horse Trailers, and the Lakota Women’s Day of Peace,” Censored News, August 29, 2012.
pulling a horse trailer: Plume, “Solidarity Gathering.”
stone monument on the edge: Alan Hafer, Descendants of Wounded Knee: The Ultimate Sacrifice on the Pine Ridge Reservation (Boulder: Johnson Books, 2015).
Toad Frohman, a solid: “Leo J. ‘Toad’ Frohman,” Scottsbluff StarHerald.com, July 5, 2001.
Roosevelt rescinded: The Battle for Whiteclay (documentary film), http://battleforwhiteclay.org/?page_id=140.
PINE RIDGE
de facto capital: Matthew Williams, “Urban Jungle on the Reservation,” Time, http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2048598_2235609,00.html.
original Big Bat could speak: Hafer, Descendants of Wounded Knee, 94–95.
In 1964, when he: Roger Robinson, “Billy Mills’ Amazing Olympic 10K Win Was 50 Years Ago Today,” Runner’s World, October 14, 2014.
“I’m going to burn … change the name”: Tim Giago, “Billy Mills, the Pride of the Lakota Nation,” The Huffington Post, accessed November 11, 2001. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-giago/billy-mills-the-pride-of_b_116612.html
tribe tried to shut: Daniel Simmons-Richie, “Anger at Tribe’s Decision to Close Pine Ridge’s Sole Supermarket,” Rapid City Journal, May 26, 2013.
BIG FOOT TRAIL
the great Tatanka Iyotake: LaPointe, Sitting Bull.
huge nonstop ghost dance: Hafer, Descendants of Wounded Knee.
“Lock the savages up … necessary”: Ojibwa, “Before Wounded Knee,” Native American Netroots, October 13, 2011.
“What is your name … shook hands”: Richard E. Jensen, ed., Voices of the American West, Volume 1: The Indian Interviews of Eli S. Ricker, 1903–1919 (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2005).
Forsyth told Whitside: Brown, Bury My Heart, 441-42.
James Asay: James E. Titsworth, Wounded Knee: A Lakota Journey from Passive Resistance to a Mass Grave and the Seventh Cavalry’s Failure of Command (master’s thesis, University of Nebraska at Kearney, 2008). Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=N1h-RNojOoMC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=liquor+dealer+at+Wounded+Knee+James+Asay&source=bl&ots=eI-f2uZajv&sig=zaM6WZgch1prtlUa9jiLrwR3Lcw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvpJ_C5fDLAhWlnYMKHTEKAoMQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=liquor%20dealer%20at%20Wounded%20Knee%20James%20Asay&f=false.
One survivor: Charles A. Eastman, The Soul of the Indian: An Interpretation (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1911).
As prophesied by: John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks (New York: William Morrow, 1932). Black Elk’s Vision online: http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/prophecy/BlackElk.html.
Memorial Ride, seven: Roseanna Renaud, “Big Foot Memorial Ride: 23 Years,” Lakota Country Times, January 5, 2010.
his final interview: SacredScienceDoc, “Russell Means Final Interview—The Sacred Feminine and Gender Roles,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFt6XRyQhD8.
KYLE
pole of inaccessibility: Jerry Penry, “Pole of Inaccessibility for North America,” 2014, http://www.penryfamily.com/surveying/poleofinaccessibility.html.
ACT THREE
“The Great Spirit…”: Peter Matthiessen, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (New York: Viking Press, 1983), 137.
WHITE THUNDER RANCH
move the sacred arrows: Ojibwa, “Cheyenne Medicine Bundles,” Native American Netroots, March 6, 2011.
medicine man named Bull: Ibid.
good day to die: Ibid.
Red Cloud was fond: Bon Drury and Tom Clavin, The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013).
“We always had gay…”: Beatrice Medicine, “Directions in Gender Research in American Indian Societies: Two Spirits and Other Categories,” Online Readers in Psychology and Culture (2002): Unit 3, Article 2.
BOMBING RANGE
Karlene Hunter: For more on Karlene Hunter and Tanka Bars, see http://www.tankabar.com/cgi-bin/nanf/public/main.cvw?sessionid=8288ba4e5864894bd6b43b87615bc0be0f981137e46c
they had thirty days: “World War II Comes to the Badlands,” the Web site of the National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/badl/planyourvisit/upload/Badlands-Gunnery-Range-Bulletin.pdf.
250 car bodies: Ibid.
YELLOW BEAR CANYON
George Poor Thunder lived: Vernell White Thunder, author interviews, October 12–14, 2014.
“Grandfather would tell him … two hundred and fifty”: Ibid.
Poor Thunder’s arrival: Ibid.
“If we lose the…”: Ibid.
RETURN OF THE BUFFALO
most numerous: Shepard Krech III, “Buffalo Tales: The Near-Extermination of the American Bison,” National Humanities Center, July 2001, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/ntecoindian/essays/buffalod.htm.
“I am safe … ride through it”: Jed Portman, “5 Things You Need to Know About the American Bison,” the Web site of PBS, May 3, 2011, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-great-american-bison/8950/.
“Buffalo hunters are doing…”: William T. Hornaday, The Extermination of the American Bison (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1889), 225.
Millions of buffalo robes: Ibid.
grand buffalo hunt: Douglas D. Scott, Peter Bleed, and Stephen Damm, Custer, Cody, and Grand Duke Alexis: Historical Archaeology of the Royal Buffalo Hunt (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013), 315.
touring train pulled: “Old West Legends: The Plight of the Buffalo,” Legends of America, excerpted from The Old Santa Fe Trail by Colonel Henry Inman (New York: Macmillan, 1897), http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-buffaloplight.html
most famous match: Scott, Bleed, and Damm, Custer, Cody, 320.
“For the sake of…”: David D. Smits, “The Frontier Army and the Destruction of the Buffalo: 1865–1883,” Western Historical Quarterly 25, no. 3 (Autumn 1994), 313–38.
Yellowstone herd: Laura Zuckerman, “Conservationists Demand Halt to Killing of Yellowstone Bison,” Reuters, September 15, 2014.
“dehumanizing, derogatory…”: Robert Lipsyte, “Baseball; How Can Jane Fonda Be a Part of the Chop?,” The New York Times, October 18, 1991.
“pure ignorance…”: Ibid.
animal rights protesters: A. Wilson, “Protesters Down on Fonda,” La Crosse Tribune, July 31, 1993.
HORSE PASTURE
Spaniards brought horses: Dave Philipps, “As Wild Horses Overrun the West, Ranchers Fear Land Will Be Gobbled Up,” The New York Times, September 30, 2014.
run wild on: Ibid.
traded horses: “Lakota Horses,” the Web site of North Dakota State Government, http://ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/unit-ii-time-transformation-1201-1860/lesson-2-making-living/topic-2-horses-return/section-2-lakota-horses.
Lakota immediately saw: Elliott West, “The Impact of Horse Culture,” Journal of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/early-settlements/essays/impact-horse-culture.
Mackenzie ordered his men: Andy Wilkinson: “Palo Duro Canyon Tragedy,” the Web site of Nebraska’s PBS and NPR stations, http://netnebraska.org/basic-page/television/wild-horses-palo-duro-canyon-tragedy.
GORDON
Raymond Yellow Thunder took: Stew Magnuson, The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska–Pine Ridge Border Towns (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2008).
“If Raymond had…”: Ibid.
Trips to the: Grant K. Anderson, “The Black Hills Exclusion Policy,” Nebraska History 58 (1977): 1–24.
Army had given up trying: Ibid.
coyote hunting that day: Hugh Bunnell, “The Yellow Thunder File.” (Hugh Bunnell Archives, Knight Museum, Alliance, NE.)
still driving around: Ibid.
“I got him good!”: Ibid.
“Come on, Butch…”: Ibid.
“Ain’t no way that…”: Ibid.
“You always have been.… I don’t mind”: Ibid.
“Hang on, Chief…”: Ibid.
“What the fuck … let me go”: Ibid.
“Jesus Christ, Les…”: Ibid
.
last person to see: Magnuson, Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder.
Arlene hopped in: Ibid.
recognized him as Severt: David Melmer, “Wounded Knee ’73 Revisited,” Indian Country Today Media Network, March 23, 2005.
AIM wanted food: Bunnell, “The Yellow Thunder File.”
“We came today…”: Magnuson, Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder.
AMONG THE DOG EATERS
he created a Spade Ranch company town…: Ruth VanAckeren and Robert M. Howard, Lawrence Bixby: Preserver of the Old Spade Ranch (Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, 1995).
“Life was opulent for Richards…”: Ibid.
he-said: Ibid.
white boy called him: Ibid.
go-to Indian: Ibid.
devoured the big platter: Ibid.
The city denied: Hugh Bunnell, “City Turns Down AIM Request for Free Food,” Alliance Times-Herald, May 24, 1972.
They began drumming: Bunnell, “The Yellow Thunder File.”
“Opportunity Room” at Grandview: Monroe, Indian in White America.
“the most racist town”: Hugh Bunnell, “AIM to Convene an ‘Indian Grand Jury,’” Alliance Times-Herald, May 25, 1972.
“Racists don’t convict…”: Ibid.
A crowd of: Hugh Bunnell, “Bellecourt Addresses Alliance High School Grads,” Alliance Times-Herald, May 26, 1972.
“You have prospered … all we ask”: Ibid.
“Dennis, cut the…”: Bunnell, “The Yellow Thunder File.”
“Bullshit … right now”: Ibid.
“Eyewitnesses will provide…”: Ibid.
Coors brewery right here: Knight Museum, Alliance, NE.
“This ‘Indian Gentleman’…”: Bunnell, “The Yellow Thunder File.”
“‘So you were being…’”: Ibid.
Each protester had: Ibid.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ambrose, Stephen E. Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors. New York: Open Road Media, 2014.
Brown, Curt. In the Footsteps of Little Crow: 150 Years After the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862. Minneapolis: Star Tribune, 2012.
Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970.
Good Friday on the Rez Page 26