Public meetings discuss Wounded Knee belongings returned to descendants

RAPID CITY—A public meeting to discuss sacred belongings recently returned to Wounded Knee descendants will take place on December 16, 2022, from 5 PM – 9 PM and December 17 from 2 PM – 9 PM at New Life Church, 415 McArthur St. in Rapid City, SD. At press time, details of the agenda for the 2-day meeting are still being confirmed.

Wounded Knee is the site of an infamous massacre on December 29, 1890, where more than 250 unarmed Lakota men, women, and children were slaughtered by U.S. Army Calvary. A worker in charge of clearing the battlefield stole the belongings from the bodies of the dead, then sold them to a Massachusetts trader who donated them to the Founders’ Museum in Barre, Massachusetts, in 1892.

After decades of negotiations, the museum finally returned about 150 sacred belongings to the Lakota people in ceremonies on November 5, 2022. The collection of belongings includes ceremonial pipes, weapons, moccasins, clothing, and the dried umbilical cords traditionally kept by tribal members throughout their lives.

The items returned to the Lakota people were all authenticated by multiple experts, including tribal experts. They are now in safekeeping at Oglala Community College at Kyle.

For more information about the Rapid City meeting, contact Cedric Broken Nose at 605-441-0600 or email cbrokennose@yahoo.com. Broken Nose is an active member of the Sitanka takini Wounded Knee Descendants Group. Other contacts for the Rapid City meeting are Ted Ten Fingers (phone 605-389-2431) and Mike He Crow (phone 605-389-4914).

According to Ivan Looking Horse (Cheyenne River Lakota Tribe), an active member of the HAWK 1890 Descendants Group, Lakota culture teaches that the spirits of deceased relatives can remain attached to their belongings if there is no proper ceremony to release the souls back to the spirit world to rejoin their relatives. Looking Horse said, “We only want to allow the restless to rest.”

The upcoming Rapid City meeting is the third public meeting held to discuss what will happen to sacred belongings now that they are returned to the descendants. The gatherings are a joint effort between the HAWK 1890 Descendants Group in the Cheyenne River area and the Sitanka takini Wounded Knee Descendants Group in the Oglala area.

On December 3, 2022, approximately 50 people gathered in Eagle Butte to discuss plans for the sacred belongings. Relatives from Pine Ridge and Standing Rock as well as Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST) members attended the meetings, including newly elected tribal presidents Ryman LeBeau of CRST and Frank Star Comes Out, Oglala Sioux tribe. Participants also came from the Crow Creek Reservation and Pierre.

Marlis Afraid of Hawk, (Mnicoujou, enrolled in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe), a respected elder who holds an office with the HAWK 1890 Descendants Group, said that the December 3 meeting was “the first time in a long time the Descendants came together as one.”

Manny Iron Hawk (Titunwan Okowozu), spokesperson for the HAWK 1890 group, said he was very pleased with the turnout which indicates increased awareness and concern for the sacred belongings. Also, the attendance and the atmosphere of the gathering show that “the relatives want to get involved” in deciding the future of the items brought home.

Violet Catches (Cheyenne River Lakota, Hohwoju) and Ivan Looking Horse both reported on their trip to Barre, MA, where they represented the HAWK 1890 group at the November 5 ceremony. Catches says the day at the museum receiving the belongings back to the South Dakota descendants was “emotional and meaningful. …I could feel the presence of the ancestors. …I was so glad to have them coming home.”

Elders who spoke at the December 3 meeting voiced their opinion that the sacred belongings should be burned. Other elders said the belongings should be buried. Iron Hawk said that nothing definite was decided except that the belongings will be carried to the annual December 29 Wounded Knee Massacre Anniversary Observance.

Andrea Eastman (Sisseton Wapheton Oyate) from Crow Creek rose very early on Saturday and drove three hours alone to attend the meeting. She said the temperature was at 0 degrees when she started. She represented her entire family who are in preparation for the Dakota 38 Memorial Ride.

Eastman had heard of the gathering from friends who live in the Eagle Butte area. Eastman’s great grandfather, Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman, also known as Ohiysa, was the first Native American to be certified in Western medicine and provided medical care to some of those who were injured at Wounded Knee but managed to survive.

Eastman said she felt “somewhat unsure” attending the meeting, not knowing how the organizers would feel about her being there. “I felt very welcomed among my Lakota relatives,” she said, and appreciated friendly welcome as well as the good strong coffee and good meal at the meeting. To honor her great grandfather, Eastman plans to participate in this year’s 7-Day Memorial Ride to Wounded Knee ending on December 29.

A similar meeting on November 22, 2022, took place at the Standing Rock Reservation at the Wakpala School in the Smee School District. John Eagle hosted the meeting which was attended by 20 – 25 people, according to Iron Hawk, who said there were thoughtful discussions about the sacred belongings but again no attempt to make any final decisions.

Iron Hawk says, “We’ll take our time and have discussions and follow all proper protocols” in deciding what to do with the belongings. Looking Horse says that all decisions concerning the belongings should be made by consensus.

Some 870,000 Native American artifacts — including nearly 110,000 human remains — that should be returned to tribes under federal law are still in the possession of colleges, museums and other institutions across the country, according to an Associated Press review of data maintained by the National Park Service.

 

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