Once in a lifetime opportunity to tell our stories

A historic meeting between the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association on April 26, 2024. Torrey Davie, Northern Cheyenne, Eugene Little Coyote, Northern Cheyenne, Debra Charette, Northern Cheyenne, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Chairman J. Garrett Renville, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Ryman LeBeau, Rosebud Sioux Tribal Chairman Scott Herman, Northern Cheyenne Vice-Chairman Ernest Little Mouth, Oglala Sioux Tribal Chairman Frank Star Comes Out, Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Arvol Looking Horse, Executive Director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association Gay Kingman, Crow Creek Sioux Tribal Chairman Peter Lengkeek, OST Council Representative Sonya Little Hawk-Weston, OST Council Representative Jackie Sears, Lewis Grassrope, Northern Cheyenne. (Photo by Charise Abernathy)

LAME DEER, Mont. – Members of Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association (GPTCA, Inc) and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe convened in late April 2024 in Rapid City to discuss several common concerns, namely the proposed new visitors center at the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the Pipestone Quarry in Minnesota, source of sacred pipestone.

Ernest Littlemouth, Vice-President, Northern Cheyenne Tribe was extremely pleased and touched by the meeting. “This white-headed guy came up to me. Touched me on the shoulder, took off a beaded medallion and put it on my neck.”

“We are brothers now,” that person told me.

“I did not have the words to express my appreciation,” he said.

That person was Greg Bourland, former Chairman of Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe who is now employed as the Bureau of Indian Affairs Superintendent for the Cheyenne River Agency.

Littlemouth was also touched by a sacred ceremony conducted by Arvol Looking Horse. Keeper of the Sacred Pipe for the Sioux. “That is something you don’t see every day,” the Northern Cheyenne leader remarked. “Very powerful.”

As a result of the discussion and intertribal consultation at that meeting, several significant decisions were made as follows:

The Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Tribe will formally re-establish the old alliance through formal resolutions. Hopefully, the Northern Arapaho will participate.

They will object to the proposed plan for the new Visitors’ Center at the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the lack of proper consultation;

They will seek legal advice and counsel;

They will request additional federal funding to construct an adequate Visitors’ Center with curation facilities to host the 200,000 plus artifacts collected from the Battlefield;

They will pressure the National Park Service to return tribal artifacts as authorized by federal law;

They hope to ‘go to the top’, seeking an audience with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland requesting intervention into these problems;

They will suggest that the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the Pipestone Quarry be designated as “sacred sites.’’

Finally, the dialogue and conversation will continue between the traditional allies.

“They treated us so well,” Littlemouth commented. “Paybacks are in order. The Northern Cheyenne will do that. Probably at the next anniversary of the Battle. They send riders over here. We will welcome them, feed them and ride with them.”

(Contact Clara Caufield at 2ndcheyennevoice@gmail.com)

The post Once in a lifetime opportunity to tell our stories first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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