| Across the Fence: The Spirit of Crazy Horse |
 June 28, 2012 By M. Timothy Nolting |
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 In the early summer of 1877, Crazy Horse, the great war leader of the Oglala Lakota, surrendered to U.S. authorities at Camp Sheridan near the Spotted Tail Agency several miles to the northwest of Rushville, Nebraska. On the fifth of September he was escorted, under guard, to Fort Robinson where troops and native police attempted to arrest him. Crazy Horse resisted arrest and was bayonetted by one of those guarding him. Later that evening, Crazy Horse died from his wound. Crazy Horse’s father and mother took his body and returned him to Spotted Tail’s camp and placed him there on a burial platform. The following year the agency was moved to the banks of the Missouri River in South Dakota and Crazy Horse’s remains were taken down from the platform and secretly buried. The exact location of Crazy Horse’s final resting place remains unknown. This past week my wife Deb and I were honored to be a part of the preparations and the opening ceremonies of an Oglala Lakota Sun Dance. This is one of the seven sacred rites of the Lakota people and non-natives are seldom invited to attend, much less participate in the final preparations. One of Deb’s former students, from the Pine Ridge Reservation, invited us to join the Sun Dance that she and her husband, Joseph Swift Bird, were conducting. Joseph’s father was a Lakota holy man and Joseph is following in his father’s ways. Deb’s student Renee and her husband Joseph would be two of the six dancers. Deb and I arrived at the Sun Dance grounds the day before it was to begin. Preparations for the ceremony commence months before the actual event, as there are many tasks that must be completed before the ceremony begins. Those who would be dancing were there to help with final preparations as well as others who came to volunteer their time. There were tipis to be erected and cedar branch coverings to be placed on top of the large arbor that surrounded the medicine wheel. In the center of the medicine wheel was the hole where the Sun Dance tree would be placed. We helped to place the last three trailer loads of cedar branches then waited for the departure to the site of the sacred tree. Those who accompanied Joseph and the dancers to the site included the singers and a score of friends and relatives who had come to help. One of the most important among those there was the ‘Tree Maiden,’ ten-year-old Tiara Swift Bird would carry the sacred pipe and join with her father and mother in prayers and blessings before the tree was cut. Prior to our departure, the singers (those who would sing and drum for the four days of dancing) first had to be committed to the ceremony by their solemn pledge and sharing of the sacred pipe. After this short ceremony we all piled into our cars and trucks and headed south out of the Dakota reservation to Nebraska, where the tree had been selected and stood waiting. A couple of years ago Joseph was given permission, by the current landowners of the area that was once the Spotted Tail Agency, to conduct his personal vision quest on the land where Crazy Horse’s parents had placed him upon his burial platform. It was on this vision quest that Joseph Swift Bird heard Crazy Horse speak to him and saw the spirits of his ancestors fill the valley below. It was from this valley that the ceremonial tree, ‘The Tree of Life,’ would be taken for the Sun Dance. We arrived at the site of the tree at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The placement of the tree and final dedication would not be completed until shortly before sunset. As soon as all were gathered around the tree, Tiara held the sacred pipe and with her mother Rene’ and her father Joseph, approached the tree along with the other four dancers. The tree was blessed as smoke from a pot of burning sage curled around its rough bark trunk and those who surrounded it. Joseph gave thanks for the tree and prayed for those who were about to dance for the four days of the Sun Dance ceremony and the pipe was passed among them. The tree maiden made the first four cuts on the tree, with a large, sage wrapped axe, by striking the north, east, south then west sides of the trunk. Each of the six dancers then made several more cuts and finally, Joseph felled the tree. As the nearly 50 foot tree toppled toward the ground, thirty pairs of hands grasped its trunk and branches and kept it from touching the ground. My hands were among those who reached up and held fast to the rough cottonwood bark as the enormous weight bore down on our arms and shoulders. We groaned with the effort of placing the tree on the trailer then tied it in place and headed back to the reservation. The caravan of vehicles that followed the tree was not unlike a funeral procession. Hazard lights flashed as the dust of gravel roads swirled behind while ahead, bright green cottonwood leaves danced and shimmered. When we reached the southern border of the reservation we were joined by an escort, emergency lights pulsing, as we were led through Pine Ridge and out to the gravel road where we turned off toward the Sun Dance grounds hidden among the distant hills. While the tree still rested on the trailer, all of the dancers, friends and relatives, tied prayer flags to the branches. Long, bright strips of white, yellow, red and blue tied together in a bundle were then tied to the tree. Dozens of them fluttered in the strong prairie breeze. The trunk was wound with long strings of tiny offerings of tobacco, each wrapped in a piece of cloth making a bundle not much bigger than a fingertip. These wrappings were also in colors of white, yellow, red and blue, the colors of the four directions. Finally, the piercing ropes were attached to the two main branches. Each of the dancers who would undergo the piercing ritual tied their own rope to the tree. As these ropes were tied, there was silence among the dancers and all who looked on. As the tree’s preparation was completed, a Lakota elder, ‘the crier’ began shouting instructions. Fortunately, for me, he repeated them in English. (Deb and I were the only ‘whites’ there.) “While the tree is being carried to the center”, he began, “it must not touch the ground. No one is to pass under the tree or in front of it. As the tree is carried from the west side of the circle to the east side, we will stop four times for prayers. Be strong!” Those of us carrying the tree struggled under its weight. Moans and groans could not be held back as muscle rippled and the weight dug into our shoulders. My legs were quivering as we stopped each time for prayer. Joseph prayed in the Lakota tongue and though I didn’t know the words, I understood their meaning. When we entered the circle, inside the arbor, we placed the base of the tree over the deep hole that had been dug where it would stand. Twelve Chokecherry branches were tied just above the fork in the tree, six pointed north and six pointed south. These branches were ‘gifts’ to the Thunder Beings and represented the twelve months of the year. The hole was prepared with an offering of tobacco to each of the six directions, the earth, sky, and the four winds. There was also an offering of meat, water and chokecherry juice all poured into the hole where the tree would stand. After these preparations were made we lifted the tree into place. For a moment, I didn’t think we would have the strength to stand it upright. There were six who held the ropes to steady the tree and the rest of us strained to push it upward. Slowly it began to rise and when we reached the point where balance and gravity took over it almost sprang upward then dropped into the hole. After the tree had been positioned correctly within the circle, I stepped back to look up towards the top and to take in the sight of the tree in its entirety. What a sight! Adorned with all its bright color, standing majestically in the center of the circle, its branches stretched to the heavens, the beauty of it caught my breath and I felt an inner surge of understanding and appreciation for a people who, though somewhat different from me, are still my brethren. Deb and I stood in the circle of people that surrounded the ‘tree of life.’ We offered our own silent prayers for the friends who would spend the next four days in self-sacrifice, without food or water, dancing and praying for enlightenment, for family, for friends, for communities and nations. Joseph took the sacred pipe from the maiden, lit it, smoked and passed it to the other dancers. Each smoked in turn then passed it on. Tiara carried the pipe to each person in the circle and when it came to Deb and me we also smoked. We stood under the same heaven, upon the same earth, our hearts beat with the same rhythms of life and though our religions may differ we all stood before the same creator. And perhaps, we stood with the spirit of Crazy Horse. |
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