Advertisement
Published: August 11th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Old House
in the middle of no where When we entered South Dakota a couple of days before we stopped at the State Visitors centre. It was here we found out about the Oglala cultural day in Kyle, one of the small towns on the reservation and the first day being the Friday 29th – pretty good timing I would say. The Oglala Tribe form part of the Lakota Tribe that are 1 of the several tribes that make up the Sioux, so it would be a great way in which to learn more about this part of USA’s Native people.
The open day was to be held at the Oglala college just outside of town, and straight opposite was a motel with camping facilities so we stayed here the night. As it was the first day of the event, the hosts were slow setting up and the crowd was pretty thin. We quickly learnt that there was a local Rodeo being held just up the road, so we decided to attend and return to the cultural event later on.
The Rodeo was different from Cody as it was much more local and in some ways seemed more real. Most of the contestants were Indian cowboys which
Rodeo
Ye Ha. This a little less organised but this made it better in a way were cool to see and, although the crowd was much smaller than Cody, everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. As always the finale was the bull riding and these bulls were big and fierce, only 1 cowboy out of nine lasted the 8 seconds in order to gain a score…really good event.
We drove back to the college to find an elder man talking to a small crowd of people, explaining the different dances and dresses that the Indians used to wear. Some young Indian girls did a dance whilst a man played the buffalo skin drum and sang traditional songs. Following these the host speaker’s son, Miles, gave us a male dance depicting the form of battle. After another talk we all joined in, firstly for a friendship dance, again to the rhythm of the drum and finally we did a Storm Splitting Ceremony to rid the oncoming storm.
This concluded the event and the locals departed to get changed ready for a play they were performing in. We opted out of the play as we could not afford the entrance fee, but instead we had a try of some local bread – which was really nice, then
we met a couple called Kelly Looking Horse and his wife Susie who were selling their home made arts. Mary wanted to buy me one of the small drums for sale, something to remind me of Dad. She chose one with a white buffalo, which was Dads spiritual animal and Susie explained that the drum represented Mother Earth, so the gift was really fitting – such a nice thought. We spoke to Susie and asked her if it would be possible to put some of his ashes inside. At first she was unsure as a fresh drum would have to be made from scratch, we were leaving the next day and they were also going a different direction. We spoke with them for ages and we showed them pictures of Dad and spoke about his life. They decided to take a small pot of Dad’s ashes home with them, make the drum overnight and we arranged to meet them the following day. It was such a nice time and really kind of them to do such a thing and of Mary to give me such a beautiful gift..
That evening we had tea in the Motel Diner – good
Lassoo 2
Full on action shot!! old American Cheeseburgers and a Mixed Fruit Pie and ice cream for pudding – mmmm.
Funnily enough, the clouds broke and there was never a storm that evening…strange!
Next day came and Kelly had kept his word and came to meet us at the lodge. What a nice guy. We spoke for some time and they gave us the drum before they departed. During our conversation we asked him about Indian death rituals and what they normally do with the ashes. He explained that it can differ from person to person, but as he loved to travel, he would have his laid on top of a hill to let the wind carry him so his sprit would be free amongst the land…this kind of gave me the answer I had been searching for.
Before we left the town we looked through the college archives and took a guided tour of the history of the Sioux and how they were at war with the whites – very interesting. Later in the journey we visited the Wounded Knee Massacre site where many Indians were killed by Colonel Forsythe and his cavalry.
On the way out of the reservation we
Old Cowboys
they were the real McCoy here found a spot where we could lay Dad’s ashes. A large rock lay in the middle of the prairie and it seemed perfect. We took a rough road as close as we could get and walked to the top. The view was beautiful and here we laid part of his remains for the wind to take his sprit amongst the people where his beliefs began – ‘Dances with Cranes’ he used to call himself because of his old job as a Crane engineer at steelworks and the crazy man sure used to dance around on them!!
As we left the hill and said our goodbyes I looked back and felt a sense of relief and happiness that part of him was here in this glorious peaceful place.
Love you Dad, Rest in Peace and fly with the wind xxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 31; dbt: 0.049s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb