Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Tribute to an Old Woman's Life


Yellow Eyes (Ishtazi), of the Lakota Nation, photo by Frank Fiske 1906.


 
 
Yellow Eyes was an informant for Chief Sitting Bull and was with him at the Battle of Little Big Horn. She and her family escaped with him to Canada and returned with him when he surrendered in 1881. She went on to Fort Peck with her son and husband and the other warriors. Information obtained from one of her descendants, Dorothy Eiken.


One summer Chief Sitting Bull had a Sun Dance for the people in which Yellow Eyes was present, it was a very harsh winter in Canada and the people were without food and on the verge of starvation. The spirits gave Chief Sitting Bull a sacred song that is still sung at Sun Dance to this day. It gave them courage, following the Sun Dance the Buffalo were plentiful even if it was for a short time. Without the Buffalo we would not have survived and without us they would not have survived, we are connected by blood and spirit. The Buffalo give us strength and courage in the hardest of times, the old Buffalo Nation Man said “we will live.”

 

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