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He Fights for His People

Guy White Thunder is leading his people back to the traditional path.

Text and Photos by Dave Bunnell

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

At 82, Guy White Thunder is a proud, respected elder of the Oglala Lakota tribe, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota where the life expectancy of males is 48 years—the lowest anywhere in the Western Hemisphere except for Haiti. He's not an elected official but he's an elder, and in his tribe this is more than enough. Revered by most and respected by all, his words and deeds have plenty of clout.

When I met up with him recently at his son's horse ranch in Kyle, South Dakota, he drove up for our interview in a Ford pickup truck. My first impression was that this man is strong, very strong. He emphatically bounded out of the driver's seat onto the dirt driveway with the balance of a 20-year-old. He walked with long deliberate strides up to the front porch, clomped up the steps and strolled into the house where the interview was to take place.

After exchanging Lakota language greetings with his son, he plopped down on the sofa and indicated to me he was anxious to get started. There was a meeting later in the day of the "Chief and Head Man Council" which he did not want to miss. Just the day before, thanks to the efforts of this highly respected group, a New York-based energy company that had wanted to open a uranium mine on the reservation had been ordered by the tribal judge "to vacate tribal lands within 30 days." White Thunder and his fellow elders wanted to make sure the order was implemented forthwith. They are opposed to uranium mines because the mines have historically polluted the rivers and atmosphere with radiation. There are 29 abandoned open-pit uranium mines just in the Black Hills.

Still, he is generous with his time, gregarious, witty, and every bit as sharp mentally as he is physically. We begin by discussing his childhood. He tells me he began riding horses at age 5. "They put me on a horse and I stayed half a day," he says. Like all Lakota children, he rode bareback.

White Thunder's family didn't have a car, and they often went to the nearby town of Martin, South Dakota in their horse-drawn wagon with a load of firewood to sell, so they could buy groceries. He didn't tell me much about his parents, as he mostly wanted to talk about the person who influenced him the most, his maternal grandfather, John Lone Bull, who was a "ghost dancer" and one of the few survivors of the Wounded Knee massacre. (On December 29, 1889, 146 Lakotas, mostly old men, women, and children, were killed by the 7th Calvary of the U.S. Army and buried in a mass grave.)

"My grandpa told me many stories about the old life," White Thunder recalls, "about warring with other tribes, chasing buffalo, and living on buffalo and other wild animals." They ate choke cherries in the summer, plums, and other fruits and made "wojapi," a traditional berry pudding that along with smoked buffalo meat could be stored for the lean, winter months.

"When the army from the East came," he continues, "they didn't know how to live off the land, so they had to eat their own horses. The soldiers stole all the food from the trading posts, and they even ate their mules. They took my grandpa's horse because they were on foot, and they gave him a piece of paper which they called a ‘pony claim.'"

As a young man, White Thunder helped people mow hay, gather wood, and break horses. He was very good at breaking horses. At age 18 through the influence of his uncle Pete Bull Bear and his other grandfather, Charley White Thunder, he got involved with the "treaty council," and therein began his experience as a tribal advocate.

Among other things, "Tetuwan Oyate," the Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council, which was founded in 1894, has been in a long-running battle with the U.S. government for the return of the Black Hills.

Known to most Americans as the home of Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills is sacred to the Lakotas. It consists of an isolated mountain range occupying parts of Western South Dakota and Eastern Wyoming, which was reserved for the tribe in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. The validity of this treaty was upheld in a landmark case by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 1980. The government has offered the tribe millions of dollars for the land, but this has been refused. The tribe doesn't want the money; they want their land back. As one of their greatest ancestors, Chief Crazy Horse, once said, "one does not sell the earth upon which the people walk."

I asked him what he thought are the biggest problems facing the reservation today, and he said, "no jobs, no jobs, and no jobs." The native unemployment rate on the reservation is 85 percent, and as White Thunder points out, "the non-Indians who come to the reservation have 100 percent employment."

"Only the tribal government people get money," he continues, "and they are mostly ‘mixed-bloods.' The mixed-bloods took over the reservation, and they give the jobs to their own people. They run the schools, the police force, and all the government programs. The full-bloods have nothing."

The other big problem on the reservation is "alcohol, drugs, and lots of bootleggers." When asked what could be done, he shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing can be done. The police ignore it because they are using, too."

What White Thunder can do is promote the Lakota culture, customs, and language. To keep traditions alive, he goes to the annual Sun Dance and most of the other ceremonies and speaks on the reservation's weekly talk radio program, "Gray Eagles." He advocates that "if you don't speak Lakota, you are no longer acceptable to be Lakota and can't go to government schools or get government money." And whenever there is a serious tribal issue, he makes sure elders like himself are consulted and heard.

This is a man to respect and to listen to—a warrior who refuses to die.

 

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