Debbie Dogskin froze to death in Fort Yates, North Dakota on February 4 while housesitting a trailer for a friend. The propane tank that supplied fuel to heat the residence went dry sometime while she was there and she apparently fell asleep, unable to help herself find warmth within the thin walls of the trailer. Her kindness toward her friend led to her own untimely death and it was felt throughout the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s communities. Her mother, Sara Dogskin, noted how kind and caring her 61 year-old daughter was, but it was a kindness that killed her. Why had the tank run dry and why had Debbie’s friends not said anything about that possibility? Or, why didn’t she leave when it got freezing cold. The temperature was around zero that night.

Freezing to death is never far from the minds of our fellow Natives who live on the Plains. The Wounded Knee Massacre happened in South Dakota near Wounded Knee Creek and the Pine Ridge Reservation. The U.S. Army shot down unarmed Native men, women, and children. They died outright or lay wounded and froze to death. December 29, 1890 is a day all Natives and Americans of conscience remember.

Sitting Bull, who was shot and killed the same year on June 15, has a memorial monument in Fort Yates. He, too, is remembered and people go to the monument, sadly sometimes to defame the site with drinking parties and to make it a place where dumping old refrigerators is the norm. Loss inflicts many wounds on those who survive.

Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse took their people to this far northern country to get away from bacon, coffee and whiskey, and to once again live free before the greedy white man came with his lust for gold and land. Crazy Horse voluntarily went to Red Cloud Indian Agency, believing the Army’s word that he could talk with a general and come to a settled peace. But instead he was taken to Fort Robinson where he was stabbed through his kidneys and spent the better part of a night in agony before dying on September 5, 1877. Today instead of gold, the Northern Plains are desired for oil and gas.