Leonard Little Finger shakes hands after a ceremony with students from Loneman School located in Oglala. Photo courtesy Kelly Reykdal

Lakota ceremony honors spiritual caretaker of Harney Peak
By Richie Richards
Native Sun News Staff Writer
www.nsweekly.com

SYLVAN LAKE –– The ceremony at Harney Peak has been a part of their lives for nearly 20 years. And on Thursday, March 31, Leonard Little Finger (Oglala Lakota) and Richard Broken Nose (Oglala Lakota) held the ceremony on the bottom of Harney Peak near Sylvan Lake to give prayers to the spiritual caretaker of this mountain, sacred to the Lakota and surrounding tribes.

This ceremony was done in promotion of the restoration, healing and renewal needed around the Black Hills. Prayers were given to the holy being who watches over the area. This spirit goes by the name “The Person Whose Bones Broke Four Times,” according to Little Finger, a Lakota educator and historian.

Before the ceremony, Native Sun News interviewed Leonard Little Finger, a lineal descendant of two survivors from the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890; Joseph Horn Cloud and John Little Finger, the latter being the grandson of Chief Big Foot.

The ceremony, held on a windy spring day, was attended by students from Loneman School in Oglala and several college/university students in nursing programs around the country, along with men and women from the He Sapa Allies.

This March 2016 ceremony is part of a sacred journey through four sacred sites; three in the Black Hills which include Harney Peak (Seven Little Girls Mountain), Pe Sla, and Mato Tipila (Devil’s Tower) and began at Prairie Wind outside of the Black Hills on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in February.

In giving some personal history and background on this second leg of a four-part ceremonial journey, Little Finger said, “I’m a retired hospital administrator, for nearly 30 years. I retired and I began to teach the Lakota language. I started a school there in Oglala (Lakota Immersion Childcare) for children 19 months to two years old. Now we’re ready to expand it.”

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(Contact Richie Richards at staffwriter@nsweekly.com)

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