Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, below, would like to see Halley Park, above, which comprises the eastern end of the portion of the city referred to as “the Gap,” where West Rapid City merges with downtown, become an area dedicated to four sculptures of well-known Native American leaders from the past.
Monument for Natives proposed
Cook-Lynn envisions new exhibit for Rapid City
By Jesse Abernathy
Native Sun News Editor RAPID CITY — “Pap” Madison cabin. For many Rapid City residents, the term conjures up images of the “unsettled” West of the latter half of the 19th century; a time and place in the history of “Dakota Territory” when the rugged pioneer spirit prevailed and the land was eventually “tamed” and “civilized.” Built in 1876 by Rufus “Pap” Madison during the height of the Black Hills’ gold rush era, which brought an illegal wave of white settlers to what was legally established as the Great Sioux Reservation by the second federally sanctioned Treaty of Fort Laramie, in 1868 (Sioux Treaty of 1868), the cabin is Rapid City’s oldest building. The structure was situated on the original 1876 site of Rapid City, which is now the downtown area and was originally known as “Hay Camp,” and moved to what has become the heart of the city, Halley Park, in 1926, long after Pap Madison had moved out of the area. Permission to establish a white settlement on Lakota, Dakota and Nakota land, however, was never granted by the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires), or what is more commonly known as the Great Sioux Nation. In April the cabin was moved to its new home on the grounds of The Journey Museum on Rapid City’s north side, leaving a bare spot in Halley Park. Rapid City resident and nationally renowned Hunkpati Dakota, or Crow Creek Sioux, scholar and author Elizabeth Cook-Lynn is looking to fill the void left by the move. The four-acre Halley Park is currently the site of several well-groomed flower gardens as well as a veterans memorial. Rapid City’s smallest park also serves as the medial point where West Main Street splits into Saint Joseph Street off of its south side and the downtown and east sections of Main Street off of its north side. Cook-Lynn, who is originally from the Crow Creek Reservation in central South Dakota along the eastern shore of the Missouri River, has devised a preliminary plan to erect what she informally calls a First Nations monument – a fitting intellectual and cultural tribute to the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people who first inhabited the region of Paha Sapa, or the Black Hills, as well as what has become the state of South Dakota. Cook-Lynn would like to see Halley Park, which comprises the eastern end of the portion of the city referred to as “the Gap,” where West Rapid City merges with downtown, become an area dedicated to four sculptures of well-known Native American leaders from the past. The bronze or stone busts she is working to have enshrined on pedestals in Halley Park include Oglala Lakota Black Elk, or Hehaka Sapa, a wicasa wakan (holy man); world-famous Ihanktonwan (Yanktonai) Dakota-Santee artist Oscar Howe; Ihanktonwan Dakota activist and author Zitkala-Sa (Red Bird), who was also known by the Christian missionary-given name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin; and scholar Vine Deloria Jr., another Ihanktonwan Dakota. The professor emerita of English and Native American studies at Eastern Washington University has also proposed flying red, black, green and white flags above the memorial to represent the primary colors used in indigenous ceremonies. As the initiator of what she formally refers to as a “First Nations Sculpture Garden,” Cook-Lynn says in the opening of the project’s mission statement: “This monument, a small, non-tourist venue, will be in its own quiet way an educational tool that suggests the continuous development of a People whose origins began in the vast star knowledge of the universe as well as the entire buffalo cosmos. Schools throughout the region will benefit from a recognition of this early history and contemporary thought concerning our efforts to live together as indigenous peoples and settler/colonial peoples in a diverse society.” Evolving out of a letter to the editor of the Rapid City Journal at the end of April, Cook-Lynn’s proposal has slowly – but steadily – gained ground since then. In addition to meeting with city officials, she has established a First Nations advisory board made up of prominent members of the local Native community to help her develop and implement the project. In early May, a meeting was held with the city’s Parks & Recreation Department, which is currently headquartered in the one remaining building at the east end of Halley Park, the building that at one time simultaneously housed the Sioux Indian Museum and the Minnelusa (Rapid Creek) Historical Pioneer Collection. All of the artifacts from the museum and the collection are now on display at The Journey Museum. Cook-Lynn said she wanted the city’s non-Native American Parks & Recreation Advisory Board to be clear on her intent for proposing a First Nations monument in the first place. “This is not a tourist venue,” she told the board at the meeting in early May. “All we are asking for is to place … busts in the park, in recognition of … important Native leaders of the past. This is a monument which would introduce in a humble way various historical and intellectual topics to encourage participation in all the history of the region. Since the ‘Pap’s’ cabin, a settler monument, has been moved and modeled in a more historical location at The Journey Museum, now may be the perfect moment to centerpiece our First Nations exhibit.” Saying it receives a lot of requests for park projects, the board agreed at the time that Cook-Lynn needed to have a “master plan” in place prior to its members making a final decision because they don’t want to do things “haphazardly” and wanted an impact study done first. Cook-Lynn says she feels that the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board may have been purposely dragging its feet because some of its members are against her idea. “I don’t know how the land now called Halley Park ever became city property anyway,” she said. “It was Native trust land at one time and was part of the federal trust land where Sioux San (Indian Hospital) is located now. I think the parks and recreation board wants to turn my project into a tourist attraction, but that’s not the point of the First Nations monument.” Sioux San, Rapid City’s federal Indian Health Service unit, is situated about two miles to the southwest of Halley Park. The area stretching from Sioux San to Halley Park was all known as “the Gap” at one time, Cook-Lynn says. When Rapid City was originally founded in 1876, the area was so named by local settlers after a wide-open geologic formation – a “gap” – on the eastern edge of the Paha Sapa through which Rapid Creek flows. “That whole area, from present-day Halley Park west to Sioux San, is where a lot of Indians lived in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s,” Cook-Lynn said. “They lived in tents and shacks, and I think the city may have gotten tired of looking at them and wanted to develop the area for tourists after the completion of Mount Rushmore (in 1941), so these Indians ended up getting moved to the north side of Rapid City.” Cook-Lynn met with Mayor Sam Kooiker, the city council’s Ward 5 Alderwoman and President Bonny Petersen, and the city’s Parks & Recreation Department interim Director Lon Van Deusen at the mayor’s downtown office in the City/School Administration Center on Sept. 5 to officially present her proposal. She said both Kooiker and Petersen seemed receptive to her idea and were helpful in outlining preliminary steps. However, she said the mayor did express concerns about whether or not Halley Park is large enough to accommodate such a proposal, including being able to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, and whether or not the monument would be a part of the city’s parks system. In addition, Van Deusen was worried about gathering community input before moving ahead with the proposal, she said. “They would like it to be more of a tourist attraction, but I’m not interested in that. I want the Rapid City community to know that we, as Native Americans, are intellectuals who have had and continue to have an impact on the area as a cultural enclave,” said Cook-Lynn. She said she was given 30 days to have a pro bono site plan drafted by a local landscape architect of her choice. To that end, Cook-Lynn says she will have an initial meeting with landscape architect Kyle Trealor of Dream Design International Inc., located at 528 Kansas City St., sometime between Sept. 13 and 20. Cook-Lynn must then revisit the city’s Parks & Recreation Advisory Board to submit the site plan for a vote before it moves to city council for a final vote. No funding will be solicited from the city, she says. It will instead come from external private sources such as foundations and tribal and academic organizations. “I sure like (Cook-Lynn’s) concept,” Kooiker told Native Sun News Sept. 11. “The site plan and the precise location would need to be worked out. It’s an exciting proposal, and I support the concept.” Kooiker says it’s important to have buy-in from the community as well. “There would need to be a community conversation on the proposal, but what was presented to council President Petersen and I (by Cook-Lynn) was impressive and I’m excited about it,” he added. Seeking community input on Cook-Lynn’s First Nations Sculpture Garden proposal for Halley Park will be part of the city’s formal approval process, according to Mayor Kooiker, who says he supports the project just as Cook-Lynn envisions it – as a non-tourist venue. Cook-Lynn said Oglala Lakota artist Marilyn Wounded Head has been selected to sculpt the busts and is assisting her with the monument’s final design as well. “We Native peoples here in this region are not just warriors killed in 1877, as Crazy Horse (Tasunke Witko) was, nor are we just victims of massacres, as our ancestors were at Wounded Knee in 1890,” she said in substantiating the basis for her First Nations monument request. “We are artists and priests and lawyers and teachers; we have native skills and talents as well as advanced degrees to operate our own schools and governments to bring traditional and contemporary contributions of our overlapping history with settlers to the region. We are farmers and rodeo riders, parents and leaders of communities and have contributed to the society of this region. Black Elk, Oscar Howe, Zitkala-Sa and Vine Deloria Jr. are exemplars of our contemporary history and lives.” (Contact Jesse Abernathy at editor@nsweekly.com)
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