Vision, Mission, &
Core Values

To Chris Kelley of the Church Universal and Triumphant

I do not know much about you or your church. I don't understand why it is that you feel you can represent the truth of my arrest. I don't recall your presence that day. I suspect that you are merely repeating others' information. When a story is told and retold, it tends to get worn from going through the filters of different minds. You speak with a certainty about the truth that perhaps only the Creator knows. We are all humans, with many weaknesses, and we see things the way we want to see them, for our own comfort and sanity, especially in hindsight.

We are notorious for taking time to build a foundation for our knowledge to rest on, simply because to the diverse value systems that we must survive in, as oppressed people. And so, I will share with you and hopefully, the church that you represent, my own beliefs about the buffalo. I trust it may help you to gain some insight to my feelings and behaviour of that day.

In your thoughtful consideration of Native American people, surely you must know that we hold buffalo sacred and for good reason. They were the center of our existence; we depended upon them in extremely harsh conditions for survival. I can only compare their significance to the god of today; money.

Buffalo provided every essential, from shelter to clothing and food. Nothing was wasted. The tongue and the calcium of bone marrow provided the nutrition necessary for the elders to maintain their strength. Liver was reserved for pregnant mothers. Sharpened bones served as knives and awls. The porous hump bones were used for painting; making record of our history. Bladders were water containers. Even the dewclaws and hooves were used for for artistic decoration. Art is all about honoring the beauty of the natural world, in spite of all the hardships. What little remained was not cast aside as "trash", but buried; returned to the Earth in prayer and gratitude for Creator's gifts.

The buffalo's greatest teaching was to show us how to live in balance with nature. Because we depended so much upon them for survival, we followed them in their migration path, never staying in one place long enough to destroy. The buffalo has great lessons on contributing to the health of the ecosystem; turning up the earth with its sharp hooves, fertilizing it, carrying seeds and in its interdependencies with other species. We use the term "Ikce Wicasa" to identify ourselves, meaning "common (hu)man", equal to all living things. This concept may escape the comprehension of those that have been conditioned in the hierarchy that (hu)man is above all. (And in what boat did we paddle to such arrogance?!) I can only chuckle when a blizzard can bring us to our tender knees.

The buffalo, through its instinctive wisdom, had a sophisticated social system that we adopted. There were no "single parents" left with the diverse responsibilities and roles of raising the young. Grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, mothers, second mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, all actively contributed to the well-being of the young. We call this "Tiospaye". It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a herd to raise a good buffalo calf.

Our spirituality is shaped around our relationships with all that is; our relationship of equality with the natural world, all living things, with each other, within ourselves, and with the Creator. And because the buffalo played such a significant role in survival, is it no wonder that they are held in such spiritual reverence?

The pipe and its moral teachings were brought to us by the White Buffalo Calf Woman. Most religions have a parallel figure that brought moral teachings to the people. The Christians have Moses. Capitalists have Santa Claus. And we believe in the White Buffalo Calf Woman just as deeply as Christians (many of my relatives) believe in Jesus Christ.

In our own dependence upon the buffalo for sustenance, the killing was with proper ceremony, asking for forgiveness of the Creator and asking for the buffalo's surrender. There is also prayer for the release of the spirit, that it may live again. These rituals provided the necessary checks and balances against reckless and unnecessary killing.

I will further share some oral family history that contributed to my feelings and froze that scene into my memory forever. In 1855, the Little Thunder band, including the Hollow Horn Bear, the Iron Shell, and the Spotted Tail families were camped near the North Platte River, within treaty territory. General Harney and his troops approached the camp. Chief Little Thunder met him with a white flag, as they were instructed to do during the 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty talks, in which he participated.

A grandmother stood watching with her 10-year-old grandson at her side. She sensed danger and instructed her grandson to hide in a burrow near her feet. She tossed her shawl over him to hide him. The army offered "aguyapi suta" (hard tack) and "wasin ska" (salt pork). Then the firing started. The grandmother, shot, threw her body over the hole and her blood dripped through her shawl onto him. He did not move until there were no sounds and it was dark. He traveled from the death scene, north to the Black Hills, two hundred miles away.

My ten-year-old grandson stood by my side as we watched the butchering of the buffalo on the Royal Teton Ranch, their only crime for the death sentence was to be hungry and in search of food.

We had organized the National Prayer Day for the Buffalo to at least, in the aftermath of the slaughter, pray for the release of their spirits and seek Creator's help to prevent more deaths of our relatives. We even prayed for those responsible for the killing. The announcement and call for prayers went worldwide. Prayer ceremonies were held all the way from the East to the West Coast, in Canada, and as far away as Belgium and Australia. Local people, park rangers, media and other native people from hundred of miles away prayed with the Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe that day.

That the Department of Livestock folks and Church Universal and Triumphant members were not aware of the ceremony may have been an oversight on our part. For the slaughter to occur in such close proximity, simultaneously with the praying and grieving, was shocking!

In such a scenario of confusion and emotions, I won't pretend to be recall petty details.

But even today, I remember the emotions...the shock of the bloody carcasses and the grief. Cast aside in the mud and blood was an unborn calf, gutted from the mother.

Let me ask you this: what do you hold as sacred? And can you imagine that being destroyed..killed? I feel so inadequate in explaining those feelings. I would compare it to burning up people's money, but since you are of a church, that comparison would not be appropriate.  But think of sacredness and loss.

I also remember my 10-year-old grandson's tiny voice, "Grandma, how old do you have to be to get arrested?" and my overwhelming sense of fear for him. (Call it "historical deja vu"). He was, in the innocence of his youth, willing to stand his ground. My response would be imprinted in his mind forever and he would act accordingly in his future, in his own hardships.

Yes, I stood on bloody ground that day, a stranger, unsure who Royal Teton Ranch was, much less Church Universal and Triumphant. And yes, I did not back down. In the court of law, under oath, I told no lies and I have no regrets for my actions. It seems to me that all the religious rights of every faith in this country were gained only through refusal to remain oppressed, yes?

I do not recall any threats of violence, but in my own weakness, I cursed buffalo killers with baldness. Forgive my moment of mirth, but those sometimes come in times of stress.

I do not begrudge tribal people the use of the carcasses. They are not responsible for the deaths, just as you are not responsible. That you only call upon DOL for their removal is clear and I can only imagine your great discomfort with the slaughter of over 300 buffalo upon your land last winter.   Again, I am not too concerned about wrestling with the details of that day.  I did, however, want to share with you our relationship with the buffalo and that we are not reckless, violent people, as history has cast us to be.

My involvement did not end that day. Just as I am a survivor of massacre, so too are the Yellowstone buffalo survivors of massacres. Just as I could not retreat from the horrendous injustice inflicted upon our relatives; the buffalo, we cannot retreat from the persecution of the buffalo until the threat of death is lifted.

Ed Francis' earlier thoughts of relocation of buffalo and CUT's recent efforts to find alternatives and to have more tolerance for the buffalo is appreciated. If CUT's position is consistent, then we will likely work together some day.

We remain in Yellowstone as Buffalo Nations, with a single thought and that is to protect the buffalo.

Ho hecetu, Rosalie Little Thunder

> >         Sorry my response took so long but I appreciate your e-mail
> about the Yellowstone bison issue.  It gives me a chance to explain the
> church's position.
> >         Most importantly, we don't kill bison.  We have nothing to do
> with that.  That's the policy and action of the state and federal
> agencies.
> >         The church has been working for the past 15 years on an
> alternative, more humane solution for bison that wander out of the park.
> >         Ed Francis, the church's executive vice president, was one of
> the first to recommend that Indian tribes take wandering bison to their
> reservations to start, or add to, their own bison herds.  However,
> federal regulations have not allowed this so far.
> >         Right now, the church is in the midst of negotiating a land
> exchange with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the United States
> Forest Service.  The church has offered to sell, swap and put
> conservation easements on 7,800 acres of the Royal Teton Ranch.  This
> agreement would help secure critical wildlife habitat.  And although the
> exchange is not driven by bison issues, it will help improve flexibility
> for future bison management, including sending excess animals, alive,
> to Indian tribes.
> >         It might help you to know that in the meantime, Indian tribes
> take all the meat, hides and horns from the bison that are culled in the
> field to feed their communities and to use in ceremonial rituals.
> >         I fully understand your concerns and strong feelings about the
> bison, which represent so much to the American people, including those
> of us at Church Universal and Triumphant.
> >         Please understand that we are trying our best to help solve this
> complex issue.
> >         You also mentioned in your e-mail that the church had Rosalee
> Little Thunder arrested for trying to pray on the church's land.  Please
> believe me, that is not what happened.
> >         There was an angry crowd standing on the county road protesting
> the shooting of bison that day by state and federal authorities.  About
> a dozen Indians were field dressing the buffalo and becoming very
> uncomfortable with the protesters who were shouting obscenities and
> threats at them.  There was a real and serious threat of violence
> between the Indians who were field dressing the bison and the
> protesters, some who were Indians themselves.
> >         The local sheriff was on the scene to keep order.  All the
> protesters were standing behind a barb-wire fence that separated the
> county road from the Royal Teton Ranch.  Rosalee Little Thunder, the
> native American elder you mentioned, knowingly crossed that line,
> although she later said she didn't realize she was on private property,
> and demanded to be arrested.  The local sheriff didn't want to arrest
> her at first, but Rosalee insisted.  The officer placed  her under
> arrest, put her in the back of his car and that was the end of her > involvement.   He simply complied with her wish to be arrested.
> >
Chris Kelley > > >