ROSALIE LITTLE THUNDER (1949 - 2014)
from the Little Thunder Tiospaye, Burnt Thigh Band, Sicangu Lakota Oyate
Day of Celebration is February 14, 2021
For the past three years, we have been conducting an Annual Rosalie Little Thunder Memorial Walk in the Gardiner Basin, along Yellowstone National Park’s north boundary. This walk is to celebrate the memory of our cofounder, Lakota Elder Rosalie Little Thunder, and to offer tribute to the Sacred Walk she did in 1999 when she walked 500 miles from Rapid City, South Dakota to Montana’s Gardiner Basin. This walk was in prayer for the last wild buffalo and in protest against their senseless slaughter.
Due to Covid-19, sadly, we will be unable to gather together in person this year for the Walk. But, we fully intend to honor Rosalie’s memory and celebrate her amazing life, and we invite you to join us. Here we are gathering stories, videos, written words, shared experiences, memories, etc. Whether you knew her or never had the honor of meeting her in person, because you love the buffalo and support the work of BFC, we know she touched your life in some way. Her incredible work for the buffalo was just the tip of the iceberg of all the amazing work she did for Unci Maka, our Mother Earth.
On February 14, please gather your celebrations of Rosalie and post them throughout social media. Share your stories! Share your memories! Let the whole world remember and know this most amazing woman.
About Rosalie Little Thunder (Rapid City Journal Obituary)
Videos of Rosalie or in her honor:
First Annual Rosalie Little Thunder Memorial Walk
Written Words:
- The First Annual Rosalie Little Thunder Memorial Walk
- The Second Annual Rosalie Little Thunder Memorial Walk
- The Third Annual Rosalie Little Thunder Memorial Walk
- An Open Letter to Tribal Leaders & the American People
- Traditional Ceremony Honoring Wild Buffalo on Horse Butte (2009)
- Releasing of the Buffalo Spirits Ceremony (2008)
Rosalie Little Thunder Quotes
"Following instinctive faithfulness to calving grounds, migratory buffalo must run a lethal gauntlet of Treaty and state hunters along the Park's borders to adjoining National Forest lands. Wild buffalo must further suffer the harm of captivity in traps on public and private lands. This near-threatened and ecologically extinct native species is further subject to population control experiments with sterilizing agents. Our heritage of wild buffalo is quarantined to produce new offspring for commercial domestic profit. An arbitrary line is drawn on the map beyond which migratory buffalo can never roam again.”
"The Park is pursuing similar arrangements with other Tribal governments to set-up an operational quarantine - a livestock factory - to domesticate wild buffalo. Backing a trailer up to a trap in Yellowstone Park where buffalo are confined and transporting them to slaughter has nothing to do with tradition or the sacred or sovereign rights of tribes.”
"I felt a deep sadness for the deaths of the buffalo, but what really distresses me is the condition of human beings. We see everything as a disposable commodity already and that is not good. What we need to be seriously concerned about is humanity's callousness towards an entire species. Unchecked violence is happening again here and that should send a strong message. It's not a one time tragedy. It's not even an unfortunate necessity. It's habitual cruelty. We can do it here and we can go to other parts of the world and do it to other human beings. The buffalo slaughter represents government's capacity for unconscionable, habitual violence. That is what is dangerously contagious. It sends a chill through me.”
Send a Message to Governor Gianforte 
Rosalie Little Thunder Memorial Shirts & Sweatshirts
Shirts and Sweatshirts are now available to help commemorate our Rosalie Memorial Day and support the work of Buffalo Field Campaign!
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Her words opened a door for me. Like others have said in these postings, she didn't judge and she had a way of educating you that made you feel valued and included. Two years ago I wrote an essay about her and I'd like to share the last paragraph:
What does it mean to be a good human being in the 21st century? Little Thunder would say it requires being in right relationship with other-than-human powers of the natural world, including animals. She would tell us that it means listening to our ancestors, and recognizing that the earth holds lessons for us, and not the other way around. “My children still feed my father’s spirit,” she told me once. Can we find a way to feed Rosalie’s spirit by our actions today? She dreamed of wild buffalo returning to her reservation in great numbers. “After I am gone, I want there to be buffalo on this Earth. Maybe the buffalo will help us be here a little bit longer. Maybe they will help us survive.”
In the last few months I have read of buffalo returning to Flathead Reservation, parts of northern Mexico, South Dakota and of parcels of Native lands being returned in Oklahoma and Maine, and rewilding happening in bits and pieces around the world. It leaves me hopeful that Rosalie's wishes are coming true.
If you want, you can read the whole essay here
https://unboundproject.org/rosalie-little-thunder/
Oh, and that pig factory, in case you are wondering, with the help of Humane Farming Association fighting the legal battle, we shut it down.
Rosalie Little Thunder’s definition of a leader is the person remaining when others have stepped back. She was like that: she could add complex meaning to simple words.
One day on a conference call with her and my coworkers she asked me to help write a letter for publication about the buffalo. She was like that: making everyone feel important, no one was left out, welcoming, recognizing you have something important to give and contribute.
She asked me to work on the first draft. I hammered on the anvil word by word for days until I felt this is the best I can do and sent it back to her for revising. Days would go by. Weeks. Then I would get a call from Rosalie. Her call really wasn’t about the letter, it was about how are you doing? She was like that: knowing I was thinking about completing our work together, but ever mindful she was talking with a human being, and how was the human being doing by the way?
This was her way of sharing in the teaching of how to work on important matters without saying one word, or giving one word of direction. She was like that: the words are already written, you just have to write them down.
I could write many stories about my friend Rosalie Little Thunder, a small woman but potent in every other respect. Today I want to honor her memory by sharing the letter we wrote, one of the last things we did together. You can read it here: https://www.buffalofieldcam paign.org/an-open-letter-to-tribal-leaders-the-american-people
Buffalo has never left me on my journey's and anyone can see that evidence in my life today. In my 18 years, I had never felt the honor as I did being in the presence of the elders, being invited to partake in ceremonies. When I met Rosalie Little Thunder, when I was able to hug her, I felt life and light flow into me that I had never known. In the 21 years since, my heart has been constantly with the Buffalo, with the land, with the spirit that Rosalie and the buffalo shared with me.I will never be the same and I am grateful to the bone for that. I put my hands together in love and respect for Rosalie Little Thunder.
Buffalo has never left me on my journey's and anyone can see that evidence in my life today. In my 18 years, I had never felt the honor as I did being in the presence of the elders, being invited to partake in ceremonies. When I met Rosalie Little Thunder, when I was able to hug her, I felt life and light flow into me that I had never known. In the 21 years since, my heart has been constantly with the Buffalo, with the land, with the spirit that Rosalie and the buffalo shared with me.I will never be the same and I am grateful to the bone for that. I put my hands together in love and respect for Rosalie Little Thunder.
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