Descendants on both sides of the Blue Water Creek Massacre speak about how to right the wrongs of the past
Paul Soderman (standing, center left) spoke about how his family history of violence against Native American people led him to take action at an event hosted as part of the Tipi Raisers' Indigenous Wisdom Gathering at the Eagle Valley Land Trust's Wildflower Farm on Sunday, June 30.
Zoe Goldstein/Vail Daily
On Sunday, June 30, the third day of the Tipi Raisers’ Indigenous Wisdom Gathering, a dialogue took place about how to promote reconciliation between white and Native American people.
The event was organized in partnership with the Eagle Valley Land Trust and held at the Wildflower Farm in Edwards. Attendees sat in a circle inside a large ceremonial teepee.
Speaker Paul Soderman had been involved with Lakota and Navajo communities for years before he ever learned he had a blood connection to Native American history. Raised in New York and New Jersey, “I’m the last guy you’d think was an Indian, because I’m not,” he said.
However, he said, he was drawn to Native people. He had been participating in a ceremony that involved climbing Harney Peak, the tallest point in South Dakota, for five years when he received a family letter indicating he had ties to the mountain’s namesake.
After he and his wife conducted extensive research, Soderman learned that he is the descendant of General William Harney, who commanded the Blue Water Creek Massacre in Nebraska in September 1855.
During the battle, 600 U.S. soldiers attacked 250 Lakota Sioux, killing 86 people and capturing another 70. Nearly half of those killed and the majority of those captured were women and children.
After the battle, one of Harney’s party, a topographer, named the mountain after him, though it already had a name from the Lakota Sioux: Hinhan Kaga, or owl-maker.
Before the battle, Harney met with the chief of the village he was preparing to attack, Chief Little Thunder, under the false pretense of promoting peace.
Upon learning of his connection to Harney, Soderman read an account of the Blue Water Creek Massacre written by Reggie Little Thunder, a descendant of the chief, and commented. “What you’re saying about my ancestor is true. He was a bad man,” Soderman said.
When he checked the post again after six months, he saw a woman named Karen Little Thunder had written back: “We need to talk.”
Soderman met with Karen Little Thunder, and other members of the family, at Fort Laramie, Wyoming and presented them with a letter expressing his support for the renaming of Harney Peak. While one member of the family forgave him immediately, others took longer to come around.
“I had to prove myself,” Soderman said.
Prove himself he did, through four years of prayer walks together traveling from one significant site to another. At the end of the fourth year, the family held a ceremony to adopt Soderman.
“That’s one of the things that I think non-Indians don’t understand about dealing with the Indigenous: You better be willing to come back 10 times. You better be willing to show up, over and over again, and expect nothing,” Soderman said.
Soderman became close friends with one the members of the Little Thunder family, Phil Little Thunder Sr., a member of the Rosebud Sioux nation in South Dakota. During the dialogue, Little Thunder, a traditional dancer and flute player, sang a water healing song for the group.
Phil Little Thunder Sr. (standing, back right) is a descendant of Chief Little Thunder, whose Lakota Sioux village was attacked by General William Harney in the Blue Water Creek Massacre in 1855.
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The significance of renaming
In 2016, the United States Board on Geographic Names renamed the mountain formerly known as Harney Peak. It is now called Black Elk Peak, in recognition of Black Elk, a noted Lakota medicine man.
The name change was the result of decades of work by Lakota individuals, including Basil Brave Heart, a Lakota elder from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Soderman attended the name change ceremony to show his support.
“After that name got changed, that energy of oppression got lifted,” Soderman said.
Colorado is in the midst of its own renaming efforts.
In September, the 14,000-foot peak Mount Evans in Clear Creek County was renamed Mount Blue Sky. The mountain’s former namesake, John Evans, served as Colorado’s territorial governor from 1862 to 1865. Though not physically present, his words are considered to have spurred the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre in southeastern Colorado, in which 230 Native people were killed. Evans was forced to resign his role as territorial governor following the massacre.
For years, there have been efforts to rename the Gore Range that borders Eagle County’s eastern edge. While the name still stands at present, the renaming project is ongoing.
“The Gore Range had a name from the Ute people before it was the Gore Range, and it got cancelled,” Soderman said. “In this day and age of trying to live together, share this place together, not be so influenced by colonization about mighty whitey owning everything all the time is, for Indian people, a little bit of a victory that lifts the oppression, the energy of oppression, the vibration of oppression, is connected to name change.”
Why reconciliation?
“Reconciliation is not a good idea. It’s not cool. It’s hard. But it has to be inspired. It has to be vision and dreams,” Soderman said.
Reconciliation stems from understanding and taking accountability for one’s history, Soderman said. “How do you know who you are, if you don’t know who your ancestors are?” he said.
The Lakota people have a word for forgiving on a generational level, and believe that generations carry the harm of the past, Soderman said. While it may seem challenging to deal with historical trauma, such as a massacre, finding reconciliation between white people and Native Americans requires speaking about the past, even the worst parts.
“Accountability is the beginning of the healing,” Soderman said.
“You don’t have to take it all on. I wasn’t there. But I am accountable for the actions of my ancestors, and I feel very strongly about that, and the little bit I can do in this life,” Soderman said. “Changing the name of a mountain, that ain’t much, man. That ain’t hardly nothing compared to what needs to be done to right that wrong.”
Accountability requires, Soderman said, acknowledging truth, and asking what justice might look like, and if past wrongs can be forgiven.
While taking accountability, and taking action, can be challenging, they are worth it, Soderman said.
“It’s a rewarding journey in the sense that I may not have any benefit from it. I may not ever know anything that comes of my efforts at all,” Soderman said. “But it doesn’t matter, because when I meet my ancestor on the other side, I come with no shame in my eyes, and I really look forward to that.”
Little Thunder is a traditional dancer and flute player, and shared a water healing song during the reconciliation dialogue.
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Repatriation of belongings
Soderman and Little Thunder are currently working on repatriating approximately 300 belongings taken from the Blue Water Creek Massacre site, which are currently housed at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.
“We don’t call them artifacts, and we don’t call them items,” Soderman said. Rather, they use a Lakota word for them that means belongings. “These are people’s belongings that you took. You put them in your museum, and they want them back.”
They began the work over five years ago, but recent legal changes have opened new channels for negotiation.
In December, the U.S. Department of the Interior issued updates to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The act provides regulations for the return of Native American artifacts to the tribes from which they were taken.
The updates expanded the consent requirements for display of Native American objects, and provided new incentives for their return.
Soderman is optimistic about the potential for the belongings to be returned.
“That guy,” Soderman said, pointing to Little Thunder, “is going to be the main guy to say, ‘I want my family’s belongings back.’ And that’s all it takes.”
At the end of the gathering, Soderman conducted the attendees through a hand shaking circle, giving everyone the opportunity to look into each other’s eyes and say thank you.
Zoe Goldstein/Vail Daily
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