At Last, Sioux Chief Goes Home Indian Died In London In 1892; Body Exhumed, Taken Back To South Dakota
The body of a Sioux Indian chief began the journey back to his tribal cemetery near the Black Hills of South Dakota on Thursday, more than a century after his death in London.
Descendants gathered at his grave in west London’s Brompton cemetery, chanting and beating a drum as the body of Chief Long Wolf was exhumed.
Long Wolf died of pneumonia in 1892 while traveling with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show and was buried with 17-month-old Star, daughter of another Sioux Indian, who died when she fell from a horse during a performance in London.
The two were members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and their single casket will be taken to the ancestral cemetery at the Pine Ridge Reservation close to Wounded Knee, S.D., about 60 miles from the Black Hills.
To the beat of a funeral drum and the sound of Sioux chants, the casket was borne on a black cart pulled by two black horses. Behind, wearing feather bonnets and bright Indian jackets and blankets, walked relatives and a shaman, or holy man.
The coffin, covered by a Sioux flag and the Stars and Stripes, was taken to the nearby St. Luke’s parish church for a service of thanksgiving.
More than 200 parishioners joined the family for the ceremony, during which the tribal medicine man, Wilmer Mesteth, said prayers to the four winds on which the chief’s soul will travel when he finally is laid to rest on the reservation.
Long Wolf’s great-grandson John Black Feather, who wept through much of the service, said later: “I don’t know how to thank our friends who have reunited us with Long Wolf and Star.”
“It was a wonderful service and I am really glad it happened, but I am glad it is over now,” said his wife, Judith.
Long Wolf’s 87-year-old granddaughter, Jessie Black Feather, also was at the service. Her mother was only 12 when Long Wolf died and she returned to the United States.
The body, however, remained in Britain. As the years passed, the family lost track of where it lay.
A British woman, Elizabeth Knight, came across a book in a local antique market that contained a lament on Long Wolf’s tragic life and burial. Intrigued by the story, she tracked down his relatives.
“When I found the grave, I made a promise that he would go home. I know Long Wolf longed to be at home on the foot of his beloved Black Hills,” Knight said Thursday.
Long Wolf, according to family legend, was among the warriors who wiped out Gen. George Custer’s 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876 but ultimately were defeated.
Rather than join his fellow Sioux in subjugation, Long Wolf joined Buffalo Bill’s troupe.