January 20, 2021

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

In Memory of Rosalie Little Thunder

Rosalie Little Thunder in Gardiner, Montana 2006

Written Words:

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.”

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