Tony Black Feather Wake and Funeral
Tony Black Feather's wake
will be held at
the Wolf Creek School
beginning
Sunday, August 15, 2004 at 3:00 p.m.
The funeral will be held beginning at 11:00 a.m.
in the Wolf Creek Community
eight miles east of the village of Pine Ridge.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Sioux Funeral Home.
The number there is 605-867-5454.
Donations to the family may be sent care of:
Valerie Black Feather,
PO Box 383,
Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 57770.
For further information contact either Kent Lebsock at 917-751-4239
or the American Indian Law Alliance in New York City at 212-477-9100.
Let The Spirit Lead
Shortly after the Supreme Court decision of 1980 regarding the Black Hills,
Tony Black Feather approached a group of Lakota elders and leaders of the
Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council who were all descended from the original
signatories of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868. The Supreme Court decision in question was the culmination of almost 80 years of litigation between the Lakota leadership and the United States government.
The issue was the unilateral abrogation by the United States of the internationally binding 1851 and 1868 treaties and the illegal occupation of the Black Hills and other Lakota homelands. Despite the fact that the Supreme Court stated that “[a] more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history...”, it nevertheless refused to honor the treaties and return the land. Instead, it offered cash. The Sioux refused.
The vision that Tony Black Feather offered to the elders on a fall morning in the early 80s was a simple one. In 1977, North American Indians had traveled to the United Nations in Geneva demanding that treaty issues and human rights issues regarding Indigenous peoples be heard. As a result, in 1982, the United Nations established the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. We should, Tony said to the gathered leadership of the traditional Lakota nation, as a sovereign nation, have our case heard in the international forum, not courts and congresses controlled by a hostile government. The elders concurred and Tony set his plan in motion.
The late Pete Fills Pipe contributed a five dollars typewriter he found in a junkyard. Tony sold an old tractor sitting on his land in Wolf Creek. The late Chief Garfield Grass Rope offered his wisdom and assistance. Tony's daughter, Valerie, made copies of the letters he began to send out. Soon, an unseen supporter from England provided two tickets to Geneva for the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. The Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council would have its delegate at the United Nations.
Not sure what to expect, Tony and Chief Grass Rope went to Switzerland in order to represent, as Tony always said, “the forgotten people of the world”.
His presence in the United Nations began a twenty year journey that would bring Tony Black Feather into the hearts and minds of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples alike. Tony was equally comfortable talking to the United Nations special rapporteur on treaties in the Palace of Nations in Geneva as he was the neglected and forgotten Lakota people on the dusty roads of White Clay.
His legacy at the United Nations is one of wisdom, compassion, courage, warmth and, maybe most significantly, humor. He could often be found joking with people in the halls of the United Nations with whom he didn't even share a common language. Yet Tony never forgot to greet them with a huge smile and a thumbs-up sign, regardless of their mother tongue. At the same time, he did not hesitate to soberly remind the members of the Indigenous peoples caucus of their own responsibility to the people back home, often saying, “none of us are here to represent ourselves.”
He was also fearless in bringing diplomats to task and never minded breaking UN
protocol when the hypocrisy of governments, especially the American government, became too much to bear. In one “informal” session about the Draft Declaration on the Rights of the World's Indigenous Peoples, a declaration the American government has consistently blocked, though it grants only the most basic standards of human rights to Indigenous peoples, Tony told the United States delegates to stop acting like children and send the message back to Washington that George Bush should pack up and leave Tony's country.
At another meeting, when introduced to the United States delegate from the State Department, whose name just happened to be John Crook, Tony asked, with a smirk, “is that your name or your occupation?”
Tony's presence at any international gathering of Indigenous peoples was a powerful force. But it was far more than his words, far more than the things he told us and the great warmth he shared. Tony has a spirit which is the essence of the Indigenous world, a spirit that inherently understands the spiritual nature of our existence and which understood unfailingly that this spirit could never be defeated by mere humans.
Tony taught us all to “let the Spirit lead” and this, more than anything, represents the essence of the work he did. These were the words he would say when the rest of us were concerned about our ability to afford plane tickets, or attend a treaty gathering at Cheyenne River because of the absence of a working vehcile, or get a non-Indigenous delegate to see a point of view: “let the Spirit lead.”
These simple words reminded us always that all we had to do was step back and listen to the spirit within each of us, the spirit of the ancestors that are still guiding us in this work. Tony taught us all, that our responsibility was to that Spirit.
On August 10, 2004, Tony Black Feather returned to the Spirit world.
As stated by Oleg Egorov on behalf of the Lauravetlan organization of Indigenous peoples in Russia in one of the many tributes pouring in from around the world, “our immediate circle became smaller, but our world became richer - we lost Tony the man, but we gain a powerful spirit who will continue to guide us.”
This tribute says it all. We now have one more powerful spirit guiding us in our work. Wopila Tunkashila. Mitaku Oyasin.
...to hear the voices of our people even unto the seventh generation
Kent Lebsock
Executive Director
American Indian Law Alliance
611 Broadway, Suite 632
New York, NY 10012
http://www.ailanyc.org
kent@ailanyc.org
Tony Black Feather's wake
will be held at
the Wolf Creek School
beginning
Sunday, August 15, 2004 at 3:00 p.m.
The funeral will be held beginning at 11:00 a.m.
in the Wolf Creek Community
eight miles east of the village of Pine Ridge.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Sioux Funeral Home.
The number there is 605-867-5454.
Donations to the family may be sent care of:
Valerie Black Feather,
PO Box 383,
Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 57770.
For further information contact either Kent Lebsock at 917-751-4239
or the American Indian Law Alliance in New York City at 212-477-9100.
Let The Spirit Lead
Shortly after the Supreme Court decision of 1980 regarding the Black Hills,
Tony Black Feather approached a group of Lakota elders and leaders of the
Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council who were all descended from the original
signatories of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868. The Supreme Court decision in question was the culmination of almost 80 years of litigation between the Lakota leadership and the United States government.
The issue was the unilateral abrogation by the United States of the internationally binding 1851 and 1868 treaties and the illegal occupation of the Black Hills and other Lakota homelands. Despite the fact that the Supreme Court stated that “[a] more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history...”, it nevertheless refused to honor the treaties and return the land. Instead, it offered cash. The Sioux refused.
The vision that Tony Black Feather offered to the elders on a fall morning in the early 80s was a simple one. In 1977, North American Indians had traveled to the United Nations in Geneva demanding that treaty issues and human rights issues regarding Indigenous peoples be heard. As a result, in 1982, the United Nations established the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. We should, Tony said to the gathered leadership of the traditional Lakota nation, as a sovereign nation, have our case heard in the international forum, not courts and congresses controlled by a hostile government. The elders concurred and Tony set his plan in motion.
The late Pete Fills Pipe contributed a five dollars typewriter he found in a junkyard. Tony sold an old tractor sitting on his land in Wolf Creek. The late Chief Garfield Grass Rope offered his wisdom and assistance. Tony's daughter, Valerie, made copies of the letters he began to send out. Soon, an unseen supporter from England provided two tickets to Geneva for the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. The Teton Sioux Nation Treaty Council would have its delegate at the United Nations.
Not sure what to expect, Tony and Chief Grass Rope went to Switzerland in order to represent, as Tony always said, “the forgotten people of the world”.
His presence in the United Nations began a twenty year journey that would bring Tony Black Feather into the hearts and minds of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples alike. Tony was equally comfortable talking to the United Nations special rapporteur on treaties in the Palace of Nations in Geneva as he was the neglected and forgotten Lakota people on the dusty roads of White Clay.
His legacy at the United Nations is one of wisdom, compassion, courage, warmth and, maybe most significantly, humor. He could often be found joking with people in the halls of the United Nations with whom he didn't even share a common language. Yet Tony never forgot to greet them with a huge smile and a thumbs-up sign, regardless of their mother tongue. At the same time, he did not hesitate to soberly remind the members of the Indigenous peoples caucus of their own responsibility to the people back home, often saying, “none of us are here to represent ourselves.”
He was also fearless in bringing diplomats to task and never minded breaking UN
protocol when the hypocrisy of governments, especially the American government, became too much to bear. In one “informal” session about the Draft Declaration on the Rights of the World's Indigenous Peoples, a declaration the American government has consistently blocked, though it grants only the most basic standards of human rights to Indigenous peoples, Tony told the United States delegates to stop acting like children and send the message back to Washington that George Bush should pack up and leave Tony's country.
At another meeting, when introduced to the United States delegate from the State Department, whose name just happened to be John Crook, Tony asked, with a smirk, “is that your name or your occupation?”
Tony's presence at any international gathering of Indigenous peoples was a powerful force. But it was far more than his words, far more than the things he told us and the great warmth he shared. Tony has a spirit which is the essence of the Indigenous world, a spirit that inherently understands the spiritual nature of our existence and which understood unfailingly that this spirit could never be defeated by mere humans.
Tony taught us all to “let the Spirit lead” and this, more than anything, represents the essence of the work he did. These were the words he would say when the rest of us were concerned about our ability to afford plane tickets, or attend a treaty gathering at Cheyenne River because of the absence of a working vehcile, or get a non-Indigenous delegate to see a point of view: “let the Spirit lead.”
These simple words reminded us always that all we had to do was step back and listen to the spirit within each of us, the spirit of the ancestors that are still guiding us in this work. Tony taught us all, that our responsibility was to that Spirit.
On August 10, 2004, Tony Black Feather returned to the Spirit world.
As stated by Oleg Egorov on behalf of the Lauravetlan organization of Indigenous peoples in Russia in one of the many tributes pouring in from around the world, “our immediate circle became smaller, but our world became richer - we lost Tony the man, but we gain a powerful spirit who will continue to guide us.”
This tribute says it all. We now have one more powerful spirit guiding us in our work. Wopila Tunkashila. Mitaku Oyasin.
...to hear the voices of our people even unto the seventh generation
Kent Lebsock
Executive Director
American Indian Law Alliance
611 Broadway, Suite 632
New York, NY 10012
http://www.ailanyc.org
kent@ailanyc.org