In July of 2007, the family of Sinte Gleska (Spotted Tail) preformed a traditional Lakota Hunka ceremony as they adopt relatives of Henry Maynadier into the Spotted Tail family. This cause for celebration was due to the unique bond that developed between Sinte Gleska and Colonel Henry Maynadier, who was an army officer stationed at Fort Laramie to bring about peace between the Lakota and the United States. Sinte Gleska and Colonel Maynadier were men of courage and vision who dreamed of peaceful co-existence between nations, both red and white. It was on March 8, 1866, that the bonds of friendship would be cemented between the two leaders. Colonel Henry Manadier’s report tells the tale of one of the most extraordinary and poignant events in Fort Laramie’s long and colorful history. Sinte Gleska, arrived at the fort bearing the remains of his daughter, Mni Akuwin (Brings Water Home Woman). Sinte Gleska was traveling to Fort Laramie to meet with peace commissioners and while enroute his daughter died of tuberculosis near the Powder River. Maynadier wrote: Some days since I received a messenger from Sinte Gleska, head chief of the Brulé Sioux, saying that his daughter had died on the way here and had begged her Father to have her grave made with the whites… Wishing to do him honor… I rode out with several officers, and met him half way between the fort and the Platte… I conducted him to the Fort and my headquarters. I sympathized deeply in his affliction, and felt honored by his confidence in committing to my care the remains of his child whom I knew he loved much. I told the Chief ‘The Great Spirit had taken her, and he never did anything except for some good purpose. Everything should be prepared to have her funeral at sunset, and as the sun went down it might remind him of the darkness left in his lodge when his beloved daughter was taken away; but as the sun would surely rise again, so she would rise, and someday we would all meet in the land of the Great Spirit.’ The chief exhibited deep emotions during my remarks, and tears fell from his eyes…for some time he could not speak. After taking my hand, he commenced with the following eloquent oration: ‘This must be a dream for me to be in such a fine room… Have I been asleep during the last four years of hardship and trial and am dreaming that all is to be well again, or is this real? Yes, I see that it is, the beautiful day, the sky blue, without a cloud, the wind calm and still to suit the errand I come on and remind me that you have offered me peace.’ Preparations were then made for the funeral of the chief’s daughter…Just before sunset the body was carried to the scaffold. Amid profound silence…the Chaplain delivered a touching and eloquent prayer…the hour, the place, the solemnity, even the restrained weeping of her mother and aunts, all combined to affect any one deeply. Post Chaplain, Alpha Wright, remembered that the burial was conducted according to the Lakota custom. “Four posts about twelve feet long were inserted in the ground, on top of which a scaffold was laid… Four Indian women laid her in, covering her with a buffalo robe and depositing within, her wearing apparel with all the treasures she possessed. The Colonel deposited a beautiful pair of gauntlets to keep her hands warm during her journey…the coffin closed and a beautiful red blanket covering it was nailed fast to prevent the wind from removing it, it was raised to the scaffold… The heads and tails of her two white ponies were nailed to the posts, and the idolized daughter was prepared according to the faith to ride through those fair hunting grounds to which she had gone…” When Charles Stehle, a relative of Colonel Maynadier, discovered the unique role, his ancestor played in the history of Fort Laramie he contacted the Spotted Tail Family and the Park to see if something could be done to memorialize the relationship between Spotted Tail, Maynadier and tell the story of Mni Akuwin. On June 25, 2005 that effort came to fruition when a “wayside” exhibit was dedicated at the park and, at the request of the Spotted Tail family, remains of Mni Akuwin were returned to the original burial site. The participants have stayed in close contact since that event and built lasting friendships. The images seen here are from the adoption ceremony held at Fort Laramie in 2007.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 14:43:35 +0000