Pine Ridge Indian Reservation - Notable Leaders and Residents

Notable Leaders and Residents

• Albert Afraid of Hawk (1879-1900), an Oglala tribesman. In 1898, he became a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Prior to departing with that performance, he was present at the American Indian Congress in Omaha, Nebraska, where all his known photographs were taken. In 1900, Afraid of Hawk was traveling along the east coast with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. During that year, the show was presented at the fields in Danbury, Connecticut. One evening after the show's performance, Afraid of Hawk was taken ill. A local physician who took him to Danbury Hospital. It was felt that Albert was suffering from food poisoning, contracted from canned corn. He later succumbed to his illness on June 29, 1900. The interment was at Wooster Cemetery. His remains have been discovered by Robert Young, an employee of Wooster. Albert's corpse covered in a bison robe was relocated to Saint Mark's Episcopal Cemetery in Rockyford for reburial.
• American Horse Wašíčuŋ Tȟašúŋke (1840 – December 16, 1908) was a chieftain of the Oglala Lakota during the Sioux Wars of the 1870s.
• Amos Bad Heart Bull: Ledger Artist and tribal historian;
• Chief Crazy Horse: war chief of the Oglala, c. 1870
• SuAnne Big Crow, Founder of Boys and Girls Club on the reservation;
• Pat Cuny; an Oglala soldier in the 83rd Infantry Division, which fought in the Battle of the Bulge and liberated Langenstein concentration camp;
• Ed McGaa (Eagle Man): author, attorney and a U.S. Marine Corps F-4B Phantom fighter pilot in Vietnam, flew 110 combat missions, received;8 Air Medals, 2 Crosses of Gallantry and a recommendation for the Distinguished Flying Cross.
• Cecilia Fire Thunder, first woman elected as president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, 2004; promotes women's issues and revival of Lakota language
• Tim Giago; started the first independent Native American newspaper: Lakota Times (now Indian Country Today), received a 1991 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, and is a contributing writer to the Huffington Post;
• Kicking Bear, an Oglala who became a chief of the Miniconjou Lakota Sioux tribe. He fought in several battles during the Great Sioux War of 1876, including the Battle of Little Big Horn. Also a holy man, he was active in the Ghost Dance religious movement of 1890, and had traveled with fellow Lakota Arnold Short Bull to visit the movement's leader, Wovoka (a Paiute holy man residing in Nevada).
• Eddie Little Sky, actor;
• Little Wound (Tȟaópi Čík’ala: 1835–1899), Oglala chief. Following the death of his brother Bull Bear II in 1865 he became leader of the Kuinyan branch of the Kiyuksa band (Bear people).
• Chief Long Wolf (1833–1892), warrior of Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Sioux Wars. He died at age 59 of bronchial pneumonia while taking part in the European tour of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. He shared the grave in London's Brompton Cemetery with a 17 month old Sioux girl named White Star believed to have fallen from her mother's arms while on horseback. 105 years later, a British woman named Elizabeth Knight traced his family and campaigned with them to have his remains returned to the land of his birth. In 1997, Long Wolf's coffin was finally moved to a new plot in Wolf Creek Cemetery. White Star's coffin was also reinterred there.
• Old Chief Smoke (Šóta: 1774-1864) an early Oglala chief and Shirt Wearer;

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• Chief Red Cloud (1822–1909), an Oglala chief, a respected warrior and statesman. From 1866 to 1868, he succeeded in closing the Bozeman Trail, which passed through prime bison hunting grounds. At Pine Ridge, Red Cloud worked to establish a Jesuit school for Native American children.
• Chief Spotted Elk: called Big Foot by the U.S. soldiers. His band of Miniconjou Sioux were massacred at Wounded Knee in 1891.
• Touch the Clouds: Oglala chief
• JoAnn Tall, environmental activist at Pine Ridge, honored in 1993 for her opposition to uranium mining on the reservation
• Theresa Two Bulls, first American Indian woman elected to the South Dakota legislature; state senator (2004–2008) and president of Oglala Sioux Tribe (2008–2010)
• Richard Wilson (April 29, 1934 – January 31, 1990), tribal chairman from 1972–1976 during the Wounded Knee Incident; accused of suppressing political opposition with violence
• John Yellow Bird Steele, elected president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe six times from 1992-2010.
• Young Man Afraid Of His Horses: (Tȟašúŋke Kȟokípȟapi) (1830–1900). His name means "They fear his horse" or "His horse is feared," meaning the warrior was so renowned that the sight of his horse inspired fear.
• Charles Trimble, member of Oglala Lakota Nation and former Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians. (1972–1978)