"t was an appropriate act of respect on Friday that the North Dakota Historical Society transferred the rights to a 5-acre plot in Fort Yates to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, with the United States as the trustee.

The site is one of the two locations where the remains of Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota holy man, may be buried. No one really knows.

Tatanka Iyotaka�s own people should be guardians of the Fort Yates site, as they were until 1956.

People have differing views on how much reverence to show toward a place, particularly a grave site. There are places that reach out to the human spirit. Bear Butte, in South Dakota, to cite a prime example, is not itself an object of worship so much as it�s a venue of spiritual uplift, as many people would find in a cathedral.

That Sitting Bull�s remains perhaps were moved in 1953 matters, in a sense. Then again, probably not. Graves should be safe from tampering. Whatever happened more than 50 years ago, it�s not the presence of physical remains in the ground at Fort Yates or near Mobridge, S.D., that invokes the memory of a great man."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Grave site at Fort Yates in proper hands (The Bismarck Tribune 1/8)

Related Stories:
Column: Sitting Bull gets respect he deserves (11/27)
Men want Sitting Bull gravesite on National Register (11/21)
Editorial: Don't turn Sitting Bull grave into tourist site (01/23)
Men hope to preserve Sitting Bull's burial site (05/17)
Land purchased to protect Sitting Bull site (12/20)