Opinion

Native Sun News Today Editorial: Include tribal warriors in South Dakota's annual Buffalo Roundup

Monday, November 28, 2016

Gov. Daugaard: Including Lakota warriors in the Buffalo Roundup at Custer is a must
By Native Sun News Editorial Board
nativesunnews.today

A few weeks ago the Annual Buffalo Roundup was held at Custer State Park. About 2 thousand people showed up for the big show.

As usual it was white cowboys riding herd on the buffalo and it makes us wonder why the South Dakota Games, Fish and Parks Service does not think about taking up the idea floated to them by our former Publisher Tim Giago several years ago.

Let us lay it out for them again. Giago suggested that if the GF&P wanted to draw crowds 10 times the size of the ones they are now drawing they should consider asking American Indian riders to join in the buffalo roundup.

Think about how it would take all of us back to those days of yore when the great riders of the Sioux Nation in all of their splendor rode roughshod into the herds of buffalo that graced the Plains in the 1800s.

Picture what a magnificent sight that would be.

The nearest thing to this vision, and it was a sight that thrilled Americans from coast to coast, was in the movie Dances with Wolves when Kevin Costner and the Lakota warriors road their horses into the thundering herd of buffalo. That was a great scene that no person alive today can remember.

The buffalo was the life’s blood of the Lakota. To deny our warriors the right not to join in a roundup that has our history written all over it is to deny our history. We implore the head of GF&P to honor the Lakota by permitting their warriors to join in the next Buffalo Roundup and then publicize it nation-wide. We can guarantee you that many more thousands of tourists will show up in the Black Hills for this spectacular show and all of South Dakota will be richer for it.

We also implore Governor Daugaard to realize the extreme importance of including the original hunters and keepers of the buffalo to take this under serious consideration. What a way to mend fences. This idea is a no-brainer so let’s make it happen.