Looking for a daughter lost
By Ernestine Chasing Hawk
Native Sun News Today Editor
nativesunnews.today
RAPID CITY – They say the ancients wailed and screamed when they lost a loved one which enabled them to release their grief aloud. As Delbert High Hawk walks the streets of Rapid City looking for the daughter he lost three years ago, he too cries knowing he will never find her.
The past three years have been emotional for Delbert and his wife Arlene who lost their
daughter Mariah on Valentine’s Day in 2016. The body of Mariah, who was only 20 at the time, was found under a utility trailer in the 1200 block of Silverleaf Avenue in Rapid City.
Although the Rapid City Police Department asserts that Mariah’s tragic death was the not the result of foul play, Delbert and his family believe differently.
Autopsy photos of Mariah, plainly reveal bruises to her face which Delbert believes were from trauma inflicted on her by her boyfriend the night she ran out into the cold after him.
The family carries on with life with a big gaping hole in their hearts believing that someone out there is responsible for her demise. So the family of Mariah marches on and will continue to march for “
Justice for Mariah,” perhaps as a release of the anger and pain they must feel over the tragic loss of their daughter.
Last week on the third anniversary of their daughter’s death, the High Hawk’s marched again. This year they were joined by the family of
Tyrell Boyd Bull Bear who wanted to memorialize the young man who they described as “everyone’s favorite nephew.”
Approximately 20 family members began their memorial trek in the falling snow and in icy temperatures at the southwest corner of Rapid City Regional Hospital. They marched to the place where Mariah’s lifeless body was found on a cold wintry Valentine’s Day much like this one.
From there they marched to the Pennington County Court House where they hoped to bring awareness to a police department that was perhaps too quick to write off Mariah’s death to the cold.
Then the group convened at the Hope Center where they shared a traditional meal of Wahunpi (soup) and Wigliungagapi (fried bread). There were also two cakes, one for Mariah and one for Tyrell lovingly made by family members.
“We have held this memorial walk for the past three years since she was taken from us,” Delbert shared and that the walk was also for Mariah’s daughter, Mataya, who was only 4 years old at the time of her mother’s death.
“She always wanted to do something for her mother,” he said. Mataya, who sat nearby coloring, lifted her head and smiled when she heard her grandfather acknowledge that she too wished the march to continue. An endearing moment was when Delbert made sure his granddaughter Mataya ate first.
Tyrell Boyd Bull Bear, 1990-2018. Family photo
Jennifer Long, aunt of Tyrell Bull Bear. also spoke about the tragedy of losing her nephew, “We are working on issues ourselves. The person who did this to him was my little sister.”
Lorraine Swallow, who was also an aunt of Bull Bear’s, was accused of inflicting the fatal wounds that killed him at her home on December 8, 2018.
Long said she raised Bull Bear as her own son and that he was a kind hearted person that liked to share his basketball moves with younger athletes.
Copyright permission Native Sun News Today
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