Pow Wow Native

Tall Bull (1830 - July 11, 1869) (Hotóa'ôxháa'êstaestse) was a chief of the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. Of Cheyenne and Lakota parentage, like some of the other Dog Soldiers by that time, he identified as Cheyenne.
He was shot and killed in the Battle of Summit Springs in Colorado by Major Frank North, leader of the Pawnee Scouts.
Tall Bull was a major Southern Cheyenne Chief, war chief and Dog Soldier leader. In 1864, under his leadership he had approximately 500 people following him in the eastern Colorado and western Kansas and Nebraska area. He participated in the 1864-65 Arapaho-Cheyenne War, the retaliation that followed the Sand Creek massacre, but gave up the fight after seeing the futility of winning the war. In 1868, he participated in the Beecher Island battle. During the battle he warned Roman Nose not to go into battle until he fixed his broken medicine and to do it quickly so that he could join the fight. During 1869, Tall Bull was shot dead, during an ambush by Maj Frank North at a ravine near White Butte.
At a peace council in 1867 he argued that the whites and the soldiers should stop making war upon the Cheyenne by invading the Cheyenne land and instigating further calamities. Furthermore, they should stop telling the Cheyenne that they should give up their land to have peace. Their Indian agent Edward Wynkoop tried bartering a peace with direct tones that were none too conciliatory. During one peace talk Tall Bull personally stopped the great Cheyenne warrior Roman Nose from killing Gen. Winfield Hancock.
Tall Bull was killed in the Battle of Summit Springs on 11 July 1869. Not even a year had passed after the death of his fellow Dog Soldier, the great Roman Nose, on September 17, 1868. Also dead was Chief Black Kettle. The war societies were devastated due to their loss of leadership. The Cheyenne never recovered and were no longer a threat on the southern Great Plains.

The gracious Comanche elder Dana Pekiyou Chibitty was born at Richard's Spur in 1896. From an interview done in 1967, Dana declared that "I belong to the Noyakahs. My daddy was Noyakah but I don't know what my mama is, and all my grandfolks up here and my uncles, they all Noyakah, I'm Noyakah. It means "traveling around". You know, like you go somewhere you travel, it means that, Noyokah."
Of her Comanche name, Dana added that her recorded Indian Agency name was Tah-da-tas-i which means "real little". Before the use of her recorded Agency name, Dana's parents had called her by the name of Neh-me as a small child. Neh-me means "Walking".
With regard to the naming of Comanche children, Dana voiced the following:

"Some name the kids when they go to war, fighting you know, the other enemys", and "some name them by what they done, you know."

An outstanding picture entitled "Comanche Papoose" taken by Henry T. Hiester, Vernon, Texas, circa 1889-1895. Photograph courtesy of the Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Collection, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. Additional information from the Western History - Doris Duke Collection, The University of Oklahoma Libraries, Norman, Oklahoma.

A PARENTS WORST NIGHTMARE ........
Losing a child and having to bury them. A man lost his son and couldn’t bare the thought of living without him. He was suffering and couldn’t believe his son was gone. He cried and cried every day and night, missing his son, wishing things were different.
He couldn’t sleep and hadn’t slept in a long time. One night an old medicine man came to him in a dream and told him “Enough!! That’s enough crying!!” The dad told him “I cannot stop, I am never going to see him again!” The old Medicine man said, “Do you want to see him again?” The dad says “yes of course” the old medicine man takes him to the entrance of happy hunting ground where he sees many little beautiful children, so happy and innocent, carrying eagle feathers into the happy hunting grounds, smiling and laughing and just so beautiful. The dad asks “where is my son? Who are these kids?” The old medicine man said “these are the children that are called home early, they are innocent and loved and they go right through to the happy hunting grounds, so happy” the dad says “and my son? Where is he? Why isn’t he with these children?” The old medicine man said, “come this way” and guided him to the side of entrance. A small boy with a beautiful smile was standing there watching all the children enter the happy hunting grounds. He was standing there within reach of an eagle's feather. His dad grabbed him and hugged him, and the boy kissed his dads' cheeks and told him he missed him. The dad said “why don't you have a eagles feather like the other kids? Why are you waiting here at the entrance?”
The boy said “I keep trying to get the eagle feather Daddy, but your tears pull it out of reach. I see you are so sad, and I am tied to that feeling so I wait here until you’re ok” the dad burst out crying for the last time, he told his son, “Get that eagle feather and go, I will be ok, and I know you will be too”
- Don't cry too long for that loved one you lost, whether son, daughter, husband, mother or father!! Let them rest in peace, don't torment your life, because they won't come back, have faith that you will be together again, and that Creator makes us a beautiful home with all our loved ones when we leave this world.
Three Generations - Alfredo Rodriguez (1954, American).