Leonard Crow Dog

In 1956, when I was fasting,

I give of myself for the people.

-Leonard Crow Dog

Leonard Crow Dog is a Sicangu Lakota medicine man and spiritual leader who became well-known during the takeover of Wounded Knee in 1972 and after publishing a self-titled book with Richard Erdoes. As a leader of peyote ceremonies of the Native American Church and as a pan-Indian political activist he has sought to unify Indian people of all nations. As a practitioner of traditional herbal medicine and a leader of Sun Dance ceremonies, he is also dedicated to keeping Lakota traditions alive.

The Crow Dog Legacy

Crow Dog is a descendant of a staunchly traditional family of medicine men and leaders. The name Crow Dog is a poor translation of Kangi Shunka Manitou (Crow Coyote). His great-grandfather, the first to have the family name, had coyote medicine and wolf power. He was also a horse dreamer, buffalo man, and a pejuta wichasha (herbal healer).

From the time Leonard Crow Dog was in the womb, his parents knew he would be a medicine man. His father chased off truant officers with a shotgun to keep him out of school, because acculturation into white society would have spoiled his training as a medicine man. He grew up working alongside his father: cutting timber for a living and putting on ceremonies over the weekend. Good Lance, another Crow Dog, began teaching him the ways of a medicine man from an early age.

At the age seven Crow Dog was initiated by four medicine men. He did his first hanbleceya (vision quest) at the age of 13. In the vision pit he received the power of the spider and the morning star and became a wichasha wakan (keeper of spiritual medicine). At the age of 24 he was given herb power, making him a pejuta wichasha, and when he was 29 he received the lightning power through a vision.

Left the only son after the death of his six older brothers, Crow Dog felt a heavy responsibility to live up to his family name. He married his first wife, Francine, in the Native American Church and took the name Defends His Medicine in reference to the sacred peyote plant. From then on he stopped working a day job and dedicated himself totally to living the spiritual life.

Crow Dog has a strong connection to the Native American Church through his family. His mother's father was the first man to bring peyote to the Rosebud reservation after attending a meeting with the Powatami and Oto in Kansas. For years Crow Dog's father, Henry, held peyote ceremonies on the family allotment, Crow Dog's Paradise. Crow Dog participated in the ceremonies from the time his was six. He brought his own children to meetings to teach them how to lead a good life.

There is a lot more to being a medicine man than running ceremonies. Many people come to medicine men for advice, consolation, doctoring, and money. As more people came to depend on him, he raised money by giving lectures on Native American culture at universities. He earned $6,000 once playing an Indian in a TV commercial and gave all but $5.00 away during a four-day giveaway feast. Reflecting on the incident, he said, "That's what medicine men are for. I always had something to give to those who needed it, though sometimes all I had left was a bag of potatoes or a pound of hamburger meat" (1995:178).

The pressure grew on Crow Dog as he became a spiritual leader for the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM was a uniting force for Indian people of all nations. Thus, his responsibilities were extended beyond the Rosebud reservation. Indians and non-Indians came to his home at all times of the day and night seeking spiritual and material help.

AIM was founded by Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt, Anishinabe men from Minneapolis. In 1970 Dennis Banks showed up at Crow Dog's Paradise seeking a spiritual leader for the movement. Crow Dog had already been trying to unite people on the reservation to work together on issues that affect Indians. The partnership between urban and reservation Indians was crucial for the movement to take off. AIM organized the Trail of Broken Treaties to Washington, D.C. to demand presidential attention to Indian issues. They campaigned on behalf of Indian veterans who were not getting the services they needed. Crow Dog led protests in Rapid City and the town of Custer to demand justice for hate crimes.

Meanwhile the atmosphere on the Pine Ridge reservation, which borders Rosebud, became increasingly tense. Tribal chairman Dick Wilson, who had been fraudulently elected, was terrorizing anyone who opposed him with a squad of thugs called the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs). Residents of Pine Ridge were tired of corruption in tribal government and mistreatment by whites that went unnoticed by the larger society. In 1973 the Oglala Lakota of Pine Ridge made a dramatic stand at the village of Wounded Knee to demand justice.

The takeover of Wounded Knee had special meaning for Crow Dog because his great-grandfather, Jerome Crow Dog, had been a ghost dancer. Jerome saved several dancers from the massacre at Wounded Knee after receiving a vision. Arriving at the site in 1973, Leonard Crow Dog said, "Standing on the hill where so many people were buried in a common grave, standing there in that cold darkness under the stars, I felt tears running down my face. I can't describe what I felt. I heard the voices of the long-dead ghost dancers crying out to us" (1995:188-189).

During the occupation Crow Dog revived the ghost dance for the first time in eight decades. He ran yuwipi (finding and curing ceremonies) and peyote meetings. He doctored people who were wounded in the gunfire between the activists and the U.S. military and he dug bunkers for those who were fighting back. He participated in negotiations, bringing the sacred pipe into the meetings. A few weeks into the siege Crow Dog and other AIM leaders signed an agreement with the government and went with a delegation to Washington. However, President Nixon refused to meet with the delegates and the talks went nowhere. The activists left Wounded Knee on May 8 after a 71-day occupation.

Sacrificing for the People

Shortly after Wounded Knee, Crow Dog began his second marriage. He was married to Mary Ellen Moore, later known as Brave Bird, with a pipe ceremony. They lived at Crow Dog's Paradise with Crow Dog's parents, three children from his previous marriage, and Mary's son, Pedro.

Meanwhile, the federal government was prosecuting AIM leaders on every charge they could find in an effort to tie up the activists' time and money in legal battles. One early September morning of 1975, 185 FBI officers, federal marshals, and SWAT teams showed up at Crow Dog's Paradise looking for Leonard Peltier. They came in fully armed with helicopters and smoke screens. They broke down the doors and smashed windows of Crow Dog's home. They arrested Crow Dog and charged him with aiding and abetting obstruction of federal officials at Wounded Knee. He was given five years of probation. Later he was taken to trial for defending his home when the FBI agents came and for another incident in which he had defended his wife against assault. He was sentenced to 21 years in

When Crow Dog was first taken to the maximum security unit at Leavenworth, he was placed in solitary confinement for two weeks. There he prayed and taught himself a new way of singing. Many prisoners at Leavenworth were political prisoners, like Crow Dog, and they sought his advice on many subjects. However, he was moved from one prison to another many times, seemingly in an effort to keep him from his lawyer and family, who were campaigning for his release.

The National Council of Churches took up Crow Dog's case and raised $150,000 for his appeal. Vine Deloria, Jr. was one of the attorney's involved on his behalf. However, his appeal was denied. When his defense team went before a judge to apply for a sentence reduction, there was a long table stacked with letters and petitions from all over the world in support of Crow Dog. Floored by the outpouring of support, the judge ordered that Crow Dog be immediately released. He had already served nearly two years of his sentence.

When Crow Dog finally returned home, the whole tribe honored him with a feast and a giveaway. As the drummers sang a chief-honoring song, he led a dance around the circle. Crow Dog described the event as the peak of his life.

Crow Dog had three more children with Mary. The Crow Dogs continued to be active in American Indian social issues. They were heavily involved in helping the Navajo and Hopi fight forced relocation from their land on Big Mountain. Crow Dog continued his work for people of all nations in his role as a medicine man who lives to unify his people. "I am trying to be a guitar - the people are the strings while I try to be the tune that unites us" (1995:148).

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References

Crow Dog, Leonard and Richard Erdoes

    1995  Crow Dog: Four Generations of Sioux Medicine Men. New York: HarperCollins.

Crow Dog, Mary and Richard Erdoes

    1990  Lakota Woman. New York: Grove Weidenfeld.

Images:

"Leonard Crow Dog." Photograph by Richard Erdoes. Courtesy of California State University, Long Beach, American Indian Studies Department: http://www.csulb.edu/~aisstudy/nae/1950-1990.html.

"The Revival of Traditional Sacred Ceremonies." Photograph by Richard Erdoes. Courtesy of California State University, Long Beach, American Indian Studies Department: http://www.csulb.edu/~aisstudy/nae/1950-1990.html.

Written by: Melissa Lorentz, 2008