Thanks to Eden Fineday for permission to “reprint” the May 17, 2024 story of her visit to the Smithsonian Institution earlier that year. Eden’s ancestor, Little Poplar, had a price on his head when he was killed in Montana in 1886. He had fled there after the events of 1885, kâ-mâyahkamikahk “when it went wrong”. After discovering the location of her ancestor’s skull, Eden took him ceremony under the guidance of her father, Sweetgrass Knowledge Keeper Wes Fineday, and made him a promise:
I will come back. When it is time, I will come back and ensure that you are brought home where you belong.
According to Wes Fineday, the process of repatriation is already well underway. Plans are underway for members of the Rocky Boy Reservation in Montana to travel to Washington to reclaim the skull in ceremony. They will lovingly carry the skull back to Rocky Boy, to be reunited with the rest Little Poplar’s remains, buried there since his death.
This is a significant and emotional story for anyone engaged in reclaiming what was stolen, and next steps are bound to be inspiring to watch.
One Response
What heartbreak is contained in this story and what hope and faith and strength. I can only imagine how difficult a journey that must have been, continues to be. It reminds me of the many times, as a child, I spent hours in the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina and saw the tiny bones of the baby that were on display there. It always made me feel so sad, as I wondered how lonely that little child must be… so forlorn in their mock grave. It still makes me weep… I wonder what happened to that child, to that child’s family, parents, siblings, grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins. Was that child ever reunited with the tribe it was part of in the way that Little Poplar was? I hope so, pray so…. may it find peace, and belonging in the spirit realm. to which we all come from and return to.