Remembering Trailman Gray Buffalo (Richard Quinn)

In memory of Rick Trailman Gray Buffalo

Today, October 26, 2010, our people will be burying a warrior of the 20^th and 21^st century, in the sacred Black Hills. That warrior is Rick Trailman Gray Buffalo.

48,273,000 acres ago we were a unified nation of peoples. The Ft Laramie Treaty of 1851 & 68 declared those 48 million acres to be Great Sioux Reservation territory. However, in the past several decades we have had to occupy those lands to remind the empire that we will continue to sacrifice ourselves so that our future generations will remember they are united as Lakota.

Trailman was among those who offered to sacrifice to return to those 48 million acres. The Lakota Student Alliance would like to respectfully remember Rick “Trailman” Gray Buffalo. Trailman was given the name at Wounded Knee in 1973.

On March 22, 1999, there was no strategic plan to occupy Laframbois Island in Pierre. There was no strategic meeting announced among our people. That would be too dangerous.

We went to Laframbois Island to march against the corrupt land theft of treaty lands along the Missouri River. On the day that the march was ending, a sacred fire was lit inside of a tipi. Seven members of our Lakota Student Alliance were asked to stay and keep the fire burning.

We were trying to unify seven sub nations of the greater Sioux Nation against the theft of lands and the injustices that were happening to our people. Those seven sub nations are called the Oceti Sakowin: the Seven Council Fires. They consist of Seven Otonwan in a camp circle as: Ihanktonwan, Sisitonwan, Wahpetonwan, Mdewakantonwan, Wahpekute, Titonwan, and Ihanktonwanna.

Here comes Rick Gray Buffalo and his partner Roberta Crazy Thunder. It was a relief to see them show up at Laframbois Island with supplies and a strong message. Trailman was interviewed by South Dakota Public Television and his statements were broadcast a few weeks later on a program called Buffalo Nation Journal.

Trail man’s heart was where it should have been at that moment in time. Trail man was spiritually strong. Together we saw Tunkasila’s presence every day as we stood and sat by the sacred fire and prayed with our tobacco. And during the times we stood outside of the tipi, Trail man would recount his role inside of Wounded Knee in 1973. How he remembered those Wounded Knee warriors then.

We all believed that the spirits called Trailman and Roberta to join us and make camp. We all were in the same spiritual plane of thought at that moment in time. We could hear our instincts clearly there at that camp. Trailman understood his place in that moment and worked hard to help people understand what we were doing on an Island in the Missouri River while our people were on the reservations of 1889.

Trail-man’s heart was always for his people. This was obvious from his days at Wounded Knee in 1973. His efforts at AIM Patrol in Rapid City in late 1990s, and his efforts at Laframbois Island in 1999.

So it Is with great sorrow, but also with pride and courage, to issue this final goodbye to our comrade Rick Trailman Gray Buffalo. We admired his courage, his stand for unity, and his work for unborn generations.