About Thunderbutte.com
Thunder Butte, in South Dakota, has featured prominently in my family's history since 1913. Also known as "Wakinyan Paha" to the Lakota, its religious and cultural significance to the Lakota goes back much further in time, still. Rising from the dry, rolling prairie grasslands in Ziebach County, in northwestern South Dakota, the butte is located on the
Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. From the top of the butte, you can see for miles in every direction. There are not many people here, although the land is alive with the memory of those who walked here before us. Taking in the quiet of the plains as they reach to the horizon, you can well imagine the way the world was before we were here, and what it may look like long after we have moved on.
--
Mike Crowley
Michael Crowley
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February 18, 2005
Thunder Butte Sunrise
Thunder Butte Sunrise
oil on canvas
18" x 36", framedRussell Smith, the artist, says this about the butte: "South Dakota is another one of those places that has provided me with a wide variety of ideas and images during my many visits. Thunder Butte Sunrise captures the warmth of the dawn sun as it begins to peek over the horizon and touch the high spots on the vast prairie. In the distance, Thunder Butte rises above the prairie. According to Lakota legend, when you sit atop the Butte on a quiet day you can hear thunder coming from inside it. I had the opportunity to climb Thunder Butte on one of my trips and was amazed to find a small cave there filled with graffitti as far back as the early 1900's."
Mike Crowley Friday, February 18, 2005
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Wakinyan Paha
Wakinyan Paha
"I once stood on the wakinyan paha (Thunder Butte) and I could see forever. Standing bracefully against the spring winds I looked into the distance and wondered what the world was like beyond that horizon, what lies there in wait for me to discover."
--excerpted from the autobiography of
Wiwambli, a Lakota musician
Mike Crowley Friday, February 18, 2005
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