Compassionate Woman

Wilmette, Illinois

Contents

Author’s Notes and Acknowledgments . . . ix Introduction . . . 1 Chapter I: The Funeral . . . 5 Chapter II: The Early Years . . . 9 Chapter III: Heritage . . . 19 Chapter IV: Marriage and Family Life . . . 39 Chapter V: Alaska . . . 45 Chapter VI: Tribal Colleges . . . 59 Chapter VII: Freelance Years . . . 73 Chapter VIII: Reservation Life . . . 89 Chapter IX: Her Family . . . 95 Chapter X: Friends and Neighbors . . . 105 Chapter XI: Tȟawáčhiŋ Wašté Wíŋ: Compassionate Woman . . . 111 Chapter XII: Mobridge Tribune . . . 117 Chapter XIII: Bolivia and Peru . . . 133 Chapter XIV: Patricia and the Bahá’í Faith . . . 145 Chapter XV: Her Passing . . . 159

vii

Chapter XVI: Distinctions . . . 167 Chapter XVII: Tributes and Remembrances . . . 175 Epilogue . . . 195 Glossary of Lakota Words . . . 203 Brief Guide to Pronunciation . . . 207 Notes . . . 219 Bibliography . . . 222 Index . . . 223

viii

Introduction

A blistering sun hung in the sky over the Standing Rock Reservation and shadows of clouds drifted over the prairie. Yellow butter·ies ·uttered in the grass, meadowlarks in the sky. Pat, who we called Unchi (Uŋčí, meaning grandmother), pointed to a distant butte where medicine men would take young men for days of fasting and praying to receive a vision from the Creator. The air was light and clear over the long green hills, over the Grand River, where Sitting Bull and the Hunkpapa once camped; clear all the way out to Bear Butte, a favored place of Crazy Horse.

“As generations come and go, some change is natural,” said Unchi. “Evolution is a part of life. But we must resist the sudden intrusive changes that are imposed upon us. As indigenous people, we have to articulate what we mean by change, de³ne what we perceive as essential to our way of life. We can’t blindly accept what others call progress. Our people were warriors. And we must be warriors again.

We must ³ght these changes forced on our way of life.”

Unchi grew quiet. A meadowlark hopped toward us and a hawk swooped by in a long graceful arc, alighted for a moment on a rock, and then lifted lightly into the air, gliding away over the rim of a hill.

“You know, we’re not just ³ghting for the Lakota,” said Unchi, turning toward me. “We have to ³ght for everyone now, and for all creatures.”

Pat Locke was as warm and loving as anyone I’ve ever known.

She was also a ³erce, unyielding warrior, descended from a long line of men and women who gave their lives for their people. The great

1

Introduction

chiefs and visionaries of the past were not just legends to her, but a real presence in her life, and from them she drew courage and vision.

Near the end of his life, with many battles behind him and the burden of dark times upon his people, Sitting Bull said, “Let’s get our minds together and do something good for the children.” As if this great spirit was at her side or working through her, this became the heart of Unchi’s lifework. This impulse to help young people sprang naturally from her great love for her own children and grandchildren; and it ·owed out like ripples on a pond to reach young people she would never meet. In this biography, you’ll see how she became the moving force for founding community colleges that give young Native Americans the skills and con³dence they need to make their way in this rapidly changing world.

Di¹cult times have a way of producing great leaders, and Unchi battled on many di¹cult and challenging fronts. In addition to founding colleges for Native Americans, she fought for religious freedom and the sacred sites of Native Americans. She became a leader of the Bahá’í Faith. She fought for tribal land rights and for a healthy environment for every person and every creature. Close to home, she worked tirelessly to foster respect between Indians and non-Indians.

At international forums, she spoke out for Indigenous rights and for the rights of women.

There were many facets to Unchi’s life—some public, others very private. Some who knew her well may read this book and say “Yes, but she was more than this.” And they are right for her spirit was too vast, too sweet and ³erce and timeless to be con³ned in passages and pages of a book. Yet, John Kolstoe’s carefully researched and crafted biography gives us a much-needed introduction to this remarkable woman.

Over the course of her life, Unchi received many honors, including the prestigious McArthur Fellowship and being cited as the most e²ective Native American leader of the twentieth century. Yet, to the end she remained grounded in who she was as a Lakota woman.

She loved nothing more than to be with her family. I remember a summer evening when she and her extended family walked down to

2

Introduction

the shore of the Missouri River. Her daughter Nona came with her children, and we gathered driftwood logs. We dragged them to the sweat lodge that her son Kevin made of canvas stretched over a bent willow frame. We lit a ³re and laid some good-sized rocks in the heart of the ·ames. After the rocks had baked for about an hour, we carried them into the sweatlodge, where their heat would help purify us.

“Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ (we are all related)” Unchi said as we entered.

Inside, it was completely dark. Time disappeared. We prayed and sang.

Art Davidson

3

I

The Funeral

They came from every direction.* There were Native Americans, Latinos, Asians, Blacks, and Whites. Some people pooled their meager resources to drive over 1,000 miles and slept in their cars to save expenses. Others ·ew into Phoenix and stayed at comfortable hotels.

There were the highly educated and illiterate; people of wealth and many who knew poverty well; some had penetrating insight and broad vision, there were others of limited capacity; some viewed life with a radiant spirit while others saw the world darkly; there were laborers (skilled and unskilled), doctors, artists, students, lawyers, hairdressers, artisans, carpenters, entrepreneurs, educators, masons, business executives, secretaries, judges, craftsmen, and the chronically unemployed.

All came to pay homage to Patricia Ann McGillis Locke, known to many as Tȟawáčhiŋ Wašté Wíŋ (Compassionate Woman), who had touched the lives of everyone there in so many di²erent ways. * To the traditional Lakota, directions are more than points on a map or compass. They speak of the four sacred directions, each associated with a sacred color as well as with songs. Each color has many symbolic meanings, including speci³c characteristics of the Great Spirit, as well as representing all the races and ethnic groups of humanity and everything that lives in those regions—the two-legged and four-legged, the winged ones, the ³nned ones, and the crawling ones, as well as the earth itself. Reference to the four directions suggests the interconnectedness and sacredness of all creation.

5

Compassionate Woman

A drum being played during her funeral.

It was her funeral, but the diversity of those who came was an eloquent testament of her life. The proceedings were broadcast live over KLND, the radio station of her home on the Standing Rock Reservation, which she helped found, and for which she had labored as a boardmember for so many years. People who could not attend, listened for three hours to the many relatives and friends who came forward to pay their respects and give tributes to Tȟawáčhiŋ Wašté Wíŋ.

Robert Henderson, a colleague of hers on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States,* summed up the thoughts of many when he said, “We must not let our sense of loss prevent us from celebrating a life that was so beautifully lived and realized. Pat Locke was a ·ower in full bloom at the peak of power and the fragrance of her life will linger in our hearts throughout our lives.

Her spiritual qualities, her nobility of character will be an inspiration to all of us, every day of our lives.”1 Who was this Lakota woman of humble origin for whom obstacles were the ladder of life? Against all odds she got a college education. She was a leader and spokesperson on behalf of the down* See Chapter XIV for the function and importance of the National Spiritual Assembly within the Bahá’í administrative framework.

6

The Funeral

trodden of all ethnic groups. She was instrumental in establishing seventeen colleges on Indian Reservations, and helped empower tribes to establish their own school curricula. She fought for Native language preservation, the environment, the rights of women, Native rights, self-determination, and heritage preservation. As an adult she left the advantages of urban living and moved to the Standing Rock Reservation—the open prairies of her roots—even though her arduous travel schedule was made more di¹cult by this relocation to the rural prairies of South Dakota. During her lifetime, she and Sitting Bull were listed by a South Dakota Department of Tourism brochure as the two most outstanding Sioux Indians.2 The list of her many accomplishments is long and varied. She was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the MacArthur Genius Award), served as the ³rst American Indian elected as a senior o¹cer of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, was elected chair of the Indigenous Women’s Conference in Beijing, and was posthumously inducted to the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She accomplished so much while being a devoted mother and grandmother. In addition, she was well-known for taking in stray dogs and feeding anyone who showed up at her door.

7

II

The Early Years

Pat was born in Pocatello, Idaho on January 21, 1928. At the time of her birth, her father was a clerk for the Bureau of Indian A²airs (BIA), and her mother was a nurse for the Indian Health Service (IHS). They were stationed at Fort Hall, Idaho. Her younger sister, Frances (Milligan), was born two and a half years later on November 3, 1930.

As a result of her father working for the BIA, the family moved frequently. BIA housing was usually close to the o¹ces for the convenience of the employees. The result was that the girls did not mingle much with children from the Reservations. There is no indication that Pat had any enduring friendships from her childhood days. Her children and grandchildren recall that most of her early day recollections were about her parents and her sister. Her son Kevin said she was generally known as a BIA brat, the common term for the children of government employees living on the Reservations.

When Pat and her sister were too young to go to school, their working parents found a reliable and responsible person to take care of them. He was a Shoshone medicine man named Tagwits.

Pat recalled an incredible story from these early years. One day their mother had prepared some soup for Tagwits and he was peacefully enjoying it when the over-tired little girls, sitting on the ·oor, started fussing. Tagwits tapped on the table and sang. As he sang a broom

9

Compassionate Woman

in the corner of the room danced about the room in time with the singing. The girls stared at the dancing broom. They reached out to grab it, but the broom would dance away. Laughter quickly replaced whining for the girls. With their mood change the broom danced back to its corner and Tagwits ³nished his soup.

Years later, Pat credited the dancing broom for her ability to accept the possibilities of the unbelievable. She felt she never had to suspend belief or intellect to accept the incredible.3 It also established a lifelong belief in the power of transformation. Here, from the inanimate to the animate. From this experience, watching a wooden broom come to life, she was led to a question that resonated throughout her life: What are the limits for change?

The family went to the Catholic Church regularly, but Indian ways were at the heart of the girls’ upbringing. Traditional Lakota values were stressed, as well as the need to get valuable skills for success in the white man’s world.

When Pat was about six years old, she entered an interpretive dance competition and won a trip to the national event at an exposition in Chicago. Pat, her mother, and Frances took the train from Pocatello to Chicago. She did not win anything, but she reported that the experience was priceless. Being an independent spirit, she wandered away from her hotel and got lost in the big city. With composure, this six-year-old approached a cab driver and told him what hotel she was staying at and that he should take her there and get paid by her mother when they arrived, which the cab driver did!

Her poor mother was frantic when she couldn’t ³nd her daughter.

In desperation, she called Pat’s father, and it was no small matter to make a long-distance telephone call in 1933. Pat then walked in, con³dent and unperturbed. Her parents’ training in independence and resourcefulness paid o² and set the pattern for her future: without resources, but with resourcefulness and con³dence, Pat would ³nd ways to achieve her goals.

The family was closely knit. Eva generally had a garden and the girls would help with the weeding and other gardening tasks. The girls remembered fondly the picnics and camping trips they would

10

The Early Years

go on. John often took the girls to baseball games. He had a big St. Bernard dog, Patty, who was a favorite of the girls. John made a harness for Patty, who would pull the girls on a sled over the snow. They would have great fun romping together.

Education was also important to Pat’s parents. Books were a prominent ³xture in their home, and the New Yorker magazine could always be found in the living room.* A love for books was something that was instilled in Pat from an early age, and remained with her for life.

Their parents wanted the best for the girls so they could function well in both the Indian world and the dominant society. Both girls were given elocution and declamation lessons to help prepare them for the outside world. Traditions were also emphasized, however, and Pat’s mother made her a buckskin dress. She taught the girls to hoop dance and they also took ballet lessons.

Eva’s father’s name was Pat with her beloved grandfather.

Noel. His personal Indian name was; “Makȟókiŋyaŋ,” a contraction of two words; “Makȟá” (earth), and “Okíŋyaŋ” (·ying on or over)—he who ·ies over or on the earth. He was also known as Little Crow and often lived with the family. He would tell the girls many stories. The girls learned much of the Lakota values and rites on their grandfather’s knees. While they attended and respected the * Books were important to her throughout her entire life. Her granddaughter, Maymangwa, cataloged several hundred in her personal collection, and she was a frequent patron at the Mobridge library.

11

End of this sample.

To learn more or to purchase this book, Please visit Bahaibookstore.com or your favorite bookseller.