The Spirit of the Lakota 

Leatrice Chick Big Crow, Marcus and Billy Palmier

The first thing Leatrice Chick Big Crow thought when she saw the chaos and destruction left in the wake of the tornado was, "I have to find a way to help." Then, along with her grandson, she started gathering blankets to give to some of the people whose homes were destroyed.

As a teacher and a mentor at the Boys and Girls Club on the reservation, Chick Big Crow tries to instill in the kids an ethic of helping others. Marcus (left or right) and Billy Palmier were two of the kids from the club who teamed up with Chick Big Crow to help that night. They opened up the club and prepared food for the people working outside. They worked on into the night, closing up sometime after 3 a.m. "They worked hard and no one complained," she said. "The kids were so excited to be a part of it. I told them this is what we mean when we say we help our own people."

Chief Red Cloud

Chief Oliver Red Cloud is a fourth generation descendant of Chief Red Cloud (1822-1909) a respected, traditional leader. Red Cloud was chief until well into his older years and through one of the most difficult periods in his tribe's history. In the 1850s, Red Cloud gained great respect in the Lakota nation by virtue of his leadership in territorial wars against the Pawnees, Crows, Utes and Shoshones. Chief Oliver Red Cloud carries on his family's proud tradition by focusing his efforts on maintaining the traditional ways of his people and fighting to improve the standard of living on the reservation. He is particularly concerned with the plight of the elderly and handicapped.

"We need to help the Lakota people, especially the handicapped. They need shelter when tornadoes come. They are people. They are human. They want to live too."

Nellie Two Bulls

Nellie Two Bulls, a respected elder of the Oglala Lakota Tribe, had a vision when she was a young girl. In it she was told she could choose between becoming an enchantingly beautiful woman, a person of great fortitude, or the heir to an endless well of stories and songs from which to draw upon. From that day forward, she has taught the children, brought comfort to the sick and honored her people and her religion through wondrous songs and stories. She says she made her choice of the three gifts offered to her, but clearly she possesses them all.

Stanley Looking Elk

In the chaotic hours after the tornado hit the Pine Ridge Reservation, Stanley Looking Elk felt the full weight of his position as Vice Chairman for his Oglala district bearing down on him. He worked until 4 a.m. that night comforting the dispossessed and laying the foundation of the enormous recovery effort that was to follow.

"I never thought I would ever do anything like this," Looking Elk said. "For a time I just forgot myself. I felt like it was my responsibility, so I started organizing the people. We just started with the kitchen at the school, feeding the people."

Looking Elk has worked every day since then, some days working as many as 18 hours straight to help his people. He admits the stress is beginning to take its toll on him. He struggles to balance the needs of the people with those of his family, but even under these difficult conditions he remains optimistic. "This has brought us together. Our families are a lot closer today than they were before. You see the tents out along the road; those are families that got together where they never did before. They are camping together, they are cooking together, and they're living together. It done something to us maybe for the good."

Del Brewer

When the tornado hit the Pine Ridge Reservation, it set off a chain of events that changed the lives of nearly everyone on the reservation. In the case of Del Brewer, an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who left the reservation in 1958 to attend college, the tornado brought him home again. Brewer had returned once before in 1990, working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but now he returns to Pine Ridge as FEMA's Deputy Federal Coordinating Officer, helping to coordinate the presidentially declared disaster operation

"It goes back in history - the Indian people are survivors. They all help each other," Brewer said. "The Indian people have a very strong spiritual tie to Mother Earth and everything that Mother Earth has to offer - the trees, the water, the land, the animals - everything associated with the Earth." Brewer's intimate knowledge of the reservation, its people and its customs, is helping to build a cultural bridge between recovery workers and the victims of the Pine Ridge tornadoes. This second homecoming for Brewer is also making the journey to recovery a little easier for hundreds of his people, as they continue on the road toward returning to their own homes.

Aloysius N. Fast Horse

As a carpenter and craftsman, Al Fast Horse usually works on other people's homes -- now it is his own that is in need of repair. He was asleep when the tornado blew out the windows of his bedroom. Rain and hail crashed in knocking over and cabinets and tearing down his cupboards. Every dish was broken. His home was heavily damaged, but he escaped uninjured.

Instead of working on his own house, Fast Horse picked up his carpentry tools and set out to help patch up his neighbors homes. He also works at the Disaster Recovery Center in Pine Ridge helping others. Here, he and other volunteers distribute blankets, food, furniture, and medial supplies. He looks forward to the day when his people have recovered from this disaster and he can get back to his carpentry and his hobby-riding bulls. At 61 years old, Fast Horse is the oldest competitive bull rider in the area.