The remains of a Sioux Indian chief were en route today to a tribal burial ground near the Black Hills of South Dakota, after spending 105 years in a British cemetery.
Chief Long Wolf's descendants gathered at his grave Thursday in west London's Brompton cemetery, chanting and beating a drum as his body was exhumed.Long Wolf died of pneumonia in 1892 while traveling with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show. He was buried with Star, the 17-month-old daughter of another Sioux Indian, who died when she fell from a horse during a performance in London.
The two were members of the Oglala Sioux tribe, and their single casket was being moved to the ancestral cemetery at Pine Ridge Reservation close to Wounded Knee, South Dakota, about 60 miles from the Black Hills.
To the beat of a funeral drum and the sound of Sioux chants, the casket was borne on a black cart pulled by two black horses. Wearing feather bonnets and bright Indian jackets and blankets, relatives and a shaman walked behind.
The coffin, covered by a Sioux flag and the Stars and Stripes, was taken to a nearby church for a service of thanksgiving.
More than 200 parishioners joined the family for the ceremony, during which the tribal medicine man, Wilmer Mesteth, said prayers to the four winds on which the chief's soul will travel when he is finally laid to rest on the reservation.
Long Wolf's great grandson John Black Feather, who wept through much of the service, said later: "I don't know how to thank our friends who have reunited us with Long Wolf and Star."
Long Wolf's 87-year-old granddaughter, Jessie Black Feather, also attended the service. Her mother was 12 when Long Wolf died and she returned to the United States.
The body, however, remained in Britain and as time passed, the family lost track of where it lay.
A British woman, Elizabeth Knight, came across a book in an antique market that contained a lament on Long Wolf's tragic life and burial. Intrigued by the story, she tracked down his relatives.