Lakota Sioux return to Ash Hollow

In 1855 General Harney of US Army surrounded a hunting party of Lakota Sioux at Blue Water, north of Lewellen Nebraska. The encampment was made up of many women and children was massacred and only a few tribe members escaped. The prisoners were made to walk to Ft Laramie where they were then taken back Kansas or put on the reservation in South Dakota. Atrocities were performed by the military to survivors at the massacre site; belongings were gathered and burned or taken as souvenirs.

History books often call the massacre the "Ash Hollow Battle," or the "Battle of Blue Water," which is more accurate because it didn't occur in Ash Hollow. Prisoners were housed in a small fort at the mouth of the Hollow, but it was only utilized a short time and was destroyed.

General Warren, topographer, was ordered to collect the items not burned. He took them to Ft Laramie and then they were shipped to the east coast and eventually ended up in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural history.

The Lakota people are a proud and forgiving people and need to recover their culture while elders are still alive. Children were stripped of their language on the reservation schools and only allowed the Lakota to speak English. What is a culture without its language?

"To regain their heritage , the Lakota feel forgiveness is essential," coordinator of the Native American Exhibit, Shelie Hartman-Gibbs says.

The Sesquicentennial event offers the venue for sharing and forgiveness to take place at a location close to where their ancestors and their belongings were destroyed. They will be allowed to view their sacred artifacts and have ceremony and to share with the public. They will also be honored by being able to tell their verbal stories in discussions with visitors.

So why is all of this important? "We inherently know who we are as a people when we know where we came from," Dana Hartman, Native American Project Coordinator, says.