6
My name is Francis White Lance. I am named after Daniel White Lance,
who was a Spiritual Leader and Sundancer. I was born Francis Charles
Apple Junior, but my paternal grandmother‘s brother, John White Lance,
was the last surviving male member of the
Oglala
White Lance family and
he asked me, when I was teenager, to change my name to honor our family
and continue the family name. I did not do so immediately because I joined
the Air Force and my grandfather passed away.
Ten years ago, my grandfather’s widow, Mary Strikes Plenty, approached
me and said that she wanted to take care of my name change since she had
promised my grandfather and so had I. She went with me to the courthouse
that day in Pine Ridge, SD and we changed my name to White Lance.
My great-grandfather, Daniel White Lance, was one of three brothers
who survived the Wounded Knee Massacre. The other two brothers were
Joseph Horn Cloud, and Dewey Beard. Originally these three brothers were
from Cheyenne River. They stayed at Pine Ridge after the Wounded Knee
Massacre.
The major unifying theme of this book is what is commonly referred to as the
Blanket Strip, the
Lakota
call this
Sina Okpate.
The drawing here shows
Dewey Beard, wearing the
Sina Okpate
and his eagle
feather headdress. He was
made an
Oglala
Chief after his
travels to Washington, DC on
behalf of the victims of the Pine
Ridge Reservation who lost
their lands and cattle when the
US took portions of the
Lakota
land for a bombing range
during World War II (eminent
domain).
(Documented in
E. Ricker, Interviews from
Wounded Knee.)
White Lance and Beard also fought with Chief Crazy Horse against General
Custer at Little Big Hom. The war against Custer was to protect the Black
Hills.
