  " Quality is the continuing stimulus which causes us to create the world in which we live. All of it. Every last bit of it. It is the track that directs the train. " — Robert M. Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Very cold last night in the lower 40’s—I needed all five blankets. It is cold an overcast today. Some of the Sundancers are shivering even though they sweated this morning prior to the first dance session. Most of the white dancers are sunburned. There is one black dancer. I am amazed more by the endurance factor of dancing all day than the piercings.
I am also amazed at the drums—they sing one song that lasts for the entire dance session. Some of these sessions last up to two hours! I visited the St. Francis Indian School today. The driveway runs through a couple dozen modular homes used by the school staff. When you face west, you can see a light purple steeple overlook the playground and tennis courts. I tried to enter the sanctuary but it was locked. I couldn’t find a priest anywhere on the campus. Part of the campus is the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum named after the Jesuit priest Eugene Buechel. He came to South Dakota from Holland in 1902 to minister to the people who gave him the name “Black Eagle”. During his 52 years with the Lakota, he published three books in Lakota language. After his death, his compilation of almost 30,000 words were assembled and published in a LAKOTA-ENGLISH DICTIONARY.
In 1947, the museum was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Buechel as a Jesuit. Most of the displays are from his collection including a fully-beaded baptismal cap for an infant and two sets of ghost dance clothes. I watched another round of piercing today standing next to a fellow equal to my size from Pensacola, Florida. His name is Iceman. His twin brother is a Sundancer. Iceman has a wicked sense of humor. Some of the dancers were suspended from the tree by the chest piercings. One dancer hung for quite some time flapping two wing fans as if he was flying. It was a very impressive sight.
More dancers pulled the seven buffalo skulls. The people from Rosebud are Sicangu Lakota. Little Thunder was a great leader of the Sicangu Lakota after Conquering Bear’s death. As immigrants traveling to Montana and California they passed through Sicangu hunting reserves. Confrontations with Little Thunder’s security guards would lead to the Sioux Wars.
Chief Little Thunder lived from 1827-1879, so I found it interesting that his bio in the museum says that when he was hampered by old age, he turned over his leadership to Spotted Tail. He was only 52 when he died! Sadly, that is still about 5 years passed the average lifespan for a reservation Indian man. A young man from St. Francis—Francis Bird sat at the end of our camp table slowly smoking a cigarette and staring at me. He seemed to be under the influence of something. After he left, Iceman told me that I needed to talk to him before the Sundance is over. According to Iceman, Francis Bird is a holy man. 
