| Lost Bird was seven months old on December 29th, 1890, the day her
mother was shot down at Cankpi Opi Wakpala, the creek called Wounded
Knee. Four days after the massacre, Lost Bird was discovered
under the frozen body of her mother by General Leonard Colby.
Colby took the child for his own and raised Lost Bird in White society.
Lost Bird suffered greatly during her life, searching for her
identity, subjected to sexual abuse by an adopted cousin and
raped and impregnated by Colby, her adoptive father. She led a tragic life and died on Valentine's Day, 1919, in California. Lost Bird's remains were repatriated to the Wounded Knee Cemetery in 1991. Her life remains a powerful symbol and has become a rallying point for Native People attempting to re-connect to their culture and families the thousands of Native children and their descendants that were removed from their culture and adopted into non-Indian society. |