Lni to Honor Cleo Red Feather for Hand Games Contributions

Summary

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Red Feather had an aunt, Lillian, who had married Ted Wooden Thigh of the Northern Cheyenne and lived on that reservation. Each summer Red Feather would take her kids to visit the Wooden Thighs during their Fourth of July and Labor Day pow wows. It was there, during the late 1980s that Red Feather was introduced to hand games, which is a "big sport" up in that area, according to daughter [Miranda]. "Mom tried playing it up there and really liked it and brought it back down this way." She taught all her kids to play, although Miranda admits she wasn't as taken by it as her mother or some of her siblings were. Hand games requires between five to ten players on a team and Miranda says that with her mom, all the kids a grandpa and great-grandpa in the house, there was almost always enough people up for a game. Red Feather started teaching other people on the Pine Ridge Reservation to play and then found a key 'accomplice' who joined with her to really create a hand games explosion.

Wilmer Mesteth, a relative, knew how to play hand games but could never enjoy it as much as he wanted to because he couldn't find anyone else that knew how to play. Once he learned that Red Feather and her children played, it kicked off a cycle of weekend hand games gatherings. Daughter [Debbie] says, "After everybody got the hang of it, we'd start to call each other up. 'We'll meet on Saturday' 'Is it going to be at your house or mine?' 'Ok, we'll be down.' Then, we'd all get together that weekend and we'd start when the sun came up."

The children and friends of Cleo Red Feather are very pleased that she is going to be remembered with a ceremony at this year's tournament. "I think it's going to be kind of sad," said Debbie. "But I'm also going to be happy at the same time. It makes me feel good and really proud of her."

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Lni to Honor Cleo Red Feather for Hand Games Contributions

The Lakota Nation Invitational has always been remarkable because it's flowered and evolved into much more than a basketball tournament or sporting event. It's also devoted to revitalizing and strengthening the Lakota culture among those who will carry it into the future. And throughout the history of the tournament there have always been remarkable people ...

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