This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Arvol Looking Horse has known since he was 12 years old that he was to be a spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Sioux.
But it wasn't until he rode by horseback from Standing Rock, N.D., to the Wounded Knee massacre site in South Dakota in December 1990 that his role became clearer.
It was the 100th anniversary of the massacre of 300 Lakota women, children and old men. Looking Horse and other riders, frostbitten and with their horses struggling through deep snow, heard the singing of grandfathers in the spirit world.
The ride, repeated for three more years to fulfill the sacred number of four, changed Looking Horse.
He realized that, as the 19th-generation keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Pipe of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Sioux, he was meant to help mend the sacred Hoop of Life, which had been severed at Wounded Knee.
In 1996, he founded World Peace and Prayer Day, which he and others from the Wolakota Foundation in Eagle Butte, S.D., have celebrated in Costa Rica, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Japan and South Dakota's Black Hills.
Looking Horse, who has spoken in the United Nations and twice visited Iraq to pray for peace, says it is incumbent on all people to pray for peace and to begin treating the Earth with respect.
His latest effort is to encourage the preservation of sacred sites around the world.
South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds has signed a proclamation calling for the United Nations to declare June 21 "Honoring Sacred Sites Day," says Paula Horne Mullen, Looking Horse's wife.
While in Utah this month, the couple delivered the proclamation with hopes Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. will sign it as well.
Forrest Cuch, director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs, says the governor has not yet been formally given the proclamation.
- Kristen Moulton