Under a Shared Sky

Nebraska Stories

Air Date: 04/02/2026

One hundred seventy years after they were taken from the site of a massacre, the belongings of Sicangu Lakota have been returned to their descendants under the Smithsonian Institution’s updated ethics policy. The items were gathered in September 1855, after U.S. Army forces attacked Lakota families camped along Blue Water Creek (near present-day Lewellen), killing more than 80 men, women, and children in the first Plains Indian massacre. A young Army lieutenant collected belongings scattered across the prairie and later donated many of them to the nation’s largest museum, where they remained until their recent return.

Additional material related to the Blue Water Massacre

In-depth Smithsonian article on the Blue Water Massacre and return of the Lakota belongings.

Nebraska State Historical Society article "Gouverneur Kemble Warren, Explorer of the Nebraska Territory."

A biography of Oglala Lakota holy man Black Elk by the U.S. National Park Service.

An aerial image of Blue Water Creek where General Harney ambushed the Little Thunder family camp in 1855.

Philip Little Thunder and Paul (Harney) Soderman stand side by side, waiting the careful unloading of the first of 69 Lakota belongings from a specialized cargo truck.

Descendants of Chief Little Thunder, friends and invited guests participate in the annual Lakota prayer ceremony held at the Witness Tree on the anniversary of the massacre.

Paul (Harney) Soderman stands beside the grave of his ancestor, General William S. Harney, at Arlington National Cemetery.

Philip Little Thunder and Paul (Harney) Soderman at Black Elk Peak, in South Dakota’s Black Hills.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names renamed Harney Peak to Black Elk Peak in 2016. The effort was led by Basil Brave Heart of the Oglala Lakota tribe with support from descendants of Chief Little Thunder and General Harney.

Black Elk (left) was a holy man of the Oglala Lakota people.

The Witness Tree at the massacre site is estimated to be 250 years old. The term “witness tree” refers to a living tree that stood at the location during a significant historical event.

Blue Water Massacre exhibit at the Ash Hollow State Historic Park visitors center. This historic event is known as the Battle of Ash Hollow and the Harney Massacre.

Eyewitness testimony from Cokawin, a Sigcangu Lakota woman who survived the massacre.

A portrait of Major General William Selby Harney (1800–1889). In 1855, he led the Sioux Expedition, a retaliatory campaign against the Lakota following the 1854 killing of Lt. Grattan, his company of 29 U.S. Army troopers, and an interpreter.

Lieutenant Gouverneur K. Warren, a West Point graduate (1850) and officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, served as a noncombatant mapmaker attached to the Sioux Expedition. His eyewitness account of the Blue Water Massacre is recorded in his personal diary.

Colorado bee balm was in abundant bloom during our early September visit to the massacre site, with some plants reaching heights of at least five feet.