Sioux Chief’s Remains Going Home at Last

LONDON — The remains of a Sioux chief began the journey back to his ancestral burial grounds near the Black Hills of South Dakota on Thursday, more than a century after his death in London.

Descendants gathered at Chief Long Wolf’s grave in west London’s Brompton Cemetery, chanting and beating a drum as his remains were exhumed.

Long Wolf died of pneumonia in 1892 while traveling with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show and was buried with 17-month-old Star, a Sioux girl who died during a performance in London.

Relatives and a shaman accompanied the coffin containing the pair’s remains as it was taken to a nearby church for thanksgiving services. The casket will be transported to burial grounds at Pine Ridge Reservation near Wounded Knee in South Dakota.

A British woman, Elizabeth Knight, helped pave the way for Long Wolf’s journey home after she came across a book that contained a lament on the chief’s life and burial: She located his long-forgotten grave and tracked down his relatives.