The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder, and Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns (review)

In Gordon, Nebraska, a man named Raymond Yellow Thunder (Lakota) was murdered in cold blood. His killers were not hardened violent criminals, but they were hardened racists and they were drunk. A young woman and three young men were the perpetrators of this crime; in their view, they were just having “good fun” with an Indian. How anyone could think that throwing an elderly man into the back of a car and driving around for hours and then throwing him in a broken-down car lot half-naked in the winter is “having good fun” seems incomprehensible to right-minded people; yet, this is how Raymond Yellow Thunder was abused. These young people were the product of a racist, lawless environment. Raymond Yellow Thunder was just trying to walk home.

Generations of violence, broken treaties, squatting settlers, and lawlessness contribute to the tenuous relationship between Native peoples and Euroamericans in Nebraska and South Dakota; this text addresses all of these issues. The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder, by Stew Magnuson, is a microcosm representing the macrocosm of relationships between Euroamerican homesteaders, the U.S. government, and Native nations for centuries. What happened to Raymond Yellow Thunder, sadly, is not unique; however, Magnuson shows that destructive and prejudicial relationships in border towns and among their citizens are more common than most people may know. Often, border towns near reservations are largely overlooked by law enforcement and the general population. Magnuson deftly unravels the intricacies that led up to the death of Yellow Thunder. This spiderweb of interrelationships, misunderstandings, prejudice, and government negligence combined with the will of Native people to survive are the parts that make up the whole.

Magnuson begins with the inability of the U.S. government to protect the Black Hills from gold speculators and land grabbers in the late 1800s. He continues through time to illustrate that the U.S. government has consistently been unreliable in its role to enforce its own laws and treaties regarding sovereign Native nations. Magnuson recounts the plight of John Gordon (the name-sake of Gordon, Nebraska) and his confrontation with the U.S. Army. Gordon was trying to illegally lead a party of gold speculators into the sacred Black Hills, or Paha Sapa. Although the army was successful in foiling Gordon’s trip and he was clapped in irons, Gordon was made a hero by the townspeople because he was just a common man trying to get rich and make good. Magnuson also gives a good background of the Native Lakotas, their connection to the land and their removal from it to the Pine Ridge reservation, as well as background on Red Cloud and other prominent Lakota people. A common thread of the text is the white man’s historical disrespect for Native people’s land, culture, and rights.

Magnuson traces the history of Native people, non-European immigrants, and Euroamerican settlers who came to the area in the late 1880s. He questions the motives and biases of some news reporters, throughout the decades, regarding what they reported about the history of Gordon and the trial of Yellow Thunder’s murderers, versus actual historical events. Many stories of European settlers are intertwined with the story of the establishment of the small Nebraska border towns. Some settlers were friendly with the Native peoples while others were not. Magnuson includes a short history of Mari Sandoz and her father Jules, who was a friend to the Lakotas. When discussing the actual trial of Yellow Thunder’s murderers, Magnuson gives a fair accounting of all the parties in attendance, from the wife of the murderer to the American Indian Movement (AIM) activists, including Russell Means and Bob Yellow Bird. Magnuson’s fair and neutral reporting coupled with his immense amount of research gives the reader an excellent perspective on the trial. He...