BasinCamp

Who was Buddy Red Bow?

Some people have called him the Indian Elvis. Others say he was the perfect blend of Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. Buddy was born in South Dakota and abandoned by his birth mother in 1949. He was cared by a local Police Officer named Pete Two Bulls until, Pete arranged for his daughter Maise and her husband Stephen Red Bow to adopt young Buddy. He was raised in the Red Shirt District on the Pine Ridge Reservation. This area contains what the Lakota call the stronghold. It is the place Big Foot and his band of Minneconju Lakota were headed towards when they were murdered at Wounded Knee in 1889. The stronghold wasn’t just a good hiding place, but a place where the Lakota believed they could communicate with the Great Spirit. The Ghost Dance was practiced there. Buddy grew up in this area among traditional Lakota. He soon developed a love for music and began to write songs about the Indian life in both English and Lakota.

Buddy was the first inductee into the Native American Music Hall of Fame, just ahead of Jimi Hendrix and a year before Hank Williams. Buddy landed a roll in the classic movie, “How the West Was Won”. He recorded music professionally from 1970 until his passing into the spirit world on March 28, 1993. Buddy first album was titled “BRB’ and was an inspiration to many native talents. His second album was “Journey to the Spirit World” which is a personal exploration of his Lakota heritage. His final album released on Tatanka records is a C & W mix of tunes titled “Black Hills Dreamer”. Black Hills Dreamer includes Buddy’s story of his Sundance and vision at the age of 15 and his strength to walk the Lakota Way. Tracks from his albums have been featured on ABC’s Hallmark special DreamKeepers and in the movie Skins. Buddy was simply the best Native American County Singer/ Songwriter. He sang Country Soul with a Native Heart.

He is buried on Red Shirt Table near Christ Church, Episcopal looking over the edge of the Badlands and the Cheyenne River. His gravestone is a metal fabricated guitar. I never met Buddy, although he was only four years older than me and our family was good friends some of his Two Bulls aunts and cousins. One of Buddy’s best songs is called “Ben Black Elk”. Ben is probably the most photographed Indian in the world. He used to pose beneath Mt Rushmore with his drum in traditional regalia. Ben was the son of Lakota Holy Man Nicholas Black Elk who published Black Elk Speaks in 1932. I did meet Ben several times when Buddy’s cousin Buddy (Two Bulls) Hawk stayed with us in the Black Hills when we would vacation there in the summer. Here are a few words from that song.


Why it seems like yesterday that I heard Ben Black Elk say:

“These here Black Hills are our land, stolen by the White Man.

If you wanted to be so fair, on Mt. Rushmore, why isn’t the Indian there?

Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail, Red Cloud - - they’d all be so proud…’

Shrine of democracy, land of the free.

But not for you, or for me”