Thomas Yellowtail

Thomas Yellowtail (March 7, 1903 - November 24, 1993) was a Medicine Man and Sun Dance chief of the Crow tribe for over thirty years prior to his death.

It was the practice at the time for the U.S. Government to assign surnames to the Indians as a means of assimilating them into the white culture and to ease record keeping.

Over the next twenty years, Yellowtail deepened his relationship with the Great Spirit through his daily practice of prayer, purification in the sweat lodge and periodic vision quests.

At the time of his death in November, 1993, Thomas Yellowtail was one of the most respected and revered Sun Dance chiefs and Medicine Men of the Crow tribe.

While many of those traditions have been lost, Yellowtail believed that what remains is sufficient to constitute a valid spiritual path - what he called the Sun Dance Religion.

He encouraged American Indian youth to learn the language of their tribe and to seek out the spiritual leaders who followed the traditional ceremonies of their people.

Thomas Yellowtail was a member of that pivotal generation that made the wrenching cultural transition into a new and bewildering world, while never forgetting the old ways.