Track.4: Lightning Creek
Music by Chris Fisher. Lyrics by Andrew Hogarth.

In 1895 the Wyoming State Legislature enacted game laws which outlawed the hunting of deer and antelope. Despite the enforcement of this law Indians continued to hunt wild game. In October 1903, a party of Sioux travelling for the purposes of gathering medicinal plants were, despite their permits, tragically mistaken for a hunting party. A local posse confronted the Sioux on Lightning Creek. The battle was short but heavy casualties resulted on both sides.

Over thirty years later the Sioux returned to claim their dead. The following is an extract from a 1996 letter by Dave Thompson recounting the scene witnessed by his father, Rod Thompson.

“In 1936 two old Hoppies-Jitneys (old cars) full of Lakota Indians stopped at our ranch house and asked permission to go down to Lightning Creek and dig up the remains of their relatives and comrades that had been buried after the battle in 1903. There were two elder Indian survivors from the battle, they did all the work at the burial site.

One would find a tree or where a tree had been, then step to another tree, if the steps didn’t come out right he would try another route. After a try or two and the right space between trees was found, the second Indian paced off some steps, would dig and locate bones. Three to four bodies were located in the near darkness of the evening light, thirty-three years after the battle, with only steps and memory. This never ceased to amaze me in later years, it was truly a remarkable.”

Dave Thomson, Lightning Creek Rancher.