Height 4 ft. 10 in. Name Beatrice Visitor | Role Native American activist | |
Occupation Lakota keeper of the traditional ways, Activist, Field Health Care Worker, Native American Church elder, sundancer Known for Work with International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers opposing papal bulls authorizing the conversion and subjugation of indigenous peoples Religion Native American Church; attended Roman Catholic boarding school Parent(s) Antonia Long Visitor Holy Dance (mother) Relatives Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance, Long Visitor, Loretta Long Visitor Siblings Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance | ||
Unci Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance: Prayer, Blessings & Knowledge For The World
Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance is a Native American spiritual elder who is a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe and comes from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Beatrice has gained international recognition through her work with the Council of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers - a group of women elders, medicine women and wisdom keepers founded in 2004.
Contents
- Unci Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance Prayer Blessings Knowledge For The World
- Biography
- Quote
- The International Council of 13 Grandmothers
- References
Biography
Beatrice was sent to a Roman Catholic boarding school at age 7. She waited for her younger sister Rita to wed and the two enjoyed a double wedding.
She is a "Native American Church elder, sundancer, and health worker for people with diabetes," and works on a Youth Ambassador program with her sister to connect young people with spirituality and the Sun Dance.
Among Beatrice's themes in her talks is forgiveness, something she has experience with. As a child, she watched as Christian missionaries stamped out the Lakota faith, and the federal government rounded up Lakotas and placed them on reservations. She also endured the murders of two of her children, one in 1994 and another in 2007. "I pray for the people who did that to them," Beatrice told me. "I pray that they have a clean soul and will someday be in the Creator's arms."
She has driven a truck on the reservation for decades delivering medicines. In 2012 she hosted a workshop for girls on "how to properly cut buffalo meat and dry it."
Quote
“We have to keep repeating the prayers over and over again. When I reflect on my life of 79 years, I see a flat road of destruction. Youths are dying of drugs and ozone layer is depleting. The most powerful tool with us is to pray and pray with other communities for world peace.”
The International Council of 13 Grandmothers
In 2004, Beatrice was approached by The Center for Sacred Studies to serve on the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers.
In 2009, The Gazette of Colorado Springs, Colorado described her schedule with the Grandmothers as "hectic", noting that she traveled by "Greyhound bus or car, driven by her daughter Loretta Long Visitor."
In 2008, she joined the Grandmothers in delivering a petition to Pope Benedict XVI in Vatican City by hand, requesting the Pope to revoke the three papal bulls authorizing the conversion and subjugation of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
The Papal Bulls that the Grandmothers are demanding to be revoked are:
The Grandmothers received no response after this request.
However, the letter which Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance wrote on this topic was featured on the National Catholic Reporter website, under the title "The past is a very living thing: Try not to forget it."
She was interviewed on her work with the Council by the Women Rising Radio Project in 2011.
2016 After serving on the Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmother's for twelve years, Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance died in 2016; her life was celebrated for four days from 25 August to 28 August 2016 with a Creation to Completion Ceremony in Phoenicia, New York where the grandmothers first began their mission.