Rosalie Little Thunder, 'Caught in Crossfire Woman,' is a member of the Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud Sioux Tribe), a linguist/artist, and a long-time environmental activist.

 

In 1998, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe signed a contract with Bell Farms  to build a large hog confinement operation on the Rosebud Reservation. Little Thunder led a fight in court against the company due to her concerns about health risks to her people, inhumane treatment of the hogs, and pollution risks to the air, water and land. Little Thunder lost her fight in court, but did not give up and eventually the hog farm was shut down.

 

Little Thunder currently works to protect the buffalo herds of Yellowstone National Park, leading protests against ranchers who kill stray buffalo. In 1999, a group organized by Little Thunder walked 500 miles from Rapid City, SD, to Yellowstone National Park. Read more about "The Buffalo War" from PBS.

 

 

Little Thunder is also a published author. She has written "Sacred Buffalo," an article in Rethinking Columbus, The Next 500 Years (1991) and her work is also included in Wilma Mankiller's Every Day is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women (2004).

 

Little Thunder has also been in films, including The Buffalo War (2000) and on television, Lakota Woman: Seige at Wounded Knee (1995).

 

In addition to her activism, Little Thunder works as an adjunct professor at Black Hills State University.