Chief Solomon Iron Nation

The granite over this grave speaks in the people's own voice: "We, the Lower Brule Indians put up this stone in memory of our dear Head Chief." The Kul Wicasa Oyate, a name the 2014 National Register nomination translates as people farther down the river, raised it in 1934, forty years after his death. The chief, Maza Oyate in Lakota, had earned it. In 1882 the Teller Commission pressed the Lower Brule to sell their land and move to Rosebud with the Upper Brule, and Iron Nation held his people together against it.

What the plaque says

Head Chief Solomon Iron Nation Iron Nation was born in February 1815. Though details of his youth are scarce, he grew up at a time when the Sioux were a powerful force on the northern plains. His life spanned an era of unprec- edented transition, stretching from a period of Sioux dominance to the eventual settlement of the Sioux onto reservations by the U.S. Government. Iron Nation was a chief during difficult times. As Head Chief, he signed significant treaties including the 1865 Fort Laramie Treaty, 1876 Black Hills Treaty and 1889 Great Sioux Reservation Treaty on behalf of the Lower Brule. Iron Nation lived his life seeking the survival of the Lower Brule Sioux. His life covered 79 of the most disastrous and tumultuous years that the Lower Brule people, and many other Native Americans, have endured. Iron Nation was respected not because he was a warrior or a Ghost Dancer, but because he was a chief and a peacemaker. He never took up arms against the U.S. government, choosing peace instead. Iron Nation died on 14 November 1894 at Iron Nation District of the Lower Brule Sioux Reservation. He was buried here at Messiah Episcopal cemetery. Inscribed on his granite monument are these words: "Children, Love One Another." (Continued on other side) Dedicated July 2015 Head Chief Solomon Iron Nation (Continued from other side) The granite monument placed over Iron Nation's grave is the first known commemorative monument erected over the grave of a Lakota Sioux chief by a tribe in South Dakota. This gravesite represents a significant change in burial practices and memorializations that occurred as Native American and Anglo cultures coalesced during this period. Iron Nation was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2006. In 2014, this gravesite was listed in the National and South Dakota State Registers of Historic Places. This project has been funded in part by grants from the City of Deadwood and the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission and Larry & Joan Arnold. Site preservation is supported by the Lower Brule Sioux Tribal Council, Messiah Episcopal Church and South Dakota State Historical Society. Work and dedication of Philip S. Byrnes family (direct descendants of Iron Nation) helped make this historic site preservation possible. More information is available at www.ChiefIronNation.com. Dedicated July 2015

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center — 28 mi
  A museum on the campus of a Catholic boarding school for Lakota children founded in 1927, built from gifts of the school's alumni and named to honor the people.
• Dignity of Earth and Sky — 29 mi
  A fifty-foot stainless-steel Lakota woman on the bluff above the Missouri, her star quilt made of 128 blue diamonds that shiver in the wind.

More markers nearby

• First Permanent Fur Post — 15 mi
• Presho — 21 mi
• Medicine Knoll River — 22 mi
• White River — 26 mi