About Thunderbutte.com
Thunder Butte, in South Dakota, has featured prominently in my family's history since 1913. Also known as "Wakinyan Paha" to the Lakota, its religious and cultural significance to the Lakota goes back much further in time, still. Rising from the dry, rolling prairie grasslands in Ziebach County, in northwestern South Dakota, the butte is located on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.
From the top of the butte, you can see for miles in every direction. There are not many people here, although the land is alive with the memory of those who walked here before us. Taking in the quiet of the plains as they reach to the horizon, you can well imagine the way the world was before we were here, and what it may look like long after we have moved on.
--Mike Crowley Michael Crowley

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Previous Posts

• REO Speedwagon
• Just an Old Line Shack
• Pictures and Video
• Old Line Shack
• Saddle Tree
• Thunder of the Butte
• Why No Blog Posts?
• Thunder Butte Now on Facebook Too
• Oh I Only Want to be a Cowboy
• The Long Trail Home

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My Links

Cheyenne River Lakota Nation
Ziebach County History (USGenWeb)
Ziebach County Historical Society
South Dakota Office of Tourism
State of South Dakota
South Dakota Magazine
Faith, South Dakota
Faith Chamber of Commerce
Dupree, South Dakota
Town of Isabel
Timber Lake, South Dakota
Timber Lake Historical Society
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
Defenders of the Black Hills
S.D. Watch
Owl Tipi Art
Who links to me?

December 14, 2011

Saddle Tree

Just a simple cowboy
Plain to see
I got myself some furniture
A brand new saddle tree

No good at rope`n
Not much good with Brahma`s
They dirty where you sit
Have to stick to horses
Well stick`n is the trick

The best will get a saddle
If not I`ll just get sawdust
When I hit the ground
The saddle smells the best
And it gives me another goround

Then they picked me that ole apaloosa
A sunfish`n sun of a gun
And I`m still chase`n that durn saddle
I`m jist an apaloosa bum

--John Crowley

Mike Crowley Wednesday, December 14, 2011 | (0) comments |

December 13, 2011

Thunder of the Butte

The wind blew and the snow flew
And the driving wind stung
Your bare face with sleet and snow
Thunder Butte lost in fog of storm

The crack of splintering trees
Over the sound of these
Came the roar of avalanche
Rocks and snow and trees

Which direction where
When all is lost in white nightmare
Horses stumbling falling blind
Cowboys injured in a failing mind

Suddenly the sun appears
Just in time blazing through the white
A gift from God
Cattle fall into the trail for home

Now it`s Christmas time
No time to roam
Just a mile or so to go
Merry Christmas!

--John Crowley

Mike Crowley Tuesday, December 13, 2011 | (0) comments |