Support Rosebud Reservation - Kathy Boyd Memorial

On May 12th 2020 my dear friend Kathy Boyd ~ Tasina Luta Win , “Woman who wears red dress” ~ Lakota Sioux, began her journey. Kathy was many things – joyous wife to her devoted husband Wayne, mother to nine, grandmother to sixty plus. Kathy was also a proud Sundancer and a major force in the Sinte Gleska University Foundation Office on The Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. She was beloved and relied upon by all who knew her. Kathy was a radiant example of Earth Mother Protector. She will be missed terribly, but there is no doubt that all who knew her, carry her spark, and our lives are better for it. This Memorial page and funding source is in honor of all Kathy gave, as a way to give back, spread the love, and feel her power. 

This is the time of COVID-19, and Americans are hurting. We are grieving. We are astonished as our former reality has come to a crashing reset. Many are impoverished and at a loss. And now we are rising up as never before, led by our Black citizens in an effort to confront racism . Racism that truly began in the founding and settling of our country. It is a difficult and necessary time of reckoning for all, but particularly, and as it should be, for White America, as it stands face to face with our white privilege, and our willful ignorance. We must humbly learn new ways of seeing the other as self, of seeing the self as other. It is the only way forward. There will not be another chance. 

Kathy Boyd’s passing brought my awareness once again to the plight of The Lakota Sioux on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. I have had friends among these wonderful people since the filming of Dances With Wolves. In 1989, the late Doris Leadercharge brought me to visit her beloved Sinte Gleska Community College, at the time housed in several mobile home structures . Since 1973, under the extraordinary leadership of President Lionel Bordeaux, Sinte Gleska has grown into a full University, and one of America’s outstanding Tribal Colleges. Through my experience with Sinte Gleska, and the openness of Doris Leadercharge, Lionel Bordeaux, and Kathy Boyd, I have had the good fortune of directly experiencing our Native American culture in ways that have changed my experience of life .

It is through this connection and in honor of Kathleen Marie, Tasina Luta Win that I ask each of you to join us in supporting our Lakota brothers and sisters through the time of Covid-19. The situation on the reservation as a result of Covid-19 and lockdown is at a tipping point, and whatever you can do we deeply appreciate. 

- Mary McDonnell



Kathy Boyd Memorial Fund Website 

Our commitment is to create a sustained support flowing from those who can, whenever they can, towards The Rosebud during Covid. It is a way to give back. It is also a way to align ourselves with our Indigenous brothers and sisters as we all, together, make great effort towards the arrest and eventual control of this deadly virus. 

Our hope is also to bring more awareness to The Lakota Sioux people, their strength, their tenacity , their incredible families , their sense of humor , their traditions.

Our faith is in the oneness of all souls. It is in the knowledge that without the recognition of that oneness, we are at risk.

 Our objective is health and strength and connection.

Pilamaya

Mary McDonnell

Mina Sharpe  


Funds raised through this campaign will be directed towards Covid-19 mitigation and PPE to be distributed throughout the tribe, as well as support in the form of diapers and formula for the youngest members of the tribe.