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Descendants of Northern Cheyenne tribal members who fled Fort Robinson, Neb., in 1879, returned on Thursday and Friday to dedicate a memorial that’s been 15 years in the making.

More than 200 members of the tribe gathered around the four-sided pyramid-shaped monument inlaid with precisely cut slabs of red pipestone. A brass plaque on each side is inscribed with historic words of the Northern Cheyenne. The 15-foot-high, 22-ton monument is 20-feet tall including the two-dimensional stainless steel Morning Star designed to appear straight on from all angles.

The dedication began at Fort Robinson in the morning as people joined together to walk the two miles to the monument, turning off of Highway 20 onto a newly built road leading up to the site. Above the monument are skyscraping cliffs where archaeologists have uncovered clues that skirmishes with soldiers took place there after the escape.

“This is a healing event,” said Jay Mullins, an engineer who has been working on the project for more than a decade. His remark echoed the sentiments heard over and over from speakers during the dedication.

The idea for the memorial came in 2001 after Edna Seminole, then 75, made the pilgrimage from Montana to Fort Robinson with others to visit the site where her ancestors had made a heroic, desperate escape from Army imprisonment during the freezing Great Plains winter. She, Rosie Eaglefeathers and others left in tears, heartbroken.

There was no tangible recognition of the Fort Robinson Outbreak, in which 149 escaped and 61 were killed in their efforts to reach freedom.

“There was an old wood sign with bullet holes through it, that’s all,” Seminole said. How could this be, they wondered, during the long drive home. Their thoughts then turned to “What can we do about it?”

Determined to get a proper memorial erected on the site, Seminole and Eaglefeathers began fundraising on the Northern Cheyenne reservation.

They began with $200 from Seminole’s son Vincent Whitecrane’s employer, Western Energy. With the money they bought the best cuts of meat, and their “meat bingo” games were wildly successful. From their small apartments at the Heritage Living Center in Ashland — an assisted living facility funded solely by private donations — they brainstormed.

Then there was a breakthrough with the land. A Nebraska rancher and friend of the Cheyennes, T.R. Hughes, had always believed there needed to be a monument. He and his wife Kay’s land surrounded the site. When the land the monument sits on today came up for sale he bought it, and donated 350 acres of it to Chief Dull Knife College in Lame Deer.

Another friend who had received a rare permit to pull stone from the Pipestone rock quarry in Pipestone, Minn., — the only place on earth where geology has formed the red soft rock — determined he would help, a lot. Rick Hall, a Northern Cheyenne, mined the massive pipestone slabs for the monument, noting the specific grade and thickness required was 12 feet below ground. Machinery is not permitted in the quarry. “Shovel, slegehammer and buckets,” he said. Hall eventually moved to Crawford, Neb., a few miles down the road from the monument.

A huge development came when a Wisconsin engineer spoke with Seminole’s brother Ralph in the early 2000s. Mullins threw in, and brought a contractor’s arsenal of equipment and labor every summer to the site beginning in 2004. The structure began to take shape.

“Then we ran out of money,” Seminole’s son Vincent said, who by then was fully invested in the project.

David Sands runs a private land conservation organization out of Lincoln, Neb. “They had it three-fourths finished, but needed money for the professional services they couldn’t do,” he said. The road, plaques, trimming would require $150,000. Sands and others facilitated behind-the-scenes fundraising and discovered there were many in the Lincoln area who loved the project. In two years they had they money.

Looking over the scene Friday one couldn’t help but sense a feeling of pure joy and satisfaction. “Few Indians came here before this (to Fort Robinson),” said pipestone supplier Hall. “Now they will.”

Hughes died before he could see it completed. His wife Kay was humbly ever-present at the dedication. She knows the story of the escape well. “They found breastworks over there. They were up on top over there. Some made it to where Harrison is now (30 miles away) and then went north another 16 before...”

Four teepees were positioned a hundred yards or so from the monument forming the corners of a rectangle. Bison grazed in an adjacent field on Fort Robinson State Park land. Overcast skies turned sunny and an eagle appeared overhead.

The monument is on private land and unaffiliated with state or government operations. However park services have endorsed and supported the project from the beginning.

“The thing is, we are all, from here,” Whitecrane said, meaning those on the reservation today are all descendants of the men, women and children in a single wooden army barracks 137 years ago, breaking out into the winter.

Eaglefeathers died in 2013. Seminole, now 89, would have to see it through.

A dozen speakers took turns speaking. Clearly there were many people, subcommittees and organizations who contributed to getting the monument built. From Mullins’ perspective there’s only one reason it’s there.

“She was firm and determined, she made staunch decisions. No question, it’s Edna.”

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