#lost bird

Lost Bird! Reward:$500!!/ Cockatiel (Fremont)

Ziŋtkála Núni, a.k.a. "Lost Bird"

(Indigenous Lakota, born 1890 at Pine Ridge Reservation, Wounded Knee, SD, died 1920, Hanford, CA)

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"In late 1890, Leonard Colby, as commander of the Nebraska National Guard, fought at Wounded Knee in South Dakota in a massacre that killed an estimated 170 to 300 Lakota men, women and children.

Four days later, a rescue party found a Lakota baby, partially frozen but still alive, strapped to her [bullet-riddled] dead mother’s back under a covering of snow.

Without his wife’s knowledge or consent, Colby brought the baby back to Nebraska. The child became known as Ziŋtkála Núni, or Lost Bird.

The story is recounted in the 1995 book “Lost Bird of Wounded Knee” by Renee Sansom Flood and in a 1999 documentary with the same title by South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

The book alleges that Leonard Colby, a prominent attorney, sexually abused his adopted daughter and exploited her as a "mascot" for his law firm." [source]

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Lost Bird was "adopted" by the Colbys over the objections of her surviving Lakota family.

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[She] "was given four different names, baptized, stolen from tribal members, retrieved, and stolen again until she was officially adopted by Brigadier General Leonard Colby, Commander of the Nebraska Guard, who had simply taken her off the reservation to his home in Beatrice, Nebraska. ... [she] was only 29 when she fell victim to the Spanish Flu, which in 1919 killed over 500,000 Americans. She was buried where she lived, in Hanford, California." [source]

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"A century after the infant was discovered alive, lying beneath her mother’s body on the killing fields of Wounded Knee, her remains have been brought home. In a traditional ceremony, Lost Bird was interred [in 1991] near the mass grave where 200 slain Native Americans, including her mother, were unceremoniously buried Jan. 3, 1891." [source]

I won't go into the full story of Lost Bird's life. It is far too sad. You can find out more about her on the links included.

Memorial Tattoo link

We've heard from my husband's coworker that there are two cockatiels lost in the Aiken, SC area. There aren't many details except they belong to two different owners and at least one of them has clipped wings.

If you live in or near the Aiken area, please be on the lookout for them. Listen for abnormal bird shrieking and look for gray birds with bright yellow or grayed yellow heads and orange cheeks. One will most likely be grounded due to his clipped wings.

If you find one or both of them, please call a local humane society or animal control and explain the situation of the lost parrot and its location. I would normally advise to call the owners but I don't know their information. Gently talk to the parrot and do not spook it away! It's better to keep visual on the bird until someone who can catch it arrives. If you are able to convince the bird to come to you and you take possession of it, please bring it inside and offer water. It's incredibly hot out there and they will be overheated/dehydrated.

“Wandering Bird”  artist, Hoke....Ebay Auction...Sept 21-26  (5 Days)....