05/23/2026
🙏🏼
It’s been exactly 149 years ago that White Buffalo Girl died on the Trail of Tears, and Neligh still keeps the promise made to her family to take care of her.
In Neligh’s Laurel Hill Cemetery, only one gravestone is allowed to be decorated year-round.
Adorned with flowers, coins, beads and more, the site near the southwest corner of the graveyard provides a vibrant pop of color compared to the surrounding gray headstones. This isn’t the grave of a statesman, famous settler or wealthy businessman, but an 18-month-old girl of the Ponca Tribe named White Buffalo Girl. The gravesite serves to remember her life while fulfilling a nineteenth-century promise made by the residents of Neligh to the Ponca Tribe.
In 1877, the Ponca began their journey to the Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma, on what would become known as the “Ponca Trail of Tears.” The tribe was forcibly removed from its homeland near the confluence of the Niobrara and Missouri rivers and marched southward to its new home around 600 miles away. The 55-day journey and relocation resulted in the death of nearly one-third of the tribe members, the second being White Buffalo Girl.
May 1877 was a cold and wet month in northeast Nebraska. One week into the journey, the Ponca camped near the nascent town of Neligh since the muddy roads had become impassable. There, White Buffalo Girl died, likely of pneumonia.
The Neligh town carpenter was notified of the death and built a coffin for the girl. The next day, White Buffalo Girl was buried in front of a crowd of both Ponca and white settlers. The grave was marked with a small wooden cross.
The Ponca were forced to continue on their journey the following day, leaving the tribe little time to properly grieve. White Buffalo Girl’s father, Black Elk, asked the Neligh residents to care for the gravesite through a translator.
“I want the whites to respect the grave of my child just as they do the graves of their own dead,” Black Elk said. “(We) don’t like to leave the graves of (our) ancestors but we had to move and hope it will be for the best. I leave the grave in your care. I may never see it again. Care for it for me.”
Black Elk never did see the grave again, though the settlers kept their promise to the Ponca by maintaining the gravesite to this day. The grave of White Buffalo Girl in Laurel Hill Cemetery is continuously covered in flowers and decorated. There are always coins and stuffed animals there as well.
In 2015, members of the Ponca and Omaha tribes blessed the Antelope County Museum in a private ceremony celebrating its grand opening. Richard Lasley, great-grandson of Chief Standing Bear, thanked the people of Antelope County for “keeping alive the history of our people by having the display for whoever walks through that door and for giving them the story of White Buffalo Girl.”
Tribal Chairman Larry Wright Jr. said it was a great honor to be in Neligh for the celebration.
“It’s a real honor to be part of this with my relatives and elders here,” he told the Antelope County News. “The prayer that was said this morning — all of those things mean a lot to our people. It talks about the significance of what this place means — the gravesite and what the people of Neligh have done all these years to protect that site and to honor it and tell our story.”
Before leaving Neligh, tribal members stopped at Laurel Hill Cemetery for a private ceremony honoring White Buffalo Girl. Those in attendance, including Sid Armstrong whose painting of White Buffalo Girl hangs in the museum, sang a Ponca memorial song while burning sage at her grave.
In May 2017, the Ponca Tribe celebrated the 140th anniversary of the tear-filled walk with a 282-mile Remembrance Walk that included a stop in Neligh.
“The Ponca Tribe and the Neligh community have a long history together,” Wright Jr. said. “Unfortunately, it’s not one of the happier times in our nation’s history, but it is something that’s always been there. In other places, they haven’t taken care of one of our own like you have for all of these generations.”
When asked to help the tribe 140 years later, Mayor Joe Hartz said Neligh citizens never hesitated, just like they do not hesitate today in continuing to care for White Buffalo Girl.
“Thanks for doing what you are to help recognize the history that has occurred in your nation,” Hartz said. “And thanks for coming here to Neligh and sharing with us. It’s very important to us that you’re a piece of who we are, so thank you for doing this. We very much appreciate you.”
In 2018, the Ponca Tribe celebrated the 141st anniversary — the exact date of White Buffalo Girl’s death on May 23 — by dedicating a bench to the Sydney Loofe family, saying they wanted to help take care of Neligh’s daughter the way Neligh took care of theirs. The bench is located at Riverside Park next to the Elkhorn River.
“Historically, the connection between us and Neligh is strong,” Wright told the family during a private meeting before the dedication. “It’s for the commitment that the community of Neligh has shown for all of these years in taking care of the gravesite of one of our own. This dedication is for one of their own.”
The dedication meant a great deal to the Loofes, who had their daughter, Mackenzie, and son, Levi, also on hand for the event. Knowing the significance of the date and time period, the Loofes said they were very touched by the gesture and the continued relationship with the tribe.
“That happened nearly 150 years ago to the date,” Susie Loofe said. “There have been a lot of tragic things that have happened since then, so it’s amazing and awesome that they chose our daughter to recognize and honor the way that they recognize and honor their daughter.”
Today — 149 years after her death — the people of Neligh continue to care for White Buffalo Girl.
