About Guy Dull Knife

MAY 7, 1947 – OCTOBER 31, 2019

Guy Steven Dull Knife, Jr. was born on May 7, 1947, in Pine Ridge, SD, to Guy Steven Dull Knife, Sr. and Rose Bull Bear. He passed away on October 31, 2019, at the Rapid City Regional Hospital in Rapid City, SD.

Guy Dull Knife is a Native American visual artist who was born in 1947 Guy Dull Knife Jr. He is a Vietnam veteran, artist, single father, and modern-day Lakota Sioux leader. He proudly invokes his family legacy to help raise 13 children on the Pine Ridge Reservation, one of America’s poorest communities (located in the poorest county in the nation). The Dull Knifes documentary tells the story of a Native American family that has battled to survive on Pine Ridge in South Dakota for over 130 years. The Dull Knifes being both warriors and peacemakers and have played instrumental roles in preservation of the Lakota culture along with defending the Pine Ridge Reservation from destruction through the generations. The documentary film describes how Guy Dull Knife Jr fought in Vietnam and how his father survived the trenches of WWI. How his grandfather George Dull Knife toured Europe with Buffalo Bill but returned home to be denied his culture and language. How his great-grandfather Chief Dull Knife fought bitterly for the survival of his family and led his people on a 600-mile trek through the Nebraskan winter, being pursued by the US Cavalry and dogged by starvation. Nothing has changed since that trek with most Native American groups living in poverty and afflicted by alcoholism, drugs, one of the highest suicide rates in the county and gangs. The documentary was inspired by the book “Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge“ Joe Starita tells the triumphant and moving story of a Lakota-Northern Cheyenne family. In 1878, the renowned Chief Dull Knife, who fought alongside Crazy Horse, escaped from forced relocation in Indian Territory and led followers on a desperate six-hundred-mile freedom flight back to their homeland. His son, George Dull Knife survived the Wounded Knee Massacre and later toured in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Guy Dull Knife Sr. fought in World War I and took part in the Siege of Wounded Knee in 1973. Guy Dull Knife Jr. fought in Vietnam and is now an accomplished artist. Some of his work can be seen below.