Dave Swallow
Lakota Medicine Man
David Swallow Jr. is a Teton Lakota living in Porcupine South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. David and his Grandfathers are from the Band of Crazy Horse. He is known as a spiritual interpreter, Sundance Chief and one of the Heads man for the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota Nations. He is one of the last fluent Lakota language speakers, both the old language and today’s Lakota language. On his father’s side, he descends from Chief Standing Buffalo and from his mother’s lineage Chief Red Shirt.
David’s Lakota name is Wowita Uha Muni, which translates as Walks With Pride. His wife, Nyla Helper’s Lakota name is Mato Wi which translates as Bear Woman. She crafts traditional Lakota medicine for the people.
The only income they have is Nyla’s beadwork and what other people offer to them. They receive NO help from the federal government, Bureau of Indian Affairs, or the Oglala Sioux tribe; NO food stamps, NO welfare assistance of any kind, but still they are keeping the Lakota ways alive.
“Our culture is slowly fading away. When the Lakota language is gone, so is our way of life too, and all our ceremonies.” ~David Swallow
Global Peace Train is currently working with Dave Swallow to produce his first short film called Ghost Dance which is currently in preproduction.
Ghost Dance is a Lakota story that bridges modern-day life and a no man’s land, the Badlands of the Indian Reservation. Sightings of UFOs and strange phenomenal activities appear near Pine Ridge, South Dakota, where the last ceremony of the Ghost Dance was held during the massacre at Wounded Knee on December 29th, 1890. Strange lights reported by the media over the Badlands sparks the interest of an anthropologist who begins an investigation to bring answers about the mystical phenomena.