Medicine Man prayed while Lonefighters waited

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As dusk fell over the berm where the Lonefighters stood guard over the channel they had dug and with a heavily armed RCMP tactical squad hidden in the trees only yards away, tension among the Lonefighters was at its highest.

Medicine man and elder Romeo Yellowhorn knew this. That's why he and his wife Margaret decided to bring his medicine bundle and pipes to the Lonefighers front lines.

Gathering everyone in a circle, while leaving only one Lonefighter with a spotlight to watch for sudden attack, Yellowhorn and his wife began to pray.

In the minds of everyone gathered at the berm that evening was the possibility of death - it lingered in the air.

Only when Yellowhorn, other elders and Lonefighters' spiritual leader Devalon Small Legs made their presence felt, did tension ease.

And so Yellowhorn prayed.

Yellowhorn is the holder of two pipes. One, he says, is a ceremonial pipe. The other is for sweatlodge ceremonies and healing.

"I never thought I'd be a medicine man," said Yellowhorn, who was an orphan at 12 years of age.

"Then my grandparents kept care of me. Everything I ever wanted I had to earn. If I wanted a pop, I had to find odd jobs to get the money," he explained.

In another breath he mentions he learned to survive at an early age.

"in 1966 the Peigan and Driftpile were given liquor rights. One year later I lost my family, lived on the streets and entered my first flop house where the bright lights are (Vancouver)."

yellowhorn said he was running from himself. He held odd jobs for awhile and even worked in the Arctic on oil rigs.

It was there he was caught up in heavy equipment and almost lost a leg. He now walks with a distinctive limp.

His turning point came November 21, 1979 when he quit drinking.

he went home to Peigan only to be met with lots of outstanding charges like driving while impaired and being drunk and disorderly.

"I swallowed a lot of pride until I finally learned how to forgive myself."

After four years of sobriety, Yellowhorn found work with an alcoholic treatment service and in 1981 when his brother-inlaw held a sundance Yellowhorn attended - out of curiosity.

"I went and spent four days and night fasting in the sundance lodge. On the third night the spirits approached me.

"There was no place to run...I was scared but common sense told me to stay.

"I was given a pipe and since that time I communicate with the spirits. However, it is still a learning process," Yellowhorn said.

He says at one time he used to think he would get rich. "But I soon found the richness was the strength the spirits offered - the strength to be a spiritual leader," he said.

And so Yellowhorn and his wife Margaret prayed. Small Legs prayed. The Lonefighters and their supporters prayed.

They prayed the crisis would end peacefully and they even prayed for the "men with guns" out in the darkness, who had wives and small children worried about their well-being.

Then Yellowhorn and Margaret left and the Lonefighers once more took up their positions along the channel brush.

The next evening looking around the Lonefighters' encampment Yellowhorn said. "Look, it is here where the proof is. The determination and the spiritual strength of the Peigan people united together drove off the white men," he said, referring to the pull-out of the RCMP only hours before from their encirclement of the Lonefighters camp.

"This morning it was tense. I prayed slowly and asked spiritual helpers to get everyone in a circle. Now the tension has broke.

"People were sobbing everywhere. I knew they (the Lonefighters) would succeed but I never said anything because of the tension. The sobbing was a cry of joy.

"When Milton (Born With A Tooth and leader of the Lonefighters) stood his ground. I knew he'd succeed. I knew before sundown on this day, (Sept 8, the end of the standoff) the tension would lift.

"I saw police cares, vans and police dogs, but I knew how powerful these Lonefighters, this Peigan land and the spirts are.

"It's a joyful feeling to see the women and children, everyone so happy. Maybe now there will be a peaceful solution...maybe now," Yellowhorn said.