Tribute to Lionel R. Bordeaux by the Crossing

Sinte Gleska University
 
For Release:  May 5, 2023                                 Contact: Phil Baird 605.856.8100
 
Tribute to Lionel R. Bordeaux by the Crossing
 
Antelope Lake, S.D. --- A Tribute ceremony to the late Lionel R. Bordeaux by the Crossing Farm was held Thursday, May 4, 2023, at the Antelope Lake campus.
 
Former co-owners of the Crossing Organic Farm of Indiana, Larry Gillen and Helen Vasquez, requested the tribute after donating 160 acres to SGU in 2020.
 
“It was Lionel’s vision to create a place where Lakota values and practices can be represented at our small farm,” said Helen Vasquez who traveled to the Rosebud Sioux Reservation with three other guests.
 
“Larry and I are advancing in age as elders and as natural farmers, and we were contemplating about how to leave the land after our time comes to walk on,” she explained. 
 
“We believed our land donation would fit the name, ‘The Crossing’ where people could come together and learn and share Lakota and other indigenous cultures.”
 
Helen said The Crossing also represents a place where younger people, especially students, can step up into leadership roles to take care of Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth).”
 
As a focus of the tribute, an eagle sculpture carved from elderberry wood was presented at the SGU Wakinyan Wanbli Multi-purpose Building.
 
The art piece was accepted by interim SGU president Ted Hamilton and Tanner Colombe, Lionel’s grandson. This will be on permanent display.
 
Hamilton said a Tribal food sovereignty plan is being developed to sustain the organic products grown on the farm the past 40 years.
 
“Our university is working on integrating SGU’s garden activities to share horticulture and other climate-smart practices.”