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A spiritual leader from the Great Sioux Nation will be honored Wednesday at the United Nations headquarters in New York City for a decade's work in encouraging world peace.

“Chief Arvol Looking Horse was chosen because he's one of the great peacemakers of our time,” said Alison Van Dyk, executive director of The Temple of Understanding, a nongovernmental organization with U.N. status, which is presenting the award.

Past recipients of the Juliet Hollister peace award have included the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Queen Noor.

This year's Hollister honorees also include the late Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, and the Venerable Yifa, a Buddhist nun who chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of the West in California.

Van Dyk said the honorees were selected because they all overcame adversity in their lives.

“I'm proud he's received the award on behalf of our people,” said Tom Van Norman, a Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe attorney from South Dakota. He described Looking Horse as a role model who opens people's “eyes to the world.”

Born on the Cheyenne River Reservation, Looking Horse was chosen at the age of 12 to represent the 19th generation of Lakota as Keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe.

The pipekeeper holds revered status because the pipe was brought to the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota, or the Great Sioux Nation, by the White Buffalo Calf woman, who was akin to a holy woman. The pipe has been a historical guiding force for how the Lakota are expected to live their lives.

Looking Horse has used his position as keeper of the pipe to provide spiritual leadership to the Sioux Nation. He also has used the pipe's strength to help spread a message of peace around the globe.

“He's done a lot to preserve the culture and educate Indians and non-Indians alike,” said Gene Blue Arm, president of the Wounded Knee Survivors' Association. “He's done most of it on his own.”

The birth of a white buffalo calf in 1994 moved Looking Horse to honor the earth and promote world peace. He welcomed the calf's birth by performing a series of Four Direction ceremonies at sites sacred to indigenous people.

In 1996, Looking Horse established the World Peace and Prayer Day.

He travels and speaks extensively on peace, environmental and Native rights issues.

“He says to look to spirituality rather than fighting over different perspectives of spirituality,” Blue Arm said. “Everybody should pray together.”

Reporter Jodi Rave can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or jodi.rave@lee.net

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