Jasper Spotted Elk Senior

 

Jasper Spotted Elk Sr. (1890–1942)

Jasper Spotted Elk Sr. was born December 1, 1890, at Pine Ridge - just before Wounded Knee. In the family’s own telling, Jasper later said his grandmother was not killed at Wounded Knee, but that she died about two years later, carrying the long aftermath of that violence. By the time of Wounded Knee, Jasper’s father, Richard “Dick” Spotted Elk, had already moved to Red Cloud Agency to live with his Oglala wife. Jasper was fortunate that his mother was heavily pregnant and not present at Wounded Knee, which likely saved her life - and Jasper’s.
 

After what had happened, the women and families kept life quiet and careful. People knew who they were, but it wasn’t something announced or put on display. In those years, they tried to live more “cowboy-ish” on the outside and practiced ceremony more quietly, because being visibly “traditional” could bring trouble. They were not agency Indians, and they didn’t live for the agency’s approval. Richard’s duties as a leader meant he could not stay hidden. He traveled a great deal between agencies and communities, and his responsibilities often brought him into conflict with government officials. Because of that, he worked hard to keep his wives and children out of the spotlight and protected his family, including the orphans in their extended care.
 

Jasper grew up carrying both sides of his identity -enrolled Oglala, with Minneconjou roots - and he was connected to the responsibilities and values of the Shirt Wearer Society. His childhood was shaped by much grief as well as survival. Life was hard.  He lost several siblings while he was still young. One by one, his half-sisters  Brings Spotted, Catches Enemy, Two Warbonnets - died in childhood, and then his father died in 1908, when Jasper was only a teenager. Those losses were the kind of blows that force a person to grow up fast and carry a lot responsibility early.
 

He also grew up in the allotment era, when families were pushed into new systems forced upon them and thus, new ways of living. Jasper had a house, but like many tradition families they still used a tipi, and lived in a practical, working way - keeping what mattered close. As Jasper Jr.,  remembered it, they often kept saddles and even animals in the cabin, the way many people did, blending the old and the new in a life shaped by necessity, weather, and survival. His father Jasper didn’t always fit the image the agency wanted. Because he held onto an older way of being, he was even teased and called “a wild man” by some of the agency Indians who had been christianized - an insult that reflected the pressures of that era more than it reflected Jasper.
 

As a young man, Jasper stayed rooted on Pine Ridge through years that were often lean and demanding. In 1911, he married Annie Fast, and together they built a family during a time when hardship was normal and stability had to be made, not assumed. Calvin’s father described those as the “cowboy years”—a period when many families lived more like cowboys than what outsiders expected of “Indians,” and that style became fashionable well into Jasper’s lifetime. Jasper was an excellent horseman, and the children grew up close to horses and horse work. Their mother and aunties were also involved in sewing and beading groups, keeping skills and community ties strong in everyday ways. Their children included Richard, Alice, Philip, and Jasper Jr. Jasper and Annie endured the devastating loss of their son Richard in 1927, and later Annie’s death in 1935—griefs that changed everything and left a lasting mark on the family.

Through adulthood, Jasper remained tied to reservation life and to the districts his family lived within. He carried the everyday responsibilities of fatherhood and providing through decades when Lakota families were still being pressured and managed by outside systems, while continuing to live within Lakota kinship and obligations.
 

Jasper Spotted Elk Sr. passed away on May 31, 1942, in Shannon County, South Dakota, at only 51 years old. His life bridged generations -born into the shadow of Wounded Knee, shaped by its aftermath and the allotment era, and carried forward through children and grandchildren who still hold the family’s history, identity, and responsibilities close.