“Percept: Two Identities” Bronze sculpture by Debbie Gessner representing the phases of the moon and of life. The bronze looked at from one side shows a native man with the sun on his shoulder. The reverse side shows a man with the phases of the moon going through his hands as a necklace with each bead a different phase.
When someone passes away, many Native people say that they do not die, but instead “walk on.” This implies a continuation of a journey rather than an endpoint on a linear path.
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2340627/dakota-(sioux)-memorial—1862 After listening to the bishop and personally reviewing the trial records, Lincoln commuted the death sentence for all but thirty-eight prisoners. At 10 am on December 26, 1862, the condemned men, chanting the Dakota deathsong, marched in single file to a scaffold guarded by 1,400 troops in full battle dress.
