Search - Bill Center :: Oglala Lakota

Bill Center is a Lakota Indian elder and spiritual leader.  He recorded Oglala Lakota to honor the people of the Oglala Lakota Nation on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota.  This album of original and traditional songs reflects his roots in both the American Indian spiritual tradition and his Christian heritage.  Most of the songs are sung in the Lakota language, including a handful of old Christian hymns. Center was born in 1935 and raised at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation.  His father William Center was an Episcopal Minister who had him singing in Church at age 12.  Both his grandfathers, Goodlance and Fast Thunder, were medicine men who taught him about the old ways.  In his youth Center was a touring musician.  Later he worked as a lay minister at St. Johns Episcopal Cathedral in Denver.  Center currently is a spiritual advisor and active preservationist of his Indian heritage.