Homeless hero’s life celebrated

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This article was published 25/08/2014 (3729 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Friends and family of homeless hero Faron Hall are gathered at Thunderbird House for an all-night wake.

Hall’s body was discovered in the Red River Aug. 17. About 30 people, most of them Hall’s relatives from Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, will celebrate his life tonight and lay him to rest Wednesday.

Hall died shortly after his own father’s death. His uncle, Patrick Hall, said the tragedy has hit the family hard.

“They’re in shock. He was at his father’s funeral a week and a half ago… Nobody thought that’s the last time they’d see him,” Patrick Hall said.

Thunderbird House was closed to cameras during the wake. A cloth-draped casket stood at the front along with baskets of things Hall liked off to the side.

The ceremony will go on all night. At midnight, a pair of moccasins will be placed on Hall’s feet, a Dakota tradition, said his cousin, Harold Blacksmith.

A fire in front of the hall will burn until Hall’s funeral at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Kevin Hart, chairman of Circle of Life Thunderbird House, is asking members of the community drop off donated food items for the ceremony.