Funeral services for Hershel White Lightning, 74 of Forth Yates, ND will be held on Saturday, August 3, 2024 at 10:00 am at Kesling Funeral Home of Mobridge, SD. Burial will be at St. James Episcopal Cemetery in Cannonball under the direction of Kesling Funeral Home of Mobridge. Visitation will be held on Friday, August 2, 2024 at 6:30 pm at Kesling Funeral Home with a rosary at 7:00 pm. Hershel died on Friday, July 26, 2024 at IHS-Fort Yates.

Herschel was born and raised in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. He attended school in graduated from Pierre Indian Learning Center. He also attended one year at Fort Yates High School and was a standout athlete in Cross Country. He went on to attend Clearfield Job Corps in Clearfield, Utah. After returning home remained a life-long resident of Standing Rock.

Herschel work on numerous ranches for local operators as a very experienced ranch hand. His love was with horses. You usually found Herschel on the back of a horse as he found time to ride every chance he got. He loved being in the outdoors.

If not on the back of a horse, Herschel's off-time activity was being an avid runner all his life and only stopped running two years ago at 70 years old. He loved to run in the heat of the day, when it was the hottest! The heat of the day would never stop him that was his environment. He always joked "your weak if you can't stay up with me when I work." That brought him to the latter part of his life enjoying and participating in survey work identifying sacred sites on projects conducted by Makoche Wowapi. Herschel believed in spirituality and worked for Makoche a number of years making relatives and finding some of his best friends in the process. Herschel said he found his spirit finally going to these sacred sites, "I learned how to pray like my ancestors did at these sites." Herschel helped protect numerous sites he identified with work.

Herschel is survived by his sisters: Carmelita, Neva, Johnelle, Patricia, Candace, Karen White Lightning daughter, Theresa See Walker and a son, Alvin Summers.

Herschel is preceded in death by his father, John Buckley; mother, Theresa (White Lightning) Buckley, his uncle, William J. Buckley; Grandmother, Nelly Buckley; his brother, Hadley White Lightning Sr., and sisters Clovia and Vera White Lightning.