Buck Ghosthorse (Leonard Albert Mattern)

[Piff]

For background info, here are two clips about the group Mattern joined after the Klan. Mattern told the press that John R. Harrell's Christian Patriots Defense League was not white supremacist, but obviously it was. Mattern was outright lying.

[Piff]

"Without reservation, holyman follows his chosen profession"

"Ghost Horse is slim and spare of words, with handsome, chiseled features and a strangely anachronistic, frontier quality. Were it not for the braids in his hair, he would look less like an Indian than like the cavalry captain in a western movie who rides to the rescue of white settlers."

[Piff]

2011:

In the blazing heat of summer Annalee and I flew across the country to Sungleska Oyate, a huge swath of high desert in Central Washington State. Sungleska Oyate is the spiritual home to the 800 members of the Ghost Horse extended family, or tiospaye, many of who gather for two weeks every July for the sun dance. Buck had passed on a few years ago, and his son Paul Ghost Horse was accorded the leadership of the family’s ceremonial life.

We landed in Portland, Oregon, and were driven several hours east along the Columbia River, the north to the desert home of Sungleska Oyate and a beautiful painted tepee.

A short walk from us, under the bright starlight, was a ghostly sight: four men, pierced in ceremony that morning, lying on the dance ground, a bone skewer under the flesh of each breast, the skewers to be tethered to the sun dance tree each scorching day and each cold night.

Annalee and I were invited there to be doctored by animal helpers, especially the bear, as well as other spirits and medicines, all invoked through song and dance, and the intercession of the sun dance leader, Paul Ghost Horse. The first morning, Paul’s step-mother, Vicki Ghost Horse, said that I too should be doctored for my neuropathy, brought on by a skirmish with a rabid bad and a nasty reaction to the vaccine. And so, as we sat under the arbor surrounding the dance field, a Helper brought two bear skins, and draped them over Annalee and me. The bear faces covered our faces, their front legs, our arms, and their rear legs, our legs. My bear’s claws were nearly as long as my fingers, the paw resting on the back of my hand, a friendly gesture, I thought.

Vicki said we were to let the bear medicine take us to the “renewable center of creation.” We were to focus on ourselves as we were before we got hurt, in our best, younger bodies, and envision becoming that pain-free, happy self again. Paul instructed us to “look for when and why the problem started: ask the bear to give that.”

We might fall asleep, Vicki said. Fine. In the middle of drumming and singing, wrapped in a bearskin in 100-degree heat, under a relentless sun beating down on the arbor’s cedar bows, in the afternoon shade, we did fall asleep. We would wear the robes for three days, drifting between dance and dreamtime.

I scanned the 200 or so people sitting, standing, dancing in a sway, under the arbor.

I caught a shifting of one bearskin and saw Paul’s profile, thickly crusted and coated in brick-red clay; this was Red Man, emerging. Red Man is the spirit who possesses him, and in exchange for being in this world, Red Man brings his powers of healing.

In time, a Helper handed me a paper cup with a tea-brown liquid. I asked what it was. “Medicine,” he said. “Drink it.”

More https://web.archive.org/web/20171012230507/http://www.fusionmagazine.org/dance-looking-at-the-sun/

[Piff]

Uploaded here is copy of the legal name change in 1992 from Leonard Albert Mattern to Buck GhostHorse.

Also his death certificate. Vicki, his wife, was the informant, she inaccurately stated that he was "Native American Indian".

Accurately stated on the death certificate is that Mattern was born in PA (not SD as he claimed), also the name of his parents.

Genealogy http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3760.msg41264#msg41264

[Piff]

Mattern's death certificate (under his name Buck Ghost Horse) includes his social security #. I paid for a Florida rap sheet on him , using that ss #, his birth date, and his original name Leonard Albert Mattern Jr.

Same guy, same ss #, same birthdate.

Yes, he was white.

Height 5'06", weight 132, eyes hazel, hair brown. Scar/mark on chin and near right eye. Occupation : cable splicer.

AKA Buck Mattern.

1973 he had a misdemeanor traffic charge. March 3, 1980 the carrying concealed firearm charge.

(Shortly after the Klan brawl and arrest, his third wife divorced him, petition on May 27, 1973.)

[Piff]

Vicki B Ghosthorse listed her race as "I" for Indian on her WA state driver's license. I think she is in Oregon now and assume she has continued this habit there.

My Mattern public records request to FBI was denied. But we already have plenty on his Klan activities - some FBI surveillance and newspaper reports.

I have a request in for his military file also, even a summary will help.

This is in his paid obit:

In 1962, he joined the Marine Corps and served two duties in Vietnam. He received purple hearts and a Silver Star for his bravery there and ended his nine year stay in the Marine Corps as a drill instructor at Paris Island.

If he was in the Marines for 9 years, starting in 1962, he would be just leaving around 1971. But the FBI had him and others under surveillance in Florida in 1969. I've not found any sign that he was on a three year tour as a DI at Parris Island, SC.

[educatedindian]

Drills serve for 2 years in the army, 3 in the Marines. You have to make sergeant, an E5, to be one. To become a sergeant after only 5 years would be difficult but not impossible. Being a DS or DI is not esp noteworthy. Every sergeant is expected to become either a DS/DI or a recruiter.

I'm wondering if Mattern joined the KKK while still in service. Wouldn't be the first, or the first to be kicked out for that reason. It's become standard practice for militias now to join to get military training or try to get access to weapons and explosives. Might not yet have become common at that time.

Haven't found any other accounts claiming he had the Silver Star. Him being a Marine, he might have been awarded the Navy Cross instead.

There was a Larry Mattern awarded it, but not Leonard. Larry was from Saegertown PA. Perhaps a relative?
http://www.homeofheroes.com/members/04_SS/5_RVN/citations/marines/m.html

Found this account claiming Mattern got a (one) purple heart. Also claiming to have been kidnapped by Mormons as a boy.
https://books.google.com/books?id=widVy77KqFwC&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=%22buck+ghosthorse%22+purple+heart&source=bl&ots=6oSbOUE9sT&sig=g0T2DT8hMX0EFahnzLcvuG9OBwg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJnqb-4sXXAhXCSyYKHZH-Bx0Q6AEITjAH#v=onepage&q=%22buck%20ghosthorse%22%20purple%20heart&f=false

[Piff]

Drills serve for 2 years in the army, 3 in the Marines. You have to make sergeant, an E5, to be one. To become a sergeant after only 5 years would be difficult but not impossible. Being a DS or DI is not esp noteworthy. Every sergeant is expected to become either a DS/DI or a recruiter.

His followers make a big deal out of Mattern's claim to be a DI. Very helpful to know the facts on DI service. My guess is that his followers have made lots of excuses for him, including for abusive behavior, maybe by trying to explain it away with his military service.

There was a Larry Mattern awarded it, but not Leonard. Larry was from Saegertown PA. Perhaps a relative?
http://www.homeofheroes.com/members/04_SS/5_RVN/citations/marines/m.html

I think our Leonard Albert Mattern Jr was an only child, so this probably isn't a brother. Could be a cousin, I've not done the genealogy in depth. Mattern looks to be a relatively common surname in Pennsylvania.

Found this account claiming Mattern got a (one) purple heart. Also claiming to have been kidnapped by Mormons as a boy.
https://books.google.com/books?id=widVy77KqFwC&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=%22buck+ghosthorse%22+purple+heart&source=bl&ots=6oSbOUE9sT&sig=g0T2DT8hMX0EFahnzLcvuG9OBwg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJnqb-4sXXAhXCSyYKHZH-Bx0Q6AEITjAH#v=onepage&q=%22buck%20ghosthorse%22%20purple%20heart&f=false

This is by the New Age luminary Matthew Fox, he's written quite a bit about Mattern. Mattern and his then wife worked for 3 years at Fox's school before they came up to WA. Fox is totally enamored of Mattern. Most likely he uses his stories of Mattern still in his curriculum. https://www.foxinstitute-cs.org/ http://www.matthewfox.org/ Mattern and Fox knew each other for 20 plus years, Fox attended the funeral in WA.

Mattern changed his biography several times. At one time he said he had been an orphaned Lakota boy and then raised by a white Anglican couple. At others he said he had been kidnapped by Mormons. He said birth records of being born in SD were not available because they had been destroyed in a fire.

[Piff]

Here's the timeline I have so far. Note that he apparently married at least 5 times, I list their names as M, L, A, Donna, and Vicki. Donna died in 1989, Vicki is his widow. For his first 3 marriages he listed himself as white.


10 March, 1942,  born, Aliquippa Beaver county (Pittsburgh area) PA. Parents and grandparents all white in all records.

1951, birthday in society news, PA

27 April 1962, News Journal, engagement to M, she in high school, he a graduate of Mt Pleasant Senior High and employed by the Mar-Bet Barber Shop

31 Oct 1963, News Journal, Leonard A Mattern Jr.  Pfc in First Marine Division, Hawaii, parents at 2106 Lincoln Ave

6 May 1964, Mrs and Mr Leonard A Mattern Jr have a son May 6, Hawaii

1965 Cpl, Hawaii, in taxi crash with others, Leonard A Mattern, 22

1965 address in Polk's Directory Honolulu: h926 Lunalilo apt 6, Honolulu, Hawaii, occupation US Marine Corps, spouse M

1968 Dec marriage, FL, to L

FBI surveillance on FL Klan activities, Leonard /Buck Mattern included

May 1972 tax issues, assessed for 1971, unpaid balance due

May 1972, divorce from L, Leonard Albert Mattern Jr., Miami

27 May 1973  marriage to A, he listed white, Miami-Dade FL

1976 sued for child support by L

late 1970s, public klan member

March 1980 big Klan fight public, Leonard Mattern referred to as a 14 yr Klan member
3 March charged with concealed weapon, case dismissed 31 Aug 1980

24 June 1980, divorce FL A and Leonard A Mattern Jr

August 1983 Leonard Albert Mattern, Sr died, Kissimmee, Leonard Jr in Kissimmee FL

Fall 1985 Wanzi Cante
Florida Not For Profit Corporation

20 Oct  1985  Leonard A Mattern Jr and D marry, FL, he listed as Indian

1986 more media

Red Nations Sacred Way published

7 July 1987 The Cincinnati Enquirer "As a faculty member of the Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality in Oakland, Calif., Horse travels throughout the country to conduct Native American rituals."
 
1988 Snohomish county, WA real estate

24 Nov 1989, wife Donna dies

9 July 1991,  Medicine Men for Rent by Avis Little Eagle in Lakota Times, states that Mattern/Ghost Horse is a fraud

5 Oct 1992 changes his name legally to Buck Ghost Horse, Snohomish county, WA

16 Oct 1992 Paul Peter Sahadya legally changes his name to Paul Ghost Horse, Snohomish county WA

1993 included in the "Phony Indians" story by Tim Giago

March 1993, marriage to Vicki Lane Redd, Snohomish county, WA

1994 land purchase Klickitat county, WA

Sungleska Oyata incorporation

2006 Goldendale land put into Buck Ghost Horse and Vicki Ghost Horse Trust of June 2006

05 March 2007 Leonard Albert Mattern Jr/ Buck Ghost Horse dies

2011 mother Maxine Mattern dies, FL

2013 Buck Ghost Horse and Vicki Ghost Horse Trust of June 2006 amended

[Piff]

His FBI case file was 1-157-3165.

I posted this earlier in the thread, turns out it is not entirely accurate. There likely would not be just one number for all files on Mattern. FBI HQ and FBI Field Offices keep separate files with separate file numbers. For that specific set of records this file number is consistent, don't know what he is listed under in other records.

In that set of documents there is a direction to prepare "non-prosecutive Summary Reports" on the Klan officials, that would include Mattern.

A Klan group Mattern was a member of, United Klans of America Inc, was very violent. It's leader was Robert Shelton, he left the Air Force and then became the Imperial Wizard of the UKA, which was made up of several merged Klan groups. Members are responsible for a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham AL that killed four girls and injured 22 others. In 1965, members also murdered Viola Liuzzo, a white civil rights worker. This happened before Mattern was caught up in FBI surveillance, he would have known about these events, yet he continued to participate.

I'm keeping an eye out for any mention of military members, so far have only found the clip uploaded here, FBI considering whether a new Klan recruit is a former Marine.

Asa Carter and Leonard Albert Mattern Jr have some things in common, though Mattern was not a successful writer. I don't know if Asa Carter cultivated such a large family cult like Mattern did. According to an essay in the book Fake Identity? The Imposter Narrative in North American Culture, Asa in his pretendian guise still used racist slurs in casual conversation, don't know if Mattern did.

From that essay concerning Asa:

He went from stepping on the downtrodden to uplifting the downtrodden, but it turns out the message is basically the same. It's a universal message he's preaching. It appealed to liberals, appealed to conservatives. And it's kind of the way you put the icing on it.

The kind of populism Carter exhibited, both as Forrest and as Asa - anti-government, extolling a people's connection to their land - played well to both countercultural commune dwellers and resentful neo-Confederates.

In both guises - Klan/militia and pretendian - Mattern got to do the same performances. Secrets revealed to the chosen ones, ceremonies, rituals, costumes, sacred altars, hierarchy, he positioned as an authority and expert. He positioned as a rebel determined to reveal the good news to  the masses. A reluctant messiah, he said he didn't want to work with white people and give them indigenous teachings initially, but a vision and elders told him too.

So his followers could feel extra special, they were getting the good secret stuff from the real deal.

As a Klan member he could enjoy the fact that there was opposition. As a pretendian he could make use of the legitimate protests against what he was doing, he used this as supposed evidence that he and his followers were extra special being sacred against all odds. He could use this as a way to keep his cult followers bound to him.

Mattern has died but the cult mentality lives on, there looks to be a personality cult around Paul Sahayda /Ghosthorse. I don't know how much Paul calls upon this, if he is mostly only active during the summer sundance or if he is active year round including from his home in NC.

[Piff]

Their nonprofit is active:


Business Name:
SUNGLESKA OYATE
UBI Number:
602 450 391
Business Type:
WA NONPROFIT CORPORATION
Business Status:
ACTIVE
Principal Office Street Address:
649 GARRISON RD, GOLDENDALE, WA, 98620-2302, UNITED STATES
Principal Office Mailing Address:
Expiration Date:
11/30/2018
Jurisdiction:
UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON
Formation/ Registration Date:
11/24/2004
Period of Duration:
PERPETUAL
Inactive Date:
Nature of Business:
NON-PROFIT ORG TASKED WITH RAISING FUNDS FOR THE CONTINUED SUPPORT OF NATIVE SPIRITUAL TEACHERS AND SUPPORT OF THOSE TEACHING CULTURAL ACTIVITIES OR SUPPORTING ORGS THAT SUPPORT THOSE GOALS.


Registered agent is Amy Thurman of Aberdeen, WA.
President is Stephen C. Pierren of New Hope, MN.
Treasurer Kayte Maxton-Landis of Portland, OR.
Secretary Amy Thurman

Info from search done here: https://ccfs.sos.wa.gov/#/AdvancedSearch

[educatedindian]

Two other names come up for Sungleska Oyate. One guy seems to make a living off being their storyteller.

----------
https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-york-57698b6b/
Wayne York
STORYTELLER / ARTIST
Ridgefield, Washington
Dates EmployedJul 2004 – Present  Employment Duration14 yrs 1 mo
Became storyteller to the Sungleska Oyate by accident when I told couple stories to Uncle Buck grandson

---------
Ben Rhodd only shows up connected to them once, raising funds for them.
https://mountainx.com/blogwire/native-american-elder-ben-rhodd-speaks-on-traditional-spirituality-nov-28/
Jubilee! Community Church will host Native American archeologist and environmental resource manager Ben Rhodd for a lecture on traditional native American spiritual beliefs on Saturday, November 28 from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m., according to a press release.

Rhodd, a Traditional Belief Practitioner of the Sacred Pipe of the Lakota and follower of the Bahai faith, will cover such topics as indigenous star knowledge, Creation stories from various native perspectives and how traditional beliefs can be applied to contemporary living.

A sliding scale donation of five dollars and up is required to attend. All donations go to benefit the nonprofit organization Sungleska Oyate.

[Piff]

Although he died in 2007, several of his students continue on.

Including Sarah Maclean Bicknell:

Sarah MacLean Bicknell is a healer, teacher, and mentor. She has studied healing and ceremonial work in North American indigenous traditions for 30 years. She has incorporated her Celtic roots into her present North American practice and is sought out for her intuitive readings, workshops, ceremony, and her soul doctoring practice. She stands in deep gratitude to her elders and teachers that have gone before and stands firmly in her own vision, a vision that is related and crafted for these times of the 21st century. Her work is about connection, community, ceremony, and respect. Also raised in the Western world, she has lived the loss of disconnection and is profoundly thankful to her indigenous elders who taught her how to re-arrive more fully into her life.

In 1991, Sarah was adopted by ceremony into the Ghost Horse, Hunka Waye, Lakota Nation. She stands in deep honor to her elder council/mentors and ceremonial collaborators which over the years have been Adalberto Rivera (Maya), Wallace Black Elk, Buck Ghosthorse (Lakota), Paul Ghosthorse, Rod Mcafee, Vicky Ghosthorse (Sungleska), Grandmother Red Leaf (Cherokee), Donna Carlita, Hernando Salazar (Inca, Peru), Silvia Calisaya Chuquimia (Aymarra, Lake Titicaca), Youseff Bashir (Berber, N. Africa), Betsy Bergstrom (NW coastal, Norse, Scottish), Francesca Boring (Shoshone, N Native European), Harold Blood, Carolyn Hillier, K.Trevelyan (N Native European), Stephan Hausner (Germany), and to the many around the world that she has sat, dreamed, and stood in ceremony with.

https://www.facebook.com/events/312755472688921/

Her nonprofit corporation The Night Turtle Dance Foundation: http://www.turtledance.org/

https://www.wildernessawareness.org/about/biographies/sarah

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-maclean-bicknell-7a74051b

[verity]

This group "Sungleska Oyate" Washington state, USA nonprofit organization, is still active.

Listed on corporation docs:

Amy Thurman
Kathryn Maxson-Landis
Stephen Pierren

A recent check via google maps of the land address 649 Garrison Rd, Goldendale Washington shows that they currently have tipis and arbors up for their summer sun dance. Images uploaded here.

Their members are aging and some have obits posted online, for instance Dr. Arthur Clarence Horn, Jr.:

A member of the Men's Society of the Sungleska Oyate, Art was devoted to the path of the "Red Road".

https://spa-convention.org/2021/03/15/in-memoriam/
archived https://web.archive.org/web/20210316034734/https://spa-convention.org/2021/03/15/in-memoriam/

Matthew Fox continues to profit by promoting "my Lakota friend" Buck Ghosthorse and this group. He continues to whitesplain the "Native American tradition" that supposedly all Indigenous people adhere too.

[Sandy S]

The Washington state nonprofit Sungleska Oyate is still active.

The Buck & Vicki Ghosthorse Trust still owns the property at 649 Garrison Rd, Goldendale, Washington.

Satellite photos show a maintained sundance circle on property.

The group has a cemetery on the property, there may be more internments than the two listed here: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2587934/ghost-horse-family-cemetery

Paul Peter Sahadya/ Ghosthorse, at least as of 2019, still identifies as "a descendant of Genghis Khan, was reared by a Native American elder in South Dakota". https://www.secufamilyhouse.org/news/guest-spotlight-the-ghosthorse-family

Their Sungleska Oyate nonprofit past treasurer Dr. Arthur Clarence Horn Jr died in 2020 https://www.ashevilleareaalternative.com/obituary/Arthur-HornJr .

Several of this group have settled in the general Asheville, NC area. Including their spiritual leader Paul Peter Sahadya/Ghosthorse. I don't know if Paul is still alive.

Because several members legally changed their surnames to Ghosthorse in the past, there are now children and possibly grandchildren with that surname. Some of those children appear to believe that they were born into a Lakota lineage.

The lies of Leonard Albert Mattern Jr/Buck Ghosthorse (former KKK member) are still passed around, believed, and some in the new age biz continue to use their own connection as a claim to special spirituality.

I'm curious if Paul Ghosthorse has died, if so has a successor been appointed? Has this group returned to holding summer events in Goldendale, WA? Do those living in NC meet for events?

More on Paul Peter Sahayda AKA Paul Ghosthorse and other members http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=2705.0