Sending Sunnie Home to the Rosebud Reservation

Sunnie Whipple, my best friend and soul mate of almost 30 years, past away suddenly of heart failure on Sunday morning, November 21st. He was a Native American from the Sicangu Lakota of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. We worked side by side in the Native American community in Los Angeles and across the country for nearly 3 decades. I am still in shock and struggling to process the fact that we won’t be able to do all of the things we planned to do in the comings years together. But most of all, I am deeply saddened that his voice and advocacy for the Native American community has been silenced. I've been blessed and overwhelmed by the words of comfort, encouragement and stories that people have given me over these past few days. I am thankful to friends and to the Native American community for their enormous support. You are family to me.

We have been working on arrangements to get Sunnie back to the Rosebud Reservation in order to honor his personal family and traditional ways of burial. I am very grateful for the funds already raised by Jessica, who considered Sunnie an Uncle. But, we are still in need of more funds in order to properly prepare and transport him back home, and cover all the necessary costs.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Any donation, no matter how small would be a blessing and greatly appreciated.