On Hallowed Ground

by Darren Thompson

In the latter part of 2016, the world watched oil pipeline drama unfold near the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation in North Dakota. With so much public exposure, it invited the general public who—for the most part— has little or no knowledge of America’s First Peoples, their treaties with the federal government, their culture, or their history to participate in a conversation that has been long overdue. And while the long-fought battle continued well into 2017, it no doubt opened the eyes and ears of many to the rights that tribes retain.

Social media was filled with hashtags voicing water is life (#mniwiconi, #waterislife), honor our mother (#honorourmother), and oppose the building of an underwater crude oil pipeline (#nodapl). Activists documented police brutality, cited false reporting of the press, and voiced that they were protectors (not protestors). Police went to the press with claims citing violence, illegal activity, mistreatment by outside agitators, and—even—abandonment by the US federal government. It was a daily war by both sides to tell the narrative to a seemingly helpless public.

At its core, the conflict near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation is about a sacred landscape. Of course, it is also about treaties, law, the environment, and the need to be independent of fossil fuels, but that is another conversation, and I will leave that to lawyers, courtrooms, judges, environmentalists, and energy development experts.

What is a sacred landscape? No doubt, there is no one answer, and it is as complex as defining culture, but all cultures have an approach to defining sacred. Nonetheless, I will attempt to address the question in the best way I know how and will cite examples that compare general public knowledge in American culture to examples significant to the Indigenous peoples of America.

Most people associate the word “sacred” with religion. In most cases, it applies to something that is unseen or untouchable, and something that has happened long ago. The religious view of the sacred is a perspective on a culture’s collection of thoughts and practices that function as a basis for the community’s social structure. In the United States, this would apply to the Declaration of Independence and the place it was signed, or the US Constitution and the place it was signed. For many Native people, this includes a “motherland” or a location where their people emerged or have existed for generations.

When tribes were approached to sign treaties with the federal government in the 1800s, it was important to leaders that the people could continue a way of life that their forefathers had done since time immemorial. A significant, if not most important, way of life included prayer, which in many Native cultures includes all of creation. Yes, that includes you and everything your eyes can see in the natural world. Many tribes retained rights off their reservation lands, which can include traditional hunting or harvesting grounds and places of significance. These places of significance are memories of a people that have thrived among Mother Earth.

When exploring language or linguistics, there are stark differences toward land or what naturally exists in all cultures and languages. I’m an enrolled member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Ojibwe from Wisconsin, and I realize my homeland is far from North Dakota, but not so much my people. The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa is the lone band of Ojibwe in the Dakotas. The Ojibwe people represent one of the largest tribes in North America and have one of the world’s most difficult languages to learn. The Ojibwe language describes much of what the eye sees in natural settings as animate—having a spirit. In other words, much of what one sees, hears, feels, or experiences is alive and has a purpose entirely on its own from an Ojibwe perspective. In the Ojibwe language there is no such thing as an atheist or a “non-believer” as everything is related to spirit, and furthermore, it is all related to a greater spirit—Great Spirit. There is no difference between natural and supernatural, seen and unseen, or physical and metaphysical. In other words, everything is related and part of the greater force that exists in creation. In a real sense, everything in creation is sacred.

I’m a small business owner in Rapid City, South Dakota. I’m a musician. Ni pipigwe. I’m a flute player. I perform and demonstrate wind instruments indigenous to North America and share their stories and songs to hundreds of thousands of tourists from all walks of life at the world’s largest monument in progress—the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota. When I’m not performing, I contribute to several American Indian publications that include powwows.com, Native News Online, Native Peoples Magazine, News from Indian Country, Indian Country Today. I’m also the media coordinator for the Black Hills Unity Concert. The goal in all of these efforts is to contribute and share a narrative that is representative of American Indian people and their success, as well as some of their challenges. It is a neverending task, but I take it with great pride and honor to share some of what I know about the knowledge, culture, and history of the Ojibwe people.

My travels to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation began before the heightened clashes with law enforcement during the later summer months of 2016. My first visit was while hosting a British author hoping to document his travels as a European to several Indian reservations in the Dakotas. On my journey, I met a number of individuals who worked for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe including LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, the tribe’s Clean Water Act coordinator. During a scheduled meeting, LaDonna spoke to our British guest about treaties, laws, environmental impact statements, historical trauma, and oil pipelines. It was during that meeting that I discovered LaDonna hosted a small encampment on her private land anticipating the building of an underground oil pipeline near the reservation boundaries.

Since Europeans have arrived in North America, their interest in the land has been economic. To this day, we see that economic interests far exceed interests of most things and places considered sacred. The freedom of religion clauses in the US Constitution do not provide much protection for sacred places. This country’s forefathers came from Christian nations and held their concept of sacred land where their religion was born. It’s almost as if places of sacred significance are only in the Old World, and religious experiences stopped happening when people crossed the ocean. Although defendants of American culture and history can disagree, the majority of places of sacred significance in this country widely recognized by the masses are places that convey accomplishments by people originating from Western cultures. Plymouth Rock is no doubt recognized as a symbol of American history and is revered by many as sacred. Sites and people associated with the American Revolution are places of significance to the people of the United States of America. The examples are plenty, but most sites are human-made structures built after the arrival of Europeans, not entire landscapes.

The concept of preserving entire landscapes isn’t a foreign concept in the United States. Many of our national parks were pristine locations where countless tribes resided for millennia, but are now enjoyed by tourists from all walks of life, from all corners of the globe. A few locations include the Grand Canyon National Park, where several tribes have reservations within the park, and the Black Hills National Forest, both entire landscapes where the US Government stripped American Indian tribes of their claim to ownership.

It wasn’t until 1978 that American Indian people were permitted to pray in places of significance in the United States as a result of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. Due to government oppression of American Indian culture and language, most ways of life were driven underground, and many never returned. In 1978 some American Indian people began to defend the land that has been sacred to them since time immemorial. With changing administrations on both state and federal levels, the cooperation and understanding of protecting places of sacred significance to America’s first peoples vary. In all reality, the problems associated with acknowledging public law associated with protecting sacred lands exist more on a local level and happen more often than we might be aware.

Since this country has separated itself from its Church, the highest places of significance that are recognized by this country on an official level (protected, funded, etc.) are those classified in the National Register of Historic Places and national parks. Although there are more than 2,500 landmarks recognized by the US National Historical Landmark Program, the majority of landmarks relate to American history and include very little of the more than 560 American Indian tribes that have existed in this part of the world for countless generations. Each American Indian tribe has its own history, its own distinct relationship with creation, and its own approach to what is sacred. Defining and defending what is sacred isn’t well supported in the United States, leaving sites that are sacred to America’s First Peoples lacking complete protection under US law.

American Indian peoples aren’t entirely hopeless, however. Several sites classified by the National Register are considered sacred by Native people. Indigenous peoples who practice their religion or ceremonies at a site hold a special and sacred attachment to that particular site. For example, Bear Butte in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Medicine Mountain in Wyoming, and Chaluka Site in Alaska are all places where many Native people pray and hold ceremonies on a regular basis and have done so for countless generations—and are all locations on the National Register of Historic Places. No matter how much time passes, the people will always remember, they will always hold what is sacred to them, and there are countless other locations only known to tribes that are sacred to them. And with more than 560 tribes in the country, there is a lot of work to be done.

Leaders and communities continue to fight to defend what is sacred to them in all corners of Indian Country. If we look deep enough, we see issues regarding American Indian sacred and burial sites throughout the United States. However, these issues aren’t reported to a public so dependent on mainstream media that the mantra has become, “if we didn’t hear it, it didn’t happen.” This leaves many underrepresented communities at a disadvantage politically, economically, and socially. But back to the conversation of what is sacred—we have learned that there isn’t any easy way to define or defend what is sacred in the United States from a legal standpoint. But from a cultural standpoint we see that there are some examples cited here in the United States that relate to European cultures and, of course, the Indigenous peoples of America. The reality is our country has the ability to realize that places are significant to the well being of a people and their way of life and our country has the power to recognize and protect certain places—and certainly does when it comes to its own history.

Because there are so many tribes and cultures, it is impossible to sweep an entire group of people into defining what is sacred to them. If there is one thing American Indian tribes have in common it is that they have all been wronged in some way by the federal government and can cite almost exactly who, what, when, where, how, and why offenses were committed.

We remember, and in the past several years many tribes have started commemorations to honor times of trauma and to begin the healing process. With so much cultural diversity, the best approach in understanding what is sacred to a people is to go to the source itself, which requires respect, patience, communication, and building of trust for the best interests of the public. Would it hurt the public in saving places of sacred significance to a people that has called America home for millennia?

I cannot speak for other tribes and their religious or spiritual practices; not only is it disrespectful, but it misinforms people who may not be aware that tribes are different and have very different histories, experiences, and ways of life. And in all reality, I cannot even speak for my own tribe, as I do not have authority to do so. But I can speak from my own personal experience, which just so happens to be among the Ojibwe people of Lac du Flambeau. I attempted to put things in perspective that relate to my cultural background as there are some common approaches to places of significance to a people who all revere our source of life, the earth. There is a saying among the Ojibwe that the earth does not belong to us, but that we, the Anishinaabe (the people), belong to the earth. As I grew older and traveled to more communities in Indian Country, I’ve heard other sayings that I know people from back home would agree with such as Mitakuye oyasin, Hózhóogo naasháa doo, and ohneká -unho?t^. The last saying, water is life, is a saying many peoples have been saying for generations, and recently many people throughout the world became familiar with and are now shouting in streets and protests throughout the world—Mni wiconi. Many tribes consider all of creation sacred, but of course some parts more sacred than others. Earlier I discussed an aspect of the Ojibwe language that through speaking the language, the speaker acknowledges that all is related to the speaker, and are also dimensions of a person’s identity. These sayings are more than sayings, however—they are a philosophy spoken through language and action. Many tribes, including my own, conduct a ceremony for water, for land, for people, for creation. People learn the meaning of water is life through a series of prayers, songs, and words of a spiritual leader who carries the knowledge and wisdom of his forefathers so that we may pursue a balanced life while on earth.

I take my cultural identity very seriously, and I realize I live in a very different time than when my ancestors looked upon creation, but I like to reflect that I am merely a part of creation and what happens to the earth will happen to me. Throughout my adult life I have worked as the assistant tribal liaison of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, for Native American Tourism of Wisconsin, and for the National Congress of American Indians. I have learned that there isn’t a single tribe that does not have protecting sacred sites and repatriating sacred and cultural items to their people as one of the most important issues they face today. Both through my upbringing and my professional experience, I have witnessed that much of what is sacred is threatened, and that the majority of the general public doesn’t have many clues of how to approach these very precious issues.

Living in the Black Hills, I am always among many Lakota and Dakota people, and they treat me with great respect. I have found their approach to prayer, to living life is very similar to my own people—balance is the core of the universe, and we as humans must always remember the earth is a source of life, not a resource to be exploited. So when clashes began in the later part of the summer of 2016, it was without hesitation I joined the many hundreds of people protesting the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline. It was no surprise that more than three hundred tribes sent representatives, supplies, and support to help the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in its fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline. With the current route of one of the largest oil pipelines to cross under one of the largest water systems in the country, with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe being the first community to be affected, Indian Country and its allies answered the call that the time to stand up for Mother Earth is now. And although it is difficult to list an entire river system as sacred, which no doubt it is, the fact of the matter is to question how much life depends on the Missouri River. The margin of error is too great, and all we hold special, sacred, green, and good in this world could surely be threatened by a mere malfunction of a pipeline.

Respecting sacred places acknowledges an accumulated knowledge of many generations. The Ojibwe language can explain why we must respect the earth and take responsibility for caring for the land, water, and its resources. I believe it is the antidote to global climate change and environmental destruction. The Ojibwe language is where my people turn for philosophy, history, science, medicines, stories, and spirituality.

There is no easy way to define what is sacred from an Indigenous perspective, especially in the United States. The documents that bind this country together state that there will be a separation of state and religion (freedom of religion), and we are now seeing that religion has almost no influence when it comes to things of economics, but of course has influenced other aspects of policy and law that have shaped our country’s identity. Manifest destiny was both a religious creed and a US policy that removed hundreds of American Indian tribes from their ancestral homelands. Ultimately when deciding to protect a land because of claims of sacred significance, there are sometimes economic factors that are weighed in the decision. Reverse roles and imagine if people had to plea to preserve Plymouth Rock or Liberty Hall and justify its importance. With a new administration now signaling approval to drill for oil in the nation’s national parks, it leaves us all to wonder, What is important to us?

There could be arguments, of course, as to who can claim the landscape and whether or not it is sacred, but the future of our species depends on us taking responsibility for all living things and all the eye can see. The lands where America’s first peoples remain have lost a great deal, but as generations move forward, they are beginning to reclaim their heritage and understand the meaning of the lands of their ancestors, that Mother Earth is the source of life, not a resource to be exploited. In closing, I would like to share a story I heard while growing up that I share at the conclusion to all of my performances. I hope it has some meaning.

If you take away all of the four-leggeds, those that walk on all fours, from the Earth, life on Earth would not be able to sustain itself. If you take away all of the winged relatives, those that have wings and feathers, from the Earth, life on Earth would not be able to sustain itself. If you take away all that is green from this world and that grows from the Earth, the plant life, away from the Earth, life on Earth would not be able to sustain itself. If you took away water, and all those that live in water, from the Earth, life on Earth would not be able to sustain itself. If you took away man from the Earth, life on Earth would flourish.

DARREN THOMPSON (Ojibwe/Tohono O’odham) is a Native American flute player and writer from the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Reservation in Northern Wisconsin. He contributes to Native Peoples Magazine, Native News Online, Native Max Magazine, powwows.com. For more information visit, darrenthompson.net.

1 Bismarck Tribune, Blair Emerson, December 12, 2016 | http://bismarcktribune.com/news/ state-and-regional/n-d-law-enforcement-officials-completely-and-utterly-abandoned-by/article_ c3ca5f55-2e3e-5eae-aaa7-ce6561ef73a8.html

2 Oshkaabewis Native Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1, Fall 1995

3 Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (485 U.S. 439 1988)

4 Public Law No. 95-341, 92 Stat. 469

5 “We are all related” in the Lakota, Dakota language

6 “In beauty I walk” in the Diné/Navajo language

7 “Water is life” in the Oneida language