Judy Bluehorse Skelton
Water
[audio:https://www.wisdomoftheelders.org/s2_progs/202_sl.mp3]Arle Neskahi:
Arlie Neskahi :
When I was a boy, I was told, don’t whistle at night because you call the spirits. The world is full of spirits. Spirit lakes, spirit mountains, sacred places where spirits dwell. In what is now called South Dakota, at the mouth of the White Stone River, Lewis and Clark decided to explore such a site, known by the Indian people of the region as, Spirit Mound. Judy Bluehorse Skelton offers insights into the significance of our sacred landscapes.
Judy Bluehorse Skelton :
Sacred places can be found everywhere on earth. Every region in this country has a place called spirit lake or spirit mountain, sacred places where the forces of the unseen world can be felt. Some people express the experience in terms of energy, good or positive energy, revitalizing, healing energy. Others feel a sense of awe, reverence, like an ancient cedar grove that invites reflection and prayer, communication with the spirit world. The sun and moon, forests and mountains, rocks, water and wind are all charged with a vitality that interacts with animals and humans to create a dynamic alive world. Many sacred places are home to ceremonies, ceremonies acknowledging the changing seasons and honoring rites of passage, in this life and into the next.
Some sites are understood to be off-limits to humans. Boundaries are respected. Otherwise, the balance may be disturbed. Harm may be done. This understanding is not viewed as superstitious by native culture, but is respected as part of the great mystery of the web of life. All of creation has spirit and proper behavior is accorded to all beings.
Music:
Ben Koen
The Fourth Way
Songs from Green Mountain
Lewis and Clark heard the stories from different tribes about the sacred landscapes in which they were traveling. On one occasion, near present-day Vermillion, South Dakota, they decided to investigate a hill located at the mouth of the White Stone River. Neighboring tribes called this hill, “The Mountain of Little People,” or “The Mountain of Spirits,” and believed it was the home of little people, about 18 inches high, mischievous and sometimes lethal spirits.
From Clark’s journal of August 24 th 1804:
“A high hill is situated and appears of a conic form, and by the different nations in this quarter. they state that tradition informs them that many Indians have suffered by those little people. so much do the Maha, Sioux, Otoes and other neighboring nations believe the fable, that no consideration is sufficient to induce them to approach the hill.”
So the very next day (from Clark’s journal):
The Mighty Missouri, quiet and powerful, flows past Yankton's Riverside Park. Courtesy of the National Parks Service. www.nps.gov
Captain Lewis and myself concluded to go and see the mound which was viewed with such terror by all the different nations. The surrounding plains is open, void of timber and level to a great extent. Hence the wind from whatever quarter it may blow, drives with unusual force over the naked plains and against the hill. The insects. are thus involuntarily driven to the mound by the force of the winds, or fly to its leeward side for shelter. Clark went on to suggest that Indians may have believed the place to be full of spirits because of the large assemblage of birds and not the little people.”
Music:
Ben Koen
The Fourth Way
Songs from Green Mountain
The journals of Lewis and Clark reveal more about their own prejudices and the beliefs of their society at the time, than that of the indigenous people they met along the trail. They believed their worldview to be superior to that of native people and great effort was later exerted to quash or suppress the animated and dynamic culture and spirituality of Indian peoples. Charged by President Jefferson to apply a scientific approach to the plants, animals, people and land they would quote “discover,” Lewis and Clark noted the mundane world and missed the deeper understanding of the great mystery, the spirit that dwells within all creation.
Spirit Mound, near Vermillion, SD was visited by Lewis & Clark with several members of the Corps of Discovery. The site has been restored to native prairie through a multi-agency project. Photo by Linda Gordon Rokosz. Courtesy of the National Parks Service. www.nps.gov
Spirit Mound as it is known today is still venerated by Native people of the region and is being protected by National Park Service and restored to its natural state.
A few years ago, I attended an indigenous people’s conference which brought Maori people from New Zealand and Aboriginal people from Australia to the United States to meet with Native people of the Americas. As people spoke of their homes, we shared our concerns about the degradation and loss of our sacred landscapes to pressure for development and exploitation of natural resources.
But we also shared our realization that sacred mountains, sacred lakes, sacred deserts, sacred forests all around the planet were still doing what they had done for millennia. They were holding the energy, maintaining the balance, keeping the harmony. And so it is with us. Wherever we go, we create sacred space.
With each step, with each heart beat, with each breath. Osadadu.
Neskahi:
Judy Bluehorse Skelton practices and teaches her craft in order that her relationship to plant people shall carry through to generations. This is Wisdom of the Elders. I’m Arlie Neskahi.