The Black Hills Run Red
Yesterday evening, our small troop of four pulled into the Black Hills in the pitch black. We checked into a local KOA just outside of a town named Custer and settled into our cozy little cabin. It was then that we started talking about the areas rich history. For those of you who don't know, the Black Hills (also known as "the heart of all things") are a sacred area for the Lakota Sioux. The pine covered, rocky terrain is the barrier between the sage prairie and the short grass prairie, offering an abundance of food and medicinal plants for the people that aren't found anywhere else in the region. It is in the heart of these hills where some of the biggest atrocities that the Europeans could've committed were carried out. In the 1800's, the army erraticated a village of elders, women and children who proudly bared the American flag as a sign of peace, all because that unit of the army was recruited for slaughtering the Indians who called the west their home. That was known as the Sandy Creek Massacre... It is not widely covered in our history textbooks. The battle of Little Bighorn also took place near the Black Hills. It is famous as the battle that General George A. Custer lost. No one even gives recognition to the First Nation tribes who fought and won their only battle against the U.S. Army here. After the battle, a warchief by the name of Crazy Horse was approached by a white man who asked him, "Where are your lands now, Crazy Horse?" Crazy Horse responded, pointing out towards the Black Hills, "My lands are where my dead lie buried." In the Treaty of Fort Laramie, the Black Hills were recognized as a sacred place to the Lakota and they were given the Hills. However, a few short years later, gold was discovered in the Hills and the government quickly claimed them. The Lakota were forced to leave as miners cleared their forests and scared away their prey. To add salt to the wound, people had the audacity to name a city in the heart of the Black Hills Custer to commemerate the fallen general. On sacred Lakota land. Just let that sink in. Then of course there is Mount Rushmore. A large carving in the stone of the four visionaries who created the America we know today. George Washingston, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. It is a national symbol of the glory of the Europeans built right on top of the graves of thousands of Native Americans. While construction on that started in 1927, it would take another 20 years before a man by the name of Korczak Ziolkowski agreed with the Lakota people to build them a monument. After all, "we want the white men to know that we have heroes, too." (Cheif Standing Bear, 1940). The Crazy Horse monument towers over Mount Rushmore at 563 feet tall and is still a work in progress. There is a plaque that will be carved in the mountain that reads: When the course of history has been told, Let these truths here carved be known. Conscience dictates civilizations live And duty ours to place before the world, A chronicle which will long endure. For loke all things under us and beyond, Inevitably we must pass into oblivion. This land of refuge to the stranger Was ours for countless eons before: Civilizations majestic and mighty. Our gifts were many which we shared And gratitude for them was known. But later given my oppressed ones Were murder, rape and sanguine war. Looking from whence invaders came, Greedy usurpers of our heritage. For us the past is in our hearts, The future never to be fulfilled. For you I give this granite epic For your descendants to always know-- "My land lies where my dead are buried." " This is to commemerate the struggle of the Lakota and all the People of the Plains and to remind them that the Black Hills will always be their sacred area. And now we come to a more modern issue. The Standing Rock Reservation Protest. Again this is something many of you probably don't know about. A texas oil company called Dakota is trying to build a pipeline through sacred land of the Lakota Sioux. A protest of well over 1000 people is taking place. It has united the Great Sioux Nation, which hasn't been united in 50 years. It isn't just the Lakota people protesting, but a whole nation. There are Blackfoot, Crow, Ojibwe and other groups arriving at Standing Rock to protest. Even the Pacific Nations are joining in. But where is the media coverage? The oil company has hired attack dogs and special security to pepper spray and attack the protesters. But barely anyone knows about this. These are things that have to change. The past is the past. Thousands of people have been raped, slaughtered and tortured in the name of "progress". But the future is not written in stone. A vast majority of the First Nation culture has been wiped out. But we can help bring it back. We do not get to turn on our brothers and sisters who have given their lives for the sake of their country. Whether Canadian or American, we are one. Everyone has a story and it doesn't matter who we are, that story matters. We can try to make everyone sound the same, but I will stand up and shout with the people trying so desperately to get their voices to be heard. For any First Nations people out there reading this, no matter who you are, I stand with you. I will not just sit back and watch as people try to drown out your voices, I will fight beside you. I know I am young, but I will not stop until there is equality here. Let's change the world.