Chief Lookinghorse speaks to the world

Page 5

Dear Editor:

I, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Nation, ask you to understand an Indigenous perspective on what has happened in America, what we call "Turtle Island."

My words seek to unite the global community through a message from our sacred ceremonies to unite spiritually, each in our own ways of beliefs in the Creator. We have been warned from ancient prophecies of these times we live in today, but have also been given a very important message about a solution to turn these terrible times around. To understand the depth of this message you must recognize the importance of sacred sites and realize the interconnectedness of what is happening today, in reflection of the continued massacres that are occurring on other lands and our own Americas. I have been learning about these important issues since the age of 12, upon receiving the sacred white buffalo calf pipe bundle and its teachings. Our people have striven to protect sacred sites from the beginning of time. These places have been violated for centuries and have brought us to the predicament that we are in at the global level. Look around you. Our mother earth is very ill from these violations, and we are on the brink of destroying the possibility of a healthy and nurturing survival for generations to come, our children's children. Our ancestors have been trying to protect our sacred site called the Sacred Black Hills in South Dakota, "heart of everything that is," from continued violations. Our ancestors never saw a satellite view of this site, but now that those pictures are available, we see that it is in the shape of a heart and, when fast-forwarded, it looks like a heart pumping. The Dine have been protecting Big Mountain, calling it the liver, and we are suffering and going to suffer more from the extraction of the coal from there and the poison processes used in doing so. The Aborigines have warned of the contaminating effects of global warming on the coral reefs, which they see as Mother Earth's blood purifier. The Indigenous people of the rainforest relay that the rainforest are the lungs of the planet and need protection. The Gwich'in Nation has had to face oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, also known to the Gwich'in as "where life begins!" The coastal plain is the birthplace of many life forms of the animal nations. The death of these animal nations will destroy Indigenous nations in this territory. As these destructive developments continue all over the world, we will witness many more extinct animal, plant, and human nations, because of mankind's misuse of power and their lack of understanding of the "balance of life." The Indigenous people warn that these destructive developments will cause havoc globally. We need to understand the types of minds that are continuing to destroy the spirit of our whole global community. Unless we do this, the powers of destruction will overwhelm us. Our Ancestors foretold that water would someday be for sale. Back then, this was hard to believe, since the water was so plentiful, so pure, and so full of energy, nutrition, and spirit. Today we have to buy pure water, and even then instead of the source of life itself. Each of us is put here in this time and this place to personally decide the future of humankind. Did you think the Creator would create unnecessary people in a time of such terrible danger? Know that you yourself are essential to this world. Believe that! Understand both the blessing and the burden of that. You yourself are desperately needed to save the soul of this world. Did you think you were put here for something less? In a sacred hoop of life, there is no beginning and no ending!

- Chief Arvol Looking Horse