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Owe
Aku Position Statement on Mato Paha (Bear Butte)
Our Lakota
ancestors were free, sovereign, natural people who in their daily
lives strived to live in a respectful way an observance of our
natural laws as brought to us by Pte San Win, sent to us in a time of
need by Tunkasila to show our people how to live in a good way, and
these sacred teachings have been handed down from generation to
generation. Our sacred teachings and social teachings as well provide
for our people the knowledge and goodness of ways of life to respect
all of Creation, and esp ecially places on Earth that our special to
us because they guide our daily life ways and philosophy of life for
the coming generations. Even through the past decades of living in
“Exile” on our own land through Treaty violations, our
people have kept these ways of life alive, even through fighting the
United States government.
Throughout the
decades of making war with the United States of America our ancestors
fought the 7th Calvary and eventually we took their flag at the
Greasy Grass, known to history as the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Since that ti me, although thousands of our people have entered the
U.S. Armed Forces to fight for this beautiful land, as Lakota Oyate
we still must fight the U.S. government and their entities for our
way of life which includes the freedom to live our spiritual ways.
Throughout the early reservation days, many of our brave, humble,
visionary people lived these ways of live at the risk of
imprisonment, and so taught our people how to live a spiritual way
according to the teachings of Pte San Win.
When our ancestors
entered the reservation to live under the War Department of the
United States, the Lakota Oyate came with two items. One, the Sacred
White Buffalo Calf Pipe. The other, a star map. This star map teaches
our Nation how to live a Spiritual Way of Life here on Earth,
mirroring that which occurs in the Star Nation, and on this Star Map
are geographic locations which are Sacred to the Lakota Nation, and
which mirror the Stars in the Sky. Each geographical location
corresponds exactly with a Star Constellation.
When the Stars are
in a certain place in the Sky, we here on Earth must be in the
corresponding location on Earth in order to conduct the sacred
ceremony on Earth that is being conducted in the Sky within the Star
constellation, and among these sacred places on Earth is a place we
call Mato Paha, or Bear Butte in the English language. As the Star
Nation moved through the Sky, we moved through our sacred places
throughout the He Sapa. As we our people moved through the oldest
mountains on Earth, we gathered food, game, and medicine to take us
through the Autumn and early months of Winter. As we moved through
the Sacred He Sapa, our Autumn destination was Mato Paha. We gathered
(and gather today) there at Mato Paha. As we camped there, Mato Paha
became known as Pte Pute Ya for about one months’ time, when we
departed, the Sacred Mountain again became Mato Paha. As the Stars in
the Sky moved through the Universe, the sacred time of the He Sapa
reflecting the sacred cycle of the Star Nation had come full circle,
and we again dispersed to our Winter Camps to begin the journey anew.
While our people were at Pte Pute Ya, decision making councils were
conducted to decide important business of the Tiospaye, Bands, and
Oceti Sakowin.
In today’s
language, we did strategic and long range planning while camped at
this Sacred Mountain, and our leaders of those not-so-long-ago-days
were careful to include these sacred places in the 1851 and 1868 Ft.
Laramie Treaties with the United States government. It is still our
responsibility to take care of these sacred places, these places are
still in our Treaty Territory, and we must stand opposed to the
development of any of these sacred places. At the current time, Bear
Butte is being considered as a place to build a commercial
enterprise, known as the “Sacred Grounds”. It will be a
campground, concert venue, and biker bar built by Jay Allen to open
in 2006. Allen also plans to build additional smaller bars near Bear
Butte, as well as a tipi village and an 80-foot tall statue of an
American Indian.
Owe Aku has
presented a Tribal Resolution to the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council to
direct the President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe to initiate work
immediately that will result in the creation of a reasonable buffer
zone around a ll sacred places in our Treaty Territory to protect the
dignity of these locations as our place of worship similar to how
there are American laws in place that protect churches, synagogs,
schools, hospitals, etc. Such buffer zones will include a prohibition
of further development, the approval of liquor licenses, any form of
pornography, violence, environmental pollution, and a noise level
which is unacceptable to sacred places and other actions to be
determined, and to consider such buffer zone consideration as an
environmental preservation area.
The Tribal
Resolution (Resolution # 05-134) was approved on September 27, 2005
by a vote of 15 for, 0 Not Voting, and 0 Against.
Owe Aku will stand
together with other indigenous Nations and peoples' organizations and
our Traditional Healers and Medicine People to form an Intertribal
Coalition to Defend Bear Butte. (November 5, 2005)
Owe
Aku: Bring Back the Way
"We Do Not
Inherit Mother Earth From Our Ancestors, We Borrow Her From Our Children."
--Crazy Horse
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