{"id":10164,"date":"2012-08-19T15:15:08","date_gmt":"2012-08-19T22:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/?p=10164"},"modified":"2012-08-19T15:18:35","modified_gmt":"2012-08-19T22:18:35","slug":"when-sacred-land-goes-up-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/08\/when-sacred-land-goes-up-for-sale.html","title":{"rendered":"When Sacred Land Goes Up for Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

What happens when sacred lands go up for sale? That is the situation faced by the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota\u00a0people as\u00a0Pe\u2019 Sla, an area in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is being sold by its owners<\/a>. Though long in private hands, tribes had been allowed access to perform necessary ceremonies, and this is now in question with the sale. In addition, the government of South Dakota is planning on paving a road right through the middle of the site, a move that is seen as\u00a0sacrilegious. In response, a last-minute campaign to raise funds to purchase the land has been launched<\/a>, but with only a few days to go they are still far short of their million-dollar goal.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=t9RAEIzaZ7A<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rosebud Sioux Tribe has designated $50,000 for the purpose of purchasing Pe\u2019 Sla land.\u00a0 By contributing to the effort of all the Sioux Tribes, we aim to purchase at least some of the tracts, if not all.\u00a0 Many of the Sioux Tribes continue to exist in poverty and do not have\u00a0a thriving casino-based economy as the media may have portrayed.\u00a0 Yet we continue to fight for what is sacred, because it matters!\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ruth Hopkins, writing for Indian Country Today, puts the importance of this land in context.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cLike many other Indigenous groups, our ceremonies are tied directly to the Universe and the natural cycles of Ina Maka (Mother Earth). Therefore, it only serves that Pe\u2019 Sla, a location in the heart of the Black Hills that serves as a basis for our star maps, is also a sacred site where ceremonies must be observed each year. According to our beliefs, these rituals must be performed to keep the Universe in harmony and preserve the well being of all, Native and non-Native alike. You see, to the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota, Pe\u2019 Sla is not merely prairie. Its grounds are holy. It is our Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is our Mecca. Pe\u2019 Sla is our wailing wall, where we are meant to pray.\u00a0<\/strong>The danger of the Oceti Sakowin losing Pe\u2019 Sla is real, and imminent. Should Pe\u2019 Sla pass into the hands of someone other than us, it\u2019s highly likely that it will be developed. The State of South Dakota has expressed that it wants to use eminent domain to build a road right through the heart of Pe\u2019 Sla. Development of Pe\u2019 Sla would effectively cut off our access to it, and spell its destruction as a sacred site.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Point of fact, this land was illegally taken from the Great Sioux Nation<\/a>, and they have refused a settlement award (currently nearly 600 million dollars) for it because that would legally terminate demands for that land\u2019s return. Native tribes across the country have been working for years to reclaim land that was taken from them<\/a>\u00a0in the name of greed or \u201cintegration,\u201d and even when lands are \u201csafely\u201d in the hands of the federal government, that is no\u00a0guarantee\u00a0that the wishes of American Indian tribes will be respected<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pe\u2019Sla in the Black Hills (Photo: South Dakota Magazine\/Bernie Hunhoff)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The protection of Native sacred lands\u00a0is an ongoing issue in Indian country<\/a>,\u00a0encroachments and construction on sacred lands often done in the arbitrary name of economic development, or sometimes just for simple\u00a0convenience (to non-Native folks of course).\u00a0For some politicians it seems very plain\u00a0there is no such thing as sacred land at all<\/a>. However, we know there are consequences and a price to the eradication or desecration of sacred ground, whether it is\u00a0Tara in Ireland<\/a>\u00a0or the peaks in Arizona. We can only hope that some sort of reprieve emerges, and this holy site isn\u2019t developed and destroyed. We have to ask ourselves what sort of nation, culture, are we, that blithely moves forward in destroying indigenous holy sites in the name of commerce\u00a0while screaming about \u201creligious freedom\u201d on somewhat flimsy (and\u00a0politically\u00a0motivated) pretexts<\/a>. When you sell a people\u2019s sacred ground, what dignity or honor is left, what claim do we have to be human beings?<\/p>\n

For updates on this issue, see the site Last Real Indians<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What happens when sacred lands go up for sale? That is the situation faced by the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota\u00a0people as\u00a0Pe\u2019 Sla, an area in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is being sold by its owners. Though long in private hands, tribes had been allowed access to perform necessary ceremonies, and this is now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[99,3556,3558,3638,1294,3559,1580,1582,3555,3557,2189],"class_list":["post-10164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indigenous","category-religion","tag-american-indian","tag-black-hills","tag-dakota","tag-indigenous","tag-lakota","tag-nakota","tag-native-american","tag-native-spirituality","tag-pe-sla","tag-sioux","tag-south-dakota"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Sacred Land Goes Up for Sale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What happens when sacred lands go up for sale? 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