"As the wind breathes out of Wind Cave in my face, I am reminded of the creation of humans and my own small place in this magnificent world. Wind Cave National Park is named for the cave itself, called Washun Niya, or the Breathing Hole of Mother Earth by the Lakota People. In this creation story, it is from here that they emerged to this world.

It is a complex cave system. According to scientists we may only have a sense of 5 percent of the cave’s volume and breath, and likely even less of its power. In the vernacular of some, this might be known as the “ known unknown.” To most Indigenous Peoples, there is an understanding of the Great Mystery.

So it is that in 2012, the time of change and transformation in an American election year, and also according to the Mayan calendar, we find that the smallness and the greatness of humans in a world around us, comes face to face with us in the Black Hills. A most sacred place, Pe’Sla , in the center of the Lakota universe is up for sale, and values and questions clash."

Get the Story:
Winona LaDuke: Black Hills Auction: The Auction of the Sacred (Indian Country Today 8/16)

Related Stories:
Native Sun News: Rosebud Sioux Tribe leads fight on sacred site (8/16)
Ruth Hopkins: Saving a sacred Black Hills site from auction block (8/15)
Blog: Activists need help to prevent sacred site from being sold (8/15)