A view of the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Photo from National Park Service
The earth that once was will soon be no more
By Regina Brave The year is 2145. People have gone back to living in caves. There is no electricity or running water. The sky is a perpetual overcast, there is no sunlight. The earth looks sandy and brown clumps of weeds permeate the landscape. The trees are stunted. Is this the Southwest? There is only silence. There’s a freeway nearby reclaimed by weeds but a sign still stands. It reads I-80. Interstate I-80? A south-facing arch portrays a history: The first drawing depicts a bluff with arrows on horses facing east; the second shows armored tanks firing, jets dropping bombs and missiles coming in and going out; the third one is large and shows tipis and a gathering of many people too numerous to count. The fourth middle and largest space is blank. The fifth drawing shows floods, volcanoes, tidal waves and earthquakes with steam spurting out, there are people fighting and killing each other, many people are running and buildings are on fire. All the blurry pictures seem to connect all the events. The sixth one shows Indigenous people leading pack horses toward distant mountains which are bare; the last and seventh space is blank. A child asks the woman staring at the paintings: “I read a book and saw pictures that once upon a time clouds floated in skies of blue, sometimes raindrops fell from the clouds, then there was a rainbow. Is it true there were flowers of many colors? Was there cold clear water in the lakes and streams and waterfalls in the mountains? Could you see the sun rise in the east and set in the West? Is it true that mountains were snowcapped? Tell me a story. What happened? It was only a dream but the woman who dreamed it believed it to be a true history of the future. She asked: “Did we do this?” The child said: “Yes, you can change it if you protect the land.“ The year was 1994. In 1974 we were told in ceremony that in the near future we would be buying drinking water, snow on the Rocky Mountains was already receding then. In 1990, there was still snow on the Teton, Big Horn and Absaroka ranges. Last month on the way back from Salt Lake City I noted the lack of snow on the mountains. Only 25 years had gone by. Go east to Indianapolis, Indiana and watch a sunrise. You know its morning because its 9:00 a.m. look east and watch a red sun shimmer over the pollution. In 1978 we camped at Eagle Rock Park. That evening we looked back as a red sun shimmered and disappeared behind a curtain of pollution. Once upon a time this land was inhabited by the most civilized peoples of the world who lived in harmony with Mother Earth. They lived off the land, harvested food, dried meat, and stored it for winter. Earth Mother provided everything. There came a time of change when ships began coming to our shores. Soon this foreign race of people stayed and began taking land for their own. As they multiplied, they murdered and massacred millions of the Indigenous peoples in their quest for minerals. Thousand more died from their diseases. Whole Nations became extinct. The foreigners industrialized, made inventions and forced our people to be like them. We came to be dependent on them. Those who resisted were killed or imprisoned. In only five-hundred and twenty two years they laid waste to what was once a paradise. Their over-population has created a need for more and more natural resources. We’re faced with global warming but they aren’t attempting to reverse the abuse of the natural resources. Instead they are now looking at lands occupied by our Indigenous peoples. They’re using our own people to accomplish their goals. Ordinance 13-21 is condemning allotted land for a First Tribal National Park, using one thousand head of buffalo as a cover for mining zeolite, uranium, oil and natural gas. U.S. National Park Service is vocally attempting to have the Oyate fall for it. U.S. Forest Service is silently waiting. Ordinance 13-21, “Land grab” was created by a council of miscreants led down the glory path others such as Custer rode. Those of us who challenged the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council were criticized, vilified, ostracized and ridiculed but we got stronger. We continue to submit articles, pulled up documents and kept people informed. Others began to listen to both sides, to believe in themselves, to recognize the importance of setting aside their differences and to see the potential of candidates who are running for office. (Regina Brave can be reached at: P.O. Box 572, Oglala, S.D. 57764 or call (605) 441-9833) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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