Ride for Our Sacred Water – STOP Dakota Access!
From October 8-13, Honor the Earth is proud to join forces with the Wounded Knee Memorial Riders, the Dakota 38 and Big Foot riders, and many horse nation societies, in a spiritual horse ride to protect our sacred waters from the Dakota Access pipeline and all the black snakes that threaten our lands.
Thousands have come together in a historic gathering of tribes at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri Rivers, where Dakota Access threatens a concentration sacred sites and the water source of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, as well as the 18 million people downstream.
This is our moment. Tribes and First Nations are standing up and standing together to demand an end to the desecration of our lands and the poisoning of our sacred waters…to demand a better future for our people. We are the river, and the river is us.
On October 8th we will gather at the Standing Rock encampment, and ride against the current of the oil.
Please stand with us. We need your support. For more info, visit www.honorearth.org/mniwiconi
Oh, and in case you’re wondering about that Standing Rock to Tioga, it means Tioga, ND, which styles itself as ‘The Oil Capital of North Dakota’.
This reminds me of another embarrassing white person moment at the camps last week. The Dakota 38 were expected, and we were hoping to see them. A white woman laughed and shrugged, saying “I mean, I don’t even know what that is. What is the Dakota 38.” Yeah, okay, I know the ‘history’ taught in uStates is a whitewashed mess, but still…
Even if you’re just a solidarity tourist, try to not only be respectful, but try to learn. Aaaand, this is the internet age, how hard is it? The Dakota 38, the largest mass execution in the history of the United States. A criminal injustice, perpetrated in Mankato, Minnesota.
Tipi-hdo-niche, Forbids His Dwelling
Wyata-tonwan, His People
Taju-xa, Red Otter
Hinhan-shoon-koyag-mani, Walks Clothed in an Owl’s Tail
Maza-bomidu, Iron Blower
Wapa-duta, Scarlet Leaf
Wahena, translation unknown
Sna-mani, Tinkling Walker
Radapinyanke, Rattling Runner
Dowan niye, The Singer
Xunka ska, White Dog
Hepan, family name for a second son
Tunkan icha ta mani, Walks With His Grandfather
Ite duta, Scarlet Face
Amdacha, Broken to Pieces
Hepidan, family name for a third son
Marpiya te najin, Stands on a Cloud (Cut Nose)
Henry Milord (French mixed-blood)
Dan Little, Chaska dan, family name for a first son (this may be We-chank-wash-ta-don-pee, who had been pardoned and was mistakenly executed when he answered to a call for “Chaska,” reference to a first son; fabric artist Gwen Westerman did a quilt called “Caske’s Pardon” based on him.
Baptiste Campbell, (French mixed-blood)
Tate kage, Wind Maker
Hapinkpa, Tip of the Horn
Hypolite Auge (French mixed-blood)
Nape shuha, Does Not Flee
Wakan tanka, Great Spirit
Tunkan koyag I najin, Stands Clothed with His Grandfather
Maka te najin, Stands Upon Earth
Pazi kuta mani, Walks Prepared to Shoot
Tate hdo dan, Wind Comes Back
Waxicun na, Little Whiteman (this young white man, adopted by the Dakota at an early age and who was acquitted, was hanged, according to the Minnesota Historical Society U.S.-Dakota War website).
Aichaga, To Grow Upon
Ho tan inku, Voice Heard in Returning
Cetan hunka, The Parent Hawk
Had hin hda, To Make a Rattling Noise
Chanka hdo, Near the Woods
Oyate tonwan, The Coming People
Mehu we mea, He Comes for Me
Wakinyan na, Little Thunder
Wakanozanzan and Shakopee: These two chiefs who fled north after the war, were kidnapped from Canada in January 1864 and were tried and convicted in November that year and their executions were approved by President Andrew Johnson (after Lincoln’s assassination) and they were hanged November 11, 1865.
You can read more about the Dakota 38 + 2 here and here. Also, here.
rq says
I don’t always know what you write about here, but google is my friend, and I’ve learned so much both from your writing, and from researching on the internet on my own.
Anyway, I will spare no few thoughts on October 8 for the riders; we’re doing our annual turkeyfest, a crossover Canadian-family tradition that we share with our Latvian friends and family. It seems a good time to think about where the world is heading, too.
Caine says
Thank you very much. The most I can do is donate, not having a horse. (Good thing I’m not at camp right now, the urge to go horse snaffling would be overwhelming.) I can’t imagine there will be a welcome reception in Tioga. I’ll offer tobacco, cedar, and sage.
Giliell, professional cynic -Ilk- says
Duh, I know about the Dakota 38 and it’S not my history.
Anyway, I’m working on pulse warmers to send over.
Caine says
Giliell:
Which speaks to the obliviousness of so many white Americans. The woman in question looked younger than me, but not by all that much, in her 40s somewhere.
They will be more than welcome.
voyager says
Thank you for the history lesson. I am Canadian and knew nothing of this, but I also do not know enough about the history of my own country’s despicable treatment of our First Nations people. I am going to remedy that. Here, we are fighting the Kinder Morgan pipeline and shipping routes. I support this cause with regular letters to my government and financial support as I am able. I wish there was more I could do to support your cause, but I stand in solidarity with you…hopefully from a respectful distance.
Caine says
Voyager, my thanks. People everywhere are engaged in this fight, and it is a difficult one, to say the least. I wish you every good thing, every hope for your fight. We must all stand together, and fight as one.