Save Bear Butte: Mecca of the Lakota
June 28, 2016
Save Bear Butte: Mecca of the Lakota
by Ruth Hopkins
Turtle Island and the Indigenous groups who have continuously occupied these lands are older than America. Our spiritual beliefs are tied to Ina Maka (Mother Earth). As such, Indian Country holds sacred sites of reverence that pre-date European invasion.
Bear Butte is one of these ancient holy places. My people, the Oceti Sakowin (The Great Sioux Nation), call it Paha Sapa. Bear Butte is crucial to our traditional way of life. It is where the Lakota received star knowledge and divine instruction. Our greatest leaders, like Tatanka Iyotanka (Sitting Bull) and TaSunka Witko (Crazy Horse) prayed there. Even today, I know many Lakota who go there for Hanbleceya, to cry for a vision. Westerners call it Vision Quest. This ceremony takes place on the side of the mountain, over the course of four days and nights. Individuals remain in quiet solitude to fast, pray and commune with Tunkasila and the spirits while supporters keep the fire below.
The Cheyenne refer to it as Noavose. Bear Butte is central to their traditional lifeways as well. Sweet Medicine, a Cheyenne prophet, received four sacred arrows and the covenants of the bundle from Bear Butte. These teachings provide life guidance.
Along with the Oceti Sakowin and Cheyenne, many Native Nations of the plains recognize the sacred nature of Bear Butte. We continue to perform annual ceremonies and rituals there as they have been for time immemorial. If youve ever hiked Bear Butte, you will see evidence of this. Lovingly crafted prayer ties made by Native hands adorn the trees all along its base.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/28/save-bear-butte-mecca-of-the-lakota/
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marble falls
(57,081 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)... an e-mail address of the saloon group leader at the end of the article. If you can't click, I'd be glad to get get it for you. Just let me know...
marble falls
(57,081 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)Full Throttle Saloon
Owner: Michael Ballard
12977 State Hwy #34
Sturgis, SD 57785-6400
Phone: 605-423-4584
website: http://fullthrottlesaloon.com
The place looks huge.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)and still no respect for the Native-american culture(s) or religious concerns. More cultural genocide in the making by profit hungry, greedy people. I hope the Great Sioux Nation will, legally, find away to stop these people from destroying what is a sacred place.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... as they have rights that are being run over by the biker group. Bear Butte is an ancient Holy place for the Oceti Sakowin people (The Great Sioux Nation.)
Judi Lynn
(160,527 posts)which has meant so much for millennia to so many people of good faith.
Why should it ever be taken from them and sacrificed for unholy disrespectful events by bikers who have so many other places to go?
Google images of Bear Butte. Beautiful, in the present:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1298&bih=603&q=Bear+Butte&oq=Bear+Butte&gs_l=img.12..0l10.339.339.0.1520.1.1.0.0.0.0.93.93.1.1.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.1.92.-o9omHoCstk
Local officials should be honorable enough to prevent this. They are unlikely to be faced by such an important situation again in their lifetimes regarding our country and its future.
Uncle Joe
(58,361 posts)Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.