North Dakota Native American Essential Understanding, number one is about sacred relatives. It states, "Native people practice a deep interconnectedness with the land, the resources, the water, all living things, and all human beings. Land stewardship, respect for all two-legged, four-legged winged, crawlers, and swimmers, and a strong belief in the sacredness of all human beings. Our key elements for our spirituality."
In this episode of Dakota Datebook, we'll hear from Kevin Locke, enrolled member of the Standing Rock Nation, in part one of “Hinhan Kaga and The Milky Way.”
Kevin Locke:
In Lakota country, we have this blessing of having abundant open spaces and abundant beauty all around us. So it's really striking and when people come from afar, that's one of the first things they might comment upon. They might say, "Oh, this is really desolate out here."
But I think after initial shock, then you can really see the beauty in so many areas. We don't have light pollution where you can just look at, you can see all the stars out there and you can talk about, and then you can tell those stories too about the stars. In recent times, they've been trying to change that, rename Harney Peak, and one of the traditional names for that, they call it Hinhan Kaga Apaha. You've heard that Owl Maker Hill. And so this Owl maker, he's, when a person dies, and it's really a long story, but just to cut to the quick, when you die, then you start that journey on that Wanaki Chankoo, the Spirit Road, this Milky Way in English.
And then if you look straight up at that, in South Dakota we can see that, you know, go to places like in New York City. I was there, I was trying to do a little program and talk about all the birds and the stars and the moon. And those kids never seen the moon before, and then they'd never, all they've seen is pigeons. That's about it. They don't know anything, any of that kind of... But here we have all this, it's just amazing.
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If you'd like to learn more about the North Dakota Native American essential understandings, and to listen to more Indigenous elder interviews, visit teachingsofourelders.org.
