I,
Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nation, would
like to ask for this time for you to understand an Indigenous perspective
in reflection of what has happened in America, what we call "Turtle
Island". For the past six years, my work has concentrated on an effort
on uniting the Global community, through a message from our sacred ceremonies
in recognizing a day of World Peace and Prayer on June 21st as a time
to unite spiritually, each in our own ways of beliefs in the Creator.
We
have been warned from the messages, passed down from Ancient Prophecies
of these times we live in today, but also a very important message of
a solution to turn these terrible times around. To assist you in understanding
the depth of this message involves the recognition in the importance of
Sacred Sites. It is important that you realize the whole interconnectedness
of what is happening today, in reflection of the continued massacres that
are occurring on other lands and our own Americas. I have been learning
about these important issues of Sacred Sites since the age of 12, upon
receiving the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle and it's teachings.
Our people have strived to protect Sacred Sites from the beginning of
time. There needs to be an understanding in the concern of the protection
of Sacred Sites that goes deeper than just the issue of Shrines built
by humans. Our people have built similar objects and Shrines to identify
and to remind the significance in the power of the Sacred Site. We have
also witnessed them being destroyed for many decades, but we also realize
it is what is underneath them that is important. These places have been
violated for centuries and have brought us to this predicament that we
are in concerning the unstable Global Level thus far. Look around you,
our Mother Earth is very ill from these violations and we are at a brink
of destroying a healthy and nurturing survival for generations to come,
our children's children.
Our
ancestors have been trying to protect our Sacred Site from the continued
violations called the Sacred Black Hills in SD, "Heart of Everything
that is". Our ancestors never seen this site from a Satellite view,
but now that those pictures are available with modern technology, we see
that it is in the shape of a heart and when fast forwarded it looks like
a heart pumping. The Dine have been protecting Big Mountain, calling it
the liver and now that the coal is depleting, we are suffering and going
to suffer more from the extraction of the coal and poison processes used
in doing so. The Aborigines has warned of the contaminating effects on
the Corral Reefs from Global Warming, which they see as Mother Earth's
blood purifier, our sacred water is being polluted. The Indigenous people
of the Rain Forest relay that the Rain Forest are the lungs and need protection
and now we see the Brazilian Government approved the depletion of 50%
of this Sacred Site. The Gwich'in Nation has an issue of oil drilling
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, also known to the
Gwich'in as 'Where the life begins!' The coastal plain is also the birthplace
of many other life forms of Animal Nations. The death of these Animal
Nations will destroy Indigenous Nations in this territory. As these destructive
developments continue all over the world, we will witness many more extinct
Animal, Plant and Human Nations, because of the misuse of power that mankind
has made and their lack of understanding the "balance of life".
The
Indigenous people warn that these destructive developments will cause
havoc globally. There are many, many more Indigenous awareness's and knowledge
of Mother Earth's Sacred Sites, connections (Mother Earth's Charkas) to
our spirit that will surely affect our future generations. These people
are still suffering from this contamination and their livelihood is being
destroyed as I write this to you. There needs to be a fast move toward
other forms of energy that are safe for all Nations upon Mother Earth.
We need to understand the whole picture in the type of minds that are
continuing to destroy the spirit of our whole Global Community. Unless
we do this, the powers of destruction will overwhelm us.
Our
Ancestors foretold that water would someday be for sale. Back then this
was hard to believe, since the water was so plentiful, so pure, and so
full of energy, nutrition and spirit. Today we have to buy pure water,
and even then the nutritional minerals have been taken out; it's just
empty liquid. Someday water will be like gold, too expensive to afford.
Not everyone will have the right to drink safe water.
We
fail to appreciate and honor our Sacred Sites, ripping out the minerals
and gifts that lay underneath them, as if Mother Earth were simply a resource,
instead of the Source of Life itself. Attacking Nations and having to
utilize more resources to carry out the destruction in the name of Peace
and elimination is not the answer! We need to understand how all these
decisions affects the Global Nation, we will not be immune to it's repercussions.
To allow continual contamination of our food and land, is now affecting
the way we think. A "disease of the mind" has set in World Leaders
and many members of our Global Community, with their understanding that
a solution of retaliation and destruction of peoples will bring Peace.
In
our Prophecies it is told that we are now at the Crossroads, either unite
Spiritually as a Global Nation, or be faced with chaos, disasters, diseases
and tears from our relatives eyes. In times of disasters it is sad to
say that it is the only time that we unite spiritually, but we must not
taint it with anger and retaliation.
We
are the only species that is destroying the Source of life, meaning Mother
Earth, in the name of power, mineral resources and ownership of land,
using methods of chemicals and warfare that is becoming irreversible,
as Mother Earth is becoming tired and can not sustain any more impacts
of war. I ask you to join me on this endeavor. Our vision is for the Peoples
of all continents, regardless of their beliefs in the Creator, to come
together as one at their Sacred Sites at that sacred moment of what is
known as the Summer Solstice of June 21st, to pray and meditate and commune
with one another, thus promoting an energy shift to heal our Mother Earth
and achieve a universal consciousness toward attaining Peace.
As
each day passes bringing us to this day of concentration together, I ask
the Global Nations to begin a Global effort, in knowing that each and
every one of us are making a daily effort in waking to a gratitude of
another day, that is gifted to us and begin to remember to give thanks
for the Sacred Food that has been also gifted to us by our Mother Earth,
so the nutritional energy of medicine can be guided to heal our minds
and spirits. This new millennium will usher in an age of harmony or it
will bring the end of life as we know it. Starvation, war and toxic waste
have been the hallmark of the Great Myth of Progress and Development that
ruled the last millennium.
To
us, as caretakers of the heart of Mother Earth, falls the responsibility
of turning back the powers of destruction. We have come to a time and
place of great urgency. The fate of future generations rests in our hands.
We must understand the two ways we are free to follow, as we choosethe
positive way or the negative way
the spiritual way or the material
way.
It's
our own choice--each of ours and all of ours. You yourself are the one
who must decide. You aloneand only you--can make this crucial choice.
Whatever you decide is what you'll be, to walk in honor or to dishonor
your relatives. You can't escape the consequences of your own decision.
On
your decision depends the fate of the entire World. You must decide. You
can't avoid it. Each of us is put here in this time and this place to
personally decide the future of humankind. Did you think the Creator would
create unnecessary people in a time of such terrible danger?
Know
that you yourself are essential to this World.
Believe
that!
Understand
both the blessing and the burden of that.
You
yourself are desperately needed to save the soul of this World.
Did
you think you were put here for something less?
In
a Sacred Hoop of Life, where there is no beginning and no ending!
Mitakuye
Oyasin,
Chief
Arvol Looking Horse
19th
Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe