I, Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nation would like to offer a statement concerning the violation against the Sacred Sundance Ceremony at Big Mountain, Arizona.

The Sacred White Buffalo Calf Bundle that I care for consists of the Seven Sacred Rights and one of them is the Sundance. Because of this responsibility, my work is toward World Peace and Global Healing, as our ceremonies are connected to the Sacred Mother, including her well being preserved for generations to come. The Sacred Tree represents all life upon Mother Earth. A very important protocol in putting up the Sacred Tree with it's offerings of prayers for all life including health for our relatives, is that the ceremony and energy must not be broken or stopped. This ceremony has been with Sacred Bundle for nineteen generations. We have shared this ceremony for health and well being with other Indigenous Nations to bring spiritual awareness and strength back to Nations. When I heard of the Hopi Nation's attitude and violations to a spiritual ceremony, I had to realize that it was not the Hopi Nation, but rather a group of people who have been affected by the "disease of the mind". This disease that has spread throughout Turtle Island to many Honorable Nations that have made decisions affecting relationships toward their own "brothers and sisters" of Indigenous Nations, including the violation toward our Mother Earth. In my Peace works I was honored to sit with many Hopi Traditional Elders, including the late Thomas Banyanca, who had the most deepest respect for all ceremonies, as we shared the Sacred C'anupa together. We understood that our work and message was the same. His concern for his people violating their own culture and traditions was the same as mine. There are many other "Traditional Hopi" who understand the proper protocol to ceremonies and would not think and do anything toward violating one another in interrupting a Sacred Right. So this brings my thoughts to those who do not understand who they are as a Hopi, a person that holds a bloodline to their Ancestors that walked in honor and in harmony. Many Nations, have these kinds of people that are not aware of the blood that carry in their veins and responsibility to bring honor to their people by making wise decisions based on compassion, understanding and respect. This makes me realize that the people making these decisions have another motive based on the material world, which brings unbalance to our Mother the Earth. They only need to understand that these prayers made at all ceremonies are for their children's health as well. Prayers need to be offered to "our people" that have become lost in their spirit and identity as an Indigenous Nation of this Turtle Island. Our prayers are strong and to react the same as them will not resolve anything, but bring more division and confusion. My prayer is for this issue to be resolved in a most Peaceful way and honor to all Nations represented will heal and communicate for Peace and Harmony. In a Sacred Hoop of Life, where there is no ending and beginning! Mitakuye Oyasin (all my relations),

Chief Arvol Looking Horse,

19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe ==================================

From: "paula h" Subject: response of a question of why? Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2001 19:04:28 -0500 Someone just asked Arvol why all this is happening and whether it was because our Elders are few and leaving, from his book "White Buffalo Teachings":* We must understand the two ways we are free to follow, as we choose—the 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 alone—and 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—yes, on your own personal decision—depends the fate of the entire World. We are the only species destroying Mother Earth! 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? My Grandmother once told me to understand that every person can have a good heart, a heart big enough to change the world! She said the Great Spirit wouldn't give us something we couldn't handle! 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? * We carry a Message that has been handed down to us from Elder to Elder through the generations, a sacred Message of a "Way of Life" that Wakan Tankan the Great Spirit, the Great enveloping Mystery, has blessed us with. Each generation has an obligation to pass this Message down to the next. Because our Word—like the breath of Life that carries it--is sacred, it must always passed down in truth. We do this in our ceremonies, our prayers, our prophecies and our sacred teachings. In our way, a leader has to be humble and think about the Seventh Generation. Every generation must consider the welfare of the Seventh Generation yet to come. As we turn to the four cardinal directions, we hear our Ancestors in the winds, encouraging us to make decisions based on generations to come. Remember, seven generations ago our Grandfathers and Grandmothers prayed for our welfare, even though we weren't yet born. If they had forgotten those who were not yet born, if they had forgotten us, we wouldn't be here today. One of our prophecies warns that, if there comes a time when people would wake up to each new day with continuous negative energy, it would adversely affect the path of a Wakan Ye-j'a (a sacred spirit child) coming into this world, and the new life would return back to the spirit world. We witness this many times today when children die before they are born. Yes, we ourselves are the Seventh Generation, and we too, must remember those who aren't yet born, the Seventh Generation yet to come. * The Seventh Generation is now upon us. Every generation is the Seventh Generation, and each generation has its special task, its Instructions. Ours is global healing through World Peace and Prayer. That is this generation's task. That is my task…and that, my friend, is your task, too. Our Instructions from Wakan Tankan tell us to promote global healing, to teach peace and harmony to the many Nations of Mother Earth and to begin both a Great Healing and a Great Forgiving. We must teach all Peoples that Mother Earth is not a resource, but the very Source of Life itself. Unless we do this, the powers of destruction will overwhelm us. So our generation has been put here to save all future generations. That's why we hold this World Peace & Prayer Day each year since 1996, because two years before that the White Buffalo Calf was born among us as a Sign both of Warning and of Deliverance. In a Prophecy, we were told we would be the key people to re-educate our relatives, teaching the medicines of balance and harmony that our Mother Earth needs to survive. That's why I say that we are at a Crossroads, each of us and all of us—a Crossroads predicted in our Prophecies. We ourselves stand at the very Crossroads of understanding the positive and negative influences that affect all Life yet to come. We ourselves--you and me and all of us—must make the right decision on behalf of the Seventh Generation. But we have little time. * These days time moves too fast for us to catch up. Babies are having babies. Today we have seven generations in a single century instead of over two or even three. We become grandfathers and grandmothers when we're not yet out of our thirties. When so many of our People die young, those who remain must become Elders. We go from being children to being Elders. There's no in-between, no teaching ground. Long ago, we lived to be over one hundred years old, and now our lives have been cut short. There was once an understanding that we would each go through four stages in life after we are born upon this Mother Earth as a Wakan ye-j'a (a sacred child). We would have the life span needed to complete the four balanced cycles of life, which is also represented in our Medicine Wheel. We had time to learn the full meaning of becoming a young man or becoming a young woman. We had time to earn our true spirit-name, time to perform the good deeds that brought us a well-deserved Eagle Feather. Above all, learning the meaning of patience, being humble, respectful and understanding the teachings that would bring us to full maturity, so that one might finally become an Elder, a Keeper of Wisdom. This span once took a hundred years or more. Now time is fore-shortened, and we must learn in days or weeks what once took us months or years.