tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/native-american-religions-35997/articlesNative American religions – The Conversation2019-01-16T11:42:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1099242019-01-16T11:42:47Z2019-01-16T11:42:47ZTrump’s reference to Wounded Knee evokes the dark history of suppression of indigenous religions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253950/original/file-20190115-152974-6dyho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wounded Knee Memorial at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/AP-Explains-Measuring-Violence/a712f57bde80414aae3be4c2c736e759/1/0">AP Photo/Russell Contreras</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Trump evoked the Wounded Knee massacre in a recent tweet. He was reacting to an Instagram video that Sen. Elizabeth Warren posted on New Year’s Eve. </p>
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<p>There’s been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/wounded-knee-trump-warren.html">considerable criticism</a> of the president’s inaccurate portrayal of Native American history, including from members of his own party. Two Republican senators from South Dakota, Mike Rounds and John Thune, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/425339-gop-senators-rebuke-trump-for-using-wounded-knee-as-punchline">spoke out against</a> the tweet. </p>
<p>Wounded Knee is among the worst massacres in Native American history. It was also one of the most violent examples of the repression of indigenous religion in American history. </p>
<h2>Religious suppression</h2>
<p>Religion historian <a href="http://divinity.yale.edu/faculty-and-research/yds-faculty/tisa-wenger">Tisa Wenger</a> explains that before the 20th century, <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469634623/religious-freedom/">many Americans believed</a> that “indigenous practices were by definition savage, superstitious and coercive.” They did not consider them to be religion.</p>
<p>In part because of this belief, the U.S. government decided not to recognize Native Americans as citizens of sovereign governments in the 19th century, but as colonial subjects. In 1883, the Department of Interior enacted the first “Indian Religious Crimes Code” making the practice of <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469634623/religious-freedom/">Native American religions illegal</a>. These codes remained in place until 1934. </p>
<p>In response, Wenger writes, some <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/502696?journalCode=hr">Native American groups tried to convince government agents</a> that their gatherings were places of “prayer and worship” similar to Christian churches. Others claimed that their gathering were “social,” not religious.</p>
<p>But this kind of masking of religious practices did not stop the U.S. government from using violence to suppress these Native American ceremonies. </p>
<p>In 1890, the U.S. military shot and killed hundreds of unarmed men, women and children at <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bison-books/9780803236097/">Wounded Knee</a>, South Dakota, in an effort to suppress a Native American religious ceremony called the “ghost dance.”</p>
<p>Historian <a href="http://history.ucdavis.edu/people/lswarren">Louis Warren</a> explains that the <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/louis-s-warren/gods-red-son/9780465015023/">ghost dance</a> developed as a religious practice in the late 19th century after Native Americans witnessed the devastating environmental change of their homelands from American settlement. The dance envisioned a return to their unspoiled natural world.</p>
<p>The U.S. military, however, viewed it differently. They believed the Native Americans at Wounded Knee were gathering for war.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253952/original/file-20190115-152977-1tj2ik5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253952/original/file-20190115-152977-1tj2ik5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253952/original/file-20190115-152977-1tj2ik5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253952/original/file-20190115-152977-1tj2ik5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253952/original/file-20190115-152977-1tj2ik5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253952/original/file-20190115-152977-1tj2ik5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253952/original/file-20190115-152977-1tj2ik5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Survivors of the 1890 Wounded Knee Creek massacre in South Dakota arrived in Washington on March 4, 1938.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-DC-USA-APHS327824-John-Collier-with-/3a0907a03cc94da5a4ffb7e2389aa8e3/28/0">AP Photo</a></span>
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<h2>The darkest moment</h2>
<p>The U.S. government changed its policies of openly suppressing indigenous religions in 1934. But it would take another 44 years before the U.S. fully committed “to protect and preserve” religious rights of American Indians through the <a href="https://www.fedcenter.gov/Bookmarks/index.cfm?id=15536">American Indian Religious Freedom Act</a> in 1978. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.rosalynlapier.com/">a Native American scholar</a> of religion and environment history, I agree with Republican Sen. Mike Rounds – the Wounded Knee massacre <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/425339-gop-senators-rebuke-trump-for-using-wounded-knee-as-punchline">“should never be used as a punchline.”</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109924/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalyn R. LaPier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Wounded Knee is among the worst massacres in Native American history, when in 1890 the US military shot and killed 146 unarmed men, women and children in South Dakota.Rosalyn R. LaPier, Professor of HIstory, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1083272018-12-13T11:45:12Z2018-12-13T11:45:12ZWhat winter solstice rituals tell us about indigenous people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250110/original/file-20181211-76959-1t54ens.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Blackfeet always faced their tipis towards the rising sun, including on winter solstice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Large_tipis_in_Blackfeet_inner-circle._43.jpg">Beinecke Library via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the day of winter <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-summer-solstice-an-astronomer-explains-98270">solstice</a>, many Native American communities will hold religious ceremonies or community events. </p>
<p>The winter solstice is the day of the year when the Northern Hemisphere has the fewest hours of sunlight and the Southern Hemisphere has the most. For indigenous peoples, it has been a time to honor their ancient sun deity. They passed their knowledge down to successive generations through <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9781496200402/">complex stories</a> and ritual practices.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.rosalynlapier.com/">scholar</a> of the environmental and Native American religion, I believe, there is much to learn from ancient religious practices.</p>
<h2>Ancient architecture</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.oupress.com/books/9781254/living-the-sky">For decades</a>, <a href="https://www.unmpress.com/books/earth-my-mother-sky-my-father/9780826316349">scholars</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=dgzfoQEACAAJ&dq=ojibwe+stars&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjt5KCW_5rfAhXBg-AKHTMyC6AQ6AEIMzAB">have studied</a> the astronomical observations that ancient indigenous people made and sought to understand their meaning.</p>
<p>One such place was at <a href="https://cahokiamounds.org/">Cahokia</a>, near the Mississippi River in what is now Illinois across from St. Louis.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Cahokia mounds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougtone/13436519774">Doug Kerr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>In Cahokia, indigenous people built numerous temple pyramids or mounds, similar to the structures built by the Aztecs in Mexico, over a thousand years ago. Among their constructions, what most stands out is an intriguing structure made up of wooden posts arranged in a circle, known today as “Woodhenge.”</p>
<p>To understand the purpose of Woodhenge, scientists watched the sun rise from this structure on winter solstice. What they found was telling: The sun aligned with both Woodhenge and the top of a temple mound – a temple built on top of a pyramid with a flat top – in the distance. They also found that the sun aligns with a different temple mound on summer solstice. </p>
<p>Archaeological <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/296469/cahokia-by-timothy-r-pauketat/9780143117476">evidence</a> suggests that the people of Cahokia venerated the sun as a deity. Scholars believe that ancient indigenous societies observed the solar system carefully and wove that knowledge into their architecture. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Clip from ‘Cahokia’s Celestial Calendar (Woodhenge)’ episode of PBS’ ‘Native America.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>Scientists have speculated that the Cahokia held rituals to honor the sun as a giver of life and for the new agricultural year.</p>
<h2>Complex understandings</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-zuni-way-150866547/">Zuni Pueblo</a> is a contemporary example of indigenous people with an agricultural society in western New Mexico. They grow corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and more. Each year they hold annual harvest festivals and numerous religious ceremonies, including at the winter solstice. </p>
<p>At the time of the winter solstice they hold a multiday celebration, known as the <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807859353/we-have-a-religion/">Shalako festival</a>. The days for the celebration are selected by the religious leaders. The Zuni are intensely private, and most events are not for public viewing. </p>
<p>But what is shared with the public is near the end of the ceremony, when six Zuni men dress up and embody the spirit of giant bird deities. These men carry the Zuni prayers for rain “to all the corners of the earth.” The Zuni deities are believed to provide “blessings” and “balance” for the coming seasons and agricultural year. </p>
<p>As religion scholar <a href="https://divinity.yale.edu/faculty-and-research/yds-faculty/tisa-wenger">Tisa Wenger</a> writes, “The Zuni believe their ceremonies are necessary not just for the well-being of the tribe but for "the entire world.” </p>
<h2>Winter games</h2>
<p>Not all indigenous peoples ritualized the winter solstice with a ceremony. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t find other ways to celebrate. </p>
<p>The Blackfeet tribe in Montana, where I am a member, historically kept a calendar of astronomical events. They marked the time of the winter solstice and the “return” of the sun or “Naatosi” on its annual journey. They also faced their tipis – or portable conical tents – east toward the rising sun. </p>
<p>They rarely held large religious gatherings in the winter. Instead the Blackfeet viewed the time of the winter solstice as a time for <a href="http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/handle/2246/204//v2/dspace/ingest/pdfSource/ant/A007a01.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">games</a> and community dances. As a child, my grandmother enjoyed attending community dances at the time of the winter solstice. She remembered that each community held their own gatherings, with unique drumming, singing and dance styles. </p>
<p>Later, in my own research, I learned that the Blackfeet moved their dances and ceremonies during the <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9781496201508/">early reservation years</a> from times on their religious calendar to times acceptable to the U.S. government. The dances held at the time of the solstice were moved to Christmas Day or to New Year’s Eve.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The solstice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Equinoxes-solstice_EN.svg">Divad, from Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Today, my family still spends the darkest days of winter playing card games and attending the local community dances, much like my grandmother did.</p>
<p>Although some winter solstice traditions have changed over time, they are still a reminder of indigenous peoples understanding of the intricate workings of the solar system. Or as the Zuni Pueblo’s rituals for all peoples of the earth demonstrate – of an ancient understanding of the interconnectedness of the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108327/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalyn R. LaPier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For indigenous peoples, winter solstice has been a time to honor their ancient sun deity. Their rituals reveal a deep understanding of the natural world.Rosalyn R. LaPier, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, University of MontanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1039842018-10-05T13:15:18Z2018-10-05T13:15:18ZHow the loss of Native American languages affects our understanding of the natural world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239388/original/file-20181004-52666-1yv18hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dance is a unique way of passing on cultural stories to a younger generation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronrhawkins/38543373946/in/photolist-21HWSf7-yyYki-ckfSmo-7tGw6T-oHu52-8kctPA-69S4z-qrc9Y8-ogJQtT-41bGow-p9fqyR-7HLjN-naCTRD-9rgb1h-69RuV-4mJnBa-29YXu-29yJLiX-pKTeM2-a3gXCC-pKyNTv-4ScuL6-bgkUC-aS83iv-3bsphV-65SZ5p-6BnKa-3aDzwD-9QFZ8B-nAnaDQ-4wqCRi-7Ue99Q-qPfKyw-qEEMmv-eKBC3S-8LQLpW-91Kvgx-6iFwV2-p6Ax4k-9FpKRg-fRWNY-9R5Swf-aS84fM-aS82BP-8dqkps-ckfRSU-VC1WbS-9xSBBX-5dh1aH-aua9nf">Aaron Hawkins/Flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Alaska has a “linguistic emergency,” <a href="https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/Attachment.aspx?id=114253">according to the Alaskan Gov. Bill Walker.</a> A report warned earlier this year that all of the state’s 20 Native American languages <a href="https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/Portals/4/pub/ANLPAC2018%20Report%20to%20the%20Governor%20and%20Legislature.pdf">might cease to exist</a> by the end of this century, if the state did not act. </p>
<p>American policies, particularly in the six decades between the 1870s and 1930s, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/when-languages-die-9780195372069?q=k.%20david%20harrison&lang=en&cc=us">suppressed Native American languages</a> and culture. It was only after years of activism by indigenous leaders that the <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-104/pdf/STATUTE-104-Pg1152.pdf">Native American Languages Act</a> was passed in 1990, which allowed for the preservation and protection of indigenous languages. Nonetheless, many Native American languages have been on the <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/native-language-schools-are-taking-back-education-20180419">verge of extinction</a> for the past many years. </p>
<p>Languages carry deep cultural knowledge and insights. So, what does the loss of these languages mean in terms of our understanding of the world.</p>
<h2>Environmental knowledge</h2>
<p>Embedded in indigenous languages, in particular, is knowledge about ecosystems, conservation methods, plant life, animal behavior and many other aspects of the natural world. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239368/original/file-20181004-52691-1jhf0wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239368/original/file-20181004-52691-1jhf0wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239368/original/file-20181004-52691-1jhf0wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239368/original/file-20181004-52691-1jhf0wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239368/original/file-20181004-52691-1jhf0wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239368/original/file-20181004-52691-1jhf0wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239368/original/file-20181004-52691-1jhf0wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1035&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The shell necklace of Queen Liliʻuokalani.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/5213176132/in/photostream/">David Eickhoff/Flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>In <a href="http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/July-2017/A-Snail-Tale/">Hawaiian traditions and belief systems,</a> for example, the tree snails were connected to “the realm of the gods.” Hawaiian royalty revered them, which protected them from overharvesting. </p>
<p>The Bishop Museum in Honolulu holds a shell necklace, or lei, of Queen Lili‘uokalani, the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii. It is made from tree snail shells, which signifies the high rank of female royalty. Wearing a shell was believed to provide “mana,” or spiritual power and a way to understand ancestral knowledge. </p>
<p>Many of these snails are now extinct and those remaining are threatened with extinction. Scientists are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2017.1413695">working with Hawaiian language experts</a> to learn about the belief systems that once helped protect them and their habitats. </p>
<h2>A tool for doctors</h2>
<p>Words in indigenous languages can have cultural meanings, that can be lost during translation. Understanding the subtle differences can often shift one’s perspective about how indigenous people thought about the natural world. </p>
<p>For example, as an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eKf2f2QAAAAJ&hl=en">indigenous scholar</a> of the environment, I led a team some years ago of language experts, elders and scholars from Montana and Alberta, Canada, to create a list of Blackfeet words, called a <a href="http://hsapp.hs.umt.edu/employee-database/index.php/pubtools/serveFile/files/1489/Blackfeet_Terms_of_Material_Culture_--_SH.pdf">lexicon</a>, of museum objects. The elders I worked with noted that the English word “herb,” which was used to describe most plant specimens within museums, did not have the same meaning in Blackfeet. </p>
<p>In English, the word “herb” can have numerous meanings, including a seasoning for food. The closest English word to herb in Blackfeet is “aapíínima’tsis.” The elders explained this word means “a tool that doctors use.” </p>
<p>The hope is that the lexicon and audio files recorded in the Blackfeet language that our research helped create, might assist future scholars access the embedded meanings in languages.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BPlRBzMaXTc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Blackfeet word for face paint.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Saving vanishing languages</h2>
<p>Many Native American communities in the United States are now working to save these cultural insights and revitalize their languages.</p>
<p>In Wisconsin, an Ojibwe language school called <a href="https://theways.org/story/waadookodaading">“Waadookodaading,”</a> translated literally as “a place where people help each other,” immerses its students in the environmental knowledge embedded in the language. </p>
<p>The Ojibwe believe that theirs is a language of action. And the best way for children to learn is by doing and observing the natural world. Each spring, for example, the students go into the woods to gather maple sap from trees, which is processed into maple syrup and sugar. These students learn about indigenous knowledge of plants, their habitats and uses. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2SPbzwUnmoo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Students from Waadookodaading School making maple syrup.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Language loss can be considered as extreme as the extinction of a plant or an animal. Once a language is gone, the traditional knowledge it carries also gets erased from society.</p>
<p>Efforts are now underway worldwide to remind people of this reality. The United Nations has designated 2019 as the “<a href="https://en.iyil2019.org/">International Year of Indigenous Languages</a>” in order to raise awareness of indigenous languages as holders of “complex systems of knowledge” and encourage nation states to work toward their revitalization. </p>
<p>The loss of indigenous languages is not Alaska’s concern alone. It affects all of us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalyn R. LaPier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many Native languages are dying, and their loss has deep and profound implications for our world.Rosalyn R. LaPier, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, University of MontanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/798942017-07-06T23:05:33Z2017-07-06T23:05:33ZWill global warming change Native American religious practices?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177182/original/file-20170706-26465-188vfu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What does the shrinking of the Colorado River mean for Native American religions?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/2408382928/in/photolist-4EPAkA-4EPt1Q-eaQWfT-d3JG51-3KFcCf-3L93SZ-cLfWi7-eaQWtR-47qfhf-8p5PB8-oaGkNp-Rhzava-8p8YBm-cgwz4J-gnkNBj-eaQWei-ov4yi3-gnkMSd-djCxEZ-atHXFY-odBDp8-dwbMCv-eaQWt6-52iSE3-8JdjvF-c1mDfC-bkbxVP-dptie2-7aK9t2-c1mCyd-c1mBT1-7aKccz-djCyKM-eEDWTk-eaWxTU-7aNBmm-bzdEUn-8Jdjve-93efAi-c1THZf-93egDV-dcd2YG-8petcn-c1UK8j-gnk3rp-8pet4k-c1THxJ-7aNDjq-c1mDBb-eEDEda">Ken Lund</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Colorado River, one of the longest rivers in the United States, is gradually shrinking. This is partly a result of overuse by municipalities and seasonal drought. The <a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR019638">other reason is global warming</a>. </p>
<p>The decline in the river reservoir will have serious implications for large U.S. cities, such as Los Angeles, that depend on the Colorado River as their water source. In addition, this will also have an impact on the Native American tribes who view the Colorado River as sacred to their religions. </p>
<p>As Ka-Voka Jackson, a member of the Hualapai tribe and a graduate student working to address <a href="https://www.unlv.edu/news/article/ancestral-lands">climate change on the Colorado River</a> and restoring native plant species along its banks, stated,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The Colorado River is so sacred not just to my tribe, but to so many others.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a scholar of Native American religions and the environment, I understand how indigenous people’s religions and sacred places are closely tied to their landscape. For the past 100 years, indigenous peoples have been forced to adapt to changes in their environments and modify their religious rituals in the United States. The U.S. government made certain Native American religious practices <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807859353/we-have-a-religion/">illegal</a> in the 19th and early 20th century. Although these policies have since been rescinded, they led to changes in many indigenous practices. </p>
<p>Global warming, however, is different. The question is whether indigenous people will be able to adapt their beliefs all over again due to the impact of global warming on the natural world.</p>
<h2>Adapting to change</h2>
<p>The Blackfeet tribe in Montana <a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496201508/">brought changes</a> in their relationship with the natural world as a result of the policies of the U.S. government from the 1880s to the 1930s.</p>
<p>For example, the Blackfeet purposefully moved religious ceremonies from one time on their liturgical calendar to completely different times to avoid the U.S. government penalizing native people for dancing or participating in religious ceremonies.</p>
<p>The Blackfeet moved their annual O’kan, or sundance festival, from late summer (usually held at the end of August) to the Fourth of July celebration. They avoided U.S. government punishment by <a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496201508/">masking</a> their ceremonies within state-sanctioned public events.</p>
<p>Policies related to the mining of natural resources and damming of rivers on indigenous lands have also led to changes in Native Americans’ religious practices. </p>
<p>Historian <a href="https://cityindian.wordpress.com/david-r-m-beck/">David R. M. Beck</a> <a href="http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/wmh/id/40184/show/40133">interviewed</a> elders and researched how the Menominee tribe in Wisconsin adapted to the loss of their sacred fish, the sturgeon, after a paper mill built a dam across the Wolf River. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177203/original/file-20170706-26461-15651z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177203/original/file-20170706-26461-15651z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177203/original/file-20170706-26461-15651z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177203/original/file-20170706-26461-15651z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177203/original/file-20170706-26461-15651z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177203/original/file-20170706-26461-15651z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177203/original/file-20170706-26461-15651z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lake sturgeon on Bad River in Wisconsin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsmidwest/33752585144">USFWSmidwest</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The sturgeon disappeared after the dam was built in 1892, because they could no longer swim upstream to spawn. For over 100 years, the Menominee tribal members continued to pray and conduct their annual “returning of the sturgeon” ceremony in the spring – even though there were no more sturgeon in the river. The Menominee ultimately won the right to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1439-0426.2002.00426.x">return the sturgeon</a> to the Wolf River in 1992 and the tribe revitalized the full ceremony and celebration of their sacred fish.</p>
<p>In all these situations, Native American tribes learned to adapt to the challenges placed before them, modify their religious practice and embrace a different relationship with the natural world. </p>
<h2>Global warming and religion</h2>
<p>When it comes to global climate change, it affects everyone, not just specific groups in specific places. But for many indigenous peoples, natural resources are closely linked to religious beliefs and practices.</p>
<p>Historically, indigenous peoples used the natural seasonal cycles of weather, plants and animals as part of their liturgical or religious calendar. The Blackfeet held their annual “beaver bundle ceremony” in the early spring as ice melted off rivers and beavers returned to the open waters. In Blackfeet mythology, a beaver served as a deity who taught humans how to cultivate tobacco, which the tribe used for important religious ceremonies and as a peace offering to their enemies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177183/original/file-20170706-14401-1qlxwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177183/original/file-20170706-14401-1qlxwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177183/original/file-20170706-14401-1qlxwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177183/original/file-20170706-14401-1qlxwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177183/original/file-20170706-14401-1qlxwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177183/original/file-20170706-14401-1qlxwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177183/original/file-20170706-14401-1qlxwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What would the movement of beavers mean?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bryndavies/3879077513/in/photolist-6UMhAM-6Urnu1-mYr7S-j3953d-gvC3My-hXancX-cCjkU9-oVxwEK-kgp8WC-RFbko3-4p9NCc-9Rtztm-6WxxqG-e1Pw7G-6WGhR5-6848f3-kgkXBp-5M6273-TiinTu-ayhwWT-TdAX7E-WaMjcG-f356Ca-6rbMHA-6URnGS-pUgpc1-2eBzYe-5YhHaY-4MFTm8-6JyCK3-f8uvkb-V1vkPE-AidUQW-mFiR8A-fmKZvs-ayHfuR-7skowM-gvC7uJ-6NNREt-nCPNkq-9YHbF9-9GAhjf-brEmBi-JiM4i7-6RkRwh-4Cc1n6-uDPEpa-wsG3jA-tEkKif-ae3aw6">Bryn Davies</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are signs, though, that beavers are now moving north due to global warming. Biologists are currently studying both <a href="http://journals.sfu.ca/cfn/index.php/cfn/article/view/1927">beavers</a> and the birch and alder <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/4/e1601365.full">shrubs</a>
that beavers eat, as both move north into new regions. Scientists worry that as a keystone species, the movement of beavers will change the northern ecosystems as they cut off waterways and build beaver dams. And shrubs will change the local waterways that they grow by. This will affect local animal species.</p>
<p>What will happen when there are no more beaver in Blackfeet territory? Will their religious traditions adapt similar to the Menominee when they faced the loss of their sacred sturgeon? </p>
<h2>Religion and resiliency</h2>
<p>From the arctic tundra to the American desert southwest, and places worldwide, indigenous peoples will be facing the impact of global climate change.</p>
<p>Regarding the shrinking of the Colorado River, researchers <a href="http://www.cwi.colostate.edu/CSUWaterExperts/default.aspx?WF_ID=2019">Brad Udall</a> and <a href="http://www.environment.arizona.edu/jonathan-overpeck">Jonathan Overpeck</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-shrinking-the-colorado-river-76280?sa=pg2&sq=cause+of+climate+change&sr=2">have concluded that</a>, “Failing to act on climate change means accepting the very high risk that the Colorado River basin will continue to dry up into the future.” </p>
<p>If this river faces a drier future, it will likely affect the Mojave, a people indigenous to the Colorado River basin, who believe the river was created by their ancient deity <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/291230/where-the-lightning-strikes-by-peter-nabokov/9780143038818/">Mastamho</a> as part of their sacred landscape. </p>
<p>As the G-20 convenes in Germany this week to discuss global issues including <a href="https://www.b20germany.org/priorities/energy-climate-resource-efficiency/">climate change</a>, indigenous scholars, such as myself, are wondering what the future holds for indigenous peoples, their environments and their religions. </p>
<p>Indigenous communities can be resilient and adapt their internal religious beliefs to outside challenges, as Native American tribes from the turn of the 20th century have proven. Climate change presents yet another challenge.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79894/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalyn R. LaPier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Historically, indigenous peoples used the natural seasonal cycles of weather, plants and animals as part of their religious calendar. What will be the impact of climate change on their practices?Rosalyn R. LaPier, Research Associate of Women's Studies, Environmental Studies and Native American Religion, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/759832017-04-20T23:19:36Z2017-04-20T23:19:36ZWhy Native Americans do not separate religion from science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166148/original/file-20170420-20050-1k83oho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Menominee Tribal biology class in Green Bay, Wisconsin.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/13906215926/in/photolist-nbQZvy">U.S. Department of Agriculture Follow</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last year five Native American tribes in Washington state managed to repatriate the remains of the “Ancient One,” as they called him, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/kennewick-man-will-be-reburied-but-quandaries-around-human-remains-wont-59219">“Kennewick Man,”</a> as scientists called him. </p>
<p>For the tribes, the Ancient One is to be revered as a human ancestor. But for the scientists, the rare specimen of a 9,000-year-old Kennewick Man was important to understanding the history of North America. After a 20-year court battle, the tribes finally reburied the Ancient One. However, this could be done only after scientists had created his multi-dimensional model for future study.</p>
<p>For a long time, the relationship between Native Americans and scientists has been a <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo21358784.html">contentious</a> one. It would appear from this case that what matters most to Native Americans are religious beliefs and not science.</p>
<p>While this might be the case with human remains, which are a sensitive issue with most tribes, scientific endeavors are very important to Native Americans.</p>
<p>That is why indigenous scientists and scholars including myself supported the March for Science on April 22. </p>
<h2>Sacred ecology</h2>
<p>Scientists began thinking and writing about how Native Americans understand the natural world in the 20th century. Instead of seeing a conflict between Western science and Native American knowledge, they started thinking about ways to learn how Native Americans addressed environmental and ecological issues differently. </p>
<p>Ecologist <a href="http://environment-ecology.com/academicians/303-fikret-berkes.html">Fikret Berkes</a> pointed out these distinctions in his seminal book “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Sacred-Ecology/Berkes/p/book/9781138071490">Sacred Ecology</a>,” where he noted that both Western and indigenous science can be regarded as “the same general intellectual process of creating order out of disorder.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166129/original/file-20170420-20071-2o125d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166129/original/file-20170420-20071-2o125d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166129/original/file-20170420-20071-2o125d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166129/original/file-20170420-20071-2o125d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166129/original/file-20170420-20071-2o125d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166129/original/file-20170420-20071-2o125d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166129/original/file-20170420-20071-2o125d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Native American traditions blend science and religion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/myguerrilla/1423195889/in/photolist-pVWWoN-pW7HzR-qbf3o3-pVWQVy-qdw7F6-pW6La2-pgx7mL-pVXVR3-pW5QAa-pgwKk7-pgwFLy-pgM7L4-pVYqz7-pW6GzX-pVXSxu-pgLY3c-pW6yPP-qdm1DT-qdwcjz-pgwR2s-pW6MYn-qdtwEG-qdsVwq-pW5FPn-pVY8NG-pgLdXz-pVXf6G-qdmLCz-qdmNq2-3aQK7G-p16h3f-phyMe8-3aLfya-pgxu55-3aQJBm">Carling Hale</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He provided his own research as an example. He stated that the Native Americans he worked with knew far more than he did about aquatic ecological systems, even though he had academic training. He noted their knowledge was both scientific and viewed through a religious lens. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“One important point of difference is that many systems of indigenous knowledge include spiritual or religious dimensions (beliefs) that do not make sense to science…. This is ‘sacred ecology’ in the most expansive, rather than in the scientifically restrictive, sense of the word ‘ecology.’” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Traditional knowledge</h2>
<p>Native American scholars are now writing about this blending of science and religion.</p>
<p>Native American scientist <a href="http://www.esf.edu/faculty/kimmerer/">Robin Kimmerer</a>, for example, tells her story as a trained botanist learning about Native American worldview in her book <a href="https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass">“Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.”</a> She describes how she learned words in her native language, Anishinaabe, that explained biological processes better than Western science could in English. </p>
<p>As a Native American scholar, I, too, have spent the past year at the intersection of science and religion at Harvard Divinity School, researching “ethnobotany” and “ethnopharmacology” – the scientific study of the medicinal qualities of plants and Native American belief.</p>
<p>I learned from my grandmother, <a href="http://www.montananaturalist.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/Naturalist-Fall-05.pdf">Annie Mad Plume Wall</a>, who was regarded as a “doctor” on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana, that certain plants were medicine. She understood the ethnopharmacology of plants that were used as analgesics, antibacterials or anti-inflammatory agents. She knew which plants to use when one of her patients was ill.</p>
<p>The knowledge of the medicinal qualities of these plants clearly grew out of a process of observation and experimentation. She learned how to distill the essential elements of a plant to create an extract of its medicinal properties. In fact, her refrigerator was filled with bottles of extracts.</p>
<p>However, some of these plants also had mythological stories that spoke of their origin in the supernatural realm. These stories instructed the Blackfeet how to communicate with the plant, to care for it, how to protect its ecosystem, restrict knowledge of the plant and its over-harvesting.</p>
<p>My grandmother believed that a powerful supernatural being, “Ko’komíki’somm,” gave humans certain plants to use as medicine. She also understood, based on their scientific properties, that a plant was indeed a medicine. </p>
<h2>Alternative paradigm</h2>
<p>It is true that Western science and Native Americans have a complicated history, as the struggle over the Ancient One attests. Anthropologist <a href="http://www.dmns.org/science/museum-scientists/chip-colwell/">Chip Colwell</a> discusses in <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo21358784.html">“Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America’s Culture” </a> that the problem is that the items scientists consider “objects” for study, such as human remains, Native Americans would view through their own worldview, their own belief system.</p>
<p>More recently, there has been a better recognition of the role of indigenous sciences. In 2016, a U.S.-Canada <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/03/10/us-canada-joint-statement-climate-energy-and-arctic-leadership">joint statement</a> on Climate, Energy, and Arctic Leadership recognized the importance of both Western science and indigenous science to help solve global issues. It urged that both “science-based approaches” and “indigenous science and traditional knowledge” be incorporated in efforts to both address commercial interests in the Arctic, such as oil and gas development and shipping lanes, and protect the Arctic and its people.</p>
<p>Native American scientists and scholars have also weighed in on this debate. For the March of Science, many Native American scholars, including Kimmerer and myself, have written a declaration of support that states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Let us remember that long before western science came to these shores, there were scientists here….Western science is a powerful approach, but it is not the only one. Indigenous science provides a wealth of knowledge and a powerful alternative paradigm.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For many Native Americans, like my grandmother, myth and medicine, religion and science, are not viewed as separate, but are interwoven into the fabric of our lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75983/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalyn R. LaPier volunteers with the March for Science. </span></em></p>Native American scholars joined in the global March for Science. Their science blends seamlessly with beliefs.Rosalyn R. LaPier, Research Associate of Women's Studies, Environmental Studies and Native American Religion, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/731692017-02-16T20:32:25Z2017-02-16T20:32:25ZWhat makes a mountain, hill or prairie a ‘sacred’ place for Native Americans?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157179/original/image-20170216-9506-yb99hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman holds Pope Francis' head during his meeting with representatives of indigenous peoples at the Vatican on Feb. 15, 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For several months Native American protesters and others have been opposing the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The plans for construction pass through sacred land for the Native American tribe, Standing Rock Sioux.</p>
<p>But, within days of taking office, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum supporting the construction of the pipeline. Recently a U.S. federal judge denied a request by tribes to halt construction on the final link of the project.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, however, the protesters appeared to have received support from none other than Pope Francis, a long-time defender of indigenous people’s rights. The pope <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-north-dakota-pipeline-pope-idUSKBN15U1VA">said</a> indigenous cultures have a right to defend “their ancestral relationship to the Earth.” <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-north-dakota-pipeline-pope-idUSKBN15U1VA">He added</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Do not allow those that destroy the Earth, which destroy the environment and the ecological balance, and which end up destroying the wisdom of peoples.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a Native American scholar of environmental history and religious studies, I am often asked what Native American leaders mean when they say that certain landscapes are “sacred places” or “sacred sites.” </p>
<p>What makes a mountain, hill or prairie a “sacred” place?</p>
<h2>Meaning of sacred spaces</h2>
<p>I learned from my grandparents about the sacred areas within <a href="http://blackfeetnation.com/">Blackfeet tribal territory</a> in Montana and Alberta, which is not far from Lakota tribal territory in the Dakotas. </p>
<p>My grandparents said that sacred areas are places set aside from human presence. They identified two overarching types of sacred place: those set aside for the divine, such as a dwelling place, and those set aside for human remembrance, such as a burial or battle site.</p>
<p>In my <a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Invisible-Reality,677467.aspx">forthcoming book “Invisible Reality,”</a> I contemplate those stories that my grandparents shared about Blackfeet religious concepts and the interconnectedness of the supernatural and natural realms. </p>
<p>My grandparents’ stories revealed that the Blackfeet believe in a universe where supernatural beings exist within the same time and space as humans and our natural world. The deities could simultaneously exist in both as visible and invisible reality. That is, they could live unseen, but known, within a physical place visible to humans.</p>
<p>One such place for the Blackfeet is Nínaiistáko, or Chief Mountain, in Glacier National Park. This mountain is the home of Ksiistsikomm, or Thunder, a primordial deity. My grandparents spoke of how this mountain is a liminal space, a place between two realms. </p>
<p>Blackfeet tribal citizens can go near this sacred place to perceive the divine, but they cannot go onto the mountain because it is the home of a deity. Elders of the Blackfeet tribe believe that human activity, or changing the physical landscape in these places, disrupts the lives of deities. They view this as sacrilegious and a desecration. </p>
<h2>A living text</h2>
<p>Sacred places, however, are not always set aside from humanity’s use. Some sacred places are meant for constant human interaction.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2013/08/in-memoriam-keith-h-basso-19402013.html">Anthropologist Keith Basso</a> argued in his seminal work <a href="http://www.unmpress.com/books.php?ID=770">“Wisdom Sits in Places”</a> that one purpose of sacred places was to perfect the human mind. The Western Apache elders with whom Basso worked told him that when someone repeated the names and stories of their sacred places, they were understood as “repeating the speech of our ancestors.”</p>
<p>For these Apache elders, places were not just names and stories – their landscape itself was a living sacred text. As these elders traveled from place to place speaking the names and stories of their sacred text, they told Basso that their minds became more “resilient,” more “smooth” and able to withstand adversity. </p>
<h2>The sacredness of the pipeline site</h2>
<p>At different national and international venues, Lakota leader Dave Archambault Jr. has stated that the Lakota view the area near the potential construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline as both a “sacred place” and a “burial site,” or as both a place set aside from human presence and a place of human reverence.</p>
<p>Lakota scholar Vine Deloria Jr. <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_World_We_Used_to_Live_in.html?id=S6F7MKRoFS4C">described the “sacred stones”</a> in North Dakota in his book “The World We Used to Live In” as having the ability of “forewarning of events to come.”</p>
<p>Deloria described how Lakota religious leaders went to these stones in the early morning to read their messages. Deloria shared the experiences of an Episcopal minister from 1919.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“A rock of this kind was formerly on Medicine Hill near Cannon Ball Sub-station…. Old Indians came to me… and said that the lightning would strike someone in camp that day, for a picture (wowapi) on this holy rock indicated such an event…. And the lightning did strike a tent in camp and nearly killed a woman…. I have known several similar things, equally foretelling events to come, I can not account for it.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_World_We_Used_to_Live_in.html?id=S6F7MKRoFS4C">Deloria explained</a> that it was “birds, directed by the spirit of the place, [that] do the actual sketching of the pictures.” The Lakota named this area Ínyanwakagapi for the large stones that served as oracles for their people. The Americans renamed it Cannonball.</p>
<h2>Not just Dakota</h2>
<p>Historians, anthropologists and religious thinkers <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Where_the_Lightning_Strikes.html?id=UpIMJdc29qoC">continue to learn and write</a> about Native American religious ideas of place. In so doing, they seek to analyze complex religious concepts of transformation and transcendence that these places evoke.</p>
<p>However, despite their contributions to the academic interpretation of religion, these understandings do not often translate into protection of Native American places for their religious significance. As <a href="https://www.aclu.org/bio/stephen-pevar">legal scholar Stephen Pevar</a> <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-rights-of-indians-and-tribes-9780199795352?cc=us&lang=en&">tells us,</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>“there is no federal statue that expressly protects Indian sacred sites…. in fact, the federal government knowingly desecrates sites.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the past year we have seen protests over the potential <a href="https://www.hawaii.edu/offices/bor/regular/testimony/201504161130/4-14-2015_Toledo_TMT.pdf">desecration of sacred places</a> at Mauna Kea in Hawaii (over the construction of another telescope on a sacred volcano), <a href="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/03/30/oak-flat-deal-violates-apache-rights-mining-best-practices">Oak Flats in Arizona</a> (over a potential copper mine on sacred land) and now at <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37834334">Standing Rock in North Dakota</a>. </p>
<h2>Lack of understanding of sacredness</h2>
<p><a href="http://hds.harvard.edu/people/william-graham">William Graham, a former dean</a> of the Harvard Divinity School, <a href="http://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/articles/summerautumn2012/why-study-religion-twenty-first-century">wrote that</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Religion… will long continue to be a critical factor in individual, social, and political life around the world, and we need to understand it.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The intimate connection between landscape and religion is at the center of Native American societies. It is the reason that thousands of Native Americans from across the United States and indigenous peoples from around the world have traveled to the windswept prairies of North Dakota.</p>
<p>But, despite our 200-plus years of contact, the United States has yet to begin to understand the uniqueness of Native American religions and ties to the land. And until this happens, there will continue to be conflicts over religious ideas of land and landscape, and what makes a place sacred.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article first published on Nov. 2, 2016.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalyn R. LaPier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis appears to have defended Native American protests on the North Dakota pipeline issue. Indigenous cultures have a right to defend ‘their ancestral relationship to the Earth,’ he said.Rosalyn R. LaPier, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's Studies, Environmental Studies and Native American Religion, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.