If She Can Do It, You Can Too | Empowering Women Through Outdoor Role Models

This fall, something exciting is happening with the Badlands National Park’s Stronghold area, also known as South Unit, for the Oglala Lakota nation.

The South Unit of Badlands National Park has always belong to the Oglala Lakota nation in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. However, in 1942, the US  government confiscated the land to establish the Badlands Aerial Gunnery Range for bombing practice as a part of war effort. In 1968, Congress authorized a return of the land to the tribe but as government-held trust land under the management of Badlands National Park.

Almost 70 years later this fall, the Badlands National Park has proposed a new South Unit management plan that suggests seven different management options: 1) continue current management, 2) tribal national park, 3) shared management, 4) affiliated area, 5) new national park, 6) deauthorization and 7) Oglala Sioux Tribal Park. The first five options would not return the land back to the tribal government. However, the option 2): tribal national park, which is a preferred option by both the National Park Service (NPS) and Oglala Sioux Park and Recreation Authority, would turn the administration and management of the South Unit back to the tribal government under the supervision of the NPS. Option 6 and 7 would transfer the land and management to the tribal government without any affiliation with the NPS. The last two options would create an opportunity for the tribe to secure full control of the land.

In September, while the media such as Rapid City Journal and National Parks Traveler released the press only covering on the preferred option: tribal national park, I was curious to know what Oglala Lakota people want since it is their land and their voices must be heard the most. I gained access to the 2008 public comments data collected from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and I found out that 51% of the comments supports managing the land with NPS, 21% supports deauthorization of the land (option 6), 12% supports tribal park (option 7) and 9% supports continuing current management.

I happened to be with Doris and other Lakota women at such an incredible timing when public meetings on the South Unit management plan were held by the NPS. I participated in two meetings where I witnessed an incredible effort to bringing Oglala Lakota nation and the NPS together. And yet, I wanted to hear voices of Oglala Lakota women and their perspectives on which option(s) would serve the best for well-being of Oglala Lakota people, their future and environment.

Seven Oglala Lakota women spoke up in front of the camera. From the interviews, I produced a short movie (shown at the bottom): Hear Us | Voices of Oglala Lakota Women for Badlands National Park, to educate people about the brief history of the land, their opinions and how important it is for us to be a part of this change.

This is an extremely exciting opportunity for all of us. How many of us have ever had a chance to support Native Americans’ rights by raising our own voice? How often do we see an opportunity like this when Native and non-Native Americans would work together to bring justice?

Please watch this short movie today and think about which management option(s) most benefit Oglala Lakota people and the environment. Then, join me for sending public comments to Badlands National Park to support bringing the land management back to Oglala Lakota people in Badlands National Park. That was one thing in common that all women expressed in the movie to turn the management of the land back to the tribe.

The public comment period will end on November 1st, 2010. Please take action today to send your comments in.

For your convenience, you can use the sample drafted comments here. Please feel free to edit, copy and paste these samples into the Badlands National Park public comment page to make it easy. You can also spread the word by forwarding this link to your friends and family today. Thank you!

The Lakota people and buffalo have co-existed since the creation. I had an opportunity to ask some Oglala Lakota women to talk about their connection to the buffalo today (see the video). According to Doris, one creation story tells that the Lakota people came from the Wind Cave of Black Hills at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota. Iktomi, the tricker who shaped like a spider, tricked some people to come out of the cave. When people came out of the cave, they had nothing to live on. So, the creator gave people buffalo so that they can survive. Doris shared another creation story which also involves buffalo. The Lakota people believe that their ancestors followed the buffalo migration pattern and always came to the Buffalo Slide, an area in the Stronghold area of the Badlands National Park during the hunting season. The buffalo is a symbol of survival, life and everything for the Lakota people.

In the late 1800s, the US government promoted buffalo hunting primarily to weaken the North American Indian population by removing their main food source and to pressure them onto the reservations. As the great herds began to wane, proposals to protect the buffalo were discussed. Yet these proposals were discouraged since it was recognized that the Plains Native Americans, often at war with the United States, depended on buffalo for their way of life. By 1884, the Buffalo was close to extinction.

In order to restore the land, the population of buffalo and the way of Lakota people’s life, Lakota land owners association and environmental organizations have been focusing on reintroducing buffalo and restoring the land in the Stronghold area of the Badlands National Park. Between 2003 and 2006, Doris became a part of that effort through Great Plains Restoration Council, engaging youth in restoration projects in the area. It has been a long process since there are many challenges to overcome: negotiating the land with cattle ranchers, raising fund to put up a fence and gaining support from the tribal government.

And yet, there are so many benefits to the Lakota people if the buffalo is reintroduced in the Stronghold area. Doris thinks that it will promote revitalizing the Lakota people’s connection to their culture, improving health by eating traditionally, more educational and job opportunities, and restoring the land from over-grazing by cattle. “Another important benefit is that I think bringing buffalo will help young people with their identity loss that leads to suicide. Here in Pine Ridge Reservation, suicide rate is high because of loss of identity, language and way of life. Our family survived a suicide attempt which helped me realized that something has to be done to bring the buffalo back. There are so many reasons for it [why youth commit suicide]. But what they have in common is that they don’t have a hope. So, now we want to help bring buffalo back to give hope to our youth,” said Doris.

She and other Lakota people have been working on buffalo reintroduction by being involved with the Badlands National Park’s Stronghold area general management plan. In my next blog, I will discuss the plan and how you can also be a part of the decision making process to support their effort to bring back buffalo and their way of life. Stay tuned!

Before I came here to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, I found two different terms to call people who live here. One was Oglala Lakota and another was Oglala Sioux. I asked Doris why there are different terms to call same people. I learned that the people now known as the Sioux originally called themselves Oceti Sakowin – the Seven Council Fires. It was in the 1600s, white people entering their homeland around the upper Mississippi River began calling them all Sioux, derived from an Ojibwa term for a kind of snake. Pressed by Ojibwa, a traditional enemy, some of the Sioux peoples started to move. The four groups that stayed in the east spoke the Dakota dialect and emerged as the Eastern Sioux. Two groups that reached the edge of the Plains spoke the Nakota dialect and formed the Middle Sioux. The far-ranging Western Sioux – also called the Lakota, for the dialect – were a diverse group that associated as seven bands, or council fires. The Oglala are one of seven Lakota sub-groups, living in Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Doris said, “The term Sioux has negative connotations. We prefer to be called Lakota, not Sioux.”

There are so many things like this that I often wonder or don’t wonder, which turned out to be something important for me to know to respect the culture that I am interacting with. As an outsider, it became appropriate to use word “Oglala Sioux” and of course, this term is used by the both federal and tribal government. But as an insider, nobody wants to accept “Oglala Sioux” because it means that to give up their own identity. It is just a word, we might say – but it is still a word that matters.

Here is another example: tribe or nation? “The tribe is a colonial term that used by the federal government after 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. So, the federal government would call us ‘Oglala Sioux tribe’ to describe us in a way of colonized people. We prefer ‘Oglala Lakota nation’ when we are calling ourselves as a group,” said Doris.

There is one more example and this one involves Badlands National Park. The park has two units: north unit and south unit. The south unit is located in Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, so this unit has always been Oglala Lakota’s land. The tribal government and the National Park Service made an agreement to co-manage the south unit in 1976.

Oglala Lakota people call the south unit for Stronghold area because it was the last place where Lakota and US military fought after 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. That time, anybody (military, national guard and non-Native Americans) had a right to shoot the renegade (outspoken) Indians. When military found Lakota people, they chased them to the Stronghold area where three sides are cliff so people could not run away from them. The military shot people and pushed women and children off the cliff to kill them. Because of this significant history, the Lakota nation prefer to call this area for Stronghold area and not south unit.

Furthermore, US Army took this land as a part of the war effort to create a  gunnery range to conduct bombing experiment in 1942. Even today, many ordinance (unexploded bombs left in the ground) remain in the area and some contain mustard gas, which can cause burns that are severe enough to be life-threatening. “If this happens elsewhere in the world, it will be considered as an evidence of genocide,” said Doris.

This same area also has many prehistoric animals’ fossil. In 2003, the National Park Service was planning to invite the general public and scientists to help excavate the fossil. For Oglala Lakota, this area is a burial site. In Lakota culture, people stay away from grave so the spirit from the death shall never be disturbed. This area is an evidence of genocide as well as contains many sacred sites. So, people from here went to protest. I asked, “If the park and the tribe are co-managing this area, why things like this happened?” Doris said, “Because the tribal government approved it. They are so disconnected with their own people and culture. So, when we found out about it, we had to protest to stop the excavation. Someone donated a trailer so we could stay there. We were out there for over a month to stop it.”

We have a long way to go to create a society that better serves our multi-cultural nation and how to respect cultures which have been oppressed. I see how the lack of communication yields conflicts and misunderstanding between Oglala Lakota people, the tribal government and the National Park Service. Until those who are in a position of power accept the other ways as equally valid, our hope to build a nation where every culture thrives will not happen. We as individual have a big role to play to stand by those whose rights are often neglected. We can not blame our government if we as individuals remain oblivious about the issue. This journey truly wakes me up to educate myself and others about Native American people and their rights in this country. I very much hope that my work contributes to bring Native American women’s perspectives on our national parks into the world that helps people to see their side of the story.

Doris has been sharing a lot about other Lakota women activists who are her role models. One of them is Joann Tall, a Lakota elder in Rapid City. Joann and her colleague formed the Great Plains Restoration Council, an organization dedicated to restoring land to serve as Buffalo Commons so that all native wildlife and ecological processes exist into perpetuity, and to contribute simultaneously to their restoration of Native well-being. “Joann inspired me because she has always been vocal about helping our youth and bringing back our culture,” said Doris. Joann brought Doris into the Great Plains Restoration Council in 2003. Doris worked to engage youth in restoration projects in the Stronghold area of the Badlands National Park. Doris said, “I taught our youth that the buffalo is our connection through the project. I wanted to give them a hope and teach them that we have a purpose here to restore this land and bring buffalo back no matter what struggles we go through. We need to remember that we are a buffalo nation.”

Last Monday, I had a chance to meet Charlotte Black Elk, another Lakota woman activist and Doris’s role model. Charlotte is a descendant of Crazy Horse’s friend, Little Big Man, who threatened to kill any man who advocated selling the Black Hills in 1875. So, when I learned that she is a political and environmental activist for Native rights, and her most passionate work was to have South Dakota’s Black Hills returned to her people, I was not surprised at all. Doris said, “Charlotte spoke publicly about our connection to the Black Hills and our claim to the land. She inspired me to look into the legal field because there are not many Native American women attorneys.”  In fact, Doris started a criminal law class at Oglala Lakota College this fall. She said, “Learning laws is important because it teaches us what our rights are. Without the knowledge, it is hard to challenge things that are done illegally to us.”

When I met Charlotte, she said, “I am not that active anymore. It is time for young people to take over my work. It requires a lot of energy to do the activist work. For Black Hills, it will be another 40 years of work.” Right at that moment, her daughter Dene walked in with her two friends. “She and I can skin a buffalo in 25 minutes. She knows how to use a knife in Lakota way,” said Charlotte.

Later in the evening, Doris introduced me to Dene and her two friends who are Native Canadians from Northwest Territories. I learned that they were just at the 40^th anniversary of the historic take over and occupation of Mount Rushmore. I thought, “Here I am, meeting a young Lakota woman and Canadian Native women activists!” I introduced myself and told them that I am profiling Native American women activists in our national parks. They said, “Really!? We wish you were there with us yesterday at Mount Rushmore!” Dene said, “I didn’t go there to be a part of the anniversary. I was there to meet these girls. But next thing I knew was that I was holding a microphone and started talking. I felt that I had to say something.”

We talked for a while about how vital to have role models in our lives who look like us, sound like us and do things that inspire us. “When doing an activist work, we have to love all people no matter what because ultimately we are all one people. We are all connected. We have to remember to bring the connection back to all people,” said one of Dene’s friends.

The best part was that to know these young people are emerging to lead their people. We need more young people like them – smart, passionate, ambitious and filled with love for all people to change the world. When Doris asked if she can take a picture of us, I said, “What a co-incident how we all met tonight!” But they said, “There is no co-incident. We believe it’s all meant to be.” We do our work because we believe in what we are doing. The work inspires me and has led me to new people, new conversations and helped me gain new perspectives. When we take actions by putting our intention and energy out to the world, it makes sense that the universe would guide me to right people, like these young women, and things happen. I received so much energy from them by just talking, laughing and seeing a deep connection among us – a strong aspiration to see a just society for all. I believe that’s possible if we practice seeking out opportunities to learn about worlds that surround us – a vital step to better understand each other and feel connected. It starts right here, within us. It is my job to share stories from this world that you might have never seen or heard. My hope is that by doing so, we all have information to enrich our perspectives so that we can stand by those whose rights are often neglected due to our ignorance.

These young women gave me energy and hope. Working independent sometimes keeps my energy to be stagnant. When you interact with a group of women like them, it gives me more dynamic energy to go on. After two and a half months into my project, I needed it – more than I realized. And I think they are right. It was not a co-incident, it was meant to be.

I came to Wounded Knee in Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota on Saturday night. When I arrived, Doris Respect Nothing welcomed me into her arms. All these women I have worked with just take me in. I feel that I am the luckiest person on this planet. Here is an interesting story – the night I arrived, Doris said, “I had this dream in the past where I see some Asian people standing in front of me and I was with a group of our people. My grandfather was with us. He said that these people were here to help us so trust them. He spoke in Lakota language, not in English. When you called me and told me that you were from Japan, and told me about your project, I knew I meant to do this with you to help our people. This is meant to be.” I must do a good work that honors her trust by living up to my name.

Since Sunday, we talked for hours and she filled me in with quite a bit with what have happened here: both her own activist work with Badlands National Park and the Oglala Lakota history at Wounded Knee. On Sunday evening, she walked me to Wounded Knee mass grave where dead Lakota people from the massacre are buried. I found a monument which reads:

“This monument is erected by surviving relatives and other Ogallala and Cheyenne River Sioux Indians in memory of the Chief Big Foot Massacre December 29, 1890 COL Forsyth in command of US troops. Big Foot was a great chief of the Sioux Indians. He often said, “I will stand in peace till my last day comes.” He did many good and brave deeds. For the white men and red men. For many innocent women and children who knew no wrong died here.”

I saw 43 names carved on the monument. Doris said, “We don’t really know who are buried here. Those who survived the massacre were asked to confirm the dead. But they were never brought here to see the bodies. They were told to tell the military who were missing at the Episcopal Church in Pine Ridge. We know at least 250 people were killed, not 43.” Doris continued. “In our story, the massacre was planned, not an accident. The Hotchkiss guns were set up in this area so that they can shoot downward. They had even killed their own soldiers due to cross fire because they were drinking all night before they attacked our people.”

As we were leaving, a white couple showed up in a truck, parking right in front of the grave gate. Doris glanced the scene and said, “We need something here to educate people about the history and how they can respect this grave. For example, we like to see people parking on the road and walk up to the grave. We like to see the clean monument. People don’t know it is inappropriate to leave money, plastic cups and tobacco ties, which are prayer ties. They are not appropriate here because the protocol is to put it out of the way or they are meant to burn in the sweat lodge. One time I saw white people standing on top of the mass grave where our people were buried. They probably didn’t research before they came so they didn’t know. Another time, we saw a white man with a long beard and dressed in a black robe, praying at the grave. When my aunt saw him, she started screaming at him and told him to get out from here. It is because it was the black robes helped with the massacre of our people. He had a good intention but presented himself wrong. I told him, ‘right before the massacre happened, a priest from Catholic came and read a note, saying that this is their last reading to our people. The Catholic priest was wearing a black robe and had a long beard.’ The pain from the massacre is still very strong among our people. After I explained to him, he apologized and looked almost in tears. I told him that my aunt would come back here to kick you out so you better go.”

I agreed with her. It is my responsibility to research places before I go visit, but still there will be many things that I wouldn’t know. If Doris didn’t take me up there, I wouldn’t know any better. Doris said, “The National Park Service wants to manage the grave as a national historic site.” It sounded good at first but I learned that the Oglala Lakota nation has to give up 40 acres that surround the grave to the National Park Service to manage. “Here, nobody wants to do that. If we do, we will give up an opportunity to tell stories from our side.” Doris thinks that the best way to manage this issue is to have the tribal government to create an information center and hire people from here. That will provide the best educational opportunity for outsiders to directly learn the Wounded Knee massacre history from the Oglala Lakota people. I asked, “When will it happen?” She said, “The funding is always an issue. Even when we had funding a few years ago, the money disappeared and misused for something. The tribal government is corrupted and that is another issue that we have to deal with. Currently, we are revisiting the 1934 Act (called IRA, Indian Reorganization Act) and possibility of abolishing the constitution by laws to create government fits the people. This is a step we have to take to abolish the IRA and the tribal council, which is responsible to build the Wounded Knee massacre information center.”

As we walked back from the grave, I asked her if she is still angry from the history. Doris said, “I definitely had a phase when I was very angry and resentful. But I worked through it with a help of Lakota Way of Life, and by praying and attending spiritual gathering (Sun Dance). These helped me to remember the suffering that my people went through. Today is not as bad as what our ancestors had to endure. That gives me a hope.”

Doris has worked through her anger and understands our work has to come from a good place, not from anger. She gives me a hope. I adore her.

Tomorrow, I am going to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, a home for the Oglala Lakota tribe. You might have heard about this place: it was the place where the Wounded Knee Massacre took place in 1890 and a place where Wounded Knee Incident began: the 71-day stand-off between American Indian Movement (AIM) activists and FBI agents and the National Guard in 1973. The northern part of the reservation overlaps with the southern part of Badlands National Park called Stronghold Unit. The Unit is co-managed by the National Park Service and the tribe. During the World War II, the unit was used to conduct bombing practices. It wasn’t until 1968 when the Congress turned that portion of the land over to the tribe, the park, and the Forest Service.

I found Doris Respect Nothing (French mistranslated her last name. If translates correct, it would be Fear Nothing), an Oglala Lakota activist who has been working to protect this portion of the land and animals. She said, “Buffalo and Prairie Dogs are both vital to our lives.” She passionately described how she has been playing a role to give voice for those who can’t speak up for themselves. “It means to also include these animals. They can’t speak up for themselves,” said Doris.

I am extremely excited about this opportunity. It is because I am going to throw myself into a place where there is so much of deep Native American history that I never had a chance to study. I will learn their story from them, not by the text books that we have at school. It is because I get to work with someone like Doris who rises above the poverty of the poorest reservation of the United States. She symbolizes a hope in and out of her community. And I already know that there are more women like her in the community.

So, here I go again, looking into a new episode of my project.