Owe Aku Position Statement on Mato Paha (Bear Butte)

Owe Aku stands opposed to the desecration of lakota sacred lands in the he sapa (Black hills)

Our Lakota ancestors were free, sovereign, natural people who in their daily lives strived to live in a respectful way an observance of our natural laws as brought to us by Pte San Win, sent to us in a time of need by Tunkasila to show our people how to live in a good way, and these sacred teachings have been handed down from generation to generation. Our sacred teachings and social teachings as well provide for our people the knowledge and goodness of ways of life to respect all of Creation, and especially places on Earth that our special to us because they guide our daily life ways and philosophy of life for the coming generations. Even through the past decades of living in “Exile” on our own land through Treaty violations, our people have kept these ways of life alive, even through fighting the United States government.

Throughout the decades of making war with the United States of America our ancestors fought the 7^th Calvary and eventually we took their flag at the Greasy Grass, known to history as the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Since that time, although thousands of our people have entered the U.S. Armed Forces to fight for this beautiful land, as Lakota Oyate we still must fight the U.S. government and their entities for our way of life which includes the freedom to live our spiritual ways. Throughout the early reservation days, many of our brave, humble, visionary people lived these ways of live at the risk of imprisonment, and so taught our people how to live a spiritual way according to the teachings of Pte San Win.

When our ancestors entered the reservation to live under the War Department of the United States, the Lakota Oyate came with two items. One, the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe. The other, a star map. This star map teaches our Nation how to live a Spiritual Way of Life here on Earth, mirroring that which occurs in the Star Nation, and on this Star Map are geographic locations which are Sacred to the Lakota Nation, and which mirror the Stars in the Sky. Each geographical location corresponds exactly with a Star Constellation.

When the Stars are in a certain place in the Sky, we here on Earth must be in the corresponding location on Earth in order to conduct the sacred ceremony on Earth that is being conducted in the Sky within the Star constellation, and among these sacred places on Earth is a place we call Mato Paha, or Bear Butte in the English language. As the Star Nation moved through the Sky, we moved through our sacred places throughout the He Sapa. As we our people moved through the oldest mountains on Earth, we gathered food, game, and medicine to take us through the Autumn and early months of Winter. As we moved through the Sacred He Sapa, our Autumn destination was Mato Paha. We gathered (and gather today) there at Mato Paha. As we camped there, Mato Paha became known as Pte Pute Ya for about one months’ time, when we departed, the Sacred Mountain again became Mato Paha. As the Stars in the Sky moved through the Universe, the sacred time of the He Sapa reflecting the sacred cycle of the Star Nation had come full circle, and we again dispersed to our Winter Camps to begin the journey anew. While our people were at Pte Pute Ya, decision making councils were conducted to decide important business of the Tiospaye, Bands, and Oceti Sakowin.

In today’s language, we did strategic and long range planning while camped at this Sacred Mountain, and our leaders of those not-so-long-ago-days were careful to include these sacred places in the 1851 and 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaties with the United States government. It is still our responsibility to take care of these sacred places, these places are still in our Treaty Territory, and we must stand opposed to the development of any of these sacred places. At the current time, Bear Butte is being considered as a place to build a commercial enterprise, known as the “Sacred Grounds”. It will be a campground, concert venue, and biker bar built by Jay Allen to open in 2006. Allen also plans to build additional smaller bars near Bear Butte, as well as a tipi village and an 80-foot tall statue of an American Indian.

Owe Aku has presented a Tribal Resolution to the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council to direct the President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe to initiate work immediately that will result in the creation of a reasonable buffer zone around all sacred places in our Treaty Territory to protect the dignity of these locations as our place of worship similar to how there are American laws in place that protect churches, synagogs, schools, hospitals, etc. Such buffer zones will include a prohibition of further development, the approval of liquor licenses, any form of pornography, violence, environmental pollution, and a noise level which is unacceptable to sacred places and other actions to be determined, and to consider such buffer zone consideration as an environmental preservation area.

The Tribal Resolution (Resolution # 05-134) was approved on September 27, 2005 by a vote of 15 for, 0 Not Voting, and 0 Against.

Owe Aku will stand together withother indigenous Nations and peoples' organizations and our Traditional Healers and Medicine People to form an Intertribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte.