#SACRED FIRE CIRCLE IN PARADISE HOW TO#
We learned how to live in a good way with good intentions. The young sat with the old and learned what it was to be an Indigenous person. Pre-Columbian ways were being brought back and it was so goddamn amazing. I think the best part was that it wasn’t a monetary society. There was always a way to be helping and contributing to the camps’ society. You could walk up to any camp and share a meal. There were elders sitting around sharing stories of the old times.
At the Sacred Fire Circle there was always another nation sharing a story or singing a song. A layer of campfire smoke came every evening along with a murmur of songs coming from all the different camps of different nations. There was a sense of breathtaking goodness when you drove down into that river valley and saw the tipis and tents set up by the thousands. Not much changed after the thousands came either, except that there was a lot more love and laughter, and then some. The view of Oceti Sakowin Camp from Media Hill, as greater numbers of Water Protectors began to arrive. Then we would head out to either halt construction for the day, or to pray where pipeline workers were desecrating the earth. We would pray for safety for ourselves and Mother Earth. We would smoke canupa, and pray with each other and for each other. Everybody would gather at the South Gate every morning, and we would sing the Lakota pipe-loading song with the pipe carriers as they loaded their canupas, sacred pipes. I spent 5 months at Oceti Sakowin, from August to December 2016. The International Indigenous Youth Council camp would wake each other up in our council tipi, and make sure we were all at the morning prayers. But as the camps grew, and thousands upon thousands came, announcers started driving around the camps with speakers in their trucks, so everyone would hear the call. Sundancers, wake up! Remember why you’re here!”īefore the camps got bigger, the wakeup would only be played on the Sacred Fire Circle speakers. “It’s time to wake up! Remember why you’re here! Load your pipes and meet at the South Gate. “ Hihanni waste, Warriors!” Vic Camp, a member of the Oglala Nation, would greet us. (Photo by Andrew Ironshell)Įvery morning in the Oceti Sakowin Camp started out with a wakeup call before sunrise, coming over the loudspeaker at around 4:30. Indigenous activists arriving at Standing Rock by canoe in September 2016.