Vijali Hamilton, MFA

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About this video: My time in Standing Rock, North Dakota at the Oceti Sakowin camp was one of the most inspiring times of my life. I felt I was experiencing what the Lakota Nation was like before they were invaded by the Europeans.. Everything was done in prayer and ceremony. All were honored and accepted no matter what race or color or gender. Perhaps Black Elk's vision of all hoops coming together as one world hoop is manifesting now. This is just a small taste of a film I am making that will be out soon, "Spirit of Standing Rock."

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I arrived late at night thinking that the late hour might be an inconvenience for the people of the camp, but was greeted with great warmth by a young Lakota man at the entrance to the main camp. Ocheti Shakowin is situated not far from the location where DAPL is poised to sink their pipeline, carrying the dirtiest of fracked crude oil under the Missouri River, which serves millions of people with clean water. The Lakota people remember a prophecy that was handed down through generations regarding a giant black snake that would slither across their lands and threaten Mother Earth. They feel certain that this pipeline is that endangering black snake. For there is always that possibility that the pipeline could break, destroying life in the environment and making the water undrinkable.

Driving into camp I found a space to park between tents and tipis angled so as not to look directly into the glaring spot lights that DAPL had installed on the hillside in order to separate us from their work at the river. It reminded me of prison lights for readily spotting a truant inmate. Crawling into my double sleeping bags laid out in the back of my car, it didn’t take me long to be cradled asleep by the aromas of burning sage and cedar, and the cooking woodsmoke from the many campfires.

The next morning I awoke at 5 AM by Lakota morning chants for greeting the sun and imbuing the day with its sacredness. Within the hour a large crowd had gathered around the sacred fire with more chanting and prayers for all people, yes, even for the police and the men working bulldozers. A Lakota man in his sixties, announcing himself not to be an elder but a pipe carrier from the age of 27 drew the men closer to the sacred fire for the pipe ceremony while women gathered for their water ceremony at the river.

 

        
             Chopping wood for cooking and sacred fire                                      Warm clothes donations
         
                        Mongolian yurt for healing                                         Tipi school for children 8 to 14 years old
 

The morning was filled with wood chopping, cooking, erecting many Mongolian yurts and the building of permanent simple structures for the large number of people who planned to live through the very cold winter by way of a permanent life style. I brought along donations provided by Santa Fe friends consisting of warm clothes and a container of food for the main volunteer kitchen. Art supplies which I had also brought, I later took to the children’s school being held in a tipi and gave money (again through donations) for the legal group, media program, food, building supplies, and medical supplies - all provided to a designated representative in a tent behind the gathering circle and sacred fire.
 
At noon I visiting with Winona, a large Lakota mama who loves to cook for people, and gave her a large basket of potatoes zucchinis and carrots. Afterwards I had a delicious traditional meal of bison/cabbage soup and frybread.
 

In the afternoon I climbed the so called “media hill” rising above the camp to the west where a wind turbine generates electricity for people to charge their cellphones, and to also charge my video camera. I found the media tent and went through the orientation to receive a press pass that was to be worn at all times. Although most media people represented a network, I presented my NGO, World Wheel, Global Peace Through the Arts credentials (which I started in 1986) in order to create a documentary film. My intention for the film is to show the spiritual wisdom and dynamics underlying the movement at the Standing Rock camps. Also, I wanted to explore women’s roles and energies in this spiritual revival.
 

In the afternoon of the next day I attended the orientation for “peaceful direct action,” which prepares one to join in as a “peaceful water protector.” We were told how to attempt to protect ourselves from mace and tear gas with glasses and mask, and how to not ultimately resist the police and drilling company security. But what was most impressive for me was that these acts were fully informed by ceremony and prayer. Prayer for the police, prayer for the Army Corp of Engineers who control Lakota land that was designated for them through the 1851 treaty of Fort Laramie. Certainly this movement is the Native American’s Gandhian salt march for our times!
 
After this orientation I interviewed a young Cherokee girl, Olive who had been twice arrested and thrown into a wire dog kennel for hours without knowing the charges, and held until the next day. Then she was released by the wonderful group of lawyers who have raised money exactly for this purpose. She spoke with much passion, “Water is our own body, 75 percent, and is life itself which we must protect. I will let myself be put in jail as many times as it takes to stop this desecration of our Mother Earth.” As we talked I heard the loud buzz of a helicopter and we looked up as it circled overhead. She continued, “This is a daily occurrence. They come many times, day and night.”

To view Olive and have a glimpse of my film that will be out soon, Spirit of Standing Rock, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J3Lo6pjpi4
 

 

I remember years ago being taken by the 103 year old Hopi sage, Grandfather David Monongye to their “Prophecy Rock.” He explained to me, running his aged finger along a weathered line carved into the sandstone boulder leading to a fork in the carving: “here is where we have a choice, a choice to either completely destroy ourselves or to effect the renewal of our way of life.” Could today’s many crises be bringing us to that fork in the road of life, that moment and choice between death or the renewal of life?
 

   
Indigeno women leading us to the river for their water ceremony
 

On another day, indigenous women arrived from Saskatchewan, Canada, and again sang and spoke in their native languages. In the evening an aboriginal man from Australia danced his people’s traditional dance around our sacred fire. The next day was Veteran’s Day and 700 veterans arrived and we held a ceremony together. Another day elders from many Native American communities arrived and spoke of the meaning for all indigenous peoples of working together, of their own problems such as deforestation of their lands, mining and oil exploitation, and of letting go of their past differences in order to come together in unity.