Meta

Lugnasa                                                                                Harvest Moon

images-5Standing Rock Pipeline. This reminds me, on a much larger scale, of the occupation of Wounded Knee back in 1973. Wounded Knee had the ever-present danger of violence. Radical veterans of the Vietnam War had brought their rifles and placed themselves between the Federal Marshals and the A.I.M. folks in Wounded Knee.

The action in 1973 involved only a few individuals, most of the Lakota and Anishinabe tribes. Today 280 plus tribes have come together with two messages: 1. Water is life. 2. Water and oil don’t mix. These are incredibly important ideas, simple yet profound.

It may turn out though that there is a meta-message here that is even more important. 280 communities, 280 nations, 280 tribes and their disparate traditions, customs and histories have come together to speak with one voice. This could change the politics of Indian Country forever. I hope it will.