By Monique
The protests at Standing Rock did what few believed it could; it stopped the Dakota Access Pipeline from being drilled on Lakota land.
As the Los Angeles Times wrote, the move by the Army Corps of Engineers to deny the pipeline to continue construction came as a “surprise move,” even though the fight still isn’t over (the pipeline’s fate rests with the corps’ environmental impact statement, yet to come).
However, the victory for the protesters and water protectors wasn’t the only miraculous thing that happened. Many veterans who had volunteered to act as human barricades for the protesters met with the Standing Rock Sioux elders and leaders in a reservation casino auditorium.
Wesley Clark Jr., one of the organizers of Veterans Stand with Standing Rock, wore the uniform of 7th Calvary of the 1800s, as if to symbolically forth the spirit of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, one of the many army generals who fought the Native Americans for their land on behalf of the U.S. Government. (The event also happened on birthday of Custer, another way to tie Custer’s spirit to the event.)
Clark knelt along with several other veterans to ask for forgiveness for their ancestors past crimes.
To quote Clark (via Indian Country Today):
“Many of us, me particularly, are from the units that have hurt you over the many years. We came. We fought you. We took your land. We signed treaties that we broke. We stole minerals from your sacred hills. We blasted the faces of our presidents onto your sacred mountain. Then we took still more land and then we took your children and then we tried to make your language and we tried to eliminate your language that God gave you, that the Creator gave you. We didn’t respect you. We polluted your Earth. We’ve hurt you in so many ways but we’ve come to say that we are sorry. We are at your service an we beg for your forgiveness.”
For me, this is a powerful moment and it represents a powerful shift in America’s own spiritual awakening. I’ll try not to get too woo-woo in this post, but if it happens it happens, since I’m writing about some metaphysical stuff.
I’ve always felt like there would come a time when America would have to wake up to its atrocities and go through the lengths necessary to fix them. Consciously, I didn’t think Americans would ever have the guts to get dirty and actually come to terms with the unrest that has afflicted them.
It’s now a scientific fact that trauma and other extreme emotional states can be passed down through generations. It makes a lot of sense for Clark to spiritually embody the role of Custer in this ceremony; while it may not be his line specifically, Clark’s culture has a generational weight of guilt that it has yet to fully process. That generational state must contend with the generational traumas of the first Americans as well as every other non-white group in America. With so much guilt piled up, it’s understandable to not want to face it.
However, when it is faced head on, marvelous and miraculous things like this ceremony can happen. This is where true healing begins.
This ceremony shows just how much America could achieve if it works to erase its original sins. If there could be more moments like this in our country, we will actually be doing the work of making this country great.
I believe there are more moments like this around the corner. With all of the stuff this election has stirred up, there are bound to be more moments when white Americans will ask for the forgiveness of those they’ve wronged. If and when these moments happen, America’s future will look much brighter.
What do you think about this moment? Give your opinions in the comments section below!
Julian 