We Have to Change

When I was very young I wanted to be an Indian. I wanted to ride horses and live out under the sun and stars. I wanted to learn how to live bravely. I wanted to learn how to track deer and catch rabbits and chase antelope. I’m decades older now and I understand that my early view of Indian life was primarily shaped by a genocidal colonialism's privileged sentimentality. I have worked to temper that view with real history, real stories, real understanding of current conditions as well as actual historical events. I never lost my early love and admiration and, now, so very much older, I find it shining bright again because of Standing Rock.

Why doesn’t President Obama do something about Standing Rock? I hear that from many places these days. Personally, I suspect he is doing something behind the scenes, and whatever else he can do to forestall the disasters that are coming after the January inauguration. But I wonder if some of us think that if the president only fixed it, we could go back to watching tv, reading our book, having a barbecue, going to a movie with friends. We could go on living the life we had before the election.

Do we believe that the ballot box is the end of responsibility? That we can turn away after turning over to public officials the need to fix what’s broken? That a government can legislate justice or love, kindness or caring, change greedy hearts, decide on honor, create generous spirits? The water protectors of Standing Rock know this is not true. They understood before the election that doing the right thing could not be left to the government. They already knew that they were facing a mighty power: a corporation allied to a government.

Those of us who are old enough…when did we forget Mario Savio? “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!”

The people of Standing Rock are teaching the country, and indeed beyond borders, that people must commit themselves to right action in service to the greater good despite any prospect of victory. They are teaching everyone that victory is not necessarily winning. Life as we know it must change because life as we know it brought us to this crossroads. Our hearts must change, what we think we need must change.

I wish I could be at Standing Rock, but that would be foolish. I would take more than I could give by my presence, but I am filled with so much pride in being a human being by what is happening there. I see an indigenous people who have not lost their memory of the generations from whom they’ve come, I see a native people whose understanding of their land has been made wise by the very earth and water they protect. I see brave young people whose spirit is strengthened by their honor for their ancestors and their elders. I see allies of the tribal peoples who are capable of divesting themselves of colonial attitudes and asking only how they may help. I see such awesome beauty of courage, of intent, of spirit.

Gem Stone: Agate and Obsidian