Matt Atkinson Art
Follow me on Facebook and Twitter
  • Matt Atkinson
  • Artist Bio
  • Cowboy and Indian Art
  • Wildlife Art
  • Landscapes
  • Pencil Art
  • Artwork Prints and Giclees
  • Photography Prints
  • Blog: Beyond Paint and Canvas
  • Contact/Commissions

Father-son Road Trip, pt. 4 - Wounded Knee

12/29/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
We headed town to Pine Ridge reservation through the Badlands. Pine Ridge is the most economically depressed county in the entire U.S. River and I passed through the tiny ghost town of Scenic, which is found at a corner of the Badlands just north of the reservation. Scenic is a classic western cowboy town: rolling tumbleweeds, abandoned trading post, an old frontier prison with a shackle chain still hanging from the ceiling, and only two businesses still open: a gas station and the Longhorn Saloon. The Longhorn is a tiny bar established in 1906, recognizable for its many steer skulls nailed across the top edge of the building. Reflecting  frontier racism, for decades the sign on front prominently warned "No Indians Allowed." The sign has been modified and currently reads, "Indians Allowed". Is that progress? (Keep in mind that the primary patronage of the saloon now is alcohol sales to people coming up from the reservation, which is dry)

Picture
Picture
We continued south toward the site of Wounded Knee. River watched out the window as we passed clusters of tar-paper shacks and trailers, constituting a "town" on the rez...no stores, no gas stations. I talked with River about the history of the Ghost Dance and its role at Pine Ridge.
In the late 1880's, a Paiute man named Wovoka had a series of visions that started a new religion among the Plains Indians. Wovoka told the people that God had showed him that through hardship would come new life, and that if the people formed a circle--literally, but also symbolically as a community--and prayed together for peace, the turmoil of this world would burn away and the people would live. Wovoka warned them that this "burning away" would hurt very much, but it would establish a departure from our old mistakes to a new way of ministry and interconnection with life.

This new way of understanding became known as the Ghost Dance. The name comes from a misunderstanding by Whites on the frontier, who heard Wovoka talking about setting our old lives aside to die and then seeing new life being born within us. They lacked the understanding that he was talking about transformative struggle, and assumed he was urging some type of cult-like sorcery to whip up a warlike fervor.

Picture
    Their peacefulness did not assuage their enemies, though, who saw it as a sign of weakness. This clash of ideas--renewal versus hostility--erupted on December 29, 1890 at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. There, about 300 Ghost Dancers were hewn down by machine gun fire and left for dead, the crosses and birds painted on their garments shining in the snow.

This was the final massacre of the so-called "Indian Wars." The site is now marked by a common trench grave and monument with names engraved on it. To Native people today of every tribe, the site is a shrine; it represents the difficult choice between fighting back and hating your adversaries, or becoming willing to suffer while praying and seeking peace with them, acknowledging them as our brothers and sisters whom we love despite adversity. And although that choice ended in tragedy in 1890, it has inspired thousands of people in the decades since then.

    It represents the truth that despite our human flaws, our adversaries, and the risks we take to love and care for others, there is still worth in continuing to mend wounds, seek good for those who do not seek good for us, and even keep loving...keep loving. The lesson of Wounded Knee is this: Even with the wounds brought upon you by those who condemn what you do, keep loving. Keep seeing them--even your adversaries--as holy people, children of our Creator, and continue the work of tending to the wounds of others even as others might add wounds to you.

This is a hard choice.

Picture
Today, Wounded Knee is a windswept field with a very simple monument marking the cemetery. There are no fancy tour buses, no restaurants, no shops, no neon signs--just a meager arch and a stone marker.
    Grasshoppers swarmed away from us as we strode toward the hilltop, and I showed River where the events happened: "That's the ridge where the soldiers were lined up. That's where chief Big Foot's tipi stood. That's where his body was found. Those distant ravines are where people hid. This is the long ditch dug as a mass grave by men paid $2 a body to clean up, days later. That's where the church once stood where the wounded were gathered to die of starvation (nobody nursed them, they just brought them in from the snow--still alive--to perish, while a banner wishing "Merry Christmas" still hung from the pulpit)."

    This was a more solemn time on our trip, obviously, and I hoped it would sink in somewhat to River. But I didn't want him to see it as a place where a brilliant dream had died, or where a prayer for peace failed. I wanted him to see it as a place where prayers for peace mean enough to be worth giving your life for--a place where the brilliance of a dream can succeed because people are ready to seek it to their last breath. It is a place that represents fidelity, perseverance, and courage, not a place of despair and loss.


Picture
1 Comment
Erica link
1/31/2021 11:59:28 am

Niice post thanks for sharing

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Culture and Traditionalism

    Photos and information about traditional culture and art

    Categories

    All
    American Plains Artists
    Argus Dowdy
    Art Of The West
    Black Elk
    Blackfeet Indians
    Bruce Greene
    Earth Pigments
    Healing
    In Beauty It Is Finished
    Landscape
    Martin Grelle
    Modern Art
    Mother
    Natural Paints
    Oil Painters Of America
    Pipestone
    Saddlemaker
    Sioux
    Susie Yazzie
    Sweatlodge
    Tipi
    Tom Tierney
    Ute
    Violin Maker
    Vision
    Work In Progress

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    September 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    July 2016
    August 2015
    May 2015
    August 2014
    July 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    August 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    July 2012
    October 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    September 2010
    April 2010
    October 2009
    July 2009

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.