Lakota Creation Myth

It is a warm summer night and shades of orange, red, and gold appear in the sky over the pine-covered hills. The sun soon disappears beneath the dark hills and darkness settles over the land. The buffalo, antelope, and elk find places to rest for the night and all is quiet except for the creeks and birds. In several hours, the sky will again be lit with a multitude of colors and the animals will begin to rise. A new day will begin in the Black Hills, just like it did hundreds of years ago. And just like hundreds of years ago, the Lakota consider the Black Hills to be sacred lands. However, some aspects have changed, as the Lakota can no longer call the land their own. The Lakota have spent over 100 years fighting for physical reclamation of

These lands are sacred to the Lakota Sioux for many reasons. First and foremost, their creation myth is based in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. Wind Cave is located in the Southern Black Hills and plays an important role in their creation myth. Ostler states that the Lakota believe that the “first people [and the buffalo] originated within the earth and came through Wind Cave’s opening.” . The Great Father blessed them with the land. In the book, Lakota Portraits: Lives of the Legendary Plains People, Joseph Agonito explains that the Lakota believed that the Great Father had created the earth and he “favored the Lakotas by giving them the beautiful Black Hills.” The fact that the Lakota people believe this is where their first people came from makes the Black Hills very sacred to them. Also, the Lakota pray, fast, and conduct vision quests in the Black

People wanted to move west and the government did not want to stop them. All the white Americans believed in Manifest Destiny or that it was the destiny of the United States to stretch from one ocean to the other. This, however, threatened the livelihoods of the indigenous people who called the uninhabited lands between the oceans home. Specifically, it threatened the Lakota Sioux residing in and around the Black Hills. The United States calmed the fears of the Lakota with the Treaties of Fort Laramie in 1858 and 1861. Jeffrey Ostler explains that the treaties “secured the Lakota title to the Black Hills.” However, when rumors of the discovery of gold in the hills spread east, the Lakotas knew they were in trouble. By 1877, after the battle at Little Bighorn and growing tensions between the Lakota and the United States government, the US Congress passed an act that seized the Black Hills from the Lakota. This seizure was illegal according to the Treaties of Fort Laramie, but it would take until 1980 for the Supreme Court to recognize this. In the 103 years separating the confiscation of the Black Hills and the Supreme Court decision that it was illegal, the Lakota battled for the reclamation of the Black Hills in court cases and protests. They filed a claim in 1920 requesting the return of the Black Hills, but no action was taken. The American Indian Movement went to