Native Geographies
(Geography / American Indian Studies 322)
University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire
Professor Zoltán Grossman

Sacred Places
(according to Mircea Eliade)
Locations of sacred manifestation of divine
Create spiritual order around sacred pivot;
“axes of the world” to orient humans
Serve as microcosm of universe
Symbolize creation of the world
(“earth navel”)

Sacred places:
Passage open for communication between levels
Sky
(divine; heaven)
Mountains, sun calendar, etc.
Earth
(Life; humans)
Caves, springs, kivas, etc.
Underworld
(Dead; water)

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Native Sacred Places Interpreted
Western views :
Broad places of aesthetic beauty or positive emotion;
Perhaps “created” in recent times to claim land
Native views :
Specific places of sacred power from ancient spiritual events
(Could be feeling good or feeling fear;
Could be beautiful or mundane;
Importance well documented since Encounter )

Purposes of Sacred Places
Needed for “stability of the world,” not just for Indians
Recording of stories Astronomical observatories
Seasonal ceremonies
Burial grounds
Life stage passages
Medicine gathering
Purification
Healing
Quarries of sacred stone
Vision quests Many other purposes

Effigy Mounds

Effigy Mounds
Ceremonial sites symbolizing animals/clans.
Often in high places overlooking water, or near caves/springs

Southern
Wisconsin
Not just conical burial mounds;
Effigy mound
Builders about
650 to 1200 AD
Some had burials;
All were ceremonial centers often near villages

Mapping the Mounds
Pioneer surveys
Magentic gradiometry

Panther
Mendota Hospital grounds, Madison
Bird
( Sky )
Bird
(624’ wingspan)
Bear
( Earth )
Bear
Water spirit
(Panther)
( Underworld )
Geographical distribution may follow clan territories

Continuity to modern tribes
Ho-Chunk view selves as guardians of mounds
Descended from earlier
Ancient cultures

Continuity of cultures
Red Horn legend at Gottschall site

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Mound destruction xxxx
80% of WI mounds leveled by farming or development;
Some surviving mounds looted for pots, artifacts, bones, etc.

Burial mounds on Prairie Island Res., Minn.
had been buried to deter looters

(Madeline Island, Apostle Islands, Wisconsin)

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Red Sky’s birchbark scroll of Ojibwe Great Migration
Megis shell

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HE SAPA (BLACK HILLS)

Black Hills from Space
Zoom
Wind Cave origin of
Lakota
Rains replenish aquifers for semi-arid region

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Black Hills guaranteed to
Lakota in 1851
& 1868 Treaties
Custer invaded
Black Hills for gold, 1874

“Race Track” in the Red Valley
Ki Iyanka Ocanku
(“Heart-Shaped Path”)
Can Gleska Wakan
(“Sacred Hoop”)
Ancient race between two-leggeds & fourleggeds spilled “blood”
Iron-rich soil; uranium deposits

Bear Lodge Butte, or Devil’s Tower
Black Hills
Sacred Sites
Winter camps
Bear Butte
Pe Sla, or Old Baldy Harney Peak

Lakota
Constellations xxxxx

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Spring Equinox
Pipe ceremony
Dried Willow constellation
Winter camps
Winter Camps outside Black Hills

Welcoming Back the
Thunders ceremony
Seven Little Girls
(Pleiades) constellation
Winter camps
Hinhankaga Paha
(Harney Peak = 7 peaks);
Black Elk vision site

Welcoming Back Life in Peace ceremony
Tayamni (animal) constellation = Orion’s Belt
Winter camps
Pe Sla, Center of the Hills
(Old Baldy, or Slate Prairie)

Summer Solstice
Sun Dance
Bear’s Lodge constellation
Winter camps
Matotipi Paha
(Bear Lodge Butte, or “Devil’s Tower”)

Sacred Hoop Run
Lakota reservation youth run
500 miles around Black Hills along path of Great Race

Mato Paha (Bear Butte)
Shared sacred space of
Lakota & Cheyenne
Where Lakota first met Great Spirit

Ceremonial & vision quest sites within state park;
Tourists stay on trail

Bear Butte volcano
Meeting place of
Tashunka Witko
(Crazy Horse)
20th century peace prayers near nuclear missile silos
21st century shooting range proposal conflict

Honor or Desecration?

Congressional bill for “Sioux National Park” on federal lands, failed 1980s
Lakotas reject $105 million compensation for theft; ask for land return and damages,
1980s
Lakota traditionalists
& AIM had Yellow
Thunder Camp, 1981
Pine Ridge Res.

Environmental Threats to Black Hills
Gold mining since 1870s
Uranium mining, 1950s-60s
Uranium & coal mining plans defeated, 1981
Bombing range plan defeated, 1987
Costner resort controversy, 2000s

Double Standards
Western religious ceremonies mainly in buildings, but…..
Would Mount Sinai ever be mined?
To stop a mine, would Christians &
Jews be required to locate and prove that
“Burning Bush” thing?

Native Religious Freedom
Civilization Regulations outlawed
Native religions from 1880s to 1930s; still practiced in secret
American Indian Religious Freedom Act legalized religious practices only in 1978
Sacred sites still not legally protected; about 3/4ths not accessible to tribes

Taos Blue Lake, New Mexico
• Sacred to Taos Pueblo
• Taken by US Forest Service from tribe, 1906
• Nixon Administration returned to Taos Pueblo, 1970
• Mount Adams returned to
Yakama in WA, 1972

Clinton’s Executive
Order, 1996
• Accommodation for access and ceremonial use
• Additional security/confidentiality
• Physical integrity
• Yet not protected from development

Sites on U.S. Geological Survey maps

Quechan sacred land in California
Indian Pass
“dream trails” sacred to Quechan
Open-pit cyanide gold mine proposal stopped by Clinton, resumed by Bush
Focus of California state legislation

California bills
2004 law requires local gov’ts to notify & consult with tribes, who can now can purchase conservation easements.
- Arnold signed bill; not as strong as 2002 bill.
2002 bill gave tribes veto over development on specific sacred sites within 20 miles of their lands, and to consult with developers to adjust plans.
Legislature passed; Gov. Davis vetoed, but committed to stopping Quechan mine

Native American Sacred Lands
Protection Act, 2003
• Federal bill to require resource developers to consult with tribes
• Accepts oral history as “Native science” to define geographic structure or place as sacred
• Require public hearings; could block projects
• Snowball’s chance in 2003

Have to divulge locations
Have to divulge or prove sacred information
Government may give permission for access/prayer
Solutions???
Site’s value may be quantified in $$$
May have to relinquish claim to protect site

Mount Graham telescope, Arizona
• Univ. of Arizona/Vatican mountaintop project
• Access to mountaintop restricted
• Peak is sacred to Apache;;
Charge violation of religious freedom; ask universities not to participate

Mendota Dakota oaks, near
Minnehaha Park, Minneapolis
• Highway 55 project to speed traffic to Mall of America
• Would cut four sacred oaks of Mendota Dakota
• “Camp Coldwater” protest camp, 1998-99

Weatherman Draw, Montana
• Petroglyphs sacred to many Montana tribes
• Anschutz company wanted oil exploration; BLM agreed
• Protests caused Anschutz to donate leases to land trust, 2002

Zuni Salt Lake, New Mexico
• Sacred to Zuni Pueblo, and pilgrimage site for others, as home of “Salt Woman”
• Public utility wanted a huge coal mine 10 miles away
• Fears that coal operations would dry up springs
• Project defeated, 2003

Petroglyph National Monument, New Mexico
• 17,000 rock drawings just west of Albuquerque; amidst suburban sprawl
• 1998 Proposal for freeway through monument land; fears of noise, pollution, access
• Lawsuits, elections, regulatory battles continue

Desecration of
Petroglyphs xxxxx

(Jornada Mogollon culture, New Mexico, 1300s)

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