CLEVELAND, Ohio — On a gray, drizzly Sunday afternoon, four people, each holding an ear of colorful corn, walk through the muddy grounds of the Native American Cultural Garden in Rockefeller Park. With quiet ceremony, they place an ear of corn to mark each of the four directions of the sacred space they are creating.
They return to the center of the field, rejoining the rest of the group. Since August, most of of these 20 people have gathered here weekly to pray for the “water protectors” at Standing Rock, North Dakota.
Bruce Kafer, a member of the Ogala Sioux nation, lights a bundle of sage and “smudges” each person, the smoke curling around each of them, front and back. It is an ancient practice thought to purify and dispel the negative. Kafer then leads the group in single file, clockwise, to form a sacred circle.
Marian Renee Concha-Saastamoinen, whose Native American name, “Pumpkin” is what most call her, urges each person to pray in his own way. “Today’s prayers are for the People,” she says, her eyes closed. “To keep the people at Standing Rock from harm. The extreme sadness that we’ve had, has been devastating for everyone who has been called [to North Dakota] to help. They are fighting for Mother Earth, they are fighting to protect the water” [of Lake Oahe, part of the Missouri River reservoir]. “As non-natives, you know it’s gone, but as natives, you feel it’s gone.”
Concha-Saastamoinen takes a deep breath and continues her prayer. “I can’t call on anything magical to keep these people from harm,” she says. “I understand why Natives are going to put their lives on the line for this. I’m scared for them. I have friends and relations there.” Her voice trails off and she begins to weep. “Pray for the lawyers that they find the correct way to fight. We have some beautiful humans out there.”
Kafer beats the drum and sings a prayer in his Titanwan prairie Sioux language. The drum represents the heartbeat of Mother Earth, he says. After the prayer, each person takes one step backward to step out of the circle. Each peels off, one by one, clockwise, shaking the hands of those still in line.
They gather round a table for some hot coffee and pastries, and continue to talk about the plight of the people on the Sandy Rock Reservation.
John Paul Rodriguez came to the prayer meeting with his father, Alberto. He says he learned about the Dakota Access Pipeline by doing internet research. He decided to make a trip to check out the situation first hand. He went out there at the end of August last year. “It was pretty peaceful,” he says. “There were roughly 3,000 people, and the road block wasn’t up yet. People were still allowed to drive to Bismark.” He smiles at his dad. “I took 600 pounds of dry goods with me to help out,” he says. “Huge bags of rice, cases of water, treats for the kids. I tried to think of everybody.”
Leatrice Tolls of Cleveland Heights made her own trip to Standing Rock. It is not the first time the 51 year-old has made a big effort to stand up for what she believes in. She began her life as an activist at the age of nine. With a fishing rod in her hand and her bike by her side, Tolls sat down in front of a bulldozer to save the Mill River in her town of Fairfield, Connecticut. She says that action stopped the bulldozers and won her the Presidential Award for Environmental Activisim and Protection, given to her by Gerald Ford. The area is now a protected wetland.
“Lately I’ve been learning more and more about treaty rights,” she says, a striking figure in colorful tights, boots and a flowing dress. “I left for North Dakota the last week in October,” she says. “A friend donated a 16-foot truck and we filled it to the brim with stuff — military surplus, a generator, winter camping gear, food, water, anything that might be useful in an encampment situation. I’ve done this before, for Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina. I knew I would be of use organizing.”
She says she found this group of like-minded people at the Native American Garden in September. “It is good to go to a prayerful space, to stand for and with oppressed people who have endured this way too long,” she says of the thousands, from many native nations, who are at Standing Rock Reservation. “I will defend the sacred with anything and everything I have, including my last breath,” she says. “I am not going to jail accused as a terrorist for the exact same activity that earned me a presidential award forty two years ago.”
Those gathered at Standing Rock are against the Dakota Access Pipeline that will take oil from North Dakota, through South Dakota and Iowa to be shipped from Illinois. Part of the construction, which is nearly complete, will go under Lake Oahe, which is a reservoir of the Missouri River. Native nations are opposed because it crosses sacred cultural land. They, and others, are also concerned for the safety of their drinking water.
Supporters of the pipeline site economic benefits, including taxes and construction jobs. They say it will provide less dependence on foreign oil. They also say it is a better way to move crude oil than using railroads or trucks.
Read more: Is the Standing Rock movement defeated?
Standing Rock Sioux ask court to halt construction
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