Pine Ridge: Words on the Wind

Matthias Everhope

Greetings and welcome.

This project is a non-linear photo essay and written reflection on my experience with the Pine Ridge Reconciliation Center in January 2020 with a group of seminarians. I was deeply moved by my experience over those eleven days. I learned many things about myself, my country, my ancestors, our God. There were revolutions great and small in my heart, mind, and spirit. I am grateful beyond words.

I offer this reflection and its words and images so that others might gain, to honor the gifts I have received, to reciprocate this Divine energy. I make use of the storytelling style in my own way, out of respect for the Lakota way of sharing and teaching.

There are seven sub-pages in this online exhibition, which do not need to be read in order and cross link to one another. They represent the sacredness of seven for various reasons. There are the Oceti Ŝakowiŋ¹, The Seven Council Fires of the Lakota People; the responsibility we have to the next seven generations for the decisions we make today; seven days of the week; seven colors in the rainbow, seven times washed for healing², seven times seventy times forgiven.³

Circular Navigation

 
Oglala Lakota symbol with Medicine Wheel
 

 

 
 

 

I am not Native American / American Indian / Indigenous. But I have a home somewhere. It isn’t England, where my distant ancestors are from. It is the Potomac and Anacostia River watersheds, which hold our nation’s capital in their flowing palms, fingers pointed north. I was born there and I want to live there, put down roots and till good soil. To honor this claim of home, I must respect the Land and the Spirits which cared for it and prayed over it for many more years than my ancestors have occupied this place. I seek to align my being with the Creator’s will and to be in harmony with all Creation that reflects the Creator’s image, as I do.

In the summer of 2019, six months before this trip, at the Indigenous Studies Program at the Vancouver School of Theology, my teacher Misiaykimigookpaypomoytung / Jacqueline Ottmann asked me⁴ the following questions repeatedly:

Who are you?
Where are you from?
Where are you going?
What are your responsibilities?

We must continue to ask these questions throughout our lives, but my experience with the Pine Ridge Reconciliation Center helped me know how to engage with them in new ways. Profound ways.

I hope my work here is a pleasant offering to Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka / Great Spirit and the kin that encounter it. I offer it with the Lakota values I learned from local leader Dakota High Hawk:

Courage, Respect, Gratitude, Wisdom

Thank you for your time and attention.

Peace be with you.

Blessings Mitákuye Oyás'iŋ / All My Relations

Matthias Everhope
Wesley Theological Seminary, Class of 2022

 
WAKAN WAKAN WAKAN, from my journal

“HOLY HOLY HOLY”

 

  • ¹ Aktá Lakota Museum & Cultural Center. “Oceti Sakowin – Seven Council Fires” Accessed May 10, 2022.
    https://aktalakota.stjo.org/oceti-sakowin-seven-council-fires/

    ² Smyth, Dolores. “What Is the Biblical Significance of the Number 7?” Christianity.com. Jan. 30, 2020.
    https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/what-is-the-biblical-significance-of-the-number-7.html

    ³ Matthew 18:22

    ⁴ Misiaykimigookpaypomoytung / Ottmann, Jacqueline. “Indigenous Education and Leadership.”
    Indigenous Studies Program, Vancouver School of Theology. Summer 2019.