Our Sacred Birthright as Original Nations and Peoples of Turtle Island ("North America")

(Photo by Steven Newcomb)

Looking East from Black Elk Peak—Return of the Thunder Beings Gathering, 2024.

This essay is a slightly re-edited excerpt from a brief law review article published twenty years ago in the “Indigenous Peoples’ Journal of Law, Culture & Resistance” (UCLA School of Law, 2005)

“Only one thing’s sadder than remembering you once were free, and that’s forgetting you once were free. That would be the saddest thing of all. That’s one thing we Indians will never do.”—Matthew King (Noble Red Man, Oglala Lakota).

Distinct and diverse, our original nations are born of the Earth (the Sacred Life-Giver), and placed by the beauty of the Creative Life-Force in sacred relationship with our respective homelands and territories.

Our ancestors lived with their own languages and spiritual and ceremonial traditions, free and independent of western colonialism and subjugation, for an untold succession of ages, until the empires of christendom invaded our region of Mother Earth, which is commonly known in the foreigners’ tongue as the “north America” and the “western hemisphere.”

Our ancestors bequeathed to us the gift of a sacred birthright, which is our very being as naturally existing nations of people. This sacred birthright is comprised of our languages, cultures, lands, deserts, mountains, forests, and our other relatives, such as the buffalo, caribou, salmon, cedar, sage, sweet grass, and corn pollen, as well as our spiritual and ceremonial traditions, our songs and sacred ceremonial places, our histories and oral traditions, and the burial places and remembrance of our ancestors.

Our sacred birthright includes our minds, our philosophies, our sciences, our economic systems, and plant sustaining practices. It includes our petroglyphs and artifacts. And our sacred birthright also includes the rivers, streams, natural springs, waterfalls, lakes, aquifers, seas, bays, inlets, oceans, and all bodies of water, the precious and sacred liquid that flows through the veins of Mother Earth and sustains all Life, and without which Life cannot continue.

Our sacred birthright, which we shall never freely forfeit, includes the right to heal from the trauma caused by colonization, and to one day live free and independent of all forms and manner of domination. We have a solemn responsibility to use every fiber and breath of our being to uphold and protect the sacred birthright of our children and young people for the benefit of our future generations, and for the benefit of all Life.

Every spark that spirals into the air from a ceremonial fire embodies the spiritual energy of the universe that burns in each and every one of us. We have the ability to combine together the fire of our respective spiritual energy as two-legged beings, to become a tremendous force of love, healing, cultural resurgence, and spiritual revitalization.

Words attributed to the great Shawnee lenawe Tecumseh express a credo in support of our sacred birthright:

“Live your life that the fear of death may never enter your heart. Love your life. Perfect your life. Beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long, and its purpose the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only with yourself. Abuse no one and nothing, for abuse turns the wise ones into fools and robs the spirit of its vision.”

The powerful example that Tecumseh created by living his life’s purpose provides a lesson which says: “Never submit, never give in, never surrender your spirit to those who would capture it and hold you against your will under and subject to a system of domination.”

I am reminded of the life of another great Native leader, my Oglala Lakota friend and mentor Birgil Kills Straight (1940-2019). Birgil was an educator, Traditional Headman, and ceremonial leader who worked to model by the way he lived his life, the knowledge, teachings, and wisdom of the Oceti Sakowin, the seven council fires of the Great Sioux Nation. He expressed those as “Seven Laws” (Woope Sakowin):

1) Wacante Oganake (to share, to care, to give, to be generous, to carry the well-being of the People in your heart);

2) Wowaunsila (compassion and and deep sensitivity for those who are suffering);

3) Wowauonihan (honor and respect);

4) Wowacintanka (patience and tolerance);

5)Wowahwala (to be humble, to seek humility);

6) Woohitike (to be guided by your principles, to be disciplined, to be brave and courageous);

7) Woksape (seeking, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom).

This code of conduct, with its profound concepts and principles, is merely a tiny fraction of the knowledge and wisdom the Oceti Sakowin that Birgil lived and taught wherever he went. Mastering these principles by the way we live is one way we can work to create the shared reality of a spiritual way of life. It is one way that we can show our commitment to honoring our Sacred Birthright as original nations and peoples. ~All Our Relations~