The preparations were underway for the annual Sundance brought to Pipestone 19 years ago by Clyde Bellecourt, or Nee-Gon-Nway-Wee-Dung, Thunder before the Storm. He chose the Monument for the Sundance after visiting the place and recalling it from one of his past visions.
“I’m here because this is the only area in the whole world set aside for the American Indian people,” Bellecourt said.
Up to 500 people attend the annual Sundance, by the guestimate of Glen H. Livermont, Monument superintendent. Livermont became the Monument’s chief ranger in 2000 before his promotion to his current position about a year and a half ago. As an Oglala who grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota’s Black Hills, Livermont was familiar with the Sundance and supports its presence at the Monument.
“It’s a very sacred and special ceremony,” Livermont said. “It just seems fitting that that kind of ceremony would be held here. It fulfills the full scope of the sacred nature of this place.”
The National Park Service issues a special permit to the Sundancers to hold the ceremony on the federal land.
“Our permit is focused on the protection of the resource, not what they can or can’t do during the ceremony,” Livermont said. “That’s a First Amendment rights issue; they can practice their religious beliefs.”
It wasn’t always like that. In 1890, fearing the ceremony would rekindle hostility among American Indians toward white settlers,
Bellecourt is a well-known national figure for his role as co-founder, on July 28, 1968, of the American Indian Movement (AIM); for his participation, in 1973, of the occupation of Wounded Knee, an event that brought focused, nationwide attention on reservation poverty.
The goal in founding the AIM more than 40 years ago was to reclaim American Indian history and culture.
“If we don’t build a spiritual base for our children, the unborn generation to come, we will perish as a people,” Bellecourt said. “We made up our mind we would fight for our traditional way of life. So we started practicing these ways.”
The practice of traditional ways can help save American Indians from diseases like alcoholism, which continues to plague American Indian communities hundreds of years after white settlers first introduced the fire water’ to the natives, Bellecourt said.
“It was the first form of chemical warfare ever used; and it was on the Indian people,” he said. “The only thing I can see to change that is making young people proud of who they are, their heritage. We have to get young people to learn about their culture.”
Bellecourt, 72, has not touched alcohol or drugs for 39 years. He credits his sobriety, and his 50-year marriage, to the practice of his American Indian heritage and culture. And that’s what the AIM is all about: strengthening families and marriages within American Indian communities.
Bellecourt points to Wayne Crue, a 22-year-old Shoshone from Idaho as an example of how a return to American Indian culture can help
“He’s completely pure; that’s why I chose him to be a leader here,” as head Sundancer, Bellecourt said.
A Shoshone from Idaho, Crue was adopted by white parents who encouraged him to explore his heritage. Through AIM and elders like Bellecourt, he said he’s found direction, love and compassion; through ceremonies like the Sundance, strength to face life’s obstacles.
“I found my foundation,” Crue said. “The AIM gave me seeds that I’m growing off of.”
The Sundance at the Monument got underway officially with Tree Day, Wednesday, Aug. 5, whereby a tree was selected and carried to the Monument site around which the dancers will perform their ceremony. Beginning Thursday, Aug. 6, the dancers will fast from sunrise to sunset for four days, praying for the health and happiness of all living things on Mother Earth, Bellecourt said.
By Sunday, Aug. 9, with their lips cracked from thirst, their skin burnt by the sun and their chests pierced through the flesh, the dancers will emerge from their four days of labor to begin a new life.
“You’ve heard of born again Christians? I kiddingly tell people we’re born again pagan,” Bellecourt said. “We all pray together and become one family, a new family. This has absolutely nothing to do with religion; religion came over here on a boat. This is a way of life.”
The community is welcome to witness the ceremony. The site can be reached by vehicle via the Monument’s north access road. At that entrance, attendees will receive a welcome pamphlet that lists Sundance protocols: No food, drink, tobacco or recording devices, for example.
For more information, go to www.aimovement.org and click on special events.’