Lands sacred to Native people is the topic of a new film that today airs nationally on POV, public television's showcase of independent, nonfiction films.
"Most people think of Indians as being dead and gone," Malinda Maynor, co-producer of the film, said Monday. "Unfortunately that's the film most people wanted to make."
It's not the one they made.
In the works for 10 years, "In the Light of Reverence" premieres at 9 tonight on Lincoln channel 12 and runs again at 8 p.m. Wednesday on NETV2.
Maynor said one of the film's primary goals was to bring attention to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, which lacks enforcement provisions. "It reads more like a resolution than a law," she said. "We'd like it to read more like a law."
The filmmakers focused on lands held sacred in Wyoming, Arizona and California, with areas affecting the Lakota, Hopi and Wintu, respectively.
As the story unfolds it reveals deeply held beliefs of the takers vs. caretakers - those who see land as private property and those who have religious connections to it dating back for uncounted millennia.
Each group expresses views at extreme odds: "Our culture is as important as the Indian culture, and we people who have lived here all our lives, we have our own culture that is being invaded by the Indians come here all the time and taking over," said Winne Bush, mayor of Hulett, Wyo., which is the nearest town to Devils Tower.
The Lakota refer to the sacred site as Mato Tipila, or Lodge of the Bear. And for years, they have battled with rock climbers who scale the federally protected monument while tribes practice religious ceremonies in June.
Vine Deloria, a Lakota author in the film, states: "The irony of the situation is that you can go on public land to ski, you can go on public land to strip a mountain and leave a cyanide pool, but you cannot go on public lands to pray for the Earth and its continued fertility." Reach Jodi Rave Lee at 473-7240 or jrave@journalstar.com.