Pheshla, A Sacred Place for All Time

A map of the major conflicts that encompass "The Great Sioux War," by The First Scout. 
Pxeshlá, An Open Sacred Place
A Confluence Of Sky And Land

By Dakota Wind, M.A., ABD

The Black Hills is one of the most sacred places of the Ochéti Shakówiŋ, the Seven Council Fires of the Dakhóta and Lakhóta speaking peoples. This group of people lived here in a span of cultural and historical occupation reaching back thousands of years.

There are historical records recorded by non-natives within the past 150 years or so which inform readers that the Títxuŋwaŋ (Dwellers on the Plains; Teton), Lakhóta-speaking people, are not from the Great Plains, but instead, were pushed west by traditional enemies armed with guns. Royal Hassrick’s The Sioux tells readers that this event happened in the late 1600s at Bdé Wakháŋ (Holy Lake), better known today as Mille Lacs, MN.

Conversations and interviews with some Lakhóta leaders pushes this agenda that frames the Títxuŋwaŋ as late ascendant newcomers to the Great Plains and by extension, the Black Hills. Dialogue such as this only captures the stories of Lakhóta with Dakhóta ancestral lineage and ignores the lineal distinction, the essence, of the Títxuŋwaŋ language, people, and long occupation.

Above, Goodman illustrates a natural observation of the ancestral Ochéti Shakówiŋ, when the sun passed through the willow constellation signaling the proper time for sundance.

Ronald Goodman’s work Lakota Star Knowledge examines the tradition of deep ancestral history. Goodman treats the constellations as artifacts and calculates natural observation, the story of place, in the landscape of the Black Hills. We are treated to a narrative that places cultural practices circa 2600 BCE.

Another significant fact is that Lakhóta is a language of the wind. It developed in dry and windy conditions. At the turn of 1900 on Standing Rock, Col. Welch recorded that the Lakhóta language, when sung, could be heard and understood several miles away. The immediate need to communicate on the vast open plain did not spontaneously develop in the late seventeenth century. Lakhóta grew in response to the environmental conditions over countless generations. It grew from natural observation of how certain birds communicated through the wind and mirage.

The occupation of Pxeshlá reaches back into the prehistoric Paleoindian record. The archaeology in the area informs us today of 8,000 years of continuous use with the earliest record circa 11,000-9,200 BCE.

The Lakhóta people’s first ancestral association with Pxeshlá informs us that this is where the cultural hero Wicháhxpi Híŋhxpaye (Fallen Star) landed from the heavens. Trees kept their distance in acknowledgement of this sacred event. It was here, in this open prairie within the Black Hills that Wicháhxpi Híŋhxpaye had a supernatural youth and learned the Lakhóta language from Txashíyagmuŋka (Western Meadowlark). It is from this site, that this hero stepped out into the world in a journey across the plains to demonstrate the very best of Lakhólkichiyapi, the very best ideals, and to aid all he met.

This traditional Lakhóta narrative places them within the window of the continuous cultural occupation. All the Ochéti Shakówiŋ have stories of this myth-history figure, but the Lakhóta place his first steps, his first spoken words, here in the Heart of All that is.

This open prairie in the center of the Black Hills served as a natural gathering place for families, allies, or traditional allies in dispute to come together and talk out their differences. In times before the historic record and up to the reservation era, this special place is where people smoked the pipe together, prayed together, sang (which is regarded as the highest form of prayer), danced (the second highest form of prayer), spoke without lies and listened in turn, and ate together. When disaffected parties concluded their truth, often enough, they took the robes/blankets, upon which they sat and waved it over the heads of their now former antagonists, settling the robe or blanket upon their shoulders. A formal exchange, an acknowledgement that they were beyond fighting and should become friends and relatives. This is the origin of this site’s other name: Pxá Huŋkáikoza (They Wave It Over Their Heads).

Above, the Black Hills Expedition Map has been edited. All the English has been replaced with Lakhota place names. The expedition is known to the Lakhota as "Wamanunpi Chanku," or "The Thieves Road." By The First Scout. 

In July, 1874, Lt. Col. Custer and his Black Hills Expedition passed through Pxeshlá, though he called it “Custer Park.” They played the first game of baseball there in the ‘Hills. Major Tilford opened his tent for a celebratory round of champagne that lasted into the night. The expedition was to confirm the discovery of gold. It did, and set off a gold rush, raised tensions between the indigenous who fought to defend their way of traditional life that centered on bison and the natural world and a horde of illegal invaders determined to have dominion over all the earth.

The Great Sioux War followed, beginning in the spring of 1876, continued through the winter, and concluded at the Battle of Wolf Mountain, July 8 & 9, 1877. This “war” lasted twenty conflicts and forced men to both defend their communities and hunt to sustain their communities – Congress called this the “Sell or Starve” campaign to force a fight. Many could not do both. Some moved across the Medicine Line. Others reluctantly returned to their agency. It was an era of federal Indian policy known as “concentration.”

Congress abrogated, or broke, the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, and seized the Black Hills from the Great Sioux Reservation. The reservation was broken into smaller reservations. In June, 1877, the same month as the infamous Battle of the Little Bighorn, President Grant actually extended the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation ten miles east of the Missouri River, but this extension is another story regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline that did in fact cross Grant’s extension of Standing Rock.

In all, the Ochéti Shakówiŋ bravely, desperately, and tenaciously stood their ground in 109 conflicts since 1841 to 1903, in every season, across the generations, in school, in church, and in the courts to argue the indisputable truth even the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on: the homeland, the Black Hills are not for sale.

The Black Hills are the ancestral emergence of the Títxuŋwaŋ. The ‘Hills are where the Lakhóta language and culture ascended. Pxeshlá carries a quiet majesty. It is the once and future place of peace. It is the Heart of Everything that is.