Hundreds of people from across the country and around the world gathered on a field near Piedmont recently with one goal in mind…returning the Black Hills to the Lakota people. We attend the 2-day “Unity Concert” and speak with music legends, Native activists, tribal elders and international performers to learn why they’ve joined forces in the decades-old cause.
Two days after the earliest snowstorm on record hit the Black Hills, the sun is shining, the temperatures are seasonable and a field on the outskirts of Piedmont is covered with RVs, several tipis and a stage….with hundreds of people scattered across the land.
They come from across the U.S. and around the world…and from all races. They are Lakota traditionals and the non-Native curious. They are artists and writers, musicians and poets. And they’re all here for the same reason, says Theresa Two Bulls…to attend the Black Hills Unity Concert.
“And what the concert is about is to bring awareness,” Two Bulls explains. “Not only to the United States and Alaska, but globally. To let the people know that we want the Black Hills back.”
Returning the Black Hills to the Lakota people is an issue Two Bulls has been advocating for since she was president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe - from 2008 to 2010.
“When I was tribal president,” Two Bulls recalls, “ I noticed that the last resolution passed was in 1980…and nothing was ever done on the Black Hills issues. So, I got with my council, we ratified “The 1980 Resolution” saying the Black Hills are not for sale.”
That original 1980 Black Hills resolution resulted in a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, where Justice Harry Blackmun referred to the 1877 unauthorized “sale” of the Black Hills to the federal government with the following statement: “A more ripe and rank case of dishonest dealings may never be found in our history."
But the $105 million awarded to the Great Sioux Nation in 1980 for what they consider the theft of the Black Hills was refused by the tribes and has grown to about $1 billion. The bottom line says Theresa Two Bulls is that the Lakota people want their land returned. Not for the acreage or the minerals, but for the sacredness the Lakota believe is in the Black Hills.
Theresa Two Bulls continued her fight for the Black Hills after leaving office and eventually found herself in the company of Bethany Yarrow, a singer and environmental activist, whose father, Peter, was part of the popular folk group “Peter, Paul and Mary”. Bethany says once she learned about the Black Hills issue, she had to get involved.
“People need to return to protecting the sacred,” Yarrow observes, “and to protecting Mother Earth. And that is also to return to a more Native way of understanding your relationship with the Earth…and your relationship with the sacred.”
Even Bethany Yarrow admits that this all sounds nice, but will take more than getting in touch with the Earth and sacred sites to convince Congress to give back the Black Hills. She says it will take people of all races and cultures uniting alongside the Lakota. And though one concert also won’t do the trick, Bethany says it’s a start.
“Everyone keeps saying, it’s impossible,” Yarrow comments. “The history’s too difficult. Everyone’s too divided. And I keep saying, ‘Well, they haven’t met ‘Puff, The magic Dragon’ yet, ya’ know? (laughs) There’s a magic inside of this music and calling people together. And we all know that we’re not gonna’ get through this time on Earth if we don’t stand up and stand united.”
That’s why Bethany contacted her father, who wrote the classic song about a dragon and a little boy, for his help. Peter Yarrow then sought help from some of his activist friends…like Joanne Shenandoah, Buffy St. Marie and Arlo Guthrie.
But there are also young activists lending their voices…like Nataanii Means, whose father, Russell, was at the forefront of activism along with Buffy St. Marie and Arlo Guthrie.
“We still are adamant about getting our homeland back,” says Means. “And we’re still tryna’ spread the message for our younger generation to hear…that we need to go back to our language, back to our ways…and realizing that we are people of this land.”
Theresa Two Bulls is meeting with other Lakota elders this week to discuss options for getting back the Lakota land called the Black Hills…a fight she has no plans of ending until she’s in her grave.
https://www.facebook.com/theunityconcertfortheblackhills