Golden Age of Gaia

Menu
  • Home
    • About The Staff
    • Golden Age of Gaia Website Frequently Asked Questions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Downloads Page
    • Close
  • Contact Us
  • Hope Chest
    • The Hope Chest
    • Hope Chest: Frequently Asked Questions
    • Close
  • InLight Universal Shows
  • Library/Archives
  • Children Of The Sun
/ Home / 4. Current News / At Standing Rock, a Sense of Purpose: “This Is How We Should Be Living”
post

At Standing Rock, a Sense of Purpose: “This Is How We Should Be Living”

September 16, 2016 By Suzanne Maresca

frybread

Frybread making with Osh Johnson from Black Mesa, Navajo Nation. Photo by Desiree Kane.

By Sarah van Gelder, yesmagazine.org, September 14, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/jd7hjze

Protecting the water and sacred sites brought people here. The experience of being here is changing lives.

Drive from Bismarck, North Dakota, to the Standing Rock encampment, and the sign that something unusual is happening is abrupt: a checkpoint staffed by the National Guard. Continue south, past rolling grasslands with an occasional farmhouse, until there is nothing but open space. Catch a glimpse of the Missouri River meandering back and forth, and a flock of white pelicans circling overhead.

Miles later, by the side of the road, stands a small encampment—tents, a camp kitchen, a group of people watching the road warily, banners declaring water, not oil, as sacred. Across the road is the bulldozed earth in an area that Standing Rock Sioux consider sacred. This is where the security forces with dogs attacked the people who call themselves water protectors.

The most dramatic moment, though, comes with the approach to the main encampment. Suddenly, just below the road, is a wide field covered in tents, teepees, and trucks. Lining the main entrance is flag after flag, each representing one of the indigenous nations that has offered its support to the Standing Rock Sioux and their fight against the Dakota Access pipeline.

The impact is powerful. So many people have traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to make this pilgrimage. When people first meet, they ask each other where they’re from. Some are old friends, but many represent tribes that have been estranged or enemies for generations. Many spoke of the arrival of representatives of the Crow Nation, who have a long history of supporting coal mining and working at odds with other tribes. They too came to support Standing Rock.

The purposefulness here overcomes everything—the determination that this time the damage will be stopped. This time, before the water is poisoned or another sacred site is bulldozed, the protectors will step in.

That sense of purpose pervades the camp. While some plan the next direct action or post on social media, others split wood for fires, sort the river of donations flowing unabated into the camp, or cook for thousands of people in makeshift camp kitchens.

This time, before the water is poisoned or another sacred site is bulldozed, the protectors will step in.

I had arrived with Sweetwater Naanuck and her friend Kim Morera, pulling a horse trailer, and as we set up our tents, a young man on horseback came by to check on us. Later, a small all-terrain vehicle pulled up with jugs of water for the horse and the campers. Others stopped to offer donated kitchen supplies, food, and a garbage pickup. Naanuck set out to find people to complete the banners for the Northwest tribes’ “Paddle to Standing Rock,” and soon returned with a crew of young people.

Up at the ceremonial grounds by the entrance, hundreds line up for dinner. No money changes hands. The flags whip in the wind. A prayer, then a speech, then a song fills the air.

Life at the water protectors’ encampment is much like life was for millions of years of human evolution—close to the earth, near a river, clustered in family and community camps. There’s a rightness to these connections and to the feeling that people here will help you when you need it.

Here, with a purpose that threads through generations, work, celebration, and activism are a seamless whole. Young people ride through the camp on horseback among tents and teepees. Are they providing security, learning traditional animal caretaking, or just having fun together? Elders tell stories of Wounded Knee, say prayers, and sing. Are they educating the next generation, building coherence, or guiding the actions? These things are not separate. They are all of a piece, all about rebuilding indigenous ways of life and standing against further destruction.

People come and go. Some depart after a few days or weeks, but their reluctance to leave shows. Others are making plans to live in wood-heated tents and teepees through North Dakota’s bitter cold winter.

This is how we should be living, one person at our camp says. We give what we have to give, and take what we need.

Protecting the water and sacred sites brought people here. But the experience of being here is changing lives and creating renewed unity across indigenous nations, and with it a purpose and power and confidence that will not be easily extinguished.

 

Save

Save

Save

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Share

Filed Under: 4. Current News, News Commentary

Connect with Us

Visit Us On FacebookCheck Our FeedVisit Us On Youtube

The Divine Mother’s Mandate

Build what is divinely beautiful. I give you my divine authority to do so. I will guide you. I will help you. But I entrust this to you as well. …

      We are helping you. That gateway is open and you are being flooded and you are being assisted and you will be assisted every step of the way.

      – “Transcript ~ The Divine Mother: Take Up Your Divine Authority, AHWAA, February 23, 2017,” February 28, 2017.

      On the Divine Plan for Ascension.

Archangel Michael: Lead or Leave a Vacuum


If no [lightworker] steps forward into [leadership] ...

Recent Blog Posts

  • Special Encore Presentation ~ Ashira Returns with an Update and an Invitation
  • Bright Star: An Account of a Heart Opening
  • Shankara’s Description of a Heart Opening
  • Thich Nhat Hanh: We Need a Revolution: It Starts with Falling in Love with the Earth
  • Through The Matrix via Suzanne Lie ~ Chapter Seven: The Land of Sleep
  • ‘The Team’ via Peggy Black: You Are Being Recalibrated
  • Flint Water Activist Awarded Environmental Prize
  • The Mother Promises a Massive Heart Opening – Part 1/2
  • The Mother Promises a Massive Heart Opening – Part 2/2
  • Transcript ~ Sanat Kumara: Applying Universal Law, Heavenly Blessings, April 19, 2018
  • The Arcturians through Suzanne Lie: Being the Master of your Mind and the Guardian of your Heart
  • Heart Opening Week

InLight Universal Show Schedule

  • Heavenly Blessings – Bi-weekly on Thursday at 7 p.m. EST
  • An Hour with an Angel -Bi-weekly on Thursday at 7 p.m. EST

Reval Reporting



GAoG will not be answering financial questions after the RV. No one here has the expertise to do so. We will however highlight other blogs whose mission includes that and post general, philosophical discussions of financial wayshowing and stewardship.

The Disclosure of Our Star Family

UFO-mothership-333Disclosure of Our Star Family

Dr. Steven Greer on Disclosure


How the Secret Government Works (Four hours) .

Archives

Please Note

I make no claims to being an enlightened person.

I am neither qualified to be, nor do I wish to be considered, a spiritual teacher.

I'm a researcher and writer, here simply to share my views and listen to yours as spiritual adults and equals. - Steve Beckow

Please support this site. Donate:


A 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit
  • Building, anchoring, and restoring hope, trust and Love within the human community.
  • "The key to Love is sharing, ... [balancing] give and receive." - The Divine Mother.

Downloads Page

Sitara Williamson: Rent-a-CEO

* Do you have an entrepreneurial vision that you want to express but are afraid of ridicule?

* Would you like to have someone REALLY hear you, target with you and receive your reports?

* Would that be worth remuneration?

I have years and years of growth training, been the CEO of my own corporation, run a business, managed offices, and have for the past few years been doing my own inner/spiritual work.

Message me and we can talk: [email protected]

Werner Erhard: Creating a World that Works for Everyone


We can choose to be audacious enough to take responsibility for the entire human family....

Financial Wayshowing and Stewardship R15

Glossary of Terms Used on the Golden Age of Gaia

Lightworker Links


May we recommend:

Kathleen Mary Willis, Voice of Freedom
Wes Annac, Open-Hearted Rebel
Arcturian Group through Marilyn Raffaele
Arcturian Tools
Awakening with Dr. Suzanne Lie
Awakening to the Fifth Dimemsion
Paige Bartholomew
Blossom of the Soul
Cosmic News
Patricia Diane Cota-Robles
Linda Dillon, Council of Love
Divine Frequency
Vidya Frazier, Awakening to the Fifth Dimension
Natalie Glasson
James Gilliland, ECETI
Harmonic Concordance Blog
In5D
Ramola D, Era of Light
Higher Density Blog
Kauilapele’s Blog
Kryon
Tiara Kumara, Children of the Sun Foundation
Judith Kusel
Lakshmi Amrita
Dr. Suzanne Lie, Multidimensions
The Lightworkers
Lightworkers Meet-up
Lightworkers World
Love Has Won
Love in Action Now
James McConnell
Alexandra Meadors, Galactic Connection
Messages Celestes
Lisa Renee, Energetic Synthesis
Sananda

Sananda
Len Satov, SourceLight – Seeing you Home
Spirit Earth Awakening
Suzanne Spooner, The Art of Universal Knowing: TAUK
Suzanne Spooner, QHHT
Therese Zuni Sumner
Uplift – Unity, Peace, and Love in a Field of Transcendence
Sandra Walter, Creative Evolution
Geoff West, Cosmic Vision News
David Wilcock, Divine Cosmos

Alternative News of the World

Activist Post
Adbusters
Alternet
Amnesty International
Antiwar.com
Care 2 News Network [animal rights, ecology]
Collective Evolution
Common Dreams
Conscious Life News
Ramola D, The Everyday Concerned Citizen
Free Thought Project
Global Research
Independent Media Center
In These Times
Inequality.org
Human Rights Watch
The Mind Unleashed
Mother Jones
Natural News
News Bud
No More Fake News.com
Physicians for Human Rights
Russia Today
Salon
Signs of the Times
State of the Nation
Truthout
TruthStream Media
Wake Up World
Waking Times
Washington's Blog
We Are Change
Wikileaks
Yes! Magazine
Zcomm

Copyright © 2018 The Golden Age Of Gaia