Mato Paha

Mato Paha.

Small colored pieces of cloth containing pinches of tobacco are wrapped around trees and bushes as prayer gifts to the Creator. Larger flags of red, white, black, or yellow, the sacred colors, also are tied to trees to carry the prayers to all the directions.

Mato Paha is a Tertiary-aged intrusive body. The result of the forcible entry (or intrusion) of magma into cooler crustal rock. In this, it shares a similar geological history to other formations in the region, including the Black Hills, Devils Tower, the Missouri Buttes, and some parts of the Rocky Mountains.

Mato Paha rises 1,253 feet above the surrounding plain and is 4,426 feet above sea level.

Geologists, on the other hand, call Mato Paha (Bear Butte) a lacolith, or a bubble of magma that did not become a complete volcano. They say this happened millions of years ago. Yet the Oglala Lakota call this place, Groaning Bear. How did the Oglalas know that this mountain groaned?

Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota, come to Bear Butte to pray. The months of May, June, and July will see families camped at the base while a relative is standing on the side of the mountain fasting in deep meditation. Prayer bundles hold the souls of elders. Once placed they cannot be disturbed.

Mato Paha is currently a "National Historic Landmark" managed by the South Dakota Game Fish and Parks Department. Although a few parcels of adjacent land have been purchased by some Native American nations, the rest of the surrounding area is ranchland, or is being sold to developers. Two drag racing strips, a biker bar, a convenience store, campgrounds, and housing developments are all located within a few miles of this sacred place.

More are being built. Shame on us all.

Hootenanny opposes any 'development' near Mato Paha. What is the value of a liquor license, a road, a motorcycle or an automobile?

Tunkasila, le miyelo. Wotehikeca, le ca mauwelo.

My father once said that when he was only a child, he was told that his great grandfather was one of those who believed that the earth was round and turned. According to him our pipe was designed to be like the world we live on. The bowl we put the tobacco in is round, like the world. And outside this bowl is the endless universe where the stars are. That is why the pipe is so sacred, why it is used for every ceremony, and for prayer to Wakan-Tanka .
Frank Fools Crow (Oglala Lakota)