July 2007

Seven years have passed since last International Brotherhood Days gathered on these grounds.  But for 12 years,  for a week in July, this old arbor was filled with spectators, the circle with dancers, the low ground  filled with tents and lodges, on the lower ridge stood a circle of  tipis. Standing on the road as I took this picture, I could  hear still the faint echo of drums, the songs of the Porcupine,  the Brotherhood and the Owl Bonnet Singers. In my mind I could hear  Severt Young Bear Sr. waking the campers each morning with the words "Good Morning Brotherhood!" I could hear yet Calvin Jumping Bull's voice calling over the loudspeaker,  "Wachipo!  Everybody dance!"

At the "Ceremony of Remembrance," held in 2005 at Danville, Illinois, a hawk flew from the west over the circle of people gathered there, listening as the names of two-hundred and fifty people were read and honored for their dedication to preserving the songs,  dances, stories, and traditions of this country's First People.  Circling twice, clockwise, over the gathering the hawk then flew back to the south. As I stood here in July of 2007, another hawk looped over the hill where the remains of Chief Smoke were returned in 1994. The hawk circled twice, clockwise, over the dance grounds and whirled off on a thermal towards the south,  towards the place called Cankpi Opi Wakpala,  the creek called Wounded Knee.

Something good, something very special happened in this place. It's memory still echoes,  still resonates, and still speaks to us..