Haibun: Black Hills

The great Red Cloud rode with his warriors across the Black Hills. Horse hooves thundering in the valley. The land was sacred to the Sioux and their cousin tribes. The openness of the space and how became sacred.

But the rumors of gold in the Black Hills brought more and more people from back East. The idea of “Indians” hunting where they were mining was a threat, so Custer and his men were brought in.

The land, so beautiful and big, sacred to the Sioux, was reduced to something to be conquered in the name of Gold. From those desires came the questions and world views being passed on through us. We are still the same miners who want the gold.

forever Black Hills

“beauty” valleys fill, then spill

summer’s heat at will