A few years after my NDE, I traveled through Virginia teaching SAT skills at various boarding schools.  One weekend I stopped to meditate in a beautiful forest and felt the presence of a Native American spirit come to me and telepathically communicate, “Do not forget us.”  I promised him that I would never forget him or his people.

In every American Literature class, I teach the works of Black Elk, Zitkala-sa, and Sherman Alexie.  This doesn’t feel like enough, but it is something.  Watching films about Wounded Knee is a chilling reminder of truth.  I don’t avoid the truth.

Mid-summer I felt the stirrings of something that would be happening involving Native Americans in the U.S.  When I heard about Standing Rock, I wanted to go there and do what I could to help.  I longed to join with those working to protect our waterways, our sacred lands, our Mother Earth.  I knew there would be police brutality. I knew there would be the same hatred directed at Native Americans historically.  I didn’t choose to leave everything to go there, but my heart was with those at Standing Rock.

I feared history might repeat itself at Standing Rock.  As NPR put it succinctly, we have never seen anything like this before and it has been happening for hundreds of years. Both statements are true, and the thought that the pipeline might not be diverted was a difficult possibility to accept. At times, I felt angry and afraid that I might never live to see a world where Mother Earth is not degraded and soiled for the almighty dollar.  When the veterans showed up to help protect the protesters, I felt encouraged.

For anyone not aware of this situation, please do research.  The media did a horrible job by not covering this historic struggle.  Feathers, not guns, were held to the sky, and these protesters were hit with rubber bullets, freezing water, and tear gas.  They were strip searched and beaten up, but by God and Goddess they stood in the freezing weather for this cause.  Songs and chants were given to heavens, and they were met with hatred.

Last night, I felt the pain of those at Standing Rock, and I thought about books like The Lies my History Teacher Told Me.  I thought about how Native Americans have been the most lied-about subset of our population. I thought about how protecting the waterways is such a simple wish.

We learn who we are from the land, and if we desecrate it and destroy Mother Earth…than we become the destroyers of our own possible heaven on earth.