Music
This is a message from Arvol Looking Horse
My name is Arvol Looking Horse.
My Lakota name is Horse Man. I am a Keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe of the Lakota Nation, also known as Turtle Island. We have lived since time of creation in the sacred Black Hills, our Ancestral homeland and the "heart of everything that is."
Ancient ones say that less than 500 years ago life was so abundant here that flocks of birds blotted out the sun. It took four days for one herd of buffalo to pass. Where is the abundance of life today?
We have prophecies that relate to the future of Mother Earth. Through generations these prophecies have been maintained courageously, methodically and accurately. Now, we are in a critical stage of our spiritual, moral and technological development as nations. All life is precariously balanced. We must remember that all things on Mother Earth have a spirit and are intricately related.
The Lakota prophecy of Mending the Sacred Hoop of all Nations has begun. May we find, in the ancient wisdom of Indigenous Nations, the spirit and courage to mend and heal.
After Mother Earth was created a great race took place around the sacred Black Hills in an area called the racetrack. The race was between the two legged and the four legged. The two legged won over the four legged. From that time on we use the buffalo for food, shelter and clothing. Our first people were the pte oyate (buffalo people). The spirit of buffalo has always been within our people. The buffalo face the wind no matter what the weather. The status of the buffalo reflects the status of the Lakota People.
A century ago the buffalo was almost extinct as were our people and our way of life. It has been told that from that time on we would beating something similar to the buffalo however, they would put their rear end to the wind. That is why we now have things backwards today.
The prophecy tells us that the spirit of the buffalo will return and so will our values and traditional way of life.
Another prophecy which has great significance for us is the story of the Great Flood which came to this sacred island long before the contact. A flood was sent to purify Mother Earth and our people were residing in the area we now know as Pipestone, Minnesota. This sacred stone represents the blood of our ancestors. It was sometime after the flood that the Pipe was brought to our People by a beautiful spirit being woman we now refer to as the White Buffalo Calf Woman.She instructed our people in the sacred ceremonies and how to live this balance of life.
The bowl of the pipe is made of the Inyansa (red stone of our Mother) and it also represents the female. The stem of the pipe is made of wood and represents the tree of life and the male. The tree of life represents the root of our ancestors, as this tree grows so does the spirit of our People.
The only time that the pipe is put together is when you are in pray