One year ago today I used my only day-off at work before Christmas to load my converted Chevy Express 3500 camper van full of winter supplies and head to the Oceti Sakowin Camp as part of the “Standing Rok” movement.
I departed from the Twin Cities of Minnesota around 10pm, drove 440 miles through the night to North Dakota, dropped my supplies on the morning of “Thanksgiving” and spent the day documenting the various actions taking place – a Prayer Walk to Backwater Bridge, a rally at the base of Turtle Hill, and in the evening I danced around the Sacred Fire until the sweat broke.
I needed to be back at work for “Black Friday” craziness by 7am the following morning (Nov. 25) so I drove through the night back to the Twin Cities and did my best to pretend my entire world had not been flipped upside-up. Never could I have imagined the extent to which my life would change in the months to come.
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Fast-forward to last night, Thanksgiving Dinner 2017. As I am currently away from my hometown, I was invited to spend the evening with a couple friends from way back in the day and their families.
It had literally been a decade since I’d seen these folks, and at the dinner table I was asked “So, what have you been up to? The last I heard you were out in North Dakota…”
As is typically the case these days, my initial reaction when asked something along these lines is a bit of un-easiness sprinkled with determination and confusion. I re-arranged the remaining cranberry sauce on my plate as my mind shuffled conceptual answers.
The only possible way to go about some sort of an explanation was to begin painting the story of how my past year has unfolded. Leaving my “job”, wintering off-grid via solar in the Dakotas, standing in solidarity with First Nations, questioning things like the “Thanksgiving” dinner we were consuming at that exact moment, exposing myself to the truths found outside of the colonized corporatocracy, almost losing my Mom to cancer, burning out my van, living and working in a school bus, finding peace and light in the darkness of the complete unknown…
To my surprise, the next 30 minutes of our dinner was spent in conversation about those things I have come to find of extreme importance: Protecting the Earth for our children’s children, alternative energy, resisting the destructive ways of our consumer-society, standing in solidarity, gaining new perspectives, the decline of the will-last-for-several-generations product, understanding through the eyes of others, the ramifications of technological advancement on the psychology and basic tenements of humanity, the magnificent importance of clean drinking water…
It was totally awesome. Our table consisted of all ages and many different backgrounds and yet here we were in the mountains outside of Denver engaged in a beautifully meaningful conversation.
If I could invent a way of life such that I am surrounded by these topics, these types people and progressive actions advancing us towards sustainable co-inhabitance on this planet I will have, in the words of Nahko Bear, began building my perfect kingdom now.
I’ll be doing my best to relay my stories and streams of consciousness through this blog in the hopes it will play a role in creating this reality. Your wisdom, guidance and support will be of critical importance in this journey. More to come.
– aM
