The following 40-minute video is a segment from last year’s “Mato Paha-Bear Butte Spiritual Forum,” an event that brought together Traditional Healers (Medicine Men) and Spiritual Leaders from many Tribal Nations to provide ancestral teachings about the spiritual significance of Mato Paha. It was the first time in decades that such a gathering took place.

Bear Butte is held sacred by the Cheyenne, Arapaho, the Sioux nations, as well as to the Kiowa and Arapaho, among others.

The Lakota believe it to be “the most powerful land mass in their religion. They consider Bear Butte sacred for its location …

Here’s a recent message from Deb McIntyre, the Director of the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center (SDPJC) who’s urging people to send out letters of opposition to a highway by-pass recently proposed by the State SD Department of Transportation. The I-90 Corridor threatens to seriously undermine the sanctity and integrity Mato Paha (Bear Butte).

This Bear Butte International Alliance ALERT contains:
- Description of the Issue - www.i90corridor.com
- Sample Letter
- National Environmental Protection Agency Code

The State of South Dakota Department of Transportation is moving forward with its plans to …

The Mato Paha Forum is set to begin on August 5th, at the Mother Butler Center in Rapid City, South Dakota. As expressed in the media release below, this is the forum of it’s kind…

The Mato Paha Spiritual Forum: Religious Freedom and Human Rights will be held on Sunday, August 5, 2007 beginning at 1:00pm in the afternoon at the Mother Butler Center in Rapid City, South Dakota.

The Forum will gather Traditional Healers (Medicine Men) and Spiritual Leaders from the Oglala Band, Sicanju Band, Hohwoju Band of the Lakota Nation, …

Following is an article by a member of the Cheyenne Nation, who discusses the effort to Protect Noavose (or Nowah’wus. Mato Paha to the Lakota)

First, some background: In early March, bulldozers broke ground for “Sturgis County Line,” a massive new biker bar and concert venue to be located on 600 acres at the base of Bear Butte. Bear Butte (on the outskirts of the Black Hills, near Sturgis, SD) is a sacred place of prayer for over thirty Native Nations across the Great Plains, as well as a …

Thanks to Brenda Norrell for passing this on to me.

Some MP3 files are about half way down the page - and if you catch this post in the next couple days, you can listen to the Summit live: (stream 1) (stream 2)

Border Summit of the Americas
Tohono O’dham Nation
Live From Tucson Arizona
Sept 29th to Oct 1 2006

Arizona Border Rights Foundation
Fundacion de Derechos Fronterizos de Arizona
P.O. Box 1286 Tucson, AZ 85702
Phone: (520) 770-1373 Fax: (520)770-7455

Contact:
Derechos Humanos: 520-770-1373; e-mail: kat@derechoshumanosaz.net
Mike Flores: 520-235-7599 e-mail mmiranda@tocc.cc.az.us

Border Summit of the Americas
http://www.earthcycles.net/

Tohono O’dham communities have …

Summit: Doctrine of Discovery was ‘political fiction’
Posted: August 14, 2006
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

PHOENIX - Indigenous in the Americas are demanding that the ”doctrines of discovery,” the papal bulls that led to the seizure of American Indian homelands, be rescinded.

At the Summit of Indigenous Nations on Bear Butte in South Dakota, delegations of indigenous nations and nongovernmental organizations passed a strongly worded resolution condemning the historical use of the doctrine of discovery as an instrument of genocide.

Tupac Enrique Acosta, coordinator at Tonatierra in Phoenix, said the effort at Bear Butte continues the indigenous battle to halt genocide …

Here’s an update of what’s going to be happening -

Summit of Indigenous Nations
August 1-4, 2006 at Mato Paha: Bear Butte

Hosted by the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council
(the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota people known historically as the Great Sioux Nation
of the 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty Territory)

A Gathering from the Four Directions to Protect our Collective Destiny as Spiritual, Sovereign Indigenous Peoples’ of the Sacred Red Earth

Sacred Land Desecration & Protection Work by NGO’s:

* Bear Butte: Intertribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte, Lakota Action Network, Bear Butte International Alliance
* Western Shoshone Defense …

INDIGENOUS NATIONS OF MEXICO ASK THE US AND SOUTH DAKOTA TO RESPECT TREATIES AND SACRED PLACES

As the Summit of Indigenous Nations to protect Bear Butte, all sacred spaces and all indigenous land, opens in Mato Paha (Bear Butte, South Dakota), here is the declaration from the indigenous people of the Northwest and Central Pacific Regions of the National Indigenous Congress of Mexico. In it, representatives from the Yaqui, Mayo, Comca’ac, Triqui, ñu Saavi, Zapoteco, Wixáritari, Purhépecha, Nahua and Coca Nations address local and national concerns, promising Mexican society to “defend that which belongs to us by any means within our …

Protect - Preserve - Defend Mato Paha
Gathering of Nations
Opening Ceremonies July 4, 2006 at Bear Butte

28 June 2006

Greetings Mitakuyepi: (my relations)

Today the “Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council”, “Owe Aku”, and the “Intertribal Coalition to Defend Bear Butte” moves to Mato Paha, our Sacred Mountain. We begin preparations for the July 4 Opening Ceremonies of the “Gathering of Nations to Defend Bear Butte”.

With sending our voice to the Universe at sunrise, we make our move. We look upon participation in the making of a design of a pivotal moment in our history as Indigenous People and …