Cannonball River, ND—When veterans Wes Clark Jr. and Michael Wood Jr. sent out the call for U.S. military veterans to deploy to Standing Rock, they felt confident they could muster at least 2,000 people.
More than 4,000 vets showed up, despite a raging blizzard and –27 degree temperatures.
After North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple threatened to cut off supplies and evacuate water protectors during the first major blizzard of the season, many veterans spoke out against the violence, racism and injustice directed at Lakota people trying to protect burial grounds and their water supply.
“I’m doing this because I signed up in 2000 to serve my people,” said veteran Brandee Paisano. “I signed an oath to protect and serve my country against enemies both foreign and domestic, and to fight for the Constitutional rights of our people.”
Army veteran and peace activist Clark Jr., who served as First Lieutenant in the Seventh Cavalry, and Wood Jr., a retired Baltimore cop and Marine veteran and activist, had another reason for coming: They planned to ask for forgiveness from the Lakota people for the atrocities committed by armed forces of the United States military.
On December 5—the birthday of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, who led the Battle of Little Bighorn against Lakota and Cheyenne warriors—Clark and a dozen members of United States military branches got down on bended knee to beg forgiveness from the Lakota people.
In the presence of hundreds of veterans and Lakota medicine people, elders and leaders, Clark donned the uniform of the Seventh Cavalry and spoke of the history of his unit. With tears in his eyes, Clark said:
“Many of us, me particularly, are from the units that have hurt you over the many years. We came. We fought you. We took your land. We signed treaties that we broke. We stole minerals from your sacred hills. We blasted the faced of our presidents onto your sacred mountain. Then we took still more land and then we took your children and then we tried to make your language and we tried to eliminate your language that God gave you, and the Creator gave you. We didn’t respect you, we polluted your Earth, we’ve hurt you in so many ways but we’ve come to say that we are sorry. We are at your service and we beg for your forgiveness.”
Chief Leonard Crow Dog, a Lakota medicine man from Rosebud, S.D., held his hand over Clark’s head as he made a prayer to cleanse and forgive the officers kneeling before him. Many veterans in the room cried during the ceremony, acknowledging the long history of warfare against “first Americans” seeking to protect their homelands.
Among those who spoke and accepted the apology were 19th Generation Keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe Chief Arvol Looking Horse, elders Faith Spotted Eagle, Phyllis Young, Paula Horne, Jon Eagle Sr. and several other Lakota leaders. Ivan Looking Horse sang a prayer song as veterans lined up to hug and shake hands in an emotional moment 140 years in the making.
Chief Crow Dog told the crowd that “we do not own the land, the land owns us,” and urged world peace.
VIA
http://newamericamedia.org/2016/12/veterans-ask-for-forgiveness-and-healing-in-standing-rock.php