A poem by James Welch
Thanksgiving at Snake Butte
In time we rode that trail
up the Butte, as far as time
would let us. The answer to our time
lay hidden in the long grasses
on the top. Antelope scattered
through the rocks before us, clattered
unseen down the easy slope to the west.
Our horses balked, stiff legged,
their nostrils flared at something unseen
gliding smoothly through the brush away.
On top, our horses broke, loped through
a small stand of stunted pine, then jolted
to a nervous walk. Before us lay
the smooth stones our ancestors, the fish,
the lizard, snake and bent-kneed
bowman – – etched by something crude,
by a wandering race, driven by their names
for time: its winds, its rain, its snow
and the cold moon tugging at the crude figures
in this, the season of their loss.
..........................................................................
Lauren Bridgeman and Maria Zedeno describe Snake Butte as "a sacred landscape, home to powerful traditional snake medicine, religious areas for fasting, environmental resources for collecting, and cultural features that convey the living and remembered traditions of the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine peoples."
James Welch (1940-2002) as a child attended schools on the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations. Snake Butte is located within the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, homeland to the Assiniboine (Nakoda) and Gros Ventre (Aaniiih) Tribes. Welch became famous as a western regional and Native American writer beginning with Winter in the Blood, 1974. Previously, in 1971, he published his only collection of poetry: Riding the Earthboy 40, which includes the poem Thanksgiving at Snake Butte.
Upon reflection we consider again (and again) the answer to our time. An echo in the season of loss. We may recall how the some of the rock mass of Snake Butte was mined in the 1930s for the massive Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River. A tangible loss also fractures spirit. This continues at full thrust on and in many sacred lands and places. Where will wisdom sit?
The neocapitalist crush and craze for all things that can be extracted -- Lithium, for example -- continues unabated. Thacker Pass, a sacred landscape on federal lands in northern Nevada near the Oregon border, is on the brink of devastation.
To follow the evolving situation at Thacker Pass, in the McDermitt Caldera lapping into Oregon, check these links and sources: — Protect Thacker Pass https://www.protectthackerpass.org/blog/
On December 5th, 2023, In Reno NV, following a federal judge’s dismissal of their latest lawsuit, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony (RSIC) will hold a press conference on their court cases against the Thacker Pass lithium mine.
— Judge again rules against tribes’ effort to stop lithium mine
November 21, 2023 https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2023/11/21/judge-again-rules-against-tribes-effort-to-stop-lithium-mine/
— Previously on RockArtOregon
https://rockartoregon.blogspot.com/2021/03/center-of-earth.html
https://rockartoregon.blogspot.com/2021/06/center-of-earth-2.html
