Elizabeth Roy - In the Light of Reverence

The video we watched in class, called In the Light of Reverence, gave me a lot to think about. It was an excellent documentary, in my mind, because although it was definitely biased in favor of the Native Americans, it showed both sides of the dispute over Devils Tower. In fact, I was offended by things that people from almost every side of the dispute said. I personally believe that a sacred space cannot possibly belong to anyone in particular. The Native Americans may have been there for centuries, but their own traditions (in general, I don’t really know specifically about the Wintu people) don’t include land ownership. By wanting to keep everyone out but themselves, they’re effectively saying that they own the land. How can you possibly own a sacred space? Of course, this goes both ways. I also definitely agree that churches should allow in people of different religions – athough, most people of other religions wouldn’t want to go in a church. But an SCA (read: mostly pagan, or at least certainly not Christian!) group used to meet at my church during the week. I think that’s the way it should be. You might not get to that point in some places, but I think the ultimate goal is for sacred spaces to be tolerant, open, loving places where everyone is welcome.

As a pagan, I was rather offended by the portrayal of the pagans as the ‘bad guys.’ In fact, when I looked up the article on Wikipedia, it mentioned how New Age practitioners want to use the land recreationally. Recreationally?! Since when are our religious practices recreation when Native American religious practices are actually considered spiritual and religious? I was also a little offended at the implications that the New Age pagans ‘stole’ Native American practices. It’s not really any of the New Age pagans’ faults that they weren’t born with Native American blood. That doesn’t make the fact that the rituals speak to them any less legitimate.

And I’m sure I seem easily offended, but I also really wanted to wring the necks of the people who outright said that it was impossible that the Native Americans had been there longer than they themselves had. I wish I understood mindsets like that. How can they believe that sort of thing over fact and every kind of evidence?