Our 1997 interview with Standing Rock Sioux author Vine Deloria, Jr. (1933-2005) provided a solid intellectual framework for viewers of In the Light of Reverence. Vine offers timeless wisdom about Mato Tipila (Lodge of the Bear, aka Devils Tower) and other sites sacred to the Lakota in and around the Black Hills. The author of more than 25 books, including the classics, Custer Died for Your Sins and God is Red, Vine rarely sat for film interviews.
Our 2011 film interview with author Barry Lopez for the Standing on Sacred Ground series yielded an embarrassment of riches. Listen to part two of the discussion between project director Toby McLeod and his friend Barry Lopez as they reflect on the future of sacred sites, the role of technology in our lives, and the importance of following the leadership of the elders.
Barry Lopez left us with so many gifts—messages from the road, stories that help—written beautifully by a cultural bridge, a runner who risked his life out there on the edge and returned over and over to craft a stirring tale. Barry alarmed us and gave us hope. Join project director Toby McLeod for our first Audio Archive, a 2011 conversation on deep listening, the meaning of sacred lands, and the importance of maintaining an ongoing conversation with the Earth—with our good friend and advisor, the late Barry Lopez (1945-2020).
In part two of our interview with Anishnaabe activist, environmentalist and writer, Winona LaDuke, we focus on her economic analysis of settler colonialism, the ecological impacts of consumer demand in the United States, and the rippling effects of the oil industry from the tar sands of Alberta to the shores of Lake Superior.
Over a career spanning 40 years of activism, Winona LaDuke, an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg in Minnesota, has led movements for climate justice and indigenous rights. Over the years she published ten books, ran for vice president, led innovative grassroots environmental movements, fought and delayed the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline from the Alberta tar sands through northern Minnesota. In this Audio Archive episode, Winona articulates an indigenous worldview, grapples with the traumas of colonization, and imagines a path toward healing.
Native California healer Florence Jones (1907-2003), was the top doctor of the Winnemem Wintu and a fierce protector of Mt. Shasta, known to the Winnemem as Buliyum Puyuk—the Great Mountain. In 1994, Florence gave the Sacred Land Film Project unprecedented access to film her conducting ceremony, healing her people and protecting her territory. In this episode, we return to that footage to tell the story of this powerful medicine woman.
For the last five years, Lisjan Ohlone leader Corrina Gould has been protecting one of her people’s sacred places, the West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site, from development. A judge ruled against the developer’s plans in October 2019 but the two sides are now battling it out in appeals court.
Animator Chris Walker and Ohlone leader Corrina Gould of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan have collaborated with the Sacred Land Film Project to take you back in time 5,000 years to imagine the West Berkeley Shellmound and Village site, where Corrina’s ancestors built the first settlement along San Francisco Bay.
In a stunning development, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has placed the West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site on their 2020 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
Sacred Land Film Project Director Toby McLeod participated in this year’s Run4Salmon, a two-week prayerful journey to restore McCloud River salmon runs and protect indigenous lifeways.