The right to pray
American Indians, city address ceremony desecration

 by Pamela White

As recently as 30 years ago, American Indians who insisted on practicing their traditional spiritual ceremonies risked punishment. Children, forced into government-run boarding schools, might go without meals, have their mouths washed with soap or suffer corporal punishment. Adults might lose their family’s rations, land in jail or even find themselves locked in Hiawatha’s Asylum for Insane Indians.

"When they couldn’t kill us with bullets, they tried to destroy our culture," says Don Ragona, an attorney with Boulder-based Native American Rights Fund. "They tried to wipe the Indian out of the individual. So our people had to go underground to keep our languages alive, to keep our religious practices alive."

For American Indians, the disruption by law enforcement officers of an inipi ceremony, or sweat lodge, on New Year’s Eve falls into this context of religious oppression and genocidal violence. A group of American Indians, including children and elders, had gathered on Dec. 31 at Valmont Butte, which is sacred to many Indian nations, for a traditional purification ceremony. They had a long-standing agreement with the city that enabled them to use the butte for ceremonies. When multiple law enforcement vehicles, including K9 units, converged on the site and shut down the ceremony, people were outraged and terrified.

"I can’t even find words for it," says TroyLynn Star Yellow Wood. "It’s a desecration of your mind, body and spirit… It opens a lot of wounds, a lot of injustices that people feel."

Star Yellow Wood was one of several ceremony participants who, together with representatives from the American Indian Movement (AIM), recently met with city officials to discuss the inipi desecration and how the city might make amends and prevent something similar occurring in the future.

In the immediate aftermath, city officials said the incident was the result of a miscommunication. Officers at the scene did not know that the Indians had a prior agreement enabling them to use the land, they said.

But ceremony participants were dissatisfied with that answer and called on AIM to help represent their point of view to the city and county. Many in the Indian community found the city’s claim that interrupting the ceremony was a mistake to be offensive and lacking credibility.

"There was no possible reasonable interpretation of what happened as trespassing. The gate was unlocked. They had to have had the key," says Ward Churchill, an AIM member and professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

During the meeting, AIM representatives presented City Manager Frank Bruno with a list of "proposed remedies" for discussion. The city acceded to most of the group’s demands, agreeing to: a written, public apology to inipi participants; a written agreement between the city and the ceremonial group, giving them continued access to the site for inipi ceremonies; cultural-competency training for city employees; compensation from the city for expenses lost due to the interruption of the ceremony; and an ongoing discussion with the American Indian community to ensure the protection of sacred sites and to protect Indians’ rights to hold their traditional ceremonies.

The city also agreed to discuss the creation of a permanent American Indian Advisory Council, although this would require action on the part of city council.

Also on the table were demands that the command officers involved be fired and that the police department issue new policy directives concerning a protocol for contacting American Indian spiritual leaders. The city did not agree to these.

"At the meeting I indicated that there were certain things I could not commit to," says Bruno. "Obviously we want to have information if there’s some concern regarding the behavior of city employees, but every indication I have is that the one city police officer who did show up did not act inappropriately in any way."

Both sides say the meeting went well.

"It was positive," says Glenn Morris, a member of the Leadership Council for AIM-Colorado.

NARF’s Ragona agrees.

"We were very pleased," he says. "We believe that the apologies were sincere."

Star Yellow Wood says she felt that city officials at least listened.

"They didn’t diminish what we had to say, which is something in itself," she says. "They say it was just a mistake, but it’s more than a mistake. They gave a very gracious apology, so that helps, but more than an apology is needed."

Bruno says he left the meeting with a greater understanding of the American Indian perspective–and a clear idea of why the city’s statement that the incident was a miscommunication offended some people.

"I think part of it was that I didn’t realize how seriously [the disruption] was taken by the participants in the ceremony," he says. "The events of that evening go far beyond that evening and really deal with history, hundreds of years of history. It’s more than a miscommunication, even though that’s what’s at the heart of the incident. It’s about centuries of slight and mistreatment that have nothing to do with me personally, but have to do with society. That’s what I came away with."

But agreement on several points with the city does not mean those whose prayers were halted are done seeking other redress. Native American Rights Fund has asked the Colorado Attorney General’s office to examine the case and make a determination about possible violations of civil rights that might have occurred.

As for going underground with their ceremonies, Ragona says those days are gone.

"We will never do that again," he says. "If we are persecuted, if our practices are stopped, we will stand up and we will demand that people answer for their actions against us."

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